Mark looked at Kiara. "Help me fix this."
"Okay," she said. "Go to the office. I need a minute to get my strength back."
"Out there?" He looked into the coach's office. "Why can't we just lock ourselves in the bathroom until you get your strength back."
"Master, don't be a wimp."
"Quit calling me Master," he said, "and don't call me a wimp. Hey, I've got it. They break in, you get your strength back, and then I'll just call a Re-do. I could go back an hour, and I'd still have one Re-do left."
"Well, you get 3 Re-do's in a lifetime, but they have to be spaced out. Maximum one every 12 months. You used yours, what, two hours ago?"
"What the fuck? C'mon Kiara. You never told me that."
"Master, the clock is ticking, and I can't keep them outside much longer. I need time to regain my powers."
Mark looked at the two of them. They were naked. Kiara's forehead bruise was looking nasty, and her buttocks sported very clear red handprints. There was no towel, no way to cover up.
What bathroom doesn't have a towel?
Not seeming to have much alternative, he returned to the coach's office. The key was still jammed, and the metal door was, so far, holding up against the violent slams being administered by one of his college's strongest student athletes. Over the doorway, he noticed a motion-triggered security camera that was blinking red and pointed directly at him.
Perfect,
he thought to himself.
He looked down at his nakedness, at his dick that stretched languidly towards his knee. "Get smaller," he said in a whisper, but his dick's response was to start getting hard again. "No, no, no. Not now. Smaller, not bigger. Shit." He looked at the door, which appeared to be bursting at its seams. "Genie," he whispered loudly, "make it go back down."
Kiara didn't answer from the adjacent bathroom, and his dick continued to ignore his requests; it was now standing turgidly at attention, as if waiting eagerly for the crowd to burst through. The banging stopped.
Thank God
, he thought to himself.
Maybe I'm safe.
He could hear a loud whir outside, as if someone had located a drill or maybe a saw.
He shut his eyes.
How bad things are things going to get? The football players will beat me to a pulp, but maybe the cops will stop them, and cops aren't likely to beat a college student to death in front of witnesses. But they will arrest me for rape and assault, and then I'll be humiliated, and then be sent to prison where I'll be somebody's bitch. That's appealing. Maybe Kiara would be willing to testify. Of course she would. She's my damn genie. Can she actually create an identity that would fly in court? She could create the paperwork, but how could she be someone who has no friends or family or address? Won't that seem weird? Can she conjure up a whole social network? Does she do Instagram and facebook? Could she make strangers somehow remember her? Could she make all of those people forget? Would she risk being outed? Or would she care, since she could disappear and reappear as a Greta or a Swede or a Texan? But she wouldn't want anyone to even know someone like her existed. Maybe I could go to prison for a year and then get my Re-do. Assuming Kiara hasn't just disappeared, though I'd still have spent a year in prison. God,
he thought,
I'm fucked.
Moments later, Mark heard the door open. A security guard came in first, followed by two coaches and a few athletes. The coach spoke first, presumably because it was his office.
"Where's the girl?" he yelled. "Where's the girl? And how'd you get in my damn office?"
Mark stared at them, but strangely, no one seemed to be staring at him. They were looking for the girl. More people crowded at the doorway. A town policeman pushed her way through the throng, apparently ready to take control. Mark looked down. He was wearing clothes.
"What the hell?" An old man's voice burst from the bathroom, a loud, thin, cantankerous voice. Along with everyone else, Mark rushed over. An elderly man was sitting on the toilet. The guy who looked like Uncle Sid. "You want to see an old man pee?" They all backed away, but the old man kept talking. "One nice young man can help me find a place to pass a kidney stone in private, but the rest of you perverts needs to come in and check out my bloody piss? Leave me alone!"
Mark followed everybody out to the waiting area.
The coach looked at him. "Is that you, Mark? What happened to your hair?"
Mark didn't know what had happened to his hair.
The team manager said, "not him. The other guy had brown hair, a red shirt, and gym shorts."
Mark looked down at his white muscle shirt and blue jeans. In a mirror, he saw he had white-blond hair.
The posse scuttled out the door.
Minutes later, Mark held the old man's arm as they trudged slowly to the lobby of the gym complex. Mark could smell freedom. He could also smell the old man's unwashed clothes and old urine.
"Oh, Master, you're so strong." The whisper into his ear was toxically stale.
"Jesus. Stop."
"Master, I hope you don't mind, but I made some other changes."
"Like what?"
"Like the video tape now shows the coach forgetting to lock his own door, and the heroic efforts you made at finding me a bathroom. I'm assuming by the way, that you aren't actually supposed to have a key to the head coach's office."
"No. I just happened across it last semester. Anyway, quick thinking."
"Oh, Master, when you flatter me, I get so wet."
Mark sensed and then saw that the old man had freshly peed on himself. He felt the man lean more heavily on him.
"Jesus, stop doing all of this. You aren't going to get an Academy Award."
"Oh, Master, I just thought you might want some cuddle time with your Kiara."
"Your name isn't Kiara. I'm calling you Sid."
"Your Sid is just so grateful."
"I wish you to quit leaning on me. Please get stronger and less smelly. In fact, just change back to the other old guy."
"Are you sure, Master?"
"And quit calling me Master."
The coach approached.