Jinn

Chapter 1
The gift

Chapter Description: The collector Paul receives an old oil lamp as a gift from his sister Em. It was picked up in France so he disregards it as a fake. He is soon to discover it's more than just genuine, it's real. No AR content in this chapter, purely a scene setter.

Paul was in his office. He was performing two of his favorite pass times today, he was admiring his collection of antiques and also working on them, today he was polishing and dusting those not behind glass cases.

He would source his antique collection from across the globe and spend hours upon hours restoring each piece to it’s original state, they were of little worth in terms of monetary value, for Paul it was the sentimental value that appealed, well mostly, he longed for that one rare find that could turn his life around.

Paul was not a poor man, but he wasn’t particularly wealthy either. He was in his mid forties, he was fairly short, a little rotund and he was balding, nothing a comb over couldn’t hide, or so he thought.

Behind his round spectacles were chubby cheeks and beady little eyes.

He fashioned a thick bristly mustache and wore a checkered shirt but no tie, he was not particularly social and appreciated his own time.

It was the fact that he had no wife, or children of his own that he was of the more well off in his town, his passions in life lay with what many considered to be junk, but to him they were treasures, oh and he was particularly fond of comics.

He had once, in one of his hours of trawling through car boot fayre’s discovered a comic of worth, he paid just ten dollars for a collection of comic books amongst of which was a tatty edition of Action Comics No.1 which he sold for a tasty profit.

He looked longingly at the glass case, remembering his own collection of comics he’d so foolishly handled and dirtied as a child, oh what they’d be worth today.

The doorbell chimed, making Paul jump, he’d forgotten that his sister was coming around, she’d recently returned from from her travel’s in Europe and was staying with Paul until she’d sorted her own place out.

Paul hurried to the door stubbing his toe in the door frame, "God damn it" he yelped, "ha..hang on sis, I’ll be there in a sec" he waddled to the door, pushing his spectacles up his nose, whilst pressing his comb over flat across his bald patch.

Paul unbolted the door, there stood his younger sister Emma, she was anything but like Paul, she was tall, slender, physically active and very sociable. It was often joked between their friends that she’d perhaps been the product of the postman.

"Hi Paul how have you been?" she smiled, standing next to her were some small suitcases.

They hugged in the doorway "I’ve been well, it’s good to see you, my oh my you are looking great, your tan and, and... umm" Paul stood to one side beckoning her in with, "how was France?"

"Paul you always were a charmer weren’t you" Emma said as she walked inside smiling.

"Let me help you with that, go on, take a seat in the living room" Paul suggested as he ran to the suitcases, "Careful Paul, they’re heavy" Paul had already realized this whilst straining to lift them, he wiggled them inside before dragging them up the stairs.

He returned a minute later puffing slightly, red in the face, he dabbed his forehead with his hanky and made for the kitchen, "would you like a drink Em?"

"Thanks, I’d love a coffee" Em replied, she had slumped onto the sofa and sat with her hands behind her head relaxing.

Calling through to the kitchen "The flight was a nightmare Paul, I’ve wished for something eventful on one of these to happen, but not like this, turbulence, children vomiting, oh you name it it happened, and then the checkout, some missing luggage and I lost a hat."

Paul returned with some coffee and biscuits, "well, that er, sure sounds unusual to happen all in one day, are you gonna complain to the air company?"

Em laughed, "of course not, it couldn’t be helped, oh Paul always thinking about the worst of things, I had a wonderful time in Europe, look, I’ve got pictures."

Em plugged her camera into the TV loading the many thousands of pictures and videos of her travels, "where should we start?" she asked, "umm, how about London it’s where you started" Paul replied, "ok Paul, you know I have put all these into folders, I can select each destination, we don;t have to watch them in order"

Paul fiddled with the controls and the pictures were displayed full size upon the tv.

They spent the next few hours viewing the pictures, Em told Paul all about the places she’d been to and the people she’d met.

Hours passed and before long, dinner time was upon them. "hey Em, what do you fancy today? Pizza? Thai? Indian? Chinese?.... he paused for I could cook you up some beans"

"lets get Pizza, you know, when we were like kids, haha, you’d be reading your comic books, eating your pizza and getting angry about the tomato sauce and toppings spilling onto the pages, I’d be practicing my dance moves, signing into the slice as if it were a microphone"

They joked for a bit and agreed upon pizza, whilst waiting Paul offered to show Emma his collection, "oh that reminds me, look, I bought you this back, I found it in France" Em pulled out an old oil lamp and handed it to Paul.

The lamp was ancient and in poor condition, it was tarnished, the spout was badly singed, the body was dented and the lid was stuck fast.

"It isn’t much but I figured you’d probably like this a lot more than an Eiffel tower or London guard figurine.

Paul examined the lamp carefully his face was emotionless as he turned the lamp over, "Whats wrong Paul, don’t you like it?"

"I, I’ve never seen anything like it, look here, it has inscriptions on it" He pulled his thumb over the lamp, rubbing through some grime to reveal the markings.

"Where" said Em, peering over, "have I found something Paul", "well, I don’t know, it would be a lovely piece if it were restored, it has obviously been well used no doubt, but it could be worth a small fortune if it were genuine" Paul replied. "Where did you get it?"

"I was in France and....."

Paul cut her short, "Oh, it’s probably a replica, these things happen, still it is a very nice looking piece and will look wonderful in my collection" Paul forced a smile, he was happy about the sudden discovery of an ancient Islamic lamp but his happiness was blunted by the realization that it was probably fake.

"Well, I’ll get to work cleaning it up tomorrow, for now, lets get pizza."

Paul placed the lamp on the table in his study, they left the room and ordered pizza before going to bed for the night.

During the night, the lamp stirred, sparks of fire spat out of the spout, sparkling and crackling, growing in intensity before dieing down.

Thick smoke plumed out from under the fire, it filled the room, spreading to every corner, and receded back into the lamp as if nothing had ever happened, if it were not for the burn damage to the wall, not even some one as meticulous as Paul would have noticed.