Djinn Ch. 01

Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fiction that should not be viewed by persons under the age of 18. If you are under 18 or the legal age in your district, state or country, leave now. That means you Lucas.

This story is loosely based on the Special Ring series by compnerd. It's a decent series, check it out.

All persons engaging in sexual activity in this story are of age 18 years and over. Anyone younger is simply plot narrative.

Alright, disclaimer done, Lucas gone, get reading. Oh, this is mostly exposition, the sex stuff happens right at the end.

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Jack lay in the back of his car, the rear seats put down so that he could just lie back, with his feet on the console and his head on his jumper, listening to the thundering rain hitting the roof, and blinking every time the biblical lighting flashed outside the windows. The storm outside certainly seemed like it had been stirred up by some angry god or deity, but it was nothing compared to the tornado of thoughts that was churning in the 19 year olds head.

In the space of one afternoon, his entire life had been flipped upside down. In the past few years he had called his psyche into question more times than Hamlet could have, and had finally seemed to have gotten a grip on it, until today. He banged his head against the makeshift pillow in frustration. He didn't know what to do. His life had finally gained some kind of normalcy for the first time in years and it had just been yanked out from under him.

He scratched the military tattoo on the underside of his right forearm, a tick he had developed. He took a deep breath and tried to collect his thoughts, as well as slow down his heart rate, which was almost as high as it had been during the scariest points of his forced service. But he was under a new kind of fire now. The kind that could be even more damaging than any kind of bullet.

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His life had been good up until about four years ago. He had grown up with a loving mother and a caring father, who both had well paying jobs that, despite eating up quite a bit of time, still left enough for them to show their son how much he was loved. They lived in Sydney, in a waterfront house that wasn't too far from the city so that his parents could get home quickly if they needed too.

But even when they were gone Jack wasn't lonely. His best friend was always there when his parents couldn't be. Her name was Sophie and for as long as Jack could remember they had been inseparable. His parents told him that her parents had been good friends of theirs but had died in a car accident and left Sophie's care to them in the will.

Sophie was a beautiful girl with wavy brown hair, which she kept at neck length, a slim, oval face with high cheek bones and a small, delicate nose, set above lovely pink lips that showed off an incredible smile. But the most striking feature she had was her eyes. They were big, with an incredible bright green colour that made them seem as if they were made of gleaming emerald. One look from her and she could get away with anything, no matter how mad you were at her.

Every day after school, Jack and Sophie would run around the house, playing games and having a blast, especially when they had other kids over. The other parents didn't mind sending their kids over since their next door neighbour was always keeping an eye and an ear out for them, in case of trouble. Jack grew to care greatly for Sophie, her warm, kind, funny personality making him feel as if all was right in the world every time he looked at her.

And every night after they had worn themselves out after a video game marathon or a ball game of some kind, their parents got home, cooked them dinner and they ate as a family and then the two kids were made to do their homework every night, amongst much whining and groaning from Jack and Sophie. They shared the same ideas about life, that it should be all fun and games, not scribbling in books, which was another reason they got on so well.

This routine continued until they moved from primary to high school and several things changed. The two of them managed to make it into a very good high school but their friends all ended up in other ones and the new, rather heavy workload meant they didn't really have much time to catch up with them. This meant they went into the new school on their own and while Sophie seemed to go with the flow, Jack was rather intimidated by all the new people, especially since a lot of people seemed to know each other already.

Sophie on the other hand managed to hold onto her confidence and quickly became friends with a lot of the students, though she told Jack in confidence that most of them were materialistic stuck-ups who only talked to her because of her looks. She only saw a few of them as actual friend material and introduced Jack to them quickly. Jack actually clicked with a few of them and soon had a small group of friends, though Sophie's was much larger due to all the 'beneficial' friends she had.

Jack secretly knew why she could make friends so easily. Aside from her amazing face and personality, as she grew up Sophie started to fill out in all the right places. She quickly developed a incredible bust, easily a D cup by the time she was 15 and still growing. They absolutely defied gravity, two massive round orbs sitting high on her chest without even a micro hint of sagging or drooping.

Her waist stayed slim, with a flat tummy and great back, which led down to an incredible ass that was round and tight with a thigh gap and full hips giving her an incredible hourglass figure. She was tall too, still a good few inches below Jack but still tall, with a big part of her hight being in her amazing legs. It was no wonder why she liked swimming so much, she was good at it and looked amazing when she did it.

Jacks feelings for Sophie quickly turned beyond friendship into a massive crush. She was absolutely perfect, her personality, her interests and especially her body were everything he could want in a partner. The problem was that Jack wasn't confident enough to ask her out, due to him not wanting to ruin their friendship if she didn't feel the same way.

His low self esteem wasn't helped by the fact that the sports buffs and popular girls were constantly trying to get her to stop hanging out with him, since they saw him as dorky and average, while she was a knockout. He felt a lot better about it after Sophie put the worst of the 'jocks' (as you americans like to call them) in his place. Jack still remembered that conversation to this day. He had been walking out from class for lunch when he heard the bastard talking to Sophie.

That jock had called Jack a 'worthless, loser nobody' who she was wasting her time with when she could be spending it with someone like him. Jack had stopped dead in his tracks and was about to start running the other way when he heard Sophie's reply and his jaw dropped open.

'Look, asshole. Jack doesn't spend all day looking at my tits or my ass and can actually hold a conversation that doesn't involve himself, or whatever minor athletic achievement that he let his team carry him to get, and, unlike you, he certainly doesn't need his mom to fuck the principle to get him through school because he's never gotten a bad grade in his life. So why don't you take your micro dick and try getting in Cindy's pants, I heard she's pretty easy.'

Jack didn't look round the corner because he was frozen in shock, as he expected was the jock, but suddenly at least half a dozen people started roaring with laughter, probably at the face the moron pulled when she was done. A second later, Sophie walked round the corner and giggled at the slacked jawed expression on Jacks face.

'So you heard all that?'

Jack could only nod dumbly.

'Well every word was true. I don't think he's ever going to live that down!' she laughed.

Jack was tempted to kiss her right there and then but both the shock and his own fear of rejection kept him from it. So he laughed with her and the walked off to meet their proper friends.

Jack kept trying to work up the nerve to confess his feelings to Sophie but he could never work up the courage. He didn't want to lose the best friend he had in the world, so he decided to be content with things staying the way they were, especially since Sophie took great enough pleasure in teasing him with her young 'assets' to fuel his dreams forever.

But Lady Fate decided that she had overlooked Jack for too long and decided to smack him over the head with her biggest gavel of misfortune on him, to not only make him lose his friend, but also nearly lose his life on too many occasions.

And so it was that one day when they were 15, Sophie just disappeared. Jack didn't know what happened. He just woke up one day and she was gone. The scary thing was that nobody remembered her. He asked his parents, his neighbour, his friends, even the gardener if they knew where she went. They all just gave him the same weird look and asked who Sophie was.

Jack knew something was wrong when he looked at his phone and saw the lock screen image. It had been a recent selfie of and Sophie at the beach, with him in a tee-shirt and Sophie in a dark blue bikini with an arm on his shoulder. Now it was an image of him and his parents that had been taken by someone else.

He scrolled through his gallery and couldn't find a single photo of Sophie, even though there should have been hundreds of photos of the two of them. They had all been replaced with pics of Jack with his folks, his friends or just himself. He could barely concentrate on his classes that day. When he got home he immediately went through every photo album and collection in the house but couldn't find any trace of her.

He checked his parents emails and their business emails, but still nothing. He even tried calling one of the doctors Sophie had been to recently after complaining of a constant headache, but the receptionist told him that there was no record of his family ever booking an appointment with the clinic. Jack thought maybe he was dreaming and tried going to sleep, hoping when he woke up everything would be normal.

But when he woke up nothing had changed. Sophie still apparently didn't exist and his parents gave him worried looks when he asked them at dinner that night. Realising they might be thinking he had a problem, he played it off as having an extremely vivid dream and never mentioned it again. He parents soon seemed to forget about it but Jack didn't.

He secretly went to see psychologists and councillors regarding the matter, since he was now wondering if he really did have a screw loose. He never told the doctors the specifics of his memories, just telling them he had memory problems and disturbing thoughts. But the doctors could find nothing wrong with him, other than a heightened stress level which they attributed to school. In reality, it was due to Jacks growing fear that he actually was crazy.

He managed to keep his appointments secret from his parents by paying in cash at the reception and saying his Mum had dropped him off during her break. He booked them over the phone pretending to be his Dad, who he also told the clinic to call if they needed to, but gave them his number instead of his Dads.

Jack quickly realised that for the sake of his own sanity and his parents stress levels, especially his Dads since he had a huge deal he couldn't afford to lose, he had to try and forget about Sophie. But that was hard considering one: she had been the love of his life and two: the effects of her disappearance were everywhere around him. The 'beneficial' friends she had kept a bay soon turned into feral bullies under the leadership of the jock, whose name was Eddie Slice.

Apparently because none of them remembered Sophie, none of them remembered Eddies humiliation at her hands but what he did remember was that he loathed Jack and soon he had shoved Jack right down the bottom of the social ladder. His friends started avoiding him, due to peer pressure from the popular kids and soon Jack was only talking to them once a week if he was lucky. He was a this point going through life feeling as if he was completely and utterly alone. But the greatest change would be something no-one saw coming next.

Jack got conscripted.

7 months prior, the Australian government had discovered that several Asian countries in the north had been smuggling millions of tons of raw materials out of the country to feed their factories and mills. The Australian government demanded compensation and the destruction of the entire smuggling fleet. But the Asian countries refused, stating that if they did, the economic balance would be irreversibly damaged and demanded that Australia provide the materials for micro fractions of the price to keep the world economy stable.

Australia responded by increasing the size of it navy and its armament, creating a blockade across its northern borders to catch the ships before they arrived. The Asian countries responded by declaring war on Australia, stating that if Australia would not comply, it would be forced to submit.

Australia had expected help from America but the Trump government refused to send reinforcements, refusing to give a concrete reason why. Due to this, the rest of Australia's allies decided to withdraw support, as they felt that a battle against the combined might of Asia would be too costly.

Realising it was on its own, Australia decided to reinforce its navy with volunteers, a conscription of 500'000 troops and several more ships and guns to defend its border, which were produced by mass diverting resources to be sent abroad, to be turned into munitions and creating new mines and factories that were built by the military within 6 months, which were operated by military personnel, the unemployed, migrants and automated machines.

The Australian navy managed to repel attack after attack due to its ability to renew its stores quickly, thanks to the new military factories. But the casualties were high, with more dead and injured being reported after every battle. The surplus of man power the Asian countries had was being used to great effect in lieu of nuclear war. They wanted to farm Australia's resources, not contaminate them after all. Australia tried to replenish its army with able migrants, more female volunteers, recent 18 year olds and their new drones but they were losing numbers fast.

About 2 and a half weeks after Sophie disappeared, there was a massive surprise attack on the Australian defences. They managed to repel the attackers but their numbers were left heavily depleted as a result. It was then announced the next day that a radical new plan would be put into effect. Australia would send a massive wave of drones and missiles to attack strategic military bases and factories in the enemy territory to cripple their war effort and allow the Australian military time to create a counter offensive.

But in order for the plan to work the defensive line need 30'000 new troops to reinforce the zones that had been hit. In order to fill this quota the conscript age was lower from 18 to 15. Despite public outcry, the government maintained that it was the only way to ensure the plan would work and so offered the public a conscription lottery, where each eligible individual would be given a number and the numbers to make up the 30'000 would be chosen randomly.

This calmed much of the public protests, as although many Australians didn't like the idea of their sons or daughters going to fight, they knew what would happen if their country lost and agreed to leave it up to chance to decide who would go. Many of the families who had already lost a relative or loved one also felt it was time someone else's kin go and fight. It was 'only fair'. The lottery was drawn 3 weeks after the surprise attack. The unlucky winners would be sent a notification email telling them they had been picked exactly 2 minutes after their number had been drawn.

Jack received the email.

His parents had tried to fight it of course. But a soon as his Mum saw the legal jargon on the document they were sent, she knew it was hopeless. She was one of the best lawyers in the country and even if she got together a team of her colleges to try and protest it, it would take too much time and too many resources that the family couldn't afford at the time, for a less than hopeful chance of actually winning.

His dads big work project was involved with the military as well and if they went against the military, not only would his mother probably lose the case and her reputation but his Dad would lose his job and any chance of getting a position in that area again.

They couldn't flee the country because of the increased security at the checkpoints, to prevent spies from entering or leaving Australia. If they tried, they would be arrested for sure. And they had family members in clinics they were looking after, as well as several innocent employees and clients who would be badly affected if that happened.

There was no way out of it. Jack had to go. And so, when the black car pulled up to collect him 3 days later, Jack hugged his tearful parents goodbye and walked silently away to his fate. He had nothing but the clothes on his back. The military had insisted that the 15 year old shouldn't bring anything else. As he stared out the car window, he wondered what Sophie would have thought about the whole situation, if she actually existed.

He was taken to a training camp where his civilian clothes were confiscated and he was given a training uniform. It was there that he learned that he was to become a part of the military commando program, a secret operation with the purpose of infiltrating enemy territories and relaying locations of targets for the drones and disrupting enemy operations. It was the most dangerous assignment the military had. Jack had almost run away then, as had the couple hundred other boys who were chosen.

After receiving a whirlwind 4 months of training, Jack and his fellow commandos were given the latest stealth gear and combat technology and loaded onto drones for deployment. Despite the surprisingly comprehensive training, every singe one of them was scared to death. Jack just swallowed his courage and stepped into the drone. Less than 4 hours later, he was deep in enemy territory, on his way to his first target aboard a military convoy he had stowed away on.

And that was his life for the next 3 years. Running around foreign, hostile countries, sometimes in a team, mostly alone. His first missions were mostly setting markers for the drones to home in on to attack their targets, and evacuating the building prior to the attack. The Australian government wanted to be as humane as possible in this war, for a propaganda advantage. He was never far away enough to not see the building go up in flames.

As the war dragged on he and the other commandos were ordered on espionage assignments: getting locations of new targets, stealing files of important military information such as troop movements and strategies and creating havoc across enemy communication lines that would confuse and stall their plans. The enemy military tried to find the commandos but were kept too busy trying to keep their war machine running to actually do it effectively.

The massive wave of drones quickly dribbled out to more small scale operations. Rather than a giant wave of attacks, the Australian offence became a constant battering against the Asian ability to manufacture arms. Within 1 year the Australians had stalemated their enemies. Within 2 the Asians were on the defensive. 3 years after the commandos were deployed, the Asian countries buckled under their losses and surrendered.

While most of the troops stationed at the blockade were sent home to celebrate with their families, the few dozen surviving commandos, including Jack, were forced to remain in service as security until the Australian government had finished sorting out the surrender affairs with the surrendering governments. Many small militias also tried to reverse the surrender, so the commandos were sent in to shut down their operations as well. It was 8 more months and several battles later before the commandos were relieved of duty.