The Scorching Embrace

Chapter 1
The Many in the Attic

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Chapter Description: Siblings Ben and Jennifer look through their attic.

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Ben stared at the trunk in his attic in absolute disbelief.

It was silent in the attic except for the sound of dry leaves blowing against the clouded panes of glass that opened out onto the pitch black street. The air was crisp and cold here inside the house, as the attic was completely unheated.

“Do you think this was Mom’s?” his sister asked.

“No, it looks too old,” he said, still staring at the dusty, brass-cornered trunk that they had discovered under the rug and old Christmas decorations, “there’s no way this is hers. I don’t even think this could even be grandma’s, honestly.”

“What is that on the side?”

“Where?” Ben inquired, moving around the heavy trunk to get a better look, wiping away at what seemed like an inch thick of dust and cobwebs that plagued the trunk. Despite its filth, Ben was amazed at how the brass of the trunk seemed to shine through it all, as if it glowed from within, even without any light shining on it. He redirected his flashlight away from the chest, beams of soft yellow light still seemingly being reflected from the corners of the box.

“Here,” Jennifer said, pointing to what looked like scuff marks on the wooden exterior. Ben leaned in close and saw that they were actually purposeful marks, though he had no idea what language it was in. It almost seemed Arabic, he thought, inspecting the wedge shapes that ran along the trim of the chest.

“Well, should we open it?” Ben asked, finally, after the two had stared at the box for what seemed like a lifetime.

“I’m going to make you handle that!” Jen reached into her back pocket and pulled out an envelope from MetLife. I DID just get health insurance, though, so maybe I should open it, just in case it’s full of snakes or something,” she laughed, “You found it, though, little brother, so you can give it a shot. I don’t think we have a chance without a key though, maybe we can call a locksmith or—“

CRACK! The brass lock pulled at the wood as Ben bashed it solidly with the end of his flashlight, splinters of wood casting quick shadows in the dusty air illuminated by the beam of light.

“Jesus, Ben, you scared the shit out of me!” Jennifer said, swiping at the columns of dust that hazily drifted through the scarce light.

“Sorry,” Ben said sheepishly, handing her the flashlight, “give me some light here, I want to see what’s in this bad-boy.”

Ben leaned over and lifted the heavy wooden top of the trunk, which creaked open noisily in the silence of the attic. A musky smell overtook the two of them as the stagnant air rose out of the chest, obviously undisturbed for quite some time.

“Ah, damn it,” Ben said, reaching into the chest, “It’s just a bunch of junk!”

Ben produced a small, somewhat transparent green glass bottle from the bottom of the trunk and a large blank scrap of parchment paper. He flipped it over in his hands, looking for any writing on it.

“That’s it?” Jennifer said, reaching for the bottle, “That’s all that was in there?”

As she touched the bottle and took it from her brother’s hands, the paper, still in Ben’s possession instantly burst into flames. He jumped back as the room was immediately lit with fierce orange flames. Jennifer dropped the bottle which shattered into countless pieces onto the dusty floor. The lit parchment drifted to the floor where it sat on the wood, burning as if doused in fuel.

The flames flared up intensely and could not be extinguished, even as Ben stomped on the paper to put it out.

“Ben, what’s happening?!” Jennifer screamed over the roar of the flames.

“I don’t—“ Ben began, before dully realizing that the flames, even as he stepped on them, produced no apparent heat.

Jen looked on as the shards and fine shattered pieces of the bottle seemed to re-animate and crawl towards one another on the floor, making dull dragging sounds and clinks as they jostled against one another under their own power. Jennifer pointed at the scene as she and her brother watched on in amazement as the bottle reassembled itself. Suddenly, as the last pieces came into alignment, the bottle shot straight up and banged loudly on the floor as it righted itself, stopping and remaining absolutely still. The two remained still, each half-illuminated in the dark attic, the flashlight broken on the floor where Jennifer dropped it. Transfixed, they stared at the flames.

“Send us into them, so that we may drown,” said a voice, softer than a whisper. The voice, though soft, crackled like the flames before them.

“Jen? ! What’s going on?!” Ben said, staring at the blaze before them, unable to move.

“Bismillah, young ones, we are eager to serve, speak unto us your desires and we shall make them so, speak three times to reorder the fates.”

“Jen!” Ben exclaimed, the light from the fire obscuring his vision as it seemed to dominate the room, causing everything else to fade.

“I’m here, Ben!” Jen called back from the darkness. Her voice cracked as she shouted out to him.

“Be still, for we are eager to serve, speak unto us your desires and we shall make them so, speak three times to reorder the fates.”

“I…I don’t know what’s happening, what is this?!”

The flames burst out even brighter than before, but now as they looked deeper at the cold inferno, shapes were visible just barely. Ben thought he saw women moving slowly through the licking flames, gesturing for him.

“All cats see mice in shadow, come and speak thrice your desires and we shall make them so, speak three times to reorder the fates.”

“I can’t move Ben! Who are these voices?!”

“We are the Scorching Fire.”

“Who are you?!” yelled Ben, shouting over the steadily increasing roar of the fire, amazed at how the faint whispers could be heard over the thundering cracks of the flame.

“We are the ifrit, we are the smokeless fervor, speak unto us your desires and we shall make them so,” droned the listless voices, whispers issuing from the rising ash, “speak three times to reorder the fates.”

“Ben!” Jen called over the fury of the fires, “I think it wants us to ask it something!”

“How about we ask it to stop!”

And with that, it was over. The towering blaze reduced immediately, shrinking down to fit the small piece of parchment which held the flames. Ben’s eyes still pained him from before, but they slowly adjusted, with his sister finally coming into view from the blackness. He felt able to move again and stepped back from the paper and bottle.

Jen’s soft brown eyes reflected the small yellow flames in the darkness.

“It is done,” a chorus of weary, sad voices issuing from the flames declared, “and will never be undone. Speak your will twice more to reorder the fates.”

It took a moment before something broke the silence. It was laughter. Jennifer released a peal of laughter into the dark and smiled broadly, her features illuminated by the soft orange glow emanating from the floor.

“Oh my god,” she said, holding a hand over her mouth, “Do you realize what this means?! I…I think this is like a genie in a bottle or something! Or out of a bottle! Or, I don’t know what, but this could change our LIVES, Ben. We could wish for anything. Or everything!”

Ben stared the flames, not knowing what was meant by their inviting glow. He looked over at his sister who was finally releasing the crinkled envelope in her hand and letting it fall to the floor. She stared at the flames as if deep in thought.

“Uh…hmm,” she pondered, frowning at the flames.

“Jen, I don’t think we—“

“I want a million dollars!” she said to the flames in the middle of the room.

The room was silent. Jennifer put her hand on her ample hip and narrowed her eyes at the burning parchment.

“Hello? I said, ‘I want a million dollars!’” she repeated.

“It has been done,” whispered the voices as one.

“Jennifer—“

“Ben! What! You don’t want a million dollars, you don’t want to be rich? I’m twenty-seven and I want to vacation TODAY if I can. I know I—“

A blast of flame belched from the center of the floor, reaching for Jennifer. She leapt backwards, but it was simply too fast. It enveloped her in a wreath of fire.

“Ben! Help! I can’t move, I can’t move!” she screamed, terrified as the fingers of flames licked around her waist and snaked through her legs. Another bright flash filled the room and then, as quickly as it began, it was over.

The envelope that Jennifer held now rested on the burning parchment, unburnt by the fire.

“What the hell was that?” Jennifer asked, inspecting her body to see if she had been scorched by the tongues of flame.

Ben felt something in his pocket and reached for it absentmindedly, producing a small scrap of paper. As he unfolded it, he saw it was a check. A million dollar check, made out to him.

“Jennifer, do you see this?!” he said, holding out the check for her inspection.

“Yes! Hey, wait, it’s made out to YOU? It was MY wish! What the fuck, genie bottle, or whatever the fuck this is, it’s supposed to be for ME,” she said, stomping her foot.

“Well, I’ll share it with you, of course, I just—“ Ben began, until he noticed his sister, “Jennifer, are…are you okay?”

He looked at her and noticed that her hair looked much too long. He walked closer to her, but something else seemed off, too. Her clothes!

“What’s wrong?” she asked, looking at herself, “Hey, what’s going on?! My shirt is huge!”

Jennifer stepped backwards, but tripped, the leg of her pants becoming tangled and too long. Not too long, Ben realized, she was becoming too short. Her face looked smoother, somehow, rounder, he thought. She wasn’t becoming shorter, she was becoming younger!

“Ben, what’s happening?! What’s happening to me?!” she said, sounding more and more scared, with her voice becoming higher pitched.

She tried to run away from her own body, horrified as she listened to her own voice raise an octave. Ben guessed she looked like she was sixteen again. Her breasts deflated immediately as she passed under twelve years old, her belt buckle clanging with a thud on the old wood of the attic floor as her hips became too narrow to support it.

Jennifer stepped forward in an attempt to counter-balance, but tripped again, falling entirely out of her pants, her green panties on open display to her brother, who looked on mortified, unable to even process how to help his dwindling sister as she plummeted through puberty all over again, her pubic hair falling like a wave off of her body as she was left a nude, hairless child once more. He hadn’t seen his sister like this since he was in elementary school, forced to take baths with his sister when they were both young enough to do so.

“Ben, hewp me, pwease! I want mommy!” cried the five year old sister he only knew from foggy memory, ballooning with baby fat once more where once a trim physique once existed. She crawled from beneath her purple blouse, over the pile of her jeans, emerging naked as a three year old toddler with gigantic brown protuberant eyes glistening with tears. Her nude rear on complete display as she crawled pathetically towards her older brother, losing months and years as she tried to move until she finally sat down.

“Your second command shall be done,” whispered the voice from the center of the room.

Her bare bottom pressed to the floor, her plump tear-stained face still brightly lit by the glowing flames on the floor, the now infant girl that was once his older sister looked up at him once more before rolling onto her back and kicking her chubby feet at the ceiling, now free of socks and shoes, pants and top, completely bare before him and the thing that had done this to her.

As he stared down in disbelief at the wriggling infant that was once his college-educated sister, the sister who had taught him how to drive, how to fill out his taxes, he did not know what to do. He heard footsteps coming up the attic stairs and whirled around to be greeted by his mother.

“Mom?! What are you doing here?” Ben asked, incredulously, as if this was more surprising than what had just transpired, “You’re supposed to be—“

“In Atlanta, I know! I know! But I couldn’t sleep knowing that I couldn’t see my little girl!”

“What? What do you—“

“Your baby sister, silly! Oh, look at her, Ben, is THIS how you change her diaper? She’s going to breathe in all this dust! You need to be more responsible, she’s still just a baby! Come here, Sarah.”

His mother bustled over to the gurgling infant on the floor and scooped her up, cradling her lovingly in her arms and wrapping her in the old clothes as if nothing was wrong at all. She hummed lightly, her hand around his now-infant sister’s naked bottom. She let baby Jennifer grab onto her finger with her tiny pudgy hands, smiling down at her daughter. Ben thought to himself that it was as if his mother had no idea that her daughter had graduated from a top university over six years ago, owned a car, and was completely independent. In his mother’s eyes, Jennifer was just a squealing baby girl in her birthday suit, with going poo-poo in her diapers as her only known accomplishment.

“Sarah? Who’s Sarah? Mom, that’s Jennifer! I know it’s hard to believe, but we were—“

“I think I know my children, Ben, and it’s not funny to joke about Jennifer. I know it’s been a few years, but I’m still mourning her and I think YOU should be, too. I was scared to death to drive over here, I had to drive past the spot where…well, you know.”

“Know what?!” he demanded, bufuddled by the whole situation.

“Where Jennifer crashed her car.”

Ben had no response. Instead, he looked down at his hands which held the million dollar check. A life insurance check made out to him for the unexpected death of Jennifer a year ago.

As his mother cradled his infant sister and brought her downstairs, Ben was left alone in the attic with the glowing flames. Suddenly, he realized how impossibly young his mother had looked. Standing there, staring deep into the fire as it burned down to embers, he swore he saw the shadows moving again. Moving as if they had a will of their own.

Soon after, the smoldering embers went out, leaving him standing alone in the black of the dusty attic.

“Her will be done and cannot be undone,” they whispered, “so speak twice more. Speak your will twice more to reorder the fates.

[img align=left; footer=’’; border=0; showfooter=1;]http://i.imgur.com/TiydC.jpg[/img]

 

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