The night was lit up by the streetlights. Although some flickered, Georgia was thankful they were on as she didn't like not seeing ahead of her, especially in her wierd neighbourhood.

She was walking home from work to her beautiful bed, beautiful food and beautiful peace and quiet when she bumped into someone.

Layered necklaces lay above a white draped blouse. It was tucked into a black fabric belt above a swishing plum skirt. Those, plus the big, dangling earrings led her to assume that said someone was female.

A box she held tipped, dropping a few things. Some clanged, some bounced and some rolled.

"I'm so sorry!" Georgia apologized.

"No, it's fine. I wasn't looking where I was going either, " the petite, crouching woman said with a kind voice. Her lowered head carried a black mass of long curly brown hair adorned with a head tie the same colour as her ankle-lenght skirt.

Georgia bent down to help the lady pick up her stuff. She handed the odd niknacks to her; a small transparent ball, a gold ring, a glass spider that surprising hadn't broken and a ruby red necklace.

The lady was taking them from her when she paused, puzzled.  The spider she had taken once again dropped from her hand.

"Is everything alright-?" Georgia cut herself off. A Miss wasn't accurate to finish the sentence with but a Ma'am really wasn't either. But she was more a Ma'am than a Miss so she ended with that.

The woman didn't seem to notice the gaping pause, she just started at the necklace left in her hand. "You would give that to me, my dear?"

"It's yours, isn't it?" It was a blood red ruby in the shape of a jaggered Marquis. A tiny silver claw was clamped onto it at a pointed end. Georgia was holding the silver chain attached to the claw.

"Yes my dear, it is. And could you please destroy it? "

"Huh?" Had she heard correctly? It looked expensive.

"Break it and bury the pieces, burn it and scatter the ashes or drown it where no one can reach."

Oh... Kay... "Uh, sure?" Georgia's answer came out as a question.

The lady smiled, looking relived. "Thank you. And remember as soon as possible. My crystal ball told me it was cursed and it's true. Any time I pick it up I don't want to do anything that will scratch it."

Ah, there it is, Georgia thought, crystal balls. She'll soon be asking for money to cleanse my chakras because I've touched a bewitched artifact of the ancient Egyptians.

But she didn't. Instead she said, "I have to go before I start wanting it back. "

Then she just turned on the heels of her black boots and walked back into the brightness of a street light that promptly flicked off, plunging her into darkness. A soft flurry of cloth turning the corner told her that the woman had indeed left.

So she actually wants me to throw it out. Georgia shrugged. Alright then.

She walked the rest of the way home, had some dinner, bathed and went to bed.

•°•°•

The alarm clock was ringing shrilly on her bed side table. Still sleep filled, Georgia reached for it.

Damn thing's on the other side, she thought, groaning in her head.

She rolled over and, in doing so, her eyes flitted over her calendar and Aladdin poster, then shut again. The Aladdin poster was of the cartoon.

Her hand touched something small and rough and was about to move on when everything stoped; her bustling city, her ringing clock, her moving hand.

Then colour exploded behind her closed eyelids, leaving a blossoming headache and an all-consuming darkness.

But she wasn't unconscious. No, she was very much awake. One wouldn't generally be able to sleep when being pushed and pulled in all directions.

It was a dizzying, painful process that she didn't understand and wished to stop. She would have screamed and thrashed around but, wierd as it was, she wasn't sure where her mouth or limbs were.