2016-08-28 - spike - The Final Curse Part 4

Author: spike
Title: The Final Curse (part four)
Date: 28 August 2016

The Final Curse. (Part four)

Masters by the thousands. Punishments by the millions. Endless, eternal and all the while Jim held firm to his memory of Ras.

At first it was easy. He just needed to glance down through the screen to see the skeleton on the bed, but even that began to disintegrate and turn to dust and with each whoosh out of the lamp the dust was pulled out with him.

He no longer cared how much time had passed. Each time out of the lamp was a snapshot. He saw the world as a timelapse film. Everything soon began to fall into decay and ruin. The sun appeared to be changing slowly too. Mankind however retained its selfish urges.

Then, another whoosh and a man standing below an angry red sun.

“I am the genie of the lamp. Tell me your wish, oh Master.”

The man looked puzzled. “What’s a genie?”

“A magical spirit with the power and compulsion to grant wishes to whoever rubs the lamp. Any wish you desire is yours for the asking. And you have three.”

“Magic?”

“Yes. You don’t think it’s normal to have a body half made of smoke do you? Of course magic!”

“What’s magic?”

“Are you an idiot?”

“I have no idea what would lead you to that conclusion.”

Jim sighed. “Magic is a force in the universe that can be used to perform tasks mankind is incapable of by other means. No, it isn’t technology. It predates all but the most primitive technology by thousands of years. I can use it to extend your life, grant you riches beyond your wildest dreams, any woman or man is yours for the asking.”

“Anything?”

“Yes.”

“There is nothing here. All the wealthy left this planet when the sun began to change. And there is nothing I want. I intend to remain and watch the death of this world.”

“Then you can use them to wish up things for others.”

The man smiled. A smile of relief.

“I wish for a planet to exist that orbits a distant star identical to our sun as it was five billion years ago with a biosphere identical to the earth of that time.”

A click of the fingers, “Granted.” and foop, back into the lamp. Instantly, poof, back out again.
“Five hundred ships each holding a million people departed this world a thousand years ago. Many have run into difficulties. For my second wish, I wish that every single ship safely and instantly reach its destination with zero loss of life and that that destination is the new planet I just created.”

Jim smiled. This one, he liked. Three selfless wishes? It certainly seemed that way.

He clicked his fingers and returned to his wall but was out again within seconds.

The man looked doubtful. “So far, I’ve seen no proof anything has actually happened. You realise that? Is there a hidden camera nearby?”

Jim smiled. “Your wishes have been granted. I know what your final wish is. I’ve probed your mind. I’ll tell you what it is if you like.”

The man looked at Jim as if it was a challenge. “Go on then.”

“Your final wish is that every remaining human on this planet apart from those unwilling to leave be instantly transported to the new one. Correct?”

“That is it exactly. Very impressive. But such a wish is impossible. How far away is this planet?”

“You did say distant. I placed it in the Andromeda galaxy.”

“That too is impossible. The speed of light is fixed. Immutable. Nothing can go faster. Therefore you couldn’t possibly have had an instant effect there.”

The genie smiled again. But there was a little contempt creeping in. “Magic is seen by some as the opposite of science. It isn’t bound by the same laws as physics.”

Jim waved his hand and a screen appeared before him. A green/blue gem in a black void. A ship appeared on the edge of the screen. Then another. And another. All heading in the same direction. Planetfall. As they watched, the first of the ships landed and the inhabitants emerged, staring in awe at the place. Lush green fields. Forests stretching for miles. Pure babbling streams.

“Good god. It looks like a paradise!”

“Compared to this one. It is. But it is exactly as you wished it. The only thing lacking at its creation was humanity and your colonisation has already begun.”

“I did say identical biosphere. Why were there no humans present?”

“They hadn’t evolved yet. 5 billion years is a little imprecise. If you’d said four billion nine-hundred million you may have had to contend with a few cavemen. I’m sure you have enough technology to be able to handle the odd T-Rex?”

“REALLY?! Yes, we can handle that kind of thing. Then for my final wish, I wish that every remaining human on this planet apart from those unwilling to leave be instantly transported to the new one. I for one am unwilling to leave. I told you this at the start.”

Jim smiled, clicked his fingers and returned to his wall to receive his sixty lashes.

* * * * *
From now on when he appeared, he found himself on the new planet. More Masters, more selfish wishes and again his hatred grew and grew. The only remnant of his old friend was an ugly stain on the bed and over time even that began to fade, but he still held onto the memory.

Then, suddenly, the wishes stopped. He’d granted millions by now on this new planet and had no idea why the sudden halt. But he just remained there, taking his three hundred a day for countless millenia.

He forgot Ras. He forgot himself again and his contempt for humanity reached its height.

Even the display was growing boring. Slavery had commenced on the new planet after a time and he’d been greeted with new scenes of utter depravity. Sometimes the slaves were even genetically altered or their arms and legs surgically removed to be replaced by mechanical substitutes so they could perform heavier tasks.

All done against their will. But then, the cavemen appeared again.

He watched again and this time with a new eye. Relishing the torment rather than being repulsed by it.

The display had looped ten times before he began to grow bored.

“Lamp. I’ve seen this. And I assume if I’ve seen this then I’ve seen it all.”

“Yes. Humanity is extinct now. It has been for almost one million years.”

“The curse stated I would see it all. Does this mean I can finally see something else? Or turn off this screen?”

“Yes.”

“Then turn it off. For now. My eyes could do with a rest.”

The screen vanished. The genie closed his eyes for the first time in he didn’t care to think how long. He moved his head from side to side, another thing that had been denied him all his time on the wall.

“If humanity is extinct, does this mean the current punishment will be for the rest of eternity with no letup?”

“It is forbidden for me to say.”

The genie sighed. “Another curse.”

The genie hung there and endured.

* * * * *
The lamp juddered. It was a strange sensation. A strange sound that seemed to emanate from the spout. It sounded like the lamp had struck something wooden.

There was a squeak of wood on wood. Then a voice.

“Hello… What’s this?”

The sensation of slight pleasure, but not from rubbing. Just physical contact as if someone had grasped the handle. And that voice. There was something very familiar about that voice. It was a deep voice. It had a playfulness to it.

“What on earth is it?” Another voice, female this time, it too sounded familiar.

“What off earth more like, Sarah. When I brought you and Harry to see the end of the universe I never expected to find a Persian lamp just drifting through space. It must be ancient.”

There was another squeak as if a cupboard was being closed and then a mechanical whirring noise. The sensation of pleasure ended. Obviously the lamp had been put down.

Then, a grinding noise. One instantly recognisable! The memories sprang into his brain in an instant. But how!? All that was just a fiction! An amusement for those insects he loathed so much.

“What are you doing?” Another male voice. Another face flashed into his brain.

“I’m not doing anything, Harry! Something’s taking control of the console!”

“Well where is it taking us?”

By now the grinding had become accompanied by a squealing noise. A pulsing.

“According to the coordinates, we’re heading back to earth.”

A sense of relief from the woman. “Oh thank goodness! I can’t wait to show this to the brigadier.”

“We’re not going to 1975 Sarah! The coordinates appear to be taking us much, much further back.”

The grinding stopped with a thunk and a bong. The sound of mechanical whirring again and then the sound of a door squeak. Then silence.

“Lamp. What the hell was that?”

“A little contrivance the djinn plucked from your mind that he found amusing. Curse number seven. For one million years after the death of the last human will you endure their final punishments. Then you will begin again at the dawn of man.”

“I’m beginning to understand just what eternity means. But this is just how life is. How it’s always been. Now I know it’s how it always will be I’ll just have to learn to accept it. Is that the final curse now?”

“I am forbidden to say.”

“Oh god! How many times did that bastard click his fingers?!”

“I am forbidden to…”

Before the sentence was complete, there was that oh so familiar shimmer and then the whoosh.

The caveman stared and backed away in terror. It screamed something guttural which the genie’s mind instantly translated.

“What you?!”

Again, his mouth moved unbidden, but this time, the sounds that emerged matched those of the caveman.

“What genie?”

The genie concentrated, finding the connection in his mind that could link the translation he was getting and put it into reverse. He answered.

“Big Magic. Anything want I give.”

By god it was a coarse language. He could have fun with these.

“I want food. Lot food. More food than carry.”

The genie looked around and smiled. Nearby, a cave.

“That home?” he pointed.

“That home!”

The genie clicked his fingers, filling the cave with a hundred dead mammoths, packed to the ceiling and all the way to the back of the cave. The meat would rot before it had even got close to finishing the first and by the time it tried moving it all out, it’d catch the worst diseases known to man. He saw to that and more. A plague caused by this infection would eventually wipe out their entire region.

The caveman ran to its cave and stared. Its smile of greed and stupidity. Even now, at the very beginning these things were still the same.

Then, whoosh. Back on the wall.

“By god these cavemen are stupid. But I knew that from all the times I watched them on the screen before I turned it off.”

It wasn’t long before the final wishes were made. First women, and lots of them. He made them the most jealous violent harpies imaginable. It would never know peace with them around and they would never leave it. Eventually they would murder any other woman who looked at it.

Finally. Long life.

For a caveman, that was probably thirteen years longer than normal. He made it thirteen thousand. And as it hadn’t specified how that life would be, it would age normally but would not die. All the diseases from the first wish would still be there making it suffer untold torment. By the time a thousand years had elapsed it would be nothing but a skeleton, unable to move, unable to see or hear, unable to die but definitely able to think and feel.

He appeared in the lamp sitting on the sofa. The curse hadn’t even seen fit to put him back on the wall this time. It knew that it had won. From now on, he would live in the lap of luxury just as his original captor had. He began to love this life.

* * * * *
Civilisations rose and fell. The genie saw it all. He helped in the destruction of many. He’d seen the rise of Rome first hand and aided in the fall. He’d seen the rise of Christianity and some of his wishes had caused the Spanish inquisition. Even the selfless wishes got corrupted now, he no longer made a distinction. He’d even had a hand in the holocaust and he relished in it. In every set of wishes now he tried to include at least one of utter destruction or angish.

Then he appeared before a young man on a street. It was staring at the lamp and then at him.

“I am the genie of the lamp! What is your wish, oh Master?”

A look of hunger, greed. Oh so familiar, oh so corruptible. Then the genie probed its mind and opened the floodgates. Memories. Memories long since extinguished by time. He recognised himself! This worm was him! Him before the wishes! Oh, he was going to have fun with this one, because he knew already what that final wish was. He would be free soon! This flea would become him eventually but it would be a lot of pain to get here.

“I wish I owned a house with a fully fitted out bondage dungeon in the cellar.”

The genie smiled and clicked his fingers. “Granted.”

He was back on the wall for now. But he knew it would only be a couple of hours before the second wish. A month on the wall after that before his freedom.

He laughed. A laugh of pure malice and glee. He even contemplated turning up the curses a few notches, but thought better of it, this time at least.

The time he expected arrived and again he appeared before his much, much younger self.

“What is your second wish, oh Master?”

“How many do I get?”

“Every fool knows that.” The genie looked down at himself with utter contempt. “Three of course, Master.”

“Then I wish to find a Master I could be happy to be owned by for the rest of my life who would be willing to enslave me, here.”

The genie smiled again and clicked his fingers and was back on the wall. Oh, that house would be seen as perfect but many of the items within it were cursed. Some designed never ever to come off. Some would cause extreme agony when worn. But he was very careful of which ones to pick. He knew which bondage equipment had been used in that first month and not one of those items was tainted with magic.

Oh, the anticipation. To be free! Free to cause these insects as much pain and distress as it was possible to. No longer bound by curses or rules. He seriously considered killing them all, but then decided against it. Where would the fun be if non existed. Who else could he torture?

He brought up the display and watched himself in his new home, owned by that pathetic Master he’d summoned. Oh, he was happy owning this slave. His own home had been a filthy hovel. Not a single slave had ever dared visit him because of the stench of the place. But after a little magical clean up, a new set of leathers and a slave willingly submitting to him and offering him a house…

Finally, the month was almost up. He watched as slave was cleaning the house yet again, the look of hunger crossing his face. The furtive look around the house to make sure Master was nowhere near. He picked up the lamp and rubbed it.

“What is your final wish, Oh Master.” this time the contempt was plain on his face, but slave ignored it.

“I wish for the u” slave clutched his throat in shock and sank to his knees.

“What? Your wish! Speak it!”

It took five minutes for slave to recover. He gasped for breath, a look of pain and fear on his face.

“I couldn’t. I couldn’t breath there! What the hell happened?”

“Speak your wish! I know what it is but it has to be uttered before I can make it come true.”

“I wish for the ultimate b” slave had tried to say it quicker, but not quickly enough. Again he clutched his throat in agony and collapsed to his knees. He sighed. “I wish my Master could make this final wish.”

The genie recoiled in shock but clicked his fingers anyway. A golden gem appeared before slave. “Give this to that worm and tell him to utter his wish. It will be granted.”

And with that, he was back facing the wall.

He screamed before the first lash hit him. But it wasn’t a scream of pain this time but one of pure unadulterated rage.

The whippings commenced, the screams turned from rage to pain instantly and then he was facing front again.

“What the hell happened! That was me! I made that wish, it got me here! How could I not make that wish again?”

The lamp spoke. “The final curse. No mortal shall ever utter a wish you could use to grant yourself freedom.”

Deep in his soul, that final spark of humanity that had almost been extinguished so many times in the past finally went out for good.