Jenn pulled up to the home of her grandfather, who had passed away a week before. A lot of work had to be done to prepare for the funeral, and Jenn was tasked with cleaning out her grandfather's house. She walked up to the front door and bent over to get the key from under the mat. She flipped over the mat when she realized it wasn't there. She looked around the general area and still couldn't find the key. She started to wonder if perhaps someone else had been by already. She walked back to the front door and turned the nob, realizing it was unlocked.
Jenn stepped inside and looked around. The house seemed undisturbed, and all the lights were turned off. She walked through the kitchen and reached the stairs. She went up slowly, the stairs making creaking noises. Her ears perked up as she thought she heard footsteps. She wondered if it was the echo of her own steps, but they seemed out of tune with her movements. Jenn felt her heart beating faster now. The unlocked door. The sounds. It seemed more and more likely someone was in the house. As she reached the top step, it creaked the loudest of all. She froze in place and there was total silence now.
She felt afraid to move. At the top of the stairs were four doors. The back left went into a storage room. The other three were bedrooms. Jenn had the eerie feeling of being watched and someone was behind her. She turned her head and saw a man standing at the bottom of the stairs, glaring up at her. She started to scream when another man rushed out of one of the bedrooms and put a bag over her head. Her glasses fell to the ground and broke. The man at the bottom of the stairs rushed up and helped to subdue Jenn, tying her up with a thin line of white nylon rope. The bag muffled her screams as they took her into a bedroom and threw her down to the ground, arms and legs bound.
"What are we going to do?" the first guy asked, "I just wanted to steal some stuff because I heard the old guy had some really valuable antiques. I didn't sign up for kidnapping some lady."
"Well, she saw my face," the second guy said, "We can't just let her go. She could identify me."
"She wouldn't have saw you if you hid!" the first guy yelled, "Why were you standing at the bottom of the stairs?"
"Because I didn't know it was her going up the stairs!" the second guy yelled back, "I suppose I should have realized it. Your ass isn't as nice as hers."
"Real funny," the first guy said, "Seriously though. What are we going to do?"
"Let's gather up all the stuff and then we will figure it out," the second guy replied.
Jenn listened to their footsteps as they went down the stairs, sounding like they were lugging something heavy. Jenn rolled around and flung her head around until the bag came off. She looked around, trying to find something to cut the ropes with.
Jenn breathed heavily as she shook with fear. She wriggled her arms and legs, trying to get them loose. Footsteps started coming back up the stairs. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something shiny under the bed. The men didn't come into the room, instead lifting up and taking more heavy sacks downstairs from another room. Jenn wormed her way towards the object. She slowly worked her way under the bed and got it with her teeth. It appeared to be a gold amulet with a huge red ruby in the center. She cursed to herself, hoping it would have been a blade or something to cut the rope. She tried to go further under the bed. She thought maybe if she hid, they would assume she escaped. It was a longshot, but it seemed to also be her only shot. Her body rubbed against the amulet, and it started to grow bright crimson. She stared at the light and heard someone in the room.
A hand grabbed her bound legs and yanked her out from under the bed. She looked up, but it wasn't the two robbers. This man was taller and wearing a dark blue vest with no shirt underneath, revealing a chiseled chest and abs. He wore long white pants which contrasted with his caramel-colored skin.
Jenn stared in disbelief. "Who are you?" she asked.
"Marco," he said with a slight Middle Eastern accent, "Is there anything I can do for you?"
"Could you get me free?" she asked.
"Sure," he replied. His eyes glowed red like the amulet and the ropes seemed to spontaneously vanish off of her body.
Jenn's brain seemed to malfunction as she struggled to make sense of how he untied her. "How did you do that?" she asked.
"I'm a Djinn," he said, "You summoned me when you rubbed the amulet."
"You're screwing with me, right?" she asked.
"Ask for something else," he said.
Jenn heard the voices of the robbers coming upstairs. "I wish the robbers were in jail," she said.
