She was lost. In search for her lamp she had retraced her steps to all the places she'd gone to but she took a wrong turn or maybe two or possibly she missed it when she stepped out of the room and now, she was lost. Vintage walls filled her sight, white with a touch of black strips and a smell of damp paint trickled her nose. Where was she? Seeing the beauty, the mansion was, she'd never thought that a place so...so old could be hidden in the mountain of modernism. Although the clock she passed on her way out the front door, had a bit of oldness to it – the pendulum ticked moving sideways in a steady rhythm, the wooden surface dark brown and a glass shielded the numbers and pendulum.

It was getting dark as she dived deeper and deeper on bare foot to find her way out and just maybe the lamp too. The lamp was important but she couldn't help feel uncomfortable in the space she was in, cold and chilly with bit of menacing feel to it. She hoped it was nothing at all, her getting lost must have gotten the best of her. And why hadn't she bothered to put on a pair of slippers. How stupid of her! In rush to get her lamp she'd forgotten to wear anything on her feet, right then a light bag would do.

"Lampy where are you?" she whispered with the hope the lamp would materialize out of thin air and perhaps, she wanted a feel someone was there with her. But of course, it did nothing to smoothen the uneasy feelings she felt.

"You're eighteen Zyca. Quit being afraid," she said to herself. "There's nothing to be afraid of. Soon enough you'll be out – don't worry," she continued whispering words of encouragement to herself.

An icy wind brushed her left cheek more like a finger probed it. Zyca jolted from the feeling and staggered forward. A second, two seconds, she turned slowly around, her eyes watery and fearful. What was that? No single soul was behind and somehow, she was glad but an uncanny feeling in her mind told her she wasn't alone. "Hello! Who's there?" her voiced echoed.

The green hairs on her skin stood steady when she felt the same touch on her right cheek this time. Her legs turned mushy when she turned, this time she spun a little faster and saw no one. She would have thought Colt was up to no good back home but she wasn't home thus she had every right to be scared.

She carried on, caution for the unseen, at least it was better than staying in one place waiting for the worse to happen.

"It's okay Zyca. It's just the wind. Nothing to be afraid of."

Her hands shook terribly, so she held it together and placed it under the warmth of her white linen. Her noodle like legs tingled, her yellowish eyes darted all over, and the cold cemented ground and the... A silhouette of a person stood meters away.

Queen mother bless her soul. Her heart hammered in erratic rhythm in her rib cage.

"M-master?" she stammered. "Riel?" she spoke again when she received no reply. The silhouette only took steps closer and she took steps backwards when it advanced more than once. How she wished more than ever to take the golden cuffs off her hand to see who stood in the darkness.

Zyca didn't care anymore who was behind the shadows, she had to get away from where she was as soon as possible. It was either she went back the same way she came, that's if she could remember or go through the path on her right because as hell, she wouldn't dare walk forward. With a yelp she skids through the right.

****

It was her. It was really her. No one knew of the lamp in his latest chapter for it hadn't even been released. Having left the left-over copies in the hermitage house, he still kept the first draft of the third part somewhere in his portable computer. In his folder possibly – he couldn't remember. In boiling anger from his dismissal, he stored the draft in documents? No. Videos? Impossible.

The cursor moved on the screen in a quickened pace, his hands on the mouse stirred the object clicking and clicking, searching for the draft he kept away. Fingers crossed on his desk in a little confinement he called his own – seconds away from his room, he looked for the first draft of Zyca in utmost concentration. Where was it! He was getting impatient. He wanted to confirm what he already knew, wanting to read for himself his own description of the golden lamp sitting in front of him.

His phone chimed, its light illuminating the space around it. Daniel paused, stretching his neck a little, so he could see who called him. It was his father. He picked the phone and placed it on his ear, waging it on one of his shoulders as he continued his search.

"Hello," he answered.

"Daniel," a deep cheerful voice replied. "Where have you been? You couldn't even call to tell us you've gotten home." Daniel rolled his eyes.

"I'm home dad."

"Very funny. Imagine hearing from the butler my own son arrived safely. Madness, I tell you," he scolded playfully. His dad had always been like that, cheerful without a drip of anger. Even when his wife – his mother died, he had taken it lightly, one would think he'd lost something trivial, not the woman he spent most of his life with but he knew it took a toll on him.

"Is there any reason you called?" he asked. "Because I know, calling me because I didn't notify you of my arrival is something, I know you wouldn't do when you're having the time of your life."

"Calling my own son isn't a crime Daniel."

"Why did you call dad?"

He heard his dad clear his throat on the other end and a muffled female voice, Sarah's perhaps, cajoling him to ask him of something. "Well... Riel told me about the girl..." He knew it. It was about a girl. His clicking turned harsher as it sped on the mouse pad.

"It's always about a girl," he voiced his thought harsher than he expected. "You even coaxed Riel to set me up too – when are you both ever going to give up."

"Now, now, you know we both love you very much and ever since Julia died you've cut yourself from the world." Daniel released a sigh of annoyance, "What I'm trying to say is that, we're both worried about you..."

Daniel turned deaf ears to what he was saying, focusing on the task ahead. He'd checked all the folders he could ever think off, but none possessed what he searched for. Or did he? No he couldn't have. Well there wasn't any harm if he took a look and indeed the draft sat in the midst of many items in the recycle bin. Without a time to waste, he double clicked it and a Microsoft page spread out on the screen to which he scrolled down on the arrow button on his keyboard, all the way to the sixth chapter.

"Zyca stood with a lamp in her hands, golden and smooth on all sides, a crested sign of a genie with the lamp in its hand of the same color rested on one of its side," he read aloud. It was the lamp. His wraith existed. Should he be happy or crept out she was real? And it meant she came in search of her father and the crystal to save her sister Allet and the Green genies from suffering worse predicaments.

And he was stuck in the middle of it all.

"You need this."

"Give us a chance Dan." Sarah finished.

"I'm going to have to call you back," not like he cared to.

"Wait..." "Dan..." He slid the red button on the screen to the left, cutting off his parent's protest.

He wanted to meet her badly now but what would he say? I saw you in my dreams? I dreamt about you? Nothing seemed like the perfect way to start a conversation when he faced her and without doubt, he definitely will.

If that is, he doesn't chicken out every time.

With deep breaths, he stood there thinking. He was confused and hungry, he needed time alone in a serene environment to think things over, what he would say to her when they meet, how he would look at her when she spoke to him moving her lips. Time, a month or two would do. Damn his life and his stupid decision.

"Damn you Dan," he cursed when he found himself – with the lamp in his hand, making his way to the door with shuffled steps. He needed to see her, meet her, and talk to her. Heavens! She was already getting to him.

Daniel paused. A neutral colored linen, adorned with the sweet scent of jasmine collided itself into his arms when he creaked the door mid-open for him to get out. He found himself staggering with the weight to the nearby wall, and his eyes catching the center of a mop of dark hair.

Adrenaline coursed through his veins, breathing came out in uneven puffs and his body rigid and tight. Even if a bomb were to go off then, filling the air with its putrid smell, he wouldn't move a muscle.

The lamp long forgotten circled the ground, making its way up into the air with no form of strings attached to keep it up and in a quickened speed it attached itself to her golden cuffs. Her golden cuffs. The tool suppressing her powers tightened a little from the newly added attachment and she made no sound when it did. Possibly, it caused her no pain.

Just then she whimpered like a little puppy who'd lost its way, eyes crinkling at the sides tightly to suppress something. Fear? What could have frightened her so much for her to quiver in his arms? The breath was knocked out of him, when both of her arms circled his torso, meeting behind and resting on the tip of his waist.

A lump of thick saliva is what he swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbed up and down when he did, his body springing up in diminutive flames. He was hot all over. He had a choice; push her away and pretend nothing ever happened or continue to let her stay in cocoon he created with his body, let her continue to enjoy his warmth for as long as she liked. Oh, what a fool he was. It was rather he who wanted to enjoy her petite body in his.

Before he could make up his mind, she stepped out of his arms leaving his body cold, wanting and bare in her... dear. Who had given her the maid's uniform? Slimy snake Riel. He'd kill him for this.

Then she slowly smiled upon the meeting of their gaze. He could have died then. He won't. No, he can't but he wanted to.

Never in all of Britain has he met a girl who made him feel a thousand of different emotions with a single gaze. She wasn't a citizen after all, she wasn't even meant to exist.

"Master," she breathed, a kind of relief settled in her eyes.

That was right, she saw him first. He had become her master in the human world she stood in. He really was truly in the middle of it all.

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