The CD That Had a Genie

Mitchel wanders the town of Desiderium casually. He’s on his phone, not paying attention to anything. The sky is fading into midday. Mitchel bumps into a poll, dizzy after knocking his forehead directly into the metal. “Ugh…” he groans. He rubs the spot he hit, looking up. The sun glares and he uses his hand as a shade. He peers up to see what he bumped into. 

“Bixxy - Used Items for Sale” Mitchel reads the sign. “Oh. I could go for some thrifting” he nods. He enters the store. There’s a bell that dings, alerting the cashier. “Hey, welcome to Bixxy. What’s up?” 

“Heya, got anything new for sale? I got $17 bucks to my name and I wanna spend it here” Mitchel declares. He places the money on the counter in a messy fashion. 

“I have a CD that’s like, $5 I think.” The cashier turns around to grab a box. “Been trying to get rid of it for ages.” She goes through other CD’s before finding what she’s looking for. 

She slides a CD from the box onto the counter. It’s a clear disk with star stickers scattered around it. Light opaque stars that shine in the light when she spins it. There’s a signature Mitchel can’t fully make out.

“How about it?” The cashier asks. 

“I’ll take it” Mitchel grabs the disk and starts looking over it. 

The cashier takes $5 from the stack and slides the remaining $12 back to Mitchel.

“Don’t spend all that in one place now.” The cashier winks.

“Will do, haha” Mitchel is more focused on the CD. There’s a few blurred songs on the back, but they’re faded and old. Like the ink was smudged away from time. 

Mitchel saunters home with a sunny disposition. He’s swinging his arms happily and humming a tune. 

He enters his house and runs to his CD player as quickly as he can. He stumbles running up a set of stairs to his room. 

He plays the disk, a synth song starting before it skip—skip—skips lines. “Huh?” Mitchel presses play a few times. “Return–return–REtURn–RE–RE–RE–” he opens the disk player. 

Whoosh!

Air swirls through the room. The commotion shatters a lava lamp and sends pillows and other random household items around the room.

Then, a snap. The wind stops and all the items are magically placed back where they were. They’re left unharmed.

“Well well, you’ve played my disk.” There’s an individual floating in front of Mitchel. Her eyebrows are furrowed. What’s your wish?” This blue haired diva ask, Mitchel staring at her in awe. She has her hand on her side. She's not looking towards Mitchel. She’s looking at her nails. She chews on bubble gum. Then pops a bubble. 

“Uh. A wish? Sheesh. I guess… Hm” He thinks for a second. “$100,000 Dollars.” Mitchel scoffs. There’s not much pondering. 

The blue hair diva laughs. “You didn’t even ask my name.” “Oh I’m sorry I-” “Wish granted” The genie snaps her fingers and a bouncy ball falls in front of Mitchel. 

Then another

And another

They keep falling. 

Mitchel stares at it, lost.

“What?” He asks the girl. 

But she’s gone. She’s just gone, or she wasn’t real, or… whatever. But bouncy balls keep falling.

They bounce like rain. 

“Oh God Oh God what do I do what do I do” Mitchel paces the room, trying to pick up balls from the ground. He holds his shirt out to catch more in it. 

The storm picks up, the balls starting to flood the room. They’re up to Mitchel’s knees. He’s struggling to step through them. He falls back, more falling on top of him. He grunts and groans as they fill over him. He tries to open the door to his room. It won’t budge, too many balls now. 

“Shoot!” He yells

He takes a deep breath as the balls cover him. “No no no” he mumbles. He tries to flail his arms as he closes his eyes. His heart races as he tries to crawl himself out of the pit. He breathes in. He holds it for a while, balls covering his face. It’s hard to see anything. He can’t take another breath. 

“Dangit” he thinks. His heart feels like it could explode. His ears ring. 

“Pssp” a whisper comes close to his ear. “Return me.” Is all he hears before he fades into the darkness.

Some time later, if Mitchel had to guess, he could open his eyes. 

The world around Mitchel is a thick wall of split colors. Blues and greens and oranges and pinks all split in half. 

They’re the bouncy balls, a rough and coarse texture Mitchel grimaces at

The world is spinning, Mitchel’s arms and legs sting numb. His chest feels heavy. He’s in a round room. There’s some light trying to shine through. 

“What the…” Mitchel looks around. He pats his pockets, finding nothing in them. 

“Where’s my $12…” he mumbles. “Damn Genie…” 

Mitchel looks to the ground. There’s the CD he got, the signature much clearer now. 

“Selena.” Is sketched on the disk. The back has one song. “Return Me.” 

He walks to a wall and starts digging through the balls. They fall and fling to the ground awkwardly. He digs upwards. He forms himself a little hallway and starts crawling through. 

Who knows how long passes before he bust through into something.

There’s nothing he can use. Just another round room.

Mitchel groans and starts another digging session. 

He’s annoyed, irritated, his hands are sore. He bust through into random pockets that seem like something, but there’s only random household items that poke through the bouncy balls. 

He finally escapes, air and sun shining through the gap. 

He climbs out and observes the mess.

They’re everywhere. 

It’s a world of bouncy balls.

“Are you kidding me!?” Mitchel screams. 

“How am I supposed to return anything..?” He mumbles, stomping the ground and falling. 

He grabs the CD and holds it in his hand. He laughs softly while looking at the world. This is his doing.

He sits in the silence. Nothing seems possible. 

He wanders the surface of the bouncy balls, tripping and stumbling. What feels like hours pass.

Then, he sees a dingy sign peering through the balls. 

“No way.” He mutters. 

“Bixxy - Used Items for Sale!” 

He starts laughing. “Let’s go!” He shouts.

He runs, tripping and falling. Balls scurry through each stomp. He gets to the sign and starts digging down aggressively. Balls and balls get thrown left and right and down and sideways and…

He manages to find the door. 

He tries to open it, but it won’t budge. He throws more balls to the side and gets it to budge, more balls inside the building. 

He grabs the disk and sets it on the ground, trying to nudge it further into the building with his foot. 

There’s a snicker behind the balls. Then a snort… and a full laugh. 

“Selena?” Mitchel remembers the name on the disk.

“Yeah, that’s me~” Selena sings, phasing through the wall of bouncy balls. 

“Learn your lesson?” She snaps her fingers and the balls start popping like bubbles.

“Yeah… digging for hours makes you realize you’d rather just have $12…” Mitchel pouts. “I think you stole it though.” Mitchel looks at her with his face stern.

“You humans…” the diva rolls her eyes. She gives Mitchel $17 and returns to the CD. 

“What now…” Mitchel mutters. The balls popped, almost like the last few hours didn’t happen. There’s even people walking on the sidewalk now. Mitchel walks back home, quiet in his pace. He has a new perspective painting his world.