I was on my back, looking up to see a bright blue sky. I stood up to get my bearings and saw before me a green field that stretched on forever. It seemed really nice and blissful. A scream pierced the silence, coming from behind me. When I turned around I saw a town in ruins, debris everywhere, buildings in pieces, pavement cracked, and lampposts bent. No, this is what became of Emerald Fields? I thought to myself. Then I felt a tug on my leg. I looked down to and met eyes with a horrible, decayed face looking up staring at me.

“Wh-why did you force me to come back? I was at peace...” groaned the gruesome child. I kicked its arm off, sending it flying as I sprinted away towards the never-ending fields. I felt myself go faster and further but then suddenly I grew, my limbs became longer and longer, hair grew out of every nook and cranny of mine. Soon, I got tangled in my long limbs so tripped over, rolling down a hill and crashed into a tree at the base of a large pond. I stared at the face of some monstrous ape in my reflection. I touched my face as I looked at it, wondering if that was really me when suddenly two large webbed hands grabbed my head, pulling me into the water. It was a pale salamander- like creature yelling at me as I drowned, screaming “what have you done to me!” The screaming started becoming more and more incomprehensible, shrill, then very segmented, sounding like some steady beeps as my consciousness faded, seeing only black around me.

Slowly the beeps faded into the sound of a heart rate monitor. As my eyes slowly opened, I finally understood where I was; in the bed of the local hospital.

“Oh man, you’re finally awake. I tried waking you up but nothing worked” said Xiz, floating over me.

That was one heck of a dream that slowly became harder to remember although the fear I felt stayed with me. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. “How long was I out?”

“All night and all morning. Those really were some strong drugs.”

It took me some time but I soon remembered what happened yesterday. “Where’s Cornelius? Why’d Marcus kidnap him? Why’d he blow up the bar?”

Xiz hesitated a bit before he said what had happened. “Cornelius gave him an ear after he lost his. In that moment I could practically see dollar signs in his eyes” Xiz said while making the same happen to his own eyes then going back to normal. “This made him realize that he could get whatever organ he needed from him and sell it for a lot of money. He didn’t want any loose ends so that’s why he tried getting rid of everyone. He’s gonna keep Cornelius sedated for the rest of his life, just farming all of his organs and selling them on the black market. I hate to say it but half of the guys are dead and the rest are stuck here with major burns. Those who survived survived because of what you did with the fire hydrant. They’re still knocked out. More bad news; the guys who’ve been chasing you have finally caught up. We stayed here for too long.”

I stared at Xiz for a moment, mouth agape in shock. I recalled my nightmare that I just woke from, reminded of the horrible stuff that happened before with the wishes. Every time I’ve used this cursed thing something like this had to happen. For a moment nothing happened so I thought we were scott-free but it just blew up in my face all over again. This is all my fault…No, this isn’t my fault, it’s him.

“You” I muttered while staring daggers at the demonic entity in front of me.

“What?”

“This is all your fault! Can’t you grant any wish normally? Why do you keep pulling this crap?!” I yelled at Xiz, tossing my bedding off of me and getting up on my feet.

“I told you there would be consequences. This is what happens when you mess with someone's fate using the supernatural” said Xiz, standing his ground as I got into his face.

“No, you’re a liar! That’s what you devils do. Sprinkle in a little truth so we accept your lies! You must’ve convinced him to do this!”

“I’ve been telling you the truth this whole time, helping you out, getting you intel. How can you accuse me of this!” Xiz yelled back angrily, eyes glowing red hot while the hospital lights started flickering behind him.

I started getting angrier too. It felt like the room was shrinking around me. “You’re evil! You enjoy messing with people all the time! You did all of this for fun!”

“I’m the evil one?! You were greedy enough to take money from desperate people!” he retaliated, getting bigger, claws growing sharper. “You chose to use the paw on them knowing what would happen!”

“That’s it, we’re done!” I grabbed the paw out of my pocket and said “I wish you were free!”

Suddenly, I saw a chain from the paw to a collar on Xiz’s neck appear. I heard a click, it opened, then dropped to the ground, slowly turning into embers then smoke and finally dissipating. All 6 fingers on the paw then went limp.

“Wh-what?” The rage disappeared from Xiz’s eyes to be replaced with utter confusion as he shrunk to his normal size.

“I never want to see you again!” I yelled as I opened the window and tossed the paw as far as I could, disappearing into the sky.

“I-I’m free? I’m…” Xiz muttered as he slowly faded away, leaving me alone.

I stared out the window for a bit, thinking about what had just happened. I wanted to free him but I never expected it to be this way. I took a deep breath to cool off and then went back to the bed, turning on the television and cranking up its volume all the way. I heard someone rattling the door and then saw some cops enter the room.

“Huh, so that’s where all the noise came from. Good to see you awake” said the one who I assume was in charge. “I’m Officer O’leary. We’re investigating what happened yesterday at the bar and it seems that you were at the crime scene. What happened? Who caused the fire?”

I turned off the television and turned to O’Leary “We were celebrating after a work well done. The boss booked that place for us. I was talking with a friend when I noticed everyone falling asleep and then I started feeling sleepy too. Our drinks had to have been spiked. I chased Marcus, who was the only person that seemed perfectly fine, while he carried our boss Cornelius Summers. He set off a bomb within the bar while he drove off with our boss so I tried taking out the flames but soon succumbed to the drugs he put in my drink. And now we’re here.”

The officer beside O’Leary furiously took down notes. “I’m officer Minoguey. Now tell us, Rumey, what was this party for?”

I paused for a moment. I couldn’t just tell them what it was for, they wouldn’t believe me. Cornelius was already in enough trouble from someone knowing what he was now, I couldn’t tell more people about him. Also, there was something off about what Minoguey said to me. “We did some security work and he was just celebrating a job well done for him. Also, how did you know my name?”

Looked like I caught Minoguey off-guard. “Wa-well we got it from your ID in your wallet while you were out.” He said while crossing his arms and nodding his head.

“I don’t have my wallet on me. I didn’t need it for the party” I said while squinting my eyes at him and raising an eyebrow. With my heightened hearing I could hear some clicks coming from the hallway, like some people were loading some weapons.

“From your phone.”

“I’ve got an app that lets me know if someone was tampering with my phone and it didn’t notify me of that” I said as I tightened my grip on the bed railing, bracing myself for what was to come.

“I’m psychic.”

“You know, out of all of your bad lies, that was probably the one I’d believe at this point after the stuff all I've been through.”

“Well, it was worth a shot. Speaking of that, shoot him!” yelled Minoguey as the cops behind him whipped out their weapons and started firing. I hopped out of the bed while still holding the railing, using it as a shield behind me. I didn’t hear any gunshots, just the sound of bursts of air so they must’ve been firing tranqs. When the sound stopped and they started reloading I hopped up, ready to run. That’s when they whipped out the stun guns but before they fired I tossed my blanket, covering them, making them miss and shoot O’Leary and Minoguey. I ran to the window, popped it open, and then hopped out.

I swung down from window frame to window frame, finally reaching the ground and running as I heard darts hitting the ground where I stood just seconds ago. They had people waiting for me in front of the hospital too so I just ran straight into the woods behind the building. I could hear them chasing from behind so I hopped up, grabbing tree branches and then climbing to the top of the skinny tree. I had to get far asap, so I swung the top of the tree back and forth until I reached the tree behind me, grabbing it then climbing down while still holding the first tree until I risked it snapping. That’s when I let go of the second tree which sent the first one launching me up into the air.

I landed into an open meadow a few miles away. I got some scratches but for the most part I was fine, no broken bones. I ran through the meadow, getting more scratches from some weeds. I reached a cave on the side of some rocks and hid there, catching my breath for a bit but then heard some dogs barking. “Damn it” I cursed as I got up and continued my way deeper into the woods.