A Grief Beyond all

And now we begin the story of The Djinn. A creature bound for life in a pit void of light, destined to betray the truest of believers, and so he did, or so we think.

He led his existence having being referred to as ‘Pandora’s box,’ for legends portrayed him to be “a source of great and unexpected trouble.” But legends defy the very heart of truth and in them corruption and deception bloom.

It was on a lonely land in an ashy archipelago where he was called upon by the fear of a nature lover with a soul as beautiful as day. Exploiting his celestial ability to metamorphosise, he met the frightened adventurer in the form of a human. False hope radiating through every pore and crevice in his artificial body, but it was a light only she could see. In this state, The Djinn was able to pose as a member of her geological team and work with her to gather earth samples, thus giving him the opportunity to befriend and learn the name of the wonderer: Ahimsa; a name which perfectly suited the geologist for she had a kindness and warmth that had the ability to soothe the poisoned apples of fairy tale stories and even in the hole that loomed within The Djinn’s darkened heart.

He arrived on the shores with the dark intentions of consuming a life, Ahimsa’s to be precise, but the short time he had with her on the island left him utterly enchanted, and full of confusion. This emotion was reflected in the nature around them: the volcano suddenly began spewing molten rock and the storm rumbled, leaving everyone stood in silence, without an echo in sight. Amongst the confusion, he camouflaged within the team, accompanying them on their hazardous journey home, but one person he was unable to hide from, for a reason, at that time unknown to him, was Ahimsa.

The creature, who had only physically morphed into a human, soon began to feel the effects of his transformation. His humanity was taking over, slowly at first, but gradually increasing as his impure love for her began to grow, and thus, every day became a new struggle for the ancient being. Emotions of great strength and size flooded every dream to the brink of insanity. But it was his newfound feelings for his beloved that kept the hysteria from overpowering him, and in this distraction Ahimsa’s struggle became ignored.

Despite being as old as can be, The Djinn’s new form was one that he had never experienced, and so his attempt to run away from his true nature tragically failed, and not without a price. It was not the dimming light of Ahimsa’s soul that he loved, but the growing darkness in the beating cavity of her chest. And so, as his love for evil grew, so did the darkness of his human form, at the cost of Ahimsa’s purity. The only route left for The Djinn was to return to his hellish abode, however, a new solution presented itself in yet another unlikely form.

By this time the two beings had relocated from their land of loneliness to a more urbanised sociable part of the world. This allowed The Djinn to learn the ways of humankind, and their various interactions, for he no longer lived within the heart of a screaming volcano nor was the volcano able to ‘create turmoil no tsunami could ever conquer.’

As the months went by, the clash between good and evil became more apparent; he was unable to earn an honest income, for the dark in his soul was far too great for the common man to understand and in what humanity does not understand, fear thrives. With Ahimsa growing ever darker, and transitioning into a lifeless state, The Djinn struggled to keep afloat with the complications of being a person. Suffering wasn’t the only thing that followed him from the darkness of his home: he had a family. Not of the conventional sort, but a family nonetheless. The coven, like The Djinn before having met Ahimsa, were creatures that burned in the glimpse of love and cowered from happiness.

They all arrived in their natural form, without fear of prejudice and destruction from humankind. Jealousy oozed from all their cracks when they had witnessed even a glimpse of happiness emitting from their newly departed family member. This jealousy was just as new to them as it was for The Djinn (travelling to the world of humans always has its consequences). Despite The Djinn suffering, and only in slight happiness, it was a happiness that his family never would have imagined; this sparked an uncontrollable outrage in them all.

The wisest in the coven was Netra, a natural born leader, and so it was she who decided to delay the inevitable meeting. Both she and The Djinn were dark, for that was in their nature, despite this they were beings that thrived together. They both had for each other the Djinn equivalent of human love, but it was a love of family and companionship. Netra had been on many more missions, ones like The Djinn was currently on, but these never led her to travel to the mortal human worlds, and so she too struggled to adjust in a human form. However, each mission did bring challenges of their own: temptations and even love, but never human love, which was the strongest of them all. And Netra never strayed from her mission, unlike The Djinn. She had a loyalty that was true, one that would be tested.

Time was different in the mortal dimension, they spent years adjusting to human life for they all had adopted human bodies and were turning into suffering mortals just like The Djinn. This was a price they were all willing to pay to unite their family. When the time had finally come to meet their dearly departed it was almost too late. The Djinn was almost completely lost to the darkness, being in this state - in a human form - meant destruction and a total separation of soul and body was soon to follow - a lost soul grieving forever.

The family made their proposition, which The Djinn refused, over and over. In their sadness Netra offered to make the impossible possible by turning Ahimsa into a creature of magic, doomed to live out the rest of her immortal days in morbid darkness. But this offer infuriated The Djinn to such an extent the power of his true self rippled beneath his flesh and skin. His newly developed humanity and complex emotions prevented him from dooming her to such a fate. Knowing that all hope was lost, for he was the most powerful of them all, they departed back to the shadows. To them The Djinn was forever forgotten and forever feared. He remained a mystery of previous lives.