Mystique Tricks

By Calvin Westbrook

"Is there nothing you can do to help me?"

Those were the first words that Alex Pierce heard the second his first client of the day stepped through the office door.

Alex took a long sip of barely brewed coffee and placed it carefully on his desk. He took a long breath that carried the vaguest trace of a half-completed sleep and brushed his long blond hair from his eyes.

"Mr Horton, you haven't even told me what your problem is, so how can I help you?"

Alex didn't care if he sounded callous, because he hadn't been scheduled to work this morning. He had been bribed on the proviso that if he didn't, someone else would be taking his shifts.

On the plus side, he could have the next three days off. Hopefully without his boss Sandra calling him in. Like her as Alex did, she always had a way of getting under his skin.

His client sat down carefully, and for the first time Alex noticed why he was so uncomfortable. He wasn't a man at all.

"Or should I call you Ms Horton?"

After receiving a glare from the scantily glad woman, Alex exhaled an apologetic breath.

"I'm sorry, that wasn't fair. I'm not in my best condition this morning"

Mr Horton's expression softened.

"It's ok. I guess I'm a little touchy about what happened to me"

Alex sat down on his half broken chair. As he did so, a puff of dust was pushed from the cushion. It lingered in the air for a second but as quickly as it had come, disappeared.

It was then that Alex realised that Mr Horton's voice hadn't changed. So he was a woman, with a man's voice.

"So, what exactly happened to you?"

His client blushed and fidgeted slightly. It was clear that he was still very unused to being female because he couldn't stop having a quick look at his new breasts.

Alex reasoned that whatever had occurred to the man, it had obviously left his mind masculine, but turned his body feminine.

Eventually, the gender switched client spoke.

"I found a genie in an old bottle I inherited from my grandmother"

Alex rolled his eyes. Of course he had. The number of times he had dealt with people who came in who had made a stupid wish and didn't like the result they got.

Contrary to popular myth, genies only granted one wish to their rescuer. But once they did what they to do, they were sucked back in whatever they came from. Which made it a lot easier for people to correct the mistake their friends had made.

If they wanted to waste their one and only wish from that particular genie on saving the person who had misspoken their desire.

"Do you have the bottle with you now?"

Mr Horton looked surprised, but pulled out a small antique perfume bottle from his pocket. Instead of a plain stopper, a pearl sealed the entrance to the delicate vessel.

"Do you mind?" Alex asked.

After realising what he meant, Mr Horton passed over the bottle.

Alex looked over the bottle carefully as if to find any warning labels. Certain prisons had particular conditions on how the genie inside was able to grant wishes or a condition that would happen upon setting them free.

But thankfully, there were none.

"Right, I need to talk to the genie so I can figure out how to fix this. Is that ok with you?"

His client nodded fervently. There was no argument from him. Or her. Depending on which tense you felt most comfortable using.

Using his left hand, Alex grabbed the pearl and pulled. With hardly any effort, it came loose from its resting place.

Before anyone could move, a small cloud of violet smoke gushed from the bottle and formed into a man. A very annoyed man.

For a brief moment, Alex wondered why the genie was so annoyed. But then he noticed the one thing that didn't quite fit. He was wearing a purple harem suit to match the smoke. And it had a bikini.

Alex looked from the former master and the wish granter a few times before he recovered from the slight surprise.

"What is you wish, master of my vessel?" the genie asked.

Silence followed his declaration of obedience. But in Alex's mind, it was jumping from thought pattern to thought pattern trying to piece together what had happened.

It was then that he realised. The genie had spoken in a female voice. And with that, he worked out exactly what had happened.

"So you made a wish, and it switched your genders, but not your voice or your minds?"

Mr Horton confirmed the question with a short sharp incline of the head.

Alex turned face to the genie.

"I'm sorry this happened to you miss"

The genie's aggressive temperament lessened.

"Thank you master, but it is not your fault"

"I know, you had to do what your master commanded. But don't worry; I know how to fix this"

"You can?" Mr Horton asked.

"I can" Alex confirmed.

Both of the affected individuals looked relieved. After placing the perfume bottle on the floor, Alex pulled out a small glass stick from his drawer.

The genie looked amazed.

"Is that a real glacier wand?" she asked.

Alex was slightly embarrassed by her words. His wand was his most prized possession and its rarity caused most to either be jealous or very impressed.

There were only eight glacier wands in the entire world. And they were only appeared to the ones who were destined to wield it. If anyone else tried to use it, the magic would backfire drastically.

He nodded to answer the genie's question and tapped the bottle with the wand. As he did, he chanted the spell required.

Desiratos Nullifcai Vitalus Repari

A bright flash of light surrounded the genie and Mr Horton. When it was gone less than a second later, they were both back to being their respective gender.

The genie took a deep breath and caressed her body, enjoying every curve, every crease and every patch of cellulite.

Whereas Mr Horton was very grateful he now had something he could please himself with later on. Much to his relief.

"Thank you so much master" the genie said, bowing gratefully as she did to add to her words.

"How can ever thank you for fixing this?" Mr Horton asked.

Alex didn't know what to say. It was his turn to blush slightly. But he brushed it off quickly.

"You really don't need to thank me; it's all part of my job"

He got to his feet and took another sip of half brewed coffee.

"It's a good thing you did Master, otherwise I would have been male all throughout my time off" the genie explained.

Alex looked surprised.

"You've almost reached your wish quota then?"

"Yes Master, and I'm very grateful to have reached it. It's taken five thousand years but I'll finally have two weeks in the mortal world just to chill out before I have to go back"

The genie crossed her arms.

"So, if you'll kindly make your wish, I'll be on my way to my holiday"

After putting his wand back on the desk, Alex realised she was right. He still had his wish to make.

Meanwhile, Mr Horton turned to face the genie. He dipped his head in shame.

"I'm sorry about that wish. You must think I was a total idiot for doing that"

The next thing that happened almost made Alex drop his coffee in surprise. The genie gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek.

"Trust me, you're not the first and you won't be the last. You're just lucky to have a wizard who could help you out"

"So you're not angry with me?"

The genie laughed.

"Heck no, my girlfriends are always saying I needed to get in touch with my masculine side, now I can say I have"

Alex looked at the two of them and smiled. There was something between them, and he wanted to give them the chance to explore it. If it turned out they weren't compatible, there was always the next person in line.

"Genie, I'm ready for my wish"

The genie looked at Mr Horton and her face dropped slightly. But she turned to face Alex as her position demanded.

Alex smiled.

"How about asking that Mr Horton could join you on your holiday, wherever you decide to go"

Both Mr Horton and the genie looked surprised. They had pretty much resigned themselves to the fact they would never see each other again.

"You would do that for me?" Mr Horton asked.

"For us?" The genie asked.

Alex looked at the two potential lovers and nodded his head in answer.

"Of course, you deserve it. But only if you want it"

Mr Horton looked at his potential lover. Her expression was hard to read, and it scared him slightly.

"Do you think we could make it work?" he asked her. The genie returned his gaze with her shining sapphire eyes.

"There's only way to find out" she said with a smile. She brushed her black hair out of her face. After she had, she gave him a kiss. This time on the lips.

When they broke apart, Mr Horton's smile grew wider than it had ever been.

"So Mr Horton, shall we go?" the genie asked.

"Please, call me Malcolm" he replied in a tone that would have made James Bond blush.

The two turned to face Alex who had been watching their antics whilst sipping his coffee.

"If you're sure, then we'd love you to use your wish for us" Mr Horton said.

Alex smiled.

"I'm sure"

He took the bottle from the desk and held it tightly.

"I wish that Mr Horton could be with the genie where she goes on her holiday, exactly the way he is now"

The genie sighed with relief. She had been worried he would be vague with his request. Not that she had doubted him for a second, but it was always better to be safe than sorry.

She clicked her fingers.

"Your wish is granted" she said.

The bottle flew out of Alex's hand and into the genie's hand. The stopper followed a second later and sealed itself back inside. Without a second thought, she placed it in her pantaloons.

"Just so no-one can try and trap me inside" she explained.

She took Mr Horton by the hand.

"Thank you Mr Pierce" Mr Horton said.

"My pleasure" Alex replied.

The genie clicked her fingers. A puff of smoke burst around the two lovers and when it had cleared, they were gone.

Alex finished the rest of his coffee and place d the mug on the edge of the table. Looking at the clock, he noticed it was only half past nine in the morning.

Before he could think about anything more however, Sandra's voice came through the intercom.

"Did Mr Horton just leave by magical means?" she asked.

"Yeah, is something wrong?" He asked.

"No, just make sure you clean out the residue before the next guy comes in"

"Will do"

And with that, Alex cleared up all the magical residue from the room, made himself a fresh coffee and got ready to meet his second client of the day.

Considering that he was still suffering from sleep deprivation, Alex thought everything was going well.

But that was until the next client walked into the room.

Alex picked up his wand off the desk. He studied it over to make sure there wasn't any negative feedback damage from the spell and carefully, he placed it back in his drawer.

Just as he did so however, the door of the office was blown off its hinges. Someone stepped through the frame of the door and stood just beyond it. It was a woman of moderate height wearing a pair of black pointed shoes, a purple lace trimmed top and earrings possibly made from real diamonds.

She also wore an expression of deepest anger.

Alex was immediately on the defensive. He yanked upon the drawer and before it could start of fall to the ground, he grabbed the wand from its carefully chosen resting place and pointed directly at the intruder.

The woman saw the wand, but she didn't flinch. She either knew of its significance and didn't care, or she was clueless. Alex tried to keep his voice calm, but it was made difficult by the fact he was angry at his unexpected violation of his personal space and his exhausted demeanour.

"Who the hell are you?" he shouted.

The woman blanched at his words. Her anger transformed into rage.

"My name is Jayne Horton, and you've just sent a genie on holiday with my husband!"

Alex's expression turned instantly from anger to slight confusion. Mr Horton hadn't told him that he was married, and now he had just helped a compulsive liar elope with another woman. His antagonism towards Jayne disappeared in seconds, to be shifted toward her manipulative creep of a husband.

He carefully lowered his wand and put it in his pocket. It vibrated slightly as he did so, indicating that he had been fuelled by even the slightest emotion, the wand would have discharged a powerful blast of energy back on its owner. Whilst Alex could deal with the energy, it didn't look good in front of people who were expecting an experienced wizard.

"Your husband lied to me?" he asked. He wanted to be sure he was on the right track.

Jayne tossed her bleached brown hair out of her sea blue eyes. She could see the innocence on my face but at the moment she couldn't quite bring herself to accept it was genuine. Almost as if there was something else she needed to know.

"So he didn't tell you about me, and what I did to him?" she asked.

"You did to him?"

Alex looked at Jayne with more interest. Apart from the temporal displacement of his natural gender and the fact he was committing adultery in the first degree, there didn't seem to have been anything wrong with the man.

"The wish that made him a woman. That was me"

It took a few seconds for Alex to realise what she meant. But when he did, he looked at his new client with a look of genuine surprise.

"That was you?"

Her lip curled slightly. But instead of getting more angry, her tightness lessened. As each second passed, more and more tension left her face. Until eventually, she was moderately calm. Well, as you could be after something like that had happened.

"Not on purpose"

Her voice broke slightly on the last word. Her anger was changing quickly into grief. In any other situation, Alex would have tried to pass her onto someone else. But he had caused her to lose her husband, even though it had been an innocent mistake on his part. And he had to take responsibility for it.

"What happened?" he asked eventually.

Jayne's eyes began to moisten with the beginnings of tears. She looked into Alex's emerald eyes and saw he was caring for her. But the way she looked, It was if she hadn't been shown affection for a long time. Her face fell to face the floor.

"We've been having troubles for a while. But when he found that bottle, I thought we could finally get what we needed"

Alex walked over to Jayne and took her hand. She resisted him at first, but when he didn't let go, she clasped at him as she never wanted to let go.

"I released the genie while my husband was at work. She seemed really nice and I spent the whole day talking to her about what I should wish for. But just as I had decided, he returned from work and discovered what I had done"

Jayne was on the breaking point. But she was desperate to continue her story so with every last piece of effort she could manage; she forced the words to come from her throat.

"He yelled at me that we didn't need magic to solve our problems and that I didn't care about he felt. And as the man of the house he deserved respect."

As she said the last sentence, she spat on the floor out of disgust. Alex reached into his pocket and with a flick of his wand; her spittle vanished into thin air. Jayne noticed what he had done and lowered her head in shame.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that"

Alex shook his head reassuringly.

"I've had people do much worse" he said.

Jayne raised her head to where it had been before and continued to speak her tale.

"I yelled back at him about he didn't know how I felt, and wished that he wasn't a man so he would know how I feel"

"And that's when the genie became male and your husband became a woman?"

Jayne nodded. She was grateful to Alex for telling some of her story because otherwise, she might not have made it.

"After an enormous puff of smoke, the wish came true. The genie was sucked back into the bottle. He started ranting and raving and eventually, he took the bottle and left. I assumed he must have called here because he had left the phone book on the page with your company's number on"

"The next morning, I rang your office and found out he had made an appointment to see you, So I planned to come in and surprise him and say I was sorry. But when I got outside the door, I could hear the whole conversation. He had cheated you into reversing my wish and using your wish into setting him up with a voluptuous slapper"

Alex was stunned. He knew that sometimes people could be heartless, but the way that Mr Horton had treated his wife, he was sure that many people would agree that her wish had been justified. And at that point, Jayne Moore began to cry.

She wasn't one of the people who became a blubbering wreck when their floodgates burst open, but her sobs would have been enough to drive someone with a heart of stone to comfort her. Jayne was a woman who had put up with a misogynistic lout of a lover for more years than she could care to remember, and now at last, she found herself able to let her feelings be known.

Looking at her for a second, Alex let go of her hand and embraced her carefully. After many minutes of rubbing her back and soothing her with gentle words, she finally found she no longer felt the need to cry her heart out. She pulled herself from the wizard's arms and blushed a shade brighter than a rose petal.

"I'm sorry, you shouldn't have had to listen to me blubbering on"

Alex shook his head firmly.

"It's me that should apologise Jayne. If it hadn't have been for me, your husband would never have let with that genie"

Jayne took Alex's hand.

"You are a kind man. Much kinder than any I have met. You weren't to know that you were being tricked by a scheming cheat"

The wizard smiled slightly at her words. People were rarely so quick to consider that finding the best in people was admirable rather than undesirable and naïve. But now, instead of pity for Mr Horton, he felt that he needed to put things right.

Alex gently helped Jayne to stand on her own feet. When he felt that she could stand, he held up his wand and tapped It gently with his other hand.

"Do you think your husband deserves a little revenge?" he asked. Any trace of innocence left Jayne's face. She looked ready to teach her husband a lesson for what he had done to her. And rightly so.

Alex walked over to the place where he had stored all the magical residue and poured it out in the middle of the floor. He then tapped his wand and flicked it at the substance on the floor. As he did so, he chanted a spell.

Reversa Reversi Revaxo Restori

The wand glowed brightly and soon after, the residue echoed the effect. A brilliant flash of shimmering light filled the room and when it had disappeared, the genie and Mr Horton had appeared. And they were caught in the worse possible position.

Jayne looked at the kissing pair and screamed. The noise echoed around the hollow walls of the office long after the sound has left her lips. The two individuals froze and snapped apart as if they were Lego pieces being pulled away from one another.

Mr Horton turned to look at his wife, and then turned back to Alex.

"What the fuck have you done?" he bellowed.

"Exposed you for the bastard you are" Alex replied. He had dealt with people like him before, and wasn't afraid to do it again. Besides, he had a wand. All Mr Horton had was a case of being a complete arsehole.

"All I wanted was to go and be with my new girlfriend in peace. But no, you had to spoil everything"

"I spoilt nothing you piece of shit. You did this to yourself!"

Mr Horton roared in fury and started to run toward me. Thankfully, Alex had the upper hand. With a flick of his wand, Mr Horton flew across the room and landed in a heap beneath a bookcase laded with several large almanacs and half a portrait of the Mona Lisa.

Someone had given it to Alex as a birthday present some years before. He had simply said that if you could give someone half a smile, you could fool anyone. And the sad thing was, he was right.

Alex turned to face the genie. She looked very relieved to be away from the man. Which the wizard found to be slightly odd.

"Do you really love that? The man has cheated on his wife. How can you love someone like that?" he asked, pointing at the half unconscious adulterer.

"I have to. It was his wish as soon as he released me from my prison. Before his wife found it"

Alex could understand her dilemma. A wish was a wish and she had to do it. Like it or not. It was at that point he had an idea. It had worked before in similar situations, but every bottle was different.

"Can you grant wishes even if you aren't trapped in the bottle as a slave?" he asked. The genie gazed at him for a moment. Then, with a vertical shake of her head, she had answered his question. Alex thanked her with a smile, which she returned.

The wizard knew that when he had undone the wish, his wife's wish was cancelled. This meant she could make another, and it would come true.

"Do you mind if I have your bottle for a minute?" he asked her.

Without a second thought, she handed him the receptacle from her pocket. Alex tapped it with his wand and chanted the same spell he had used to counteract the wish he had made.

Thankfully for the genie, she wasn't trapped back in the bottle. This was because although the wish had been granted, it wasn't nullified from her total number. And finally, with another tap and chant, Mr Horton's wish he had made was cancelled.

The genie shuddered and took a sigh of relief. Usually love wasn't possible through magic, but he had obviously been careful with his wish because the effect it had on her was nothing less than startling.

"Thank you so much. I can't believe he did that to me" she said, still shivering.

"It wasn't your fault. Don't worry about it" Alex replied.

Jayne walked over to the genie.

"I'm sorry you had to suffer on account of my husband"

"Don't worry about it, it's me that should be apologising to you"

The two women could have talked each other down further, but they didn't. They didn't need to because nothing more needed to be said. And now, we each had a wish.

"So what are we going to do about him?" I asked, pointing at Mr Horton.

"Well, for one thing, I'm getting a divorce!" Jayne said firmly.

"Good for you" Alex said.

The two gave each other a high five. The genie had been sat in thought for several minutes trying to think of a way to pay him back.

But suddenly, she had come up with a solution.

"I do have one idea" she said.

The other two looked at her. Expressions of both curiousity and intrigue filled their faces.

"What's your idea?" Alex asked.

"What he needs is a lesson about having to do something you don't like with no choice. Then maybe he'll think twice before messing with anyone again"

Alex knew it wasn't exactly ethical, but it would certainly teach him a thing or two. But before they could go any further, the bottle was snatched out of his grasp.

"Looks like I have the upper hand!" Mr Horton said with a triumphant grin.

The genie looked at him with hatred burning through her eyes.

"You may be able to make me love again, but Alex can just undo it again. And you can't stop that. If you try anything, we can stop you!"

Mr Horton laughed.

"Who says I can't? I've studied magic for a long time, and if I control the power, you won't be to stop me!"

Jayne stared at him.

"The genie is right Malcolm. Besides, you'll never be as powerful as she is"

Her husband smirked.

"That's what you think my dear!"

Mr Horton raised his spare hand and grabbed the stopper of the bottle. From the corner of his eye, Alex could see the genie looked horrified.

"Stop!" she yelled.

But before anyone could stop him, he un stoppered the bottle.

White smoke sprayed out of the bottle and surrounded Mr Horton. He started laughing harder than anyone present had ever seen.

Without warning, more smoke left the bottle and snaked around the genie, ensnaring her like a boa constrictor does to its prey.

Alex and Jayne spun around in horror to look at the helpless wish granter. Before they could do anything to help her, she started to scream. The screaming got louder and the smoke got stronger. Until with an almighty explosion, the genie exploded. Struck with horror, the two remaining innocents saw that the only thing that remained of her beautiful form was a pile of dust.

The smoke that surrounded her poured into Mr Horton. His laughing got louder and louder. But suddenly, he stopped. He looked in horror at his body, and found it was disappearing. They were becoming the very smoke that was surrounding him.

"No, it wasn't meant to be like this!" Mr Horton yelled. As quickly as his transformation had begun, it was over. He was nothing more than a cloud of magical smoke. The bottle, still floating in the air, stopped spraying smoke.

Then, it began to suck it all back. Slowly but surely, all the magical smoke was pulled into the bottle, including the vapour that was Mr Horton. The stopper flew through the air and with a pop, it sealed the bottle shut.

Before either of them could move, the bottle fell to the floor and the stopper came loose. The smoke swirled around for a few seconds, and then it formed into a solid figure.

The figure of Mr Horton. But he was no longer dressed in what he was before. He wore a red vest with golden thread patterns, a white pair of baggy pantaloons and two golden cuffs on his wrists.

Alex realised at that moment what had happened. Mr Horton had stolen the magic of the genie and she had been destroyed.

But the plan had backfired for him, because now, Mr Malcolm Horton, former husband to his wife Jayne, was now the genie of the bottle. So instead of getting a wish for himself, he would be forced to grant them for others.

The wizard felt slightly remorse for the fact they couldn't have saved the former genie. But he reminded himself of what the man had done to him, his wife, and his servant.

Alex walked carefully over to the bottle and picked it up. Instantly, Mr Horton looked at him and practically spat the words he was now forced to say.

"What is your wish, master of my vessel?"

Hope you liked it. Please rate / review if you can