Zoe jumped up, grabbed Jon's shirt, and pulled her brother back into her room. Karyn followed.
"Okay," said Zoe, half under her breath, "what the fuck is going on?"
"Uhhh...surprise!" Jon responded with an embarrassed grin.
"Might as well tell her the truth," said Karyn.
"Yeah, yeah," said Jon. He held up the silver gun-like contraption with the small LCD screen attached. "This device shows you a person's greatest fantasy and their greatest nightmare, and can make them happen if you want. We tested it out on you. It said your greatest fantasy was a world where magic was common, so..." He shrugged.
Zoe's eyes narrowed. "But it sounds like that thing was magic first. Where'd you get it?"
"Uh, that's a longer story," said Jon.
"Just curious," said Zoe, and decided to try something. She took the deep breath that she normally used to start a session of Zen meditation, and suddenly she was a bit overwhelmed -- she was feeling the links between her, Jon, and Karyn; between her and the inanimate objects in her bedroom; between her and the trees and blades of grass outside; between her and the Earth itself --
She concentrated on the device in Jon's hand, and moving it along the link to her, and before she knew it, it had flown to her and her hand was grasping the metal handle, her index finger near the trigger. Jon's eyes went very wide.
"I wonder what your nightmare is," Zoe said with a hint of a smile, looking down at the screen.
Jon scrunched his eyes halfway shut, held a hand up, and looked like he was straining, but nothing happened. "Jeez, Zoe, how'd you make that thing come to you?"
"My little secret. Of course, with magic being common, you can probably get instructions for everything on Wikipedia, unless there's a separate Magicpedia or something."
"Zoe, please," begged Karyn. "Be careful with that thing. It's pretty powerful."
"Well, duh," said Zoe, waving the gun a bit. "You don't have to tell me to be careful with magic. I've always been --"
She jostled the gun. Her finger hit the trigger. It fired.
