Sincerely Yours, Bill Cipher

Over And Over Again

     "Dad!" Rhett shrieks, obviously frightened.
     "I would," Pacifica nods earnestly. "I would."
Their father leans his arm on the table, then waves his hand. "What's your request? We'll see if there's a fair way to grant it."
"My friends and I are under something like a curse. If it doesn't end on its own, we're all going to die. Two of my closest friends will die tonight if I can't wish them well again," Pacifica explains desperately. "Won't you please help?"
"You said you were willing to die, weren't you? A soul seems more than fair to pay the price to save many, don't you think?"
"NO!" Yule screams.
My heart drops, even though I can't technically feel anything as an apparition.
Pacifica's face blanches. "A soul, like, mine? What could you possibly get out of taking my life for this?"
"Daddy," Freya cries, tugging at her father's pant leg. Her eyes are filling with tears. Being so young, she can't tell what's going on, but it's scaring her to pieces.
Her father lifts her into his lap and holds her tightly. "This way shows me the wish is not for greed. One life for many seems like more than a fair price to pay, doesn't it, Penny?"
"Y-Yes, sir," she stutters back.
"Dad, you can't!" Koa shouts in horror. "Just let me give her what she wants!"
     "Koa," his father glares back at him. "Have you ever even granted a wish before? It's not as easy as you think. You're not a vessel Jinni. Would you even know how to give her one?"
     "N-No," he mumbles softly, his face blanching. He looks to his father. "Can't you teach me?"
     His dad shakes his head. "Granting wishes can take years to master."
     "Then how did you learn, Dad?" Rhett asks, his voice squeaky with uncertainty.
     "It comes with getting older, that's all," his father tells him. "Koa and Yvette simply haven't reached the age of which they'll be capable of wish granting yet."
     "Then make her price smaller!" Koa shouts back.
     "Koa," his father warns him. "There are things you don't yet understand. You will someday, but you need to learn to trust my decisions. You don't know what's best for her. And I may not either, but I know what's best for you. You will be a danger to yourself and her if you try anything now. So trust me." He nods at his eldest daughter, edging his youngest off his lap. "Yvette, get your siblings upstairs. Your mother and I will take care of things down here."
     "Yes, Dad," Yvette responds obediently. She grabs hold of Koa, who's still frantically protesting. He can't get out of her grip, though. Their younger siblings follow, casting worried glances over their shoulders.
      When they're fully out of earshot, that's when my pulse decides to end. I fall to the floor with a grunt, and miraculously, my body meets my soul here instead of the other way around. Koa's mother leaps back in fright. His father shouts out, jumping up with a start.
     "I-I can explain!" I exclaim as I quickly pick myself up off the ground. The Jinn's eyes flash with anger. "I'm under the curse my friend here is talking about. I was... invisible, you could say, for an hour or so there. I was only here to make sure she was safe. Please, can't you understand?"
     Koa's mom takes a cautioned step forward. She touches her forehead to mine. It's an oddly intimate gesture. She must be reading my emotions. "I think he's telling the truth," she tells her husband.
     "Please!" I tell them. "Take my life for your offer instead. I can't have her dying on my account."
     "No!" Pacifica and Yule cry out in unison. As I look back at Pacifica, I see expressions of fear and shock crossing her face. I don't think she could tell I was here with Yule.
    Koa's dad's eyes spark with interest and surprise. "You would do that for your friends? You'd also give your own life?"
     "Over and over again," I say, completely sure.
One of my friends sobs behind me. I can't tell which. Everything is blurring around me, and yet, nothing has ever seemed so clear.
"You're a good man, you know that?" Koa's dad tells me, standing up and ruffling my hair. He's calmed down tremendously. He actually looks kind of happy and content. "I'll grant your wish," he says, and then finishes with the last thing I expect him to: "then you and the girl can go."     
     "Wait, what?" Pacifica and I ask together. What's he talking about? What's with this sudden change of demeanor?
     "Your intention of self-sacrifice is enough to pay for the wish," the Jinni explains. "We were never going to kill you. The children don't know that, but that's because we needed their real reactions. We needed to know that you really weren't doing this selfishly."
     "R-Really?" Pacifica asks nervously, looking between the couple. "I thought you hated humans. That was evident when you walked in."
     "Oh, we do," the Jinni woman confirms, shaking her hands in front of her so we don't get the wrong idea. "But we aren't evil people. We would have made sure you never came back, but not through murder, no! But we saw how upset Koa was getting, and we didn't want him hurt any further."
     "How were both of you on the same page, then?" I ask, dumbfounded, my mind still reeling from their reveal.
     "You saw how we could read emotions by head touching, right?" Koa's dad asks us. "Marriage between our kind deepens that ability further. It's like we have emotional telepathy of sorts."
     "That's pretty cool," Pacifica admits in a whisper.
     "So... We're not going to die here? Like, really?" I make sure.
     The parents laugh. This seems to be the wrong situation to be laughing in, but whatever. They kind of remind me of Robbie's parents in that way.
"No," Koa's father assures us. He steps up to Pacifica, looping her hands through his. "Word your wish carefully," he tells her.
    Could this really be it? Are we really going home successful?
     Pacifica looks at me worriedly.
     I smile back reassuringly.
     Yule gives her a thumbs up.
     She nods, seeming calmer.
     And we wait for our lives to be altered.