Anne had never felt more alive.
Her life was dazzling—perfect grades, flawless clothes, and a social circle that orbited around her like she was the sun. Daniel was hers now. Not officially, not yet, but it felt inevitable. He texted her every night, called her "Annie," and shared secrets no one else knew.
Everything was perfect. Just like she'd wished.
But perfection has a way of feeling hollow when it's manufactured.
And Zahir could feel it.
The genie watched from the corner of her room as Anne laughed into her phone, her voice bright and soft, her cheeks glowing. The sound should have made him happy—he had given her this life, after all—but something inside him twisted instead.
It wasn't envy. It wasn't even sadness. It was something far more dangerous for a being like him: longing.
Zahir had seen centuries of humans—kings, beggars, poets, monsters. He'd granted every kind of wish, from greed to love, from revenge to redemption. But never before had he felt for one of them. Not like this.
When Anne hung up, she noticed him watching her.
"Do you ever… miss it?" she asked suddenly, turning to face him.
"Miss what?"
"Living. Like, really living. Having a life that's your own."
Zahir floated down, his golden robes flickering in the dim light. "Genies don't live, Anne. We exist. Your lives are stories—we're just the ink."
Anne frowned, tucking her legs under her on the bed. "That's sad."
He smiled faintly. "It's not sad if you never knew anything else."
For a moment, silence filled the room—warm, still, and strangely comfortable.
Anne looked up at him, her voice softer now. "You've seen a lot of people, haven't you? All their wishes, their dreams… Do any of them ever end up happy?"
Zahir studied her for a long moment, his expression unreadable. "Not the ones who wish for perfection."
Anne's eyes flickered with something—fear, maybe. Doubt. But she brushed it away with a forced smile. "Well, I'm not like them. I know what I'm doing."
Zahir didn't reply. He didn't have the heart to tell her that they all said that.
Instead, he simply nodded and floated to her window, looking out at the night sky. Stars glimmered above the horizon, each one a distant echo of a wish once made.
"I could take you somewhere," he said quietly. "Away from all this noise."
Anne blinked. "What do you mean?"
He turned to her, eyes gleaming. "Just for a moment. Not another wish—just… an escape. A glimpse of what's real."
She hesitated, then smiled. "Okay. Show me."
Zahir raised his hand, and the world dissolved into light.
When the glow faded, Anne found herself standing on a beach at midnight. The sky stretched endlessly above, painted with streaks of violet and silver. The water shimmered with reflections of stars, and the wind carried a soft, almost musical hum.
Anne gasped. "It's beautiful."
Zahir stood beside her, his feet barely touching the sand. "It's called the Edge of Wishes. A place between worlds. Every star you see is a wish someone once made."
She turned to him, eyes wide. "And you brought me here?"
He smiled faintly. "You needed to see something real."
For a while, they stood in silence, watching the waves break and fade. The air smelled like salt and moonlight.
Then Anne whispered, "You know, for someone who says he doesn't live, you seem… alive right now."
Zahir looked at her then—really looked at her. The wind tugged at her hair, the starlight caught in her eyes, and in that moment, something ancient inside him broke free.
"Maybe it's because of you," he said softly.
Anne turned, startled. "Because of me?"
Zahir's gaze didn't waver. "You remind me of something I lost a long time ago. The feeling of wanting. Of caring."
For a moment, Anne didn't know what to say. Her heart skipped, not from fear but from something she couldn't name.
But before she could respond, he looked away, the faintest trace of regret in his voice.
"Don't read too much into it, Anne. I'm not supposed to feel. It's… dangerous."
"Dangerous?" she asked.
He turned toward her, his eyes burning gold in the starlight. "Because every time a genie starts to feel, someone ends up breaking."
The waves crashed louder, and the stars flickered as if they knew something she didn't.
When they returned to her room, everything was the same—but nothing felt the same.
Anne lay awake long after he vanished, her mind spinning.
She had Daniel. The boy she'd always wanted. The perfect life she'd wished for.
And yet, for reasons she couldn't explain, it wasn't Daniel's smile she saw when she closed her eyes.
It was Zahir's.