Karen could not make sense of what she was looking at. The genie had clearly made some kind of mistake! How could this young woman possibly be her son? Just a few days ago he had been a ridiculous looking boy wearing hair extensions and a dress! This… this person, was unrecognizable next to the young man from the family photos on the wall.

 

“What is the meaning of this?!” Karen barked out, glaring at Jana. “Genie! This isn't my son! It can’t be!” 

 

“No, I’m not your son.” Ella said, standing up and turning to face her mother. “I have never been your son. I am, and always have been, your daughter. Get it right or shut the hell up!” Ella had only turned to look at her mother for a moment, before returning her attention to comforting Jana.

 

There! That was the tone and attitude that Karen remembered, even if the voice was different. Could this girl possibly be… “What the hell did that freak in the lamp do to you?” This had to be because of a wish twisted and gone horribly wrong. How else could her child have changed so dramatically?!

 

“She made me happy. Something that you wouldn’t understand anything about, mother!” Ella clung to Jana, glaring at Karen for insulting her girlfriend.

 

“Enough! You are my son and you will behave!” Karen growled out. She had had enough of this nonsense already and raised her hand at her daughter.

 

Ella panicked as she felt her body being forced to change shape. Her long hair shortened, her chest became flat and bulky. Ella’s clothes were changed to a suit to better match the picture of perfection Karen was trying to meet. Even her voice dropped an octave to what it had been before.

 

Ella briefly panicked as the dysphoria started rushing through her, but breathed a sigh of relief when she found that her shapeshifting abilities still worked. “You are going to regret doing that Karen.” She said, her voice already reverting to female, and her body regaining it’s true form. She quickly kissed Jana on the cheek before standing up, her body had started to shift to something much stranger than just a man or a woman.

 

“What the hell is going on here?” Karen asked, looking down at her hands. She had not meant to do this.

 

“Well if you don’t like how I look as a girl, I thought maybe you’d appreciate me as something else!” Ella laughed as scales replaced her skin, her hands turned to claws, and her face elongated. Ella was now smiling at her poor excuse for a parent, as an enormous velociraptor. Dinosaur Ella let out a loud roar, showing off her many new sharp teeth and making the older woman leap back in terror.

 

Quickly reaserting herself, Karen tried again, quickly turning the reptile into a large, broad shouldered figure with big muscles and strong hands. She even gave Ella a ridiculous amount of facial and body hair to make her point. 

 

Ella looked down at this new form with less shock or surprise than the first time and laughed, first deep throated, then quickly higher and more feminine as her own magic once more began correcting the changes. “Is this really how you wanted me to grow up Karen? Some 7 foot tall lumberjack? Is that really your idea of the perfect son?” The body hair was already gone, and her shape was changing yet again. 

 

Ella’s body didn’t change in size, but her hair grew out into a long tangled mess. Her muscles grew too, ripping the clothes at the sleeves. Ella flexed her arms as a powerful female barbarian straight off the cover of a Dungeons and Dragons module. “If you wanted your kid to be big, strong and hairy, you could have just asked mom! I can do it better than you anyway!”

 

“How the hell are you doing this!?” Karen screamed in frustration as she tried and failed again and again to make Ella take a male form, only to be rejected, countered or changed immediately.

 

“Did you really think you were the only person to wish for magic powers?” Ella asked. She wasn’t surprised that the idea hadn’t come to the brain of someone who had been concerned in nothing but her own opinions for more than a decade. “There is nothing you can do to me that I can’t fix, or improve on. So why don’t you give me and my girlfriend back the lamp, and let us go home before I find even more ways to embarrass you?”

 

Karen knelt down quickly and picked the lamp up from the floor. “Maybe our magic is matched, but I have something that you don’t, little man!” She spat out the last word, apparently thinking Ella would be insulted, but she brushed it off unphased. She had spent years withstanding Karen’s abusive words, to the point where they simply bored her now.

 

“I still have one more wish to use however I want!” Karen declared, holding the lamp up. “I could wish your magic away and finally change you in a way that would stick.” She looked over Ella’s shoulder and saw the very anxious look on Jana’s face, which made her smile. “Or maybe I could wish that your dear Jana and her lamp were sent off to the moon, for you to never see her again. But if you decide to be a good son and behave yourself just like I say, I might just keep her from flying off into space…” 

 

“You wouldn’t…” Ella said, unable to keep her voice completely calm at that last threat. 

 

“I can, and I will.” The wicked woman smiled, knowing this was a threat she would obey. Karen paused for a moment. Had she just thought of her child as a “she” for a moment? She shook her head. No, it must’ve just been some cheap magic trick…

 

Karen grinned evilly, suppressing her brief moment of doubt. She had finally found the leverage she had needed to put her “son” safely back in her pocket, and on the right path again.

 

Ella was dead silent for a moment too long, fighting back tears as she considered her options. Karen did not want to be kept waiting. “Genie!” Karen called out, hoping to scare her into action, “I wish-” 

 

She never got the chance to finish the sentence. Right at that moment, some kind of strange portal opened up from the wall where nothing had been before. “That’s enough, Karen!” They heard David before any of them saw him, emerging from the gateway and armed with a heavy staff. The portal closed behind him, leaving a bare wall.

 

“Wha-? David?!” Karen sounded more surprised by his sudden appearance than she had been by the velociraptor. “What in God's name are you doing here?!”

 

“What does it look like I'm doing, mom?” David scoffed, walking into the living room and placing himself and his staff between Karen and Ella. “I’m protecting my little sister from your bullshit.” He turned and gave Ella a brief smile; a small attempt at reassurance that was appreciated by his sister.

 

“But… But how are you here? Why are you here?” Karen’s train of thought was temporarily derailed, and her wish had been stalled, at least for now. 

 

“I just told you why I’m here!” said David. “As for how? Well, mother… You already know that one of your kids is a trans shapeshifter with a genie girlfriend. It shouldn’t be too hard to buy that your other kid is now a wizard!” He banged his staff on the floor, causing the lights in the room to dim and his voice to echo deeply; a small parlour trick he had picked up from the Lord of the Rings movies.

 

“You're a what? I… I don’t have time for this! Just sit down and be quiet like a good boy!” Karen said through an exasperated sigh, reaching out her hand towards her son. The fabric of his shirt shifted into a straight jacket and bound David’s arms behind his back.

 

David didn’t even seem surprised by the magic, only gasping out as the confines pulled him to the ground. “You have to be in control of everything, don’t you Karen?” He shrugged his shoulders and the jacket fell off his body, a long straight cut in the back having been made by a tiny bit of destruction magic; one of David’s specialties. 

 

“Why don’t you put your hands down, and we can talk this over like sensible people?” Even though David spoke calmly, there was the hint of a threat in his tone and eyes, warning his mother not to do it again. In her confusion over her son’s easy escape, Karen didn’t register his words, but the tone was very clear.

 

“Don’t you dare speak to me like that, young man! You will listen to your mother!” Karen snapped, picking up Amanda’s discarded dress and throwing it at him. The fabric shifted into a long roll of material that bound David’s arms to his sides, even tighter than before. Once in place, it solidified into a sleeve of heavy gold. 

 

Unphased, David only laughed at the improvised confines. “Or what?” He gave a growl and engaged some werewolf strength, easily bending the gold out of shape and sliding it over his head and off his body. Gold was heavy and flashy, but not as effective as steel.

 

“I… I’m sorry?” Karen muttered, looking at the ruined gold as it fell heavily between them with a loud crash.

 

Amanda, still trapped in her canine form, began yapping loudly, pleading to be released from her cage, or perhaps she was just angry seeing her new dress being destroyed in such a manner. Karen responded by smacking the side of the crate, causing it to tumble onto its side. Amanda whimpered in pain and shock, before curling up and trembling silently.

 

David and Ella both exchanged a nervous look. Both of them had figured out who the tiny black dog had once been. The fact that Karen showed no remorse in stripping the closest thing she had to a friend of her literal humanity, was a stark reminder to not take the situation lightly, no matter how great their own abilities were.

 

“You’re not the only one who’s gained some fancy abilities, Karen!” David declared, stepping forward. Some of his werewolf strength was still visible in his body. He stood taller than before and looked in better shape than the Grant family had ever seen the studious boy. “You need to take a good look at yourself! Do you really think you can win this?”

 

As David spoke, he moved closer and closer to his mother. His tone got angrier as he called her out on behalf of his little sister… but that wasn’t his main goal. All he had to do was distract Karen from the lamp long enough for Ella to grab it and this would be over.

 

“I am your mother! And you will do as I say!” Karen screamed, ignoring the question and trying to stand her ground, but couldn’t help her voice cracking. As she was forced back, she tripped and fell to the ground. At first she was frightened, gazing up at David… but then she saw Ella making her move on the lamp.

 

“NO!” Karen called out, rallying herself when she saw defeat so close. With a wave of her hands, the sections of floor where Ella and David stood turned to quicksand, and they both sank up to their knees. The ground quickly reverted back to regular carpet, leaving the siblings rooted to the spot.

 

Sighing with relief, Karen got up from the floor and rushed over to the discarded lamp, picking it up from the ground. 

 

“You two almost had me there.” She looked at the heavy glass lamp in her arms and used her magic to change the vessel’s size, until it was small enough to fit in her pocket. “There. The damned lamp isn’t here to distract you two naughty children anymore.” 

 

“Let them out!” Jana called, trying to run over and grab Ella to pull her out, however the siblings both began sinking deeper into the ground. The floor had reverted back to quick sand, only solidifying back into hard stiff wood and rough carpet once David and Ella had been submerged deep enough to restrain their arms and hands. Only once they were both immobile did Karen relax.

 

“I’ll let them out once they start behaving themselves.” Karen said without concern.

 

“You bitch! Get us out of here!” David screamed as they both struggled in vain.

 

“Watch your language young man!” Karen glared at her son, as a wicked smile came to her face. She grabbed a hard candy from a bowl on the table and turned it into a small, floral scented, pink sea shell. “If you are going to act like a child David, then I will treat you like a child!” She knelt down and forced his mouth open, grinding the soap against his teeth so the flavor would linger before forcing the whole bar into his mouth and forcing it closed. 

 

David’s eyes and throat burned from the taste, but he wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. He gave no reaction until she let go of his head and he spat out the bar and a mouthful of soap suds onto the floor. “That’s the best you can do?” He wheezed out with a few coughs, but was undeterred.

 

Karen shook her head sadly, “What happened to the good boy I used to know! I’m sure he’s still in there…” She smiled slowly as a better punishment came to her mind, “In fact, let’s bring him out…” She waved her hand at David, and he began to shrink in size.

 

“What the..?” He called out, voice already higher. “No! Stop!” Within a matter of seconds, David had been reduced to a scrawny scared-looking child of around 10 years old. While he still had his adult mind, his adult strength had left him. He was reminded of how powerless he had felt as an actual child in his mothers domineering household, and the fear that now gripped him weakened his magic even further.

 

“Much better.” Karen looked down at David, with a smile that didn’t reach her cold eyes. “You were always such a good boy as a child. You always listened to your mother. You can stay this way until you learn that lesson again.” She looked between her two children, “I’m assuming that you can’t transform on your own like… like your brother here?” That was odd. She had almost said “Ella” again. Was this the genie messing with her mind? 

 

David didn’t answer her, only glaring up at his mother. She had beaten and humiliated him in such a way that he couldn’t even bring himself to answer back.

 

“Well now, if neither of you are going to talk, then I guess I will go back to planning my last wish.” Karen slowly turned away from the trapped kids, returning her attention to Jana.

 

“David, are you ok?” Ella asked quickly under her breath once Karen had walked some distance away.

 

“Yeah… yeah I think I’m ok.” He said after taking a moment to think. Hearing his old prepubescent voice coming out of his mouth was a little disorientating. “I can’t see any effect on my memories. The change is just to my body, and that can be fixed. You ready for Plan B?”

 

“Plan B?” Ella asked. How many plans had David thought of? He couldn’t have had that much time to prepare.

 

“Be quiet, you brats!” Karen said with a glare, their conversation having interrupted her train of thought.

 

“Please mom, before you make the wish, I have one more thing to say.” David said, speaking softly and respectfully, but giving Ella a small wink.

 

“And what is that?” Karen sighed, expecting some immature insult from her delinquent son.

 

David smiled and yelled out at the top of his lungs “Wolfsbane!”

 

A split second later, another portal had opened up in the living room, expelling several new guests; three massive wolves, followed by an old man with a staff of his own. 

 

“Got your signal! Mind if we cut in, Prospero?” Karl said, smiling with chaotic glee. He had been watching the events playing out through the silver mirror the entire time. The old mage, along with his grandchildren, had been hoping to be called into action at some point.

 

“Lupa!” Jana called, recognizing the largest wolf as David’s girlfriend, and assuming the others were the twins. “The lamp is in her left pants pocket! Grab it and we all can get out of here!”

 

The she-wolf barked in response and dove at Karen who screamed and fled into the kitchen, as Lupa gave chase. Vilkas and Farkas followed their sister, snarling and howling all the way, thoroughly enjoying this new hunt.

 

With the main threat occupied, at least for now, Karl turned his attention to his fellow mage, who appeared to be much younger than he remembered. “Looks like she did quite the number on you, my boy.” He chuckled, extending his staff for the young child to grab onto. “Why, if you grew your hair out, you could almost pass for Logan!”

 

“Very funny.” David grumbled, squirming free of the floor with relative ease now that he was smaller than the hole made by his adult body and pulling himself up with Karl’s help. Once he was out, David grabbed his staff, which he had dropped a few feet away, and cast a quick spell, and his oversized clothes started shrinking to fit his reduced size.

 

Jana used a little of her own magic to help Ella out of her own situation, softening the floor enough to pull her girlfriend out. They embraced quickly, but Jana’s next words were to Karl. “Thank you, now get them out of here.”

 

“What?” Ella asked in surprise.

 

“Get Ella and David out of here.” Jana continued, ignoring Ella’s brief protest. “Karen’s already used two wishes. Getting her out makes one wish worthless. She might waste the last one getting her back here then.”

 

“We don’t know that!” said Ella. “She might take it out on you! What if she sends you somewhere where I’ll never find you? I’m not leaving you!” Ella gripped her love’s hand tightly. “We’re taking her out together, or not at all!”

 

“Don’t worry.” said David, having fixed his attire. “I’m pretty sure we can handle her.” He seemed to have recovered from the shock of being de-aged, and looked ready to fight.

 

At that moment, the kitchen door burst open as one of the wolves, which Ella recognized as Lupa, bounded through in a panic. Before anyone could determine what she was running from, Lupa let out a frightened whimper. Ella, Jana, David and Karl watched in horror as the poor she-wolf was shrunk down and forcibly transformed into a grey squirrel.

 

“There we go!” said Karen, as she emerged from the kitchen, clutching another two squirrels in her hands, presumably the twins. “Thought you could just set your hounds on me did you, David?”

 

“What have you done!?!” screamed both David and Karl. The two wizards, along with Jana, quickly formed a protective barrier to keep Karen away from Ella. It was becoming increasingly clear to them just how dangerous Karen had become.

 

Karen was smug for the briefest moment of victory before the attack resumed. Even in the form of a timid rodent, Lupa still showed an aggressive side as she turned to face Karen. She let out an angry chirping noise, and leapt at the woman holding her brothers hostage. 

 

Lupa managed to dodge Karen’s stomping feet as she climbed up her leg, biting and scratching all the way. Karen winced and swore as she rushed towards Amanda’s dog cage, quickly tossing squirrely forms of Farkas and Vilkas in with the transformed canine.

 

Amanda had been hiding her head in her paws through the entire fight, only looking up when the door had opened. Her hope for escape was short-lived however, as two aggressive rodents were tossed inside and the cage quickly locked again. Seeing the dog as their new target, the twins resumed their attack on the unlucky ball of fluff with many squeaks and squeals from the three of them. 

 

Ella barely had time to wonder if a bite from a werewolf in the form of a squirrel would still transform someone into a werewolf (or perhaps a weresquirrel), when Lupa jumped off of Karen to avoid her grabbing hands. The squirrel scurried across the floor towards David, who scooped her up safely. 

 

“Lupa!” David cried. “Are you okay?! Yes, don’t worry. It’s me David! Yeah, she changed me too!” The young wizard seemed to be able to understand Lupa’s chittering, as she hid in the boy’s shirt.

 

“Don’t you worry, my dear.” said Karl, addressing his granddaughter rather calmly, considering she had been transformed into a rodent. “We’ll have you and the boys back to normal in no time.”

 

At first, Ella wondered how the old man was able to seem so level-headed, given the situation. But then, Karl turned to look at her and Jana with a much more urgent expression, indicating that he was in fact taking this much more seriously. “Come on ladies, I need a decision on that portal!”

 

Karl’s eyes moved over to Karen, who had turned her attention back to the group once she had finished securing and taunting the occupants of the dog cage. Even from behind the barrier, Jana was still technically under Karen’s control. The situation was far from safe.

 

Jana and Ella looked at each other, grasping hands tighter in agreement. “No portal. We are going with Plan C.” Jana said with a calming breath, helped by a quick kiss from Ella.

 

“David, Karl...” Jana said as she prepared herself. “Can you keep Karen busy for a minute, so we have time to think of a Plan C?” She felt a little embarrassed to be caught without a strategy in a moment like this. 

 

“I’ll try.” Karl said, cracking his neck and brandishing his staff. ““Prospero,” he said, assuming control of the situation. “I need you to grab that dog cage, and take Lupa and the others somewhere safe. We can’t risk them getting hurt. I’ll take point on the offensive.” 

 

“Right!” David saluted. The wizards both dropped the force field in unison, David moving quickly, taking advantage of his smaller size to sneak about the room, while Karl brandished his staff at the approaching combatant, making sure he got her attention.

 

“Will you freaks just give up already!” Karen cried out exasperatedly as she made her way towards the girls, only to fall into a portal that Karl opened in the floor which spat her out of a wall in the kitchen. 

 

“Argh! What the hell?” Karen called from the next room, her voice just barely audible over what sounded like something expensive smashing to the floor.

 

“I can’t send her too far away while she has the lamp. We don’t want to lose it, but this should buy you a few minutes.” Karl said, focusing on opening another portal to send Karen tumbling to a new place around the house before she had regained her balance. “I won’t be able to keep this going for long, so try to think of something fast!” The old man wiped his brow as he took a few steps away from the lovers to focus on his magic.

 

Ella and Jana tried to ignore the chaos around them. Karen’s screams and swears coming from all over the house. The frantic barks of Amanda the dog, mixed with the angry chittering of the twin squirrels clambering over her in the carrier, even as David tried his best to carry it down to the basement, away from all the madness. It was a difficult job with the crate’s residents constantly moving, not helped by a well-meaning Lupa on the young wizard’s shoulder, trying to chitter reprimands at her siblings, tickling David with her tail every time she moved.

 

“Right. Do we have a plan?” Ella asked her girlfriend as they took cover from behind an upturned table.

 

Jana hesitated for a moment, trying to think over the sounds of Karen crashing into a china hutch. “I see two options. The easiest thing would be to trick her into wasting the last wish on something stupid, and my lamp would default back to you.”

 

Ella shook her head. “I think she’s too careful and paranoid for something like that. Anything she’d wish for would probably give her some unfair advantage retrieving the lamp too. What’s the other idea?”

 

“To borrow an old trick from my movies. It’d be very effective… Extreme, but effective.” Jana spoke softly, not sure if she was ready for this, but not seeing another way out. “Remember how Aladdin got out of this?”

 

“Aladdin?” Ella asked. Then she remembered what Jana had told them when they had first met. How Jana had played a part in helping several Hollywood movies get made. This included a handful of Disney movies. This included… 

 

“Oh my god…” Ella’s eyes went wide, as realisation hit her. “Angel, are you sure about this?”

 

“No… ,” Jana said with a steadying breath, “But it’s the best we’ve got. Karen will be out of the way, and we’ll be sure this problem won’t happen again… I put this off for too long now…”

 

Ella embraced her girlfriend, holding her tight. “Right…” Now that they had the beginnings of a plan, Ella’s mind was working to fill in the missing components, “If you are sure this is how we can win... I set her up, you knock her down! Ready?”

 

Before Jana could respond, their conversation was interrupted by a small explosion. Looking up from behind their improvised shelter, the girls saw Karl splayed on the ground and clutching one hand in the other. Having had enough of the games, Karen had transformed the old man’s staff into a lit firecracker. He had realized his danger with enough time to throw the little rocket away from his body, but not far enough. Jana and Ella could see Karl on the ground, clutching one badly burnt hand, his robe singed. Even the carpet around him was smoldering. If he had been holding the firework, he could have lost his entire hand! Karen was done fooling around.

 

“That’s enough of that!” Karen panted as she steadied herself. Her many trips and falls in and out of portals had left her with developing bruises all over her body, and a busted lip. She made her way over to the prone figure and glared down at him. “No more silly little tricks, old man.” She raised her foot over him, intending to crush his damaged hand even further. “I’ll teach you to stay out of my family business…” She growled, bringing her foot down hard onto… an empty floor?

 

“What the...?” Karen asked, checking under her shoe for any sign of where the old man might have gone. There had been no portal this time. It was definitely magic, but this was something else.

 

“YOU DARE HURT ONE OF MY WOLVES!?!” A voice rang out, loud enough to shake the house as a new challenger joined the fight. Not from a portal, or a flash of light, but a bolt of lightning that crashed through a window, shattering glass across the floor.

 

Rhea stood in the smoldering crater on the floor! Not the old crone Ella had met in the cave, nor the elegant goddess tending to the pack around the campfire, yet she was still recognizable as the same being. This Rhea was a fierce and vengeful witch, radiating power and anger that anyone would think to hurt a member of her pack! She stood a full head taller than Karen, her robes were flowing black, her eyes glowing red, and her hair, long and free, white as moonlight!

 

“Who the hell are you!?” Karen asked, galled by yet another strange visitor poking their nose where it didn’t belong. 

 

“I am the ageless horror in the dark forgotten northern forests. I am the witch that all monsters fear. I am the goddess of a long dead pantheon! Mother of kings and wolves and monsters!” Rhea was radiating pure anger and power. Thunder boomed and cracked outside as she prepared for a proper fight. The witch wasn’t answering Karen’s question, but she was being pretty terrifying.

 

“I am also the one you answer to when you decide to fuck with a member of my pack!” Rhea gestured with both hands and an energy crackled between her arms. “My pups have been through enough today! Let’s prepare the battlefield, so only those deserving will get hurt…” A energy seemed to fill the entire room, so thick it was almost tangible. 

 

Ella clung tightly to Jana as they looked around them. “Angel…” The question was clear, if not stated. 

 

“Don’t worry Angel. Just a protective spell.” Jana said, looking around her in surprise. In a matter of moments, a shimmering barrier lined the walls of the living room, completely blocking the door to the basement where David and the others were held up. All sounds from outside became muffled and faded, and a protective pocket even appeared around Ella and Jana, allowing them to be on the scene but secure. 

 

“What in God’s name...?” Karen asked as she looked around their changed surroundings. 

 

“Only one god here right now, you bitch.” Rhea called out as she pointed a crooked finger at Karen. There was a loud crack and the human woman shrieked as she received a taste of her own medicine, shrinking down until all that remained was a large, quivering, pink and white rat.

 

“You like controlling people smaller than you so much, don’t you?” said Rhea, as she towered over Karen. “Always trying to force them to become what you want them to be. Well, let’s see if you enjoy being on the other end, for a change!” Small walls shot up around the rodent, trapping her inside a miniature maze.

 

Karen the rat squeaked out in a panic, briefly running about in the labyrinth in her confusion. After a moment to calm herself however, she stopped mid run and focused her own magic on herself to return to human size and shape. Apparently, her powers also allowed her to reverse any transformation magic performed on her.  The rapid expansion flattened the maze, scattering debruit across the ground. 

 

Once Karen was back to her regular scary self, she scrambled to her feet, trying her hardest to regain the dignity and composure that Rhea had disrupted. All the same, she allowed herself a moment to kick and smash the remains of the maze before speaking, “Oh! Oh, so you think you’re real funny, don’t you?” She yelled, glaring at the witch. “I’m guessing you’re the one behind all of this?! How long have you been corrupting my damn kids!?!”

 

“Funny?” Rhea repeated, only half-listening to the woman’s rambles. With another wave of the witch’s hand, Karen’s form started to shift yet again. “Yeah, I think I’m goddamn hilarious! Wait ‘til you see my next trick!”

 

“What are you…?” Was all Karen was able to stay before her vocal chords turned to liquid, closely followed by the rest of her body. Her entire form was dissolving into a puddle on the floor! 

 

“Oh god…!” Ella had been watching the magic duel from the corner of the room, while huddled with Jana. As much as she hated Karen, it was still quite disturbing to see her being melted before her eyes. 

 

“It’s okay, Ella.” Jana said, holding her girlfriend tightly. “This is non-lethal magic… I think.”

 

Rhea glanced over towards the girls in the corner. “Don’t get your panties in a twist!” She yelled, having overheard Ella’s concern. “If I really wanted to hurt her, I would have…”

 

“RHEA, LOOK OUT!!” Ella and Jana both screamed in unison, as they pointed towards Karen.

 

Having been almost entirely reduced to a liquidy mess on the floor, Karen had seized the brief opportunity she had when Rhea had turned her attention elsewhere. As soon as the witch took her eyes off of her, Karen focused her power inward once more. Before she had even fully regained her form, she was ready with her own transformative powers on the offensive!

 

“Alright bitch, let’s play this game your way!” Karen screamed, focusing all of her magic on the white haired woman. The counter spell was instantaneous, and within a split-second, Rhea was frozen into a stone statue. 

 

Karen let out a bark of a laugh, feeling she had finally won. The universe even seemed to agree with her as, with the caster of the spell incapacitated, the protctive shield spell began fading from sight. Ella and Jana watched helplessly as the mystic barrier dissipated around them until they were back to the living room. 

 

“That’s the last of you freaks!” Karen cackled with the humor of the truly mad, yelling her comments to the air. All the strangeness and magic today was driving her to the brink. “Now I would like to make my last wish, if there are no further interruptions!” 

 

There was, of course, one more interruption in the form of a loud cracking sound from the stone statue, formally known as Rhea. Turning again to gaze in horror at her latest victim, Karen saw that Rhea’s hands were already breaking free of their marble confindes, as the stone gradually started turning back to flesh and blood. 

 

“But… but how!?” Karen screamed out in fear and disbelief. This hadn’t happened with any of her other victims. She had even made sure to turn this witch into something inanimate, in case she could shapeshift like Ella!

 

“Forgetting rule number one are we, mistress?” Jana called out with a cocky smile, “The magic I gave you can never kill! Rhea is still conscious under all that stone, and she’s still got the power to undo your spells!” The fingers on Rhea’s hands started to twitch, as the stony texture continued to recede. “That little trick just bought you a few seconds.”

 

“Just give up, Karen! Give us back the lamp.” Ella said, standing up and moving beside Rhea, whose hands were now almost entirely free and working on restoring the rest of her form to normal. 

 

“I WILL NOT!!” Karen bellowed so loudly that Ella’s ears started ringing. The madwoman held her hand out, putting all her focus into resealing her opponent in stone. Rhea’s arms froze as she became a full statue once more, only Karen kept her hand outstretched this time, making sure that she matched Rhea’s counterspell. The two were locked in a clear stalemate (which is not an ideal position to be in when one combatant is an immortal witch, and the other is not.)

 

“I don’t care how many of these freaks you bring in here to fight for you!” Karen’s screams were getting more manic as she was finally starting to consider there might not be a way to win this fight. Still, it didn’t mean she would stop fighting. “I am your mother, and you will do what I say!!”

 

“Or what?” Ella said, continuing on a point that David had started on earlier. 

 

“What?” Karen asked, still as confused by the question as the first time, her face flushed with the effort of fighting Rhea’s counterspell.

 

Ella gave a deep sigh, before proceeding to let it all out... “We need to do what you say, “or what,” Karen!? David and I don’t live with you anymore. We don’t work for you. We don’t need you for money. Neither of us want this menagerie of trauma and bad memories that you insist on calling a house! What reason do we have to do anything you tell us? What point is there in me, David, or anyone we might choose to live with, ever having anything to do with you again if this is how you are going to treat us!?!?” Ella’s voice grew louder and firmer as she threw in her mother’s face things she had wanted to say for years. 

 

“I AM YOUR MOTHER!!!” Karen screamed again at Ella, as if the young woman had never considered this fact before. “YOU WILL LISTEN TO ME!!! YOU WILL RESPECT ME!!” 

 

“Why?” Ella said it plainly. Her anger was cooling and hardening as she saw how little power her mother truly had. “What have you ever done in your life to deserve my respect?”

 

“You worthless brat!” Karen seethed in lew of an answer. The strain of the spell was too much for her to maintain and she fell to her knees. Too tired to use magic, she grabbed the altered family photo from off the wall and threw it at Ella’s head.

 

Rhea, already freeing herself, once more, from the ineffective stone confines, reacted before Ella even had the chance to flinch, flicking a finger and making the frame dissolve into sawdust and sand. The picture, now free of its confines, floated harmlessly through the air and into Ella’s waiting hand. She nodded to Rhea in thanks before looking at the picture. Rhea had even reverted it back to its original state. 

 

Smiling, Ella turned the photo so Karen could see it. “Look how easily everything you can do is undone. Rhea is more than a match for you on her own. Imagine what all of us could do together against your worthless attempts! My friends, my new family, are so much more than you ever could be. You have no real power here, and you never will. Not over me. Or Jana. Or David. Or Dad. Or even Amanda ever again!” 

 

“No… no that’s not true. That can’t be true!” Karen’s perfect life was dying before her eyes! She couldn’t let it happen!  Her hand went to her pocket to be sure she still had the lamp. “It won’t be true…” She said, pulling the small lamp out into the open again, her eyes shining with the advent of a very dangerous idea. “Genie! I know my third wish!”

 

Rhea, now almost free of the stone, looked ready to blast the lamp out of Karen’s hands, but Ella made a subtle motion for her to hold off. Jana stood up and spoke directly to Karen. “I’m warning you, think very, very carefully if this is what you want, mistress.” 

 

“Of course I’m sure it’s what I want you stupid girl!” Karen spat at her, annoyed she was still being questioned and second guessed so close to her final glory! “What I want is power! More power than this witch! I want you to make me as powerful as you can!” She smiled wide in victory as she said what felt like the perfect demand. “I want to be invincible! Undefeatable! A true goddess among these lowly worms! I wish to become the most powerful magical being in the world!” 

 

The words had been said. Jana took one last deep breath and held up her hand. Speaking in a whisper, Jana simply said, “I’m sorry for this, Mrs. Grant…” She snapped her fingers in a crack so loud it shattered glass, making the surrounding spectators stagger. 

 

“Your wish is my command…” Jana whispered. The very universe shook, and Jana fell into Ella’s waiting arms in exhaustion from this final wish. 

 

Karen felt the magic immediately. Her wounds healed. Her skin cleared. She felt ten years younger and twenty years more energetic! “Yes…” She hissed softly as she basked in the feeling of her new power. She began laughing as she floated off the ground, effortlessly without a thought. “I can feel it… The knowledge of centuries! The power of countless ages! I am limitless! I am invincible! I am-!” She was interrupted by a loud thump on the ground below her. 

 

It was the lamp, fallen from her pocket, returned to its original size… and changing. No longer a collection of brightly colored, smokey glass, but a plain black metal lamp topped with a simple red shade. Cold, modern, fashionable. Very much... Karen’s style. 

 

“Oh... no…” She said in a hushed voice as the full implications of her wish finally hit her. She looked down at Jana, eyes wide with fear. “What’s happening to me?!” she asked in a quiver, though she already knew the answer.

 

Jana could only meet Karen’s gaze with pity. “I did try to warn you.” She said, standing up again now she had had a moment to recover. She had not felt this exhausted in centuries. Hell, she had barely felt tired at all in decades! Everything ached and her body felt slow and sluggish. She had forgotten what being human was really like, but there was no going back now. 

 

“You wanted to be the most powerful magical being in the world?” Jana said, gazing up at the new genie. “Well, now you are! Along with all the delightful pros and cons that come with the position.”

 

“No! No! I take it back!!” Karen began to yell in a panic as she felt the magic of the lamp beginning to draw her in.  “I don’t want this! Undo the wish! I order you to undo the wish!” 

 

Jana smirked and attempted to snap her fingers, only getting a faint click and no spark of magic, “Sorry, Karen. A wish that big took all of my power and gave it to you. I’m all out.” 

 

Karen stared in horror at Jana’s now useless hand then looked to her own. She tried snapping first the right, then the left hand with no effect. “Why isn’t this working!?!” She whimpered in a panic.

 

“Silly genie…” Jana said, with a small dry laugh. “You need a master before you can start granting wishes. That won’t happen until someone rubs the lamp.” She looked down at her former prison on the floor. “And speaking of which…”

 

A wind was beginning to kick up around Karen’s feet. She tried to fly away, only for the pull to grow stronger. Karen’s legs began to dissolve into smoke as they were pulled closer to the lamp. “Noooo!! Please, nooo!” She gripped desperately onto the wall and looked around the room pleadingly, eventually meeting eyes with her daughter. “Ella! Ella!! Help me, please! You can’t let this happen! We’re family! You can’t do something like this to your own family! HELP ME!!”

 

It was the first time Ella had ever heard Karen use her real name, and for the briefest fraction of a second, she actually hesitated. But she was overall unmoved. “Sorry, Karen. Maybe some time to yourself in the lamp will be good for you.” She spoke flatly and plainly, feeling no particular sympathy after everything she had been through. “Take some time to think over all that new knowledge of yours. Learn for yourself just what a family can and can’t do to each other.”

 

With begging having proved ineffective, Karen returned to her usual anger. “THIS ISN’T OVER!! You can’t keep me in this thing forever! I will get out! That is a promise! AND WHEN I DO…!!” 

 

But Ella and Jana didn’t get to hear her final empty threat. With one final pull of magic and a scream from the new genie, Karen was pulled away from the wall and towards the lamp. Her scream faded as she fully dissolved into a smoky cloud, which was then swallowed up by the magic vessel. The light around the lamp flared, crackled, and finally went out. 

 

Jana smiled, without humor, down at what had been her home for so many centuries. The plan had worked, just like the movie she had been forced to help write several masters ago. Just like she had been tricked long long ago by that sly old shark.

 

She was reminded of a final line from the film as she picked the lamp up off of the floor. “Phenomenal cosmic powers... Itty bitty living space...”