I explained my entire plan to Becky. There were a few details that I had that she did not like. However she was able to offer suggestions that were better than what I had said, so the plan truly became one that we both felt was fitting. The plan was going to be weird and probably extremely cruel, something we were not, but decided that Jaime was fully deserving of whatever we did to her.
We had our plan complete. Now all we needed to do was bring the victim into the fold. “Joe, don’t you think we should get dressed?” Becky asked before I did.
“Eh, why bother?” I replied. “It’s not like we’re going to let her remember any of this. And, remember, the most important part of the plan…”
Before I could finish my sentence, she remembered. “Right, right, right. Gotcha. Silly me,” she giggled.
“OK,” I said. “Here goes. I wish that Jaime Andersen would appear in this room and that no matter where she was or what she was doing it would not be noticed that she had suddenly disappeared.”
Within an instant of the wish being made, Jaime Andersen appeared in my apartment. She looked around from side to side, spun around a few times in a hope to get her bearings. “Where in the fuck am I?” she demanded in her grating voice. Then she focused her attention on us. “Joe Michaels? Becky Gordon?? Where the hell am I? And why are you naked? WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?”
“Oh, please do calm down, Jaime,” I said coolly. “Let’s see, to answer your questions, you’re in my apartment, yes, yes, same as before, because we just had sex, and because this is your day of reckoning.”
Becky slapped me lightly in the hip. “You don’t have to tell her every detail, you know,” she said somewhat jokingly by the way she emphasized saying “every.”
“I just want to be honest with someone who has no idea of how to be honest,” I said.
“Hey!” Jaime shouted at us. “I don’t give a shit what you did. Why am I here? And how did I get here?”
“That’s simple,” Becky said to her. “We’re seeking retribution and you got here because Joe has this wonderful little ring that will grant any wish he wants.”
“So I just wished you to be here,” I added. “If you really want further proof of what she said, I’ll gladly provide it.”
“Where’s the way out of here?” Jaime said as she scanned the room. She spotted my bedroom door and started to stomp her way out.
“I wish you wouldn’t be able to leave this room,” I said quickly. I anticipated such a reaction from her, so it wasn’t difficult to be ready with the wish.
Suddenly she stopped moving. She tried to keep moving forward but some unseen force was preventing her legs from moving one more inch towards the door. She even tried to uselessly tug at her legs, as if that would enable them to move. “What the hell did you do?” she demanded.
“Just what I said I’d do,” I replied. “We can’t have you running out just yet, and you also seemed to need a demonstration of what I could do, so there you stand.”
Jaime took several steps backward and tried to walk toward the door again. Once she reached the same spot, her legs again stopped moving forward. She tried two more times to do the same thing, with futile hope that she would be able to walk out of the door.
“Oh, just give up,” Becky chastised. “We don’t want to be dealing with you anymore than we have to, and if you just keep trying to escape, we’ll never get anywhere.”
Jaime shot her a deadly cold look. But she realized finally that we were right and she moved back to the spot where she had originally appeared. She responded to Becky’s statement. “And just how are you going to deal with me?” she asked sarcastically.
“Now, now, Jaime,” I said. “There’s no need for attitude. In case you haven’t figured out by now, I can pretty much control you in every way.”
“Just get to the point, asshole!” she said.
“OK, fair enough,” I said. I looked at Becky. “Ready?” I asked. Becky nodded. I had needed her approval for this part. “I wish that Becky and I would now everything that you’ve been up to since high school ended.” Becky and I both shook our heads violently as several years’ worth of information flooded into our brains. “Whoa,” I said. “That’s a rush.”
“Indeed,” Becky said. She rubbed her forehead and added, “Especially with so many horrible thoughts coming into your mind.”
“That’s true,” I said. I turned my attention back to Jaime. “Glad to see that you haven’t disappointed us,” I said to her. “You haven’t changed one bit. I guess when you go to a local college you can get away with the same bullshit that you pull high school.”
The information that Becky and I had just received confirmed my statement. Jaime did stay and go to a college that was in our hometown where we went to high school, and did the same awful things that she did in high school. Of course she didn’t have quite as much influence in college, but she was still able to get her way when she wanted. Luckily she had not done anything quite as bad as what she had done to Becky. I say luckily both in that she didn’t cause as much harm to another innocent person, and in that I still felt justified of what we had planned for her.
After college ended she took a pretty menial job in a high-end clothing store. One might think that would have brought her crashing into reality, but it did not. She soon set her sights on climbing the ladder and did whatever she needed to get ahead. She would snitch on anyone who made a comment about the managers and would kiss up to whomever she needed to put herself in a better position. It didn’t take long for her to advance and she was now assistant manager of the store. She wasn’t liked by virtually the entire staff, but no one dared say anything to anyone about her, as she had a few well placed spies. The only positive thing I could find is that at least she knew how to do some management functions, but mostly she was just another retail leech.
“Your work record speaks for itself, too,” Becky said. “Are you going for a record of how many people you can get fired in a one-year span or something?”
Jaime looked disgusted. “I haven’t fired anyone who didn’t deserve it, and you know something else…wait, why am I explaining myself to you?”
“Because I wish you would explain yourself to us,” I said.
Jaime shook her head for a minute and then continued. “You do what you have to do to get ahead. Nothing’s going to come to you, you have to take it. And if that means stepping on someone’s toes, or getting rid of someone that isn’t doing their job, then that’s just the way it is.”
Becky and I both applauded her. “Just like a typical corporate clod,” I said. “Spew back the same line you’re fed by someone higher and use it as justification.”
“And don’t forget the part where ‘someone that isn’t doing their job’ is code for ‘someone I don’t like personally and might be a threat to me,’” Becky added.
“Oh, of course,” I said.
“Errgh,” Jaime groaned. “Neither of you know what you’re talking about, so just forget it. Now what is it you’re doing with me? Or did you just want to know how much better off I am than you two losers?”
Becky and I both laughed. “You know, our jobs may not be the greatest, but we like them,” Becky said. “You seem constantly irritated but your job, and don’t try to lie because we know the truth now.”
“That’s a good point, Becky,” I said. “All you do is lie. And that’s what you’re here. You are here to make amends for the biggest lie you ever told in your life. That we know of, that is. I mean, knowing you what we do, you might have done something much worse we’ve never known about.”
Jaime continued to look irritated. “And that might be?” I found it very amusing that she wasn’t able to put two and two together yet. Or if she had, she was coming up with the wrong answer.
I let Becky do the talking now. “Oh, you remember,” she said. “Junior year, me and the basketball team.” That was all she said to describe the incident.
Jaime then made probably the biggest mistake she could. She laughed. “Oh, my God,” she said. “You think that I’m going to apologize for that?” Her tone of voice couldn’t have been more condescending. “You can’t blame me for what you did, either. Just deal with it and move on.”
“Wait a second,” I interjected before it turned into worse between them. “You actually believe that the story you spread is true? What the hell is wrong with you?”
Jaime scoffed, “I might ask the same of you. You two are just sitting there naked like there’s nothing wrong with it. You two deserve each other, you pathetic--”
I cut her off before she could continue. She had angered me thoroughly. “Alright, that’s it! First of all, I wish you wouldn’t care that we were naked.” Jaime shook her head again. “More importantly,” I continued, “I wish you’d just tell us the truth about everything we want to know.”
Jaime shook her head extremely violently, as if she was trying to fight against the wish I made. I knew there wasn’t any chance of her doing that, though. “Of course I knew it wasn’t true. I started it because I hated you,” she pointed at Becky. “You didn’t have any business going out with--”
“I wish you wouldn’t say his name,” I interrupted. I didn’t want Becky to get upset again at hearing his name.
Jaime continued, “--him. He was mine but then he thought I wasn’t good enough for him. No one does that to me and gets away with it. And then I saw he was going with you,” she said, again referring to Becky. “You, the only person I ever heard anyone else dare say was better looking than me!”
That was quite the bombshell. As I said, I always thought Becky was the best looking girl in the school, but I always thought I was the only one who held that opinion. Jaime kept going with her confession. “No one ever dared say that to me, to my face! So I was mad, I was jealous! And the worst part of it all was that I realized they were right! You were better looking than me. You just happened to be modest about your looks and you didn’t flaunt them like I did and didn’t throw yourself at people like I did.” I glanced over at Becky and saw her mouth agape. Obviously she was just as surprised as I was. “So I convinced everyone to help spread that story. And getting the basketball team to play along was no problem. All I had to do was exactly what I said you had done!”
I must say that the last part of her confession wasn’t all that surprising. I knew Jaime was a slut, but like she said, it wasn’t something you went around saying in that school. Becky, however, seemed genuinely surprised. I guess she thought a little more of Jaime than I did. I finally broke the silence by saying, “And the truth shall set you free.”
Becky added her own thoughts. “I’m sorry, Jaime,” she said. That caused me to look at her in surprise. She was apologizing to Jaime for something Jaime had done. “I’m sorry you felt like I was some kind of threat to you. I’m sorry you’re so insecure about yourself. But mostly I’m sorry that it took this in order for you to admit it.” The expression on Becky’s face turned much more stern and serious. “It just goes to show that you’ll never change. I was willing to let you go after you’d admit it to us. And I still am, but you have to do something first.”
Jaime had been doubled over after her confession, as if having to go through it had caused some kind of physical pain. She looked back up at Becky, utter contempt in her eyes, and growled, “I’ll never apologize to you. I hate you. And I will always hate you, you cunt!”
“I thought as much!” Becky exclaimed as she got off the bed and walked over towards Jaime. Becky looked back at me. She had a look of fire in her eyes. I knew exactly what she was going to say. “Do it, Joe!”