Zyca bent her head quizzically to the side, staring in confusion at the round muddy looking ball on her sister's chest. The little ball which moved in sync with Allet's heaving chest, had a smooth circular surface, tiny spikes on all sides and small crack at the top. Zyca knew all too well, what the ball was. It was what genies all over town use in passing messages to others when they were too busy or in a dilemma to use their teleportation powers. She wondered who could have sent her a ball.

"Maybe it's lost its way," she spoke to herself.

Zyca hurried to it and picked it up gently from her sleeping sister.

"I must get it to Master before it cracks," she said again to herself, hurrying to the door in the speed of light.

A loud cracking sound came from the ball. Its surface suddenly turned red, fiery as a burning flame. Zyca let go of the ball in shock, when it began to burn the sides her hands.

The girl stared wide eyed, as the ball rolled fanatically on a spot, making hissing sounds she heard once from Lady Penicillin when they first met. She had never seen a message ball crack open before, so she stepped backward tumbling on a cushioned chair which caused her to stagger down. She managed not to shout, when the ball split into two, releasing a pure white steaming smoke in between.

A woman, blue and thick almost the size of her Master, with a flowing shoulder length hair of similar color, wiggled out the ball and stood in the midst of the vapor. It was Colt's mother; Mrs. Serena Aster. Although Zyca had never met her, she knew it was she because Colt had brought over a picture of his family once.

As they stared at each other over Allet whose breath came out in soft puffs, Zyca heard continuous banging on the wall upstairs. Distracted by the noise, she hadn't noticed the legless Mrs. Aster who swarm from the mist.

Zyca jolted and opened her mouth to holler a screech but the woman began to speak.

"Oh! Don't worry. I'm not the real thing," Mrs. Aster explained. "I only take the forms of the one's who sent me and relay the messages they want me to."

"Um who are you t-then," Zyca asked nervously.

"I have no name. I only take the forms of the one's who sent me and relay the messages they want me to," said Mrs. Aster again or the thing that looked like her.

"I see. My name is-" Zyca began.

"Zyca Abram, oh I know who you are," the thing said with a smile. "And you have a sister Allet Abram who fell asleep to a rare disease."

"How did you know?" Zyca inquired.

"The one who sent me."

Of course. Colt must have told his mother.

"Mrs. Aster?" asked Zyca standing to her feet. She dusted her backside and looked suspiciously at the thing.

"Oh! Indeed. She wanted to reach you urgently, but was too busy to leave her work undone," the thing drew closer minimizing the space between them.

"O-okay," said Zyca stuttering again. She felt highly uncomfortable from the lack of space and feared the smoke which followed the thing and surrounded her in a circle. She could burn for all she knew, she thought.

Zyca jumped over the swimming thin smoke and slammed her back against the wall, edging along it and sank behind Allet who rolled inward still asleep.

"Oh, do you fear me?" the thing questioned pained. "Oh, I'm sorry if I scared you."

"It's okay," Zyca said. "I could offer you a place to sit but -"

"Oh no. It's been long I sat," The thing waved its hands hysterically.

A thud came from the upstairs room and the squeaky sound of a bed followed and a tiny scream from Lady Penicillin.

Zyca shuddered in disgust. "You had legs?" she probed the thing, wanting to take her mind off the commotion she heard.

"Oh yes I did. In fact, I used to play the canning can with the young," said the thing, twirling with its hands wide open as the days of enjoying the canning can, a game when empty cans were kicked into a shuttle, played in its mine. The canning can was a game she least enjoyed, because Colt seemed to always best her in that very aspect.

"You died didn't you," Zyca said as a matter of fact.

A grim look, passed across the thing's face, clutching its stomach. "Oh, a grave mistake I made," squeaked the thing shaking its head left and right like it was trying to get rid of the bad memory. "I didn't listen. Oh, I never listened."

"What happened," Zyca inquired, curious.

"Oh, I used to be a wisher, a blue, blue wisher," the thing held its head.

"You went to the human world?"

"Oh yes, I did," said the thing. "Oh, what wonderful time I had. Oh, what good friends I made and what they ate. Oh, how good it tasted. Oh, how I never wanted to leave."

"Was it that good?" Zyca inched up a little to take a good look at the thing who told its story of the world she always wondered about.

"Oh, it was. But I didn't listen. Oh, I wish it did. Oh no! The horror," the thing screamed twirling again with her hands flapping in the air.

"Shush," Zyca hushed panicked. "Be quiet." she stared at the ceiling, silently wishing they had not heard the gargling noise from her room. She huffed out a sigh when she heard another squeak.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I only just remembered how I became like this, in this form I highly dread," the thing hung its head.

"You never told me why," said Zyca.

"Oh yes, yes," the thing said "I was having fun, after I granted my master the last wish and then, like a smoky dust I became because I refused to return, because I fell for my master's tricks. Oh, how stupid I was to fall in love with a mortal. I thought he truly loved me... You should never trust no..."

The things voice was drowned by the sound of a ringing bell. It was so loud, Zyca fell on her knees with her hands pressed against her ears. Her heart slammed against her chest in mismatched rhythm as the sound increased.

And just as it came, it stopped. Zyca slowly removed her hands from her ears and looked around the room for what could have caused the rhythmless sound. Was she the only one who heard it? She thought. Zyca saw the thing standing at the center of the room with its hands quivering on its bluish lips. The squeaking sound from the upstairs room had cease, and only whispers could be heard. It was confirmed, not only she heard the vicious racket.

"What was that?" she asked the thing but it seemed the thing had not heard what she asked. "The thing?" she called.

Zyca stretched her legs forth over Allet and inched closer to the thing, jumping over the smoke which danced on the leveled ground.

"The thing!" she called out again. This time it seemed the thing heard her because it grabbed Zyca on her shoulders.

"Oh, I forgot. I totally forgot," the things lip quivered.

"I was too distracted and I forgot. Oh bad, bad, bad, bad me," it wailed.

"Calm down," said Zyca struggling to get away from the things clutches.

"Oh, how can I calm down? Oh, it's all my fault you'll get caught."

The thing released her and crossed its hands around its shoulders, tapping it continuously. Zyca stared.

"Caught?" she was stunned. "I've done nothing wrong." Or was she reported for saying the forbidden word? Or for hanging out with a blue?

"Oh, it's not you it's he, it's he. Oh, it's he," the thing rocked panicked. Its eyes danced around with fear. "You must run. Leave. Hide. That's what Mrs. Aster wanted you to know. Oh run. RUN! They are coming to get you."

"Who?" she understood nothing.

"They blame you. Oh, they blame you," the thing screamed again and before Zyca could tell it to hush, the thing rushed to the broken ball on the floor, picked it up and vanished into thin air.

"Wait!" Zyca tried calling it back. She didn't understand anything the thing had said. Maybe it was a prank.

Something at the back of her mind told her she should do as the thing said. If it wasn't a prank like she thought, her life, her sister's life and Master Kane's... Oh Master Kane; if it were true, she wanted him to be safe. He protected her, she should help him too.

****

Zyca sprung out the room, into the darkened hallway and up the staircase and up another, stopping at a door which bore his name. 'MASTER KANE'. Zyca knocked urgently in a less than calm rhythm.

"Master Kane! Master Kane!" Zyca rapped on the door with her tight mitt. "Master Kane! Master Kane!" she squawked over and over.

A gasp came from the inside and Master Kane pried the door open with a bang on the wall. His eyes ran down her body with his lips molded like a scrunch of paper at the center like he wanted to kiss.

Zyca knew she had made a mistake again.

"HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU...?"

"It was urgent my Master," said Zyca quickly palming both sides of her face with her hands. "There is danger Master. I was told."

Master Kane stared at her and took two steps out the door, cracking his fingers one after the other.

"You used your powers didn't you," he hissed evilly.

"Certainly not Master," said Zyca eagerly. "I only got a message ball. It told me to run and I wanted to let you know that if such is true, you should run too."

Master Kane bellowed a heart chilling laugh, placing his hand on his chest as he tried catching his breath. He slammed his hand on the frame of his door using the other to beckon Lady Penicillin from inside.

Zyca stood astonished wondering if anything she said was any funny. She never found the muddy look ball funny nor the thing that came out from it and what burgeoned from its mouth.

Lady Penicillin emerged from the room, in Master Kane's kimono with a polish letter in her hands.

"Do you know what this is?" Asked Lady Penicillin.

Zyca shook her head in confusion as Master Kane's laugher ceased. Lady Penicillin smiled and raised it an inch high, the letter and opened it graciously like she was opening a gift from her long-lost lover. She took out a golden looking card and turned it for her to see.

Dear Master Kane:

"Naxeremis's daughter, Zyca Abram and her sister Allet Abram are to be seized for unlawful use of their powers. By all means, do not let them take a step out for they are to be sent to LADDENDEBT for questioning"

From the office of,

The higher ups

****

Everyone knew what Laddendebt was. A place where it didn't matter, what color you were or the status you held. A place of everlasting suffering where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth. It was where her father was held. It was the Genie cell.

Zyca looked up and shrunk from their accusing gaze.

"You know the golden cuffs can't come off. And my sister has one too," she said hoping they would believe. "My sister is sick, you know that too. Never have we ever used our powers," she spoke louder than she ever did, not that she hadn't ever spoken loudly before - just not in front of Master Kane and Lady Penicillin.

The sound of steel thundered from outside the house as they met the green grasses she laid on, moments ago. A hundred? A thousand? Two thousand? Zyca could not estimate the number of military Genies that came for her. She knew far too well, they came for her. Why else would they be at Master Kane's house? The letter was evidence enough.

Zyca clamped her fist together and gulped. She had to do something fast or she could spend the rest of her life in Laddendebt.

Before Master Kane could grab her by her forearm, which was what he was aiming for at that moment, she dashed away skidding down the staircase as quickly as she could, with her hands on the railings in distress, unaware Lady Penicillin was closely behind.

"COME HERE, YOU," Lady Penicillin bawled, snagging Zyca from behind when she stepped a foot into the kitchen.

Zyca fell on her side with a thump. Her left side crashed into the edge of the counter, which jounced once again from the collision.

Lady Penicillin laughed in delight, trickling beads of sweat squared her forehead. Hand on her calves, she dragged her down the stairs when she knew she was down, into the obscure hallway and threw her into a room, that wasn't hers and locked the door, pinning the locks. The last thing she heard was the evanescent voice of Lady Penicillin. Zyca clutched her side, scrunching in pain in lost hope.

Zyca knew she was done for. The days on the cold hard floor which she grew to know, would soon be the last she ever laid on. Soon she would be transferred to spiky chairs or worse hung upside down as the unforgiving guard whipped her back with long bister whips until she told them what she didn't know. Eventually they would move on to Allet, and heaven knew the thought of watching her sister in pain would kill her faster than a bullet.

Zyca could not hold it in anymore, the pain on her side and the one in her heart, so she cried and sobbed and wept for her sister and her friend she wouldn't see again.

Colt. Oh Colt, she didn't even get to tell him what she felt.

Soon, something chalky and breezy spun in the room, and bluish bare feet emerged from within.

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