"So apparently, he wished for something 'interesting." She left a pregnant pause.
The phone was silent long enough that she wondered if the call had been dropped. "I don't get it," Zoe finally said.
Karyn nodded, even though there was no one to see it. Joseph wouldn't be home for another hour, so she worked her way over to a couch and sat down, not lowering her voice as she'd had to so many times before. He'd been one of Jon's friends for years, but she couldn't bring herself to tell him about what had happened -- not that he'd believe her anyway.
"In my limited experience with the stone, it always needed a direct command. 'I wish that branch was a bright blue,' for example." Zoe made an affirmative noise; she'd always thought that branch blue as a freak of nature, just as the rest of Lake Point had, until Karyn showed her that more branches could become blue. "But this ... this was just vague. And apparently, the stone doesn't handle 'vague' well."
"So it turned him into a woman?" By this point, having made a handful of wishes herself, Zoe knew the stone's power, so she wasn't incredulous, just wary. This seemed a bit too easy.
It was. "Not exactly," Karyn replied. "I'm not sure how exactly, but the stone didn't so much turn him into a woman as set in motion a chain of events that turned him into a woman, a Kimberly Clinton, and then somehow eliminated her memory of ever being Jon."
"But we've found him, right?" Zoe was clearly intent on getting to the end of the conversation. "I mean, we can word the wish to turn him back into Jon, and restore his memories."
"Thought of that, but I wanted to check first. For some reason, the stone had no effect. I tried wishing she'd remember she's actually Jon, and nothing happened."
"Well, maybe she isn't Jon?"
"No. The stone should make even someone who was never Jon think she's Jon if I wish it." She knew that all too well, but wouldn't -- couldn't -- go into how she knew. She checked the door again. "It simply had no effect."
"How does that even make sense?"
"I've been testing the stone since we found it all those years ago. Its power seems less -- effects that would have been instantaneous before now take a moment to occur, some things change partway, and so on. Something about Jon's wish changed the stone, too."
Zoe wanted her brother back. Over seven years was too long. This conversation was too long. "So what do we do now?"
Karyn had anticipated this. "If the mountain will not come to Mohammed, Mohammed will go to the mountain," she responded, swinging the stone in its cage.
Kill.
He knew he had to kill. He'd been so close to death before, but everyone he loved had been dead, destroyed, and he had to stop that from happening all over again. Mustering his will, he formed a knife out of magical energy, bound it to his hand. Kill.
He was silent and invisible, wrapped in a sheath of power that would have crackled could anyone see it. His target was undressed down to his underwear. "Hmmm, I'm bored. I wish something interesting would--"
And the knife was suddenly in the base of the young man's skull. A moment of sweet release, joy, it was worth it oh God it was worth
FIRE
