Be a Genie in Six Easy Steps (15 page)

T
he kids headed upstairs as soon as they got home, while their parents cracked open a bottle of wine in the kitchen to toast the Worthington's Wonders' victory.

Jess and Milly led the way into their bedroom. Milly ran to check on Skribble. He was still asleep by her pillow, looking loads better.

Michael shut the door and leaned against it.

“Okay, what's going on?” Jason demanded.

Jess put the book down on the bed. “It's that man and woman we saw, with the freaky eyes. They came to the town hall—asking where we live!” She repeated what Colette had told her.

“But why would they be asking about us?” said Jason, alarmed. “What have we done?”

“Magic,” said Michael simply.

Milly gasped. “Maybe they're evil genies! Skribble said that genies used to try to hurt each other…. Maybe they want to get
us
!”

“Don't be silly. They couldn't be evil genies….” Jess faltered, glancing at Michael. “Could they?”

Michael didn't answer.

“I bet they are!” Milly exclaimed. “What are we going to do? They might use magic on us. They might turn us all into frogs or something!”

“Maybe they're just normal people,” said Jason reasonably, “who happened to be asking where we lived. Maybe it's something to do with the launch of the bookshop?”

Suddenly, the book began to shake. Its cover flipped open and the pages started to turn.

The noise woke Skribble. He raised his head from the hair scrunchie. “So you're back,” he said sleepily. “Were you successful? Hmmm?”

But no one answered. They were staring at the book. Two new pictures had appeared. The first showed Mr. Foxtrot picking up the lamp that morning.

A most excellent entrapment
, read the caption.
A deception cleverly achieved
.

But it was the picture underneath that was holding everyone's attention. It showed them seated in the trivia challenge audience, laughing and joking.

And there, a few rows behind them, sat the mysterious man and woman. They were watching the children intently with their dark, glittering eyes.

A single sentence was written beneath the picture.

“‘Beware of those who watch you,'” Jason read slowly. He stared around. “That was what the book said before. In that picture of us in London with the shadows behind us…”

“It's them!” Milly gasped. “They've been watching us all along!”

“Stalking us, more like!” breathed Michael. He started flicking back through the book, stopping at the picture of Colette outside her house at the end of Step Four.

Jess froze. “Oh, no…”

Standing by the wall, watching Colette, the couple was clearly visible.

“They weren't in that picture before,” said Jason, chewing his lip. “Were they?”

“I'm sure they weren't.” Michael turned back to the end of Step Three, to the picture of Jess in the park. A cold chill shivered through him. There was no shadow on the grass now.

Instead, the dark-haired woman was crouched down just behind Jess, her eyes picked out in the deepest, blackest ink.

“She's close enough to touch,” breathed Jess. She turned away, covering her face with her hands.

Michael put the book down on the bed, his heart banging
with fear. “How come the book didn't show us before?”

“Maybe it's the book's way of telling us they're closer now,” said Jason. “Closer than ever.”

“I don't like this,” Milly said, sounding frightened. “Michael, I don't like this at all.”

“What are you all babbling about?” Skribble asked tetchily. “Disturbing my rest like this, dear, oh, dear…” Pulling himself off the scrunchie, he crawled toward the book. He inched onto the page with the picture and stopped dead.

“No!” The word was barely more than an intake of breath. “No, no, no!” Skribble began to back away, his face terrified.

“Skribble, what is it?” Jess said in alarm.

“They've come for me!” Skribble moaned. “They're here to take me back!” With a frightened howl, he dived into a hole in the book. The pages rattled as if he was shivering deep inside.

Michael, Milly, Jess, and Jason stared at each other, frightened and unsure.

“Skribble!” said Milly desperately. “Please come out! Talk to us!”

“Uh-oh,” said Jason. He could hear footsteps outside. “Someone's coming!”

“Who?” Jess and Michael gasped in unison.

The door handle turned sharply.

Michael threw the book in the air in alarm, and Jess caught it neatly and slid it beneath her pillow—just as Ann came looking around the door.

“Come on, you antisocial lot!” she said brightly. “Join the celebration downstairs.” They could hear music floating up from the living room. “But first, tell me…Will you all come and help us set things up for the party in the shop tomorrow before we open?”

“Uh…” Jess forced herself to nod and smile. “Yeah! Sure!”

“Thank you!” Ann grinned. “In that case, Mark and I will let you come with us to the Chinese restaurant tonight for a celebration meal!”

“Oh…great!” said Michael. He felt like hiding under the bed, not going out for food—and from the looks on the others' faces he suspected they felt the same.

Milly looked seriously at Michael. “Maybe we should tell Ann and Dad….”

“Tell me what?” said Ann, puzzled.

“Er, how excited we are about the opening party,” said Michael. “And dinner! Great. We'll be down in a minute.”

“Good!” said Ann, practically bouncing out of the
room. “We'll be off in half an hour.”

As soon as the door closed, Michael scowled at Milly. “We made a vow, sis, remember? No telling
anyone
about magic!”

“But things are getting really scary,” said Milly, hugging herself.

Jess slipped an arm around her. “I know. I'm scared too. But if this couple is magic, what can Mum and Mark do?”

Jason sighed. “That's if they even believed us.”

“We could show them the book!” Milly argued.

But the book suddenly shook with a noise like the rattle of a snake. An unmistakable warning sound that sent a shiver through them all.

“Maybe not, then,” said Michael quickly.

“It's not fair.” Milly's face crumpled. “We were doing so well. The magic was all so amazing, so much fun….”

“Not anymore,” muttered Jess. She jumped as the pages of the book fluttered open. One of the yellowing pages was glowing gold.

“It's the introduction to Step Six!” Michael realized. “And I can read it!”

“Then we passed Step Five,” said Jason, rushing to see.

“I almost wish we hadn't,” muttered Jess.

“Wait! Something must be wrong.” Milly stared at the words on the page. “Just what are we meant to make of
that
?”

 

J
ess lay awake that night, thinking about the book's mysterious remark.
Sometimes it is safer to do nothing
. The words ran around her head.

Her stomach growled; she and the others had barely touched their food at the restaurant. And when sleep came, it was only fitfully. The genie lamp stood on her bedside table, gleaming dully in the glow from her alarm clock's luminous hands. As the clock clicked away the slow minutes, outside the window all was in blackness. Jess thought longingly of her old bedroom back in London, with its view of the well-lit, busy road.

If we'd never left London, none of this would have happened
, she thought.
We wouldn't have gotten involved in magic and we wouldn't have weird people after us. Oh, I wish we were back there.

The glowing hands of the clock were edging toward five-to-six in the morning when she heard Milly wake up.

“Jess?” Milly whispered.

“Yes?”

“I'm scared. I've just had a really bad dream.”

“Come on,” Jess said in a low voice, turning the light on and rubbing her eyes. “Let's get up.” She got out of bed and threw Milly her robe and furry rabbit slippers. “We'll take the book down to the den and see if we can get Skribble to talk to us—tell us what he knows about the man and woman.”

Milly got up. She warily took the book from under her pillow as if expecting it to bite her, and then they crept downstairs.

The door to the den was ajar.

“Why's it open?” Milly said nervously.

“I don't know,” Jess whispered. Her heart in her throat, she nudged the door.

A ray of bright light immediately shone into her face. She opened her mouth to scream.

“It's all right; it's only us!” Michael's voice hissed from the staircase. “Jason came to find me. He couldn't sleep so we thought we'd come down here.”

Jess's legs felt like jelly. She clutched the banister as she and Milly went down the stairs to join the boys. Michael and Jason were both carrying several flashlights. “Why didn't you switch the light on?” she demanded.

“Didn't want to draw attention to ourselves.” Michael
padded around in his robe, switching on the flashlights he was holding to give them some light—a Spider-Man flashlight and that silly duck flashlight that Jason had gotten stuck in….

“Why were you coming to the den?” Jason asked Milly.

“We couldn't sleep either,” she replied. She held up the book. “We thought we could ask Skribble what he knows about the weird couple.” She opened the book. “Skribble?”

Skribble's head popped out cautiously.

“Oh, Skribble,” Milly said, feeling very relieved to see him. She carried the book over to the sofa and sat down. “Please will you tell us what's going on?”

“It's bad, isn't it?” said Michael anxiously.

“Yes.” Skribble's little face was very grave. “I am afraid we may all be in great danger.”

“Who are those people watching us?” Jason asked. “You know, the ones you saw in the book?”

Skribble sighed. “I believe they are genies.”

“See!” Milly exclaimed, looking around at the others. “I
told
you they were evil genies!”

A cagey expression flitted across Skribble's face. “Yes,” he said. “Yes. That's exactly what they are. Evil, wicked, and pernicious genies!”

“But what do they want with us, Skribble?” asked Michael. “Why did they want to know where we lived?”

“I fear it is my fault,” Skribble said slowly. “It is time for you to know the truth about me. I am not merely a magical bookworm. You see, I…was once…” He looked down. “
I
was once a great and powerful genie.”

The children stared.

“You're kidding,” said Michael.

“I most certainly am not!” Skribble said sharply. “I was a master of magic. But then, I found myself locked up! Imprisoned by miserable, petty-minded, pea-brained fools.”

“Why?” asked Milly, her eyes wide. “What had you done?”

“Nothing,” said Skribble sadly. “I had done nothing.”

The book fluttered a little. Skribble gave the pages a wary look. “In any case,” he went on hurriedly, “after I was locked away, I cleverly transformed myself into a bookworm and hid inside
The Genie Handbook
to escape their evil clutches….”

“And then the library was ransacked, wasn't it?” Jason remembered. “The book was taken to the human world with you inside it. And you didn't have a lamp so there was no way back to your own land.”

“Without a lamp, a genie is nothing,” said Skribble
somberly. “Suffice to say, I became stuck in this form of a bookworm and dependent on the book's magic to sustain me.”

“So
that's
what you meant about changing yourself back,” Jess realized. “You wanted to change back into your real form—a genie.”

“And you thought that if
we
became genies, we could do that for you,” Milly said. “It all makes sense now. No wonder you wanted us to complete our training as soon as possible.”

“But, Skribble, you told us magic doesn't work on other magical beings,” Jason pointed out. “That's why we couldn't find you with magic when you vanished. So how could we have helped?”

“I had a plan.” Skribble smiled sadly. “And very cunning it was, too. All I needed was a little more time…and your help.”

“Oh, Skribble,” said Milly. “I wish you'd told us sooner. You'll always have our help, whatever's the matter.” She looked around at the others. “Won't he?”

Jess and Jason nodded.

Michael sighed. “I guess.”

“Eh?” Skribble blinked. “Oh…Thank you…” He frowned, shook his head. “In any case, none of this is important! Not now that these two genies have arrived.
Their appearance here in the human world can only mean one thing—that they have come to take me back to the Genie Realm and punish me.”

“Well, we won't let them!” Milly exclaimed.

“No way!” said Jason fiercely.

“Wait,” said Skribble. “There is more.”

“What sort of more?” said Michael suspiciously as the bookworm shifted uncomfortably on the page.

“These genies may be after
you
as well,” Skribble admitted. “The magical books, although brought into the human world, were never meant to be
used
by humans. You may be punished for using genie magic.”

Jess looked at him in horror. “
What?
”

“Punished by
genies
!” squeaked Jason.

“They'll use magic on us…” Michael groaned. “Worm, d'you think maybe you could have told us that our training was against the law a bit sooner?”

Skribble hung his head.

“Let's not argue about it now,” said Milly quickly. “What can we do, Skribble? Have you got a plan?”

“No,” the bookworm admitted.

Michael huffed. “Well, things just get better and better.”

“Wait a sec,” said Jason. “We know genies can't use magic against other magical beings, right? Well,
we've
done magic—so how
can
they do anything to us?”

“Alas, you are still in training,” Skribble reminded him. “Until you pass all six steps you are not
proper
magical beings.”

“Which means they
can
use magic on us,” Jess realized with a sinking heart.

Jason wasn't giving up. “But if they can use magic on us because we aren't
proper
genies…perhaps that means we can use magic back at
them!
”

“We couldn't find Skribble before,” Michael reminded him.

“But that was before we passed Step Five,” Jason argued. “Our magic's gotten stronger with every passing step, hasn't it?”

“It has indeed….” Skribble looked thoughtful. “Yes, the four of you have shown great aptitude for the magical existence. Your powers have grown because you have worked together, planned together, and helped each other when things have gone wrong.”

“
You've
helped us too, Skribble,” said Milly loyally. “We're a team.”

Michael nodded. “And there're five of us and only two of them.” He forced an optimistic tone into his voice. “Together we can do it—we've got them outnumbered! What can they do to us?”

Suddenly the main lights snapped on, making them all jump.

There were two figures standing in the shadows at the top of the staircase.

Jess felt like the breath had been punched from her lungs. She was unable even to scream as the figures stepped forward into the light. The man was tall and skinny with a razor-sharp moustache, smooth black hair, and dark eyes that seemed to glitter. The woman beside him was slender and wore her black hair in a sleek bob.

“So,” said the man in a deep, clipped voice. “We have found you at last.”

The woman nodded. “Now we can do what we came here to do.”

Together, they started down the stairs….