September 16 2008.
By the time Kayla roused the next morning, the sun was already high in the sky. It shone pink through her eyelids as she lay quietly thinking about the previous night, not wanting to leave her memories. Khree proved himself to be enthusiastic and talented in bed. Kayla came so many times that she lost count before she fell into a sex coma. She rolled over and opened her eyes. Khree was already awake and looking at her seriously.
'Do you trust me?' he asked.
'Based on some of the stuff I let you do to me last night,' Kayla grinned like an idiot 'I would have to say yes,'
'Then look at those flowers,' Khree gestured at a bunch of dead roses on Kayla's dressing table.
Suddenly the roses were beautiful, fresh buds again.
Kayla was stunned.
'Furthermore,' Khree turned a large silver ring on his finger round and touched it against Kayla's arm. She came like lightning, gasped and flopped backward.
'How the hell did you do that?' she choked trying to recover from such sudden ecstasy.
'It's an enchanted ring. I made it for Casanova. That man was all about quantity not quality ...' Khree looked dreamy for a moment.
'What the hell are you?' Kayla had recovered from the orgasm but was now staggering under the shock of what she had just seen and experienced.
'There's not a word in your language, but I think 'djinn' would be close,'
Kayla shrunk as far away from Khree on the bed as she thought she could without falling off, but gravity started to catch and she was about to tumble off the bed when Khree grabbed her.
'Look, I mean you no harm. I'm lonely, you're lonely; I just want to help you,'
Kayla listened, not as stunned by Khree's revelations than she felt she should be. Things had felt so unreal since Darryl left her. This was probably a hallucination ... or not?
'I can give you anything you ever wanted,'
Kayla immediately pictured herself pregnant, holding a baby.
'All you have to do is let me stay with you two more nights, and eat three special meals that I cook. It will ease my isolation and then you can have your heart's desire.'
What would it hurt to go along? There was nothing in the world left for Kayla to lose regardless of the outcome of this adventure.
'Fine, just don't turn me into a toad or something,' she visibly relaxed.
'Then slaggadh ne keranghe, the deal is done,' Khree smiled 'now let me kiss you again,'
Kayla complied.
'You know there are lots of other things I can do; the things we can do together are infinite ...' Khree shimmered and in bed beside her he became twins and then one changed before her eyes into Rad Smith, Kayla's favourite movie star. Rad began working above her waist, Khree below tonguing her and gently probing with his fingers. Rad kissed her and massaged her breasts, rolling her nipples between his fingers. Then Khree slipped himself inside her arse and Rad, her pussy, both pumped away till she felt the metal against her leg again and she came so hard that she saw blinding phosphenes for ten minutes.
The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring every fantasy Kayla had ever had. Khree became a football team, her high school best friend, a supermodel she had secretly desired. Khree had spirited her away to have sex in a prison and in a tropical sea.
By late afternoon, she was exhausted and sore. As the light started to fade, Khree said it was time for the first of the three special meals.
A storm was coming and the clouds were a disturbing green colour. Kayla sat on the veranda whilst Khree cooked. Latin American music was coming from across the road. She found it soothing. The evening air was filled with the twin perfumes of jasmine and orange blossoms from her front garden. All lulled her till she was daydreaming. Then the hail hit. The sound of ice on corrugated iron snapped Kayla out of her trance. Spell broken, she went back inside.
Dinner was on the table. Had she been outside that long? It was vegetable stew and absolutely delicious. It was full of things Kayla did not recognise and strange spices. When she asked about them, Khree said he had gone a great distance to get them.
September 15 2008 (the night before).
Kayla sat at a table in the pub, poking at her lemonade with her straw. Slowly it dawned on her that she was completely hollow inside. No love, no hate. Her personality was gone and all that was left was her depression. No wonder no one wanted to be around her.
Then her ex-husband of three weeks, Darryl, sat down at a table three across from her with his noticeably pregnant girlfriend Sharon. After a minute or so, Darryl left Sharon and went to the bar. He flirted with the barmaid outrageously, who seemed very flattered by his attention.
Darryl was a handsome man with a great deal of personal magnetism; that's why Kayla had fallen for him. He was also a charming bastard but the bastard part informed pretty much all his actions. It occurred to her that all that charm had encouraged her to inaction when she discovered his true self. Furthermore, Kayla realised inaction seemed to have become her default life position. She watched Darryl give the barmaid his number behind Sharon's back, and then return to the table with drinks, acting like nothing happened. She decided at that moment she was going to be more proactive.
The sight of Sharon's belly was hard for Kayla to take though, given her own recently discovered infertility. Thankfully the couple didn't seem to notice Kayla. She stared at the dove of peace tattoo on Sharon's upper arm, absentmindedly played with her long plait and thought about starting a war.
She was downing her last drink when a voice startled her.
'She's not worth it.'
Horrified, Kayla looked up to see a strangely familiar looking man. It took her a second to realise that with his dark hair, green eyes and pale freckled skin, the reason he seemed familiar was because he resembled a male version of Kayla, herself. She was a little taken aback.
'You don't know what I was thinking.' she stammered.