A voice sounded in Jon's head, "Jon you're a complete and utter dumbass". It sounded familiar, an old sounding voice with a bit of a sarcastic spark. "Wait..." He suddenly froze.
It was HIM.
"Grandpa!" Jon shot right up from his bed looking around to see just where he was.
"Don't bother boy I’m intangible to you, and the entire world, all thanks to your careless wish mind you." John touched his head. "No I am not in your head, I'm some sort of spirit only you can hear" He said, his ashen voice growing impatient "Now would you stop bumbling around and listen?!" Jon felt a bit taken aback, he never had seen his Grandfather this mad at him, still, he complied.
"Ok first stop touching the stone, I don't want you to bluster away the end of the world while I'm talking your ear out." He did as such locking it in one of his drawers with a lock. "Good." He felt like the voice did some sort of weird mental sigh. "I'm disappointed in you Jon." He said somberly.
Jon felt his heart skip a bit "I but-" He tried to find a justification "NO BUTS JON!" Jon shot back down into his bed almost as if an emotional gutpunch had ben delivered right to his soul "Oh so we're also linked emotionally." Jon heard that while his eyes were watering up the voice on his head started wavering a little.
"Jon" He heard the voice turn more gentle "Let me tell you one thing I learned when on my travels" Jon sat on his bed, legs crossed. "God does play dice with the universe." He paused and then continued. "But the thing about those die is that they're rather ordinary, maybe one day a mortal finds a quarter on the street, or maybe he falls in love, in the worse case the mortal dies." Jon felt himself a bit shaken by that last remark. "However, that rock, you could say, is a circular die, meaning, it contains an infinite number of things that could happen to a mortal, nay, to all humankind. Even with your erm, rather broad condition, your subset is still infinite in size." Jon started to realize what he was getting at "You start to realize then, allow me to ask this: is the end of humanity not an interesting concept." Jon started shivering "Oh no I could've..." Grandpa felt his distress. "I'm afraid so Jon, of course that is from the catastrophic subset, a partition that has the worst of the worst ways your wish could be interpreted."
"We could also consider the bizarre subset, the world as you know it changes and you have to live with it. Perhaps everyone becomes the opposite gender, or you all become animals, maybe even you turn our very sun into this changing force and you end up as some sort of slug woman hybrid." Jon, still terrified of the implication couldn't help but notice the mock spooky voice he was making and lighten up a little. "Jon I realize that my last wish to give you the stone was irresponsible of me" He sighed. "No one can be ready for the stone, to put this much weight on my grandchild was cruel of me."
"So what do we do with it?" Asked Jon. "Well something interesting has indeed happened. I get to see you one last time. Even if I am some sort of ghost only you can hear, I am standing right next to you, in fact." Jon looked to the side, Indeed feeling a presence beside him and waving his hand around it. "Oh that is uncanny I guess we can only interact by thought, you just phased right through me." Jon recoiled his hand. "I feel as if my spirit cannot rest until you've become a proper bearer of the stone." His voice grew back to his usual gentle tone "Guess you won't get rid of your old man just yet."
Jon smiled a bit at that, if he was this exact situation he would be ecstatic were the situation not this dire. However knowing that he could have doomed everyone he knew was keeping him grounded. “So are you going to be my mentor or something?”
“You could call it that, in fact perhaps that’s what the stone intended with this, I feel odd powers tied to me and I have a feeling I know what they are. Jon, have you made any rash wishes with the stone, aside from the one that got me here that you should undo.”
Jon, a bit embarrassed, explained the whole situation with Karyn. His grandfather gave a hearty laugh “That Karyn, just as fickle as always, well at least she seems to be concrete about her wishes. Let’s try this.”
“I will for Karyn’s wish to be canceled.”
John saw the image of his grandpa appear in shining manner where he said he sat, a bit of emotion welling on him at seeing his face once more, before he could say anything the light dimmed back and the spot beside him appeared barren once more.
“What did…” Jon was about to ask when his phone rang. “Oh sorry I should leave it in silence mode.” He ushered to his table and saw that it was a call from Karyn. “It is not just to keep a girl on hold, my boy, go ahead, pick it up.” Jon, a bit flustered at the way he said it and responded. “Karyn?”
“Jon you did it! I don’t know how you did it but damn if you did. I’m back to normal, no weird side effects at all. What did you wish for anyway?” John recoiled a bit, the enthusiasm while nice, made him lower the phone's volume at fear of going deaf. “It’s complicated, let’s meet at my house after school, I don’t think it’s good to have that thing on school.”
Karyn felt a bit bummed by having to wait more for this incredible power to be tested but then a vivid image of Sarah getting ahold of the rock made her shudder “You’re right Jon-boy, then we meet at your place then?”
“Yup. Well see you at school!”
“See ya, and don’t forget”
The phone beeped the call being finished and Jon put the phone back on the table.
“I guess if you showed it to anyone it would be her, you two remind me back when I medt your grandmother!” A smug aura was felt on the one spot of the bed.
“Grandpa!” John blushed furiously “Come on we’re not that intimate.” His grandpa arched an invisible eyebrow. “Yet you showed her a stone that could grant your deepest fantasies to her and made her bazongas grow?”
“It wasn’t me who made her bazong- Oh would you quit it?!” He felt a chuckle on the air as the spirit turned his tone a bit more serious “Still you both know of the stone, I would advise that both of you get comfortable with being more open to each other, it is important that you can trust her no matter, and viceversa…”
Jon pondered that for a moment, could the stone change their friendship forever, would karyn become suspicious of him, would they never be friends if he went too far with the stone, what if they…
“...kind of like I trust your beautiful grandmother.” The blush returned to Jon’s face as he harrumphed to bed “Argh that’s it old man I’m going to sleep! Hopefully that will at least keep your jokes down until tomorrow.”
“Of course” The spirit floated to Jon’s side, as it ruffled its hair, effectively phasing through every fiber. “Goodnight Jon.”
Jon smiled “ …‘night Grandpa…” and sleep took him.
