"One a day, that's how it started… doesn’t sound too hard does it, but then again I guess it all depends on the context really.  An apple a day sounds like a breeze, but surviving a knife fight every day, well that may be a little more demanding.  Ok, maybe knife fight was a bad example, I'm not a violent person, I was just trying to make… it was just an example.  My point being, that when I set out to do this thing, I never expected it to be as hard as it has been, and I certainly never expected that it would end up here.  Obviously I wanted it to be challenging, otherwise what's the point. Once I'd started it didn't take long to realize that it wasn't going to be as easy as I had initially thought either, but that in itself made the game just that little bit more exciting.  I knew there was a good chance that I'd end up going places I'd never normally go, meeting people I'd never normally meet and doing things I'd never normally do, but that was the fun of it you see?"

"Fun?"

"Yes the fun of it.  The one thing I knew for sure was that it was going to be an exciting experience, that was the attraction.  Obviously I never planned the way it came out, but that was the whole point.  I wasn't supposed to be in control, it was supposed to be you in control"

"Me?… what do you mean?"

"Well no, not you personally Counselor, I mean you as in 'people', you know, people in general. Look, I can see where this is going, I've been over it several times with your predecessors and I just want to clear up a few things so you understand where I'm coming from.  My standpoint is that I am not personally responsible for my actions… well I am now but I wasn't when I carried out all of the crimes listed before you."

"It says here that you killed eight people, wounded thirty six more, stole four cars, robbed a hotel at gun point and burned down a church… there were literally hundreds of witnesses to your actions, many of whom have already positively identified you.  But you're telling me that somehow you think you're not responsible for these crimes?"

"That's right, everything was a direct consequence of playing the game.  None of the crimes I committed were my crimes, they were yours… sorry they were somebody else's.  I may have carried out the actions, but not a single one of them was my idea, not a single one of them was in any way for my benefit, and as a result not a single one of those crimes was my responsibility. I feel no more guilt or remorse, than your car would feel should you run over a dog."

"I think you'll find son, that the judge will not see it the same way."

"Oh I think he will. He'll see the truth of it.  I just need to get my point across. I'm convinced that he will understand my situation and more importantly understand the legal implications of this situation."

"I seriously doubt there's very much chance of that. Why don’t you take my advice and plead guilty?  We can get an arraignment and then work on this 'game' thing from a diminished responsibility angle or perhaps some form of coercion."

"I'm not guilty."

"I now think I understand why your previous Counselor resigned from the case."

"Both of them you mean, you're my third."

"If you can't convince your own defense counsel of your innocence, how are you going to convince the court?"

"Oh I never said I was innocent Counselor, I just said I was not guilty of the crimes of which I am accused.  You see I have an ace up my sleeve something that will ensure I am released from custody this very day.  I did not reveal it to my previous Counselors and I will not reveal it to you either. I will only share it with the judge, in private and only once the trial has begun."

"Why? Why would you not want your defense to have all the information needed to best put your case to the court?  I don’t understand the logic of withholding information that could help to get you acquitted, if such information exists."

"You don’t need to understand and it doesn't matter if you know the whole truth or not Counselor, I will be walking out of the courtroom a free man, your presence here is… no offence, irrelevant. You're only here because the law requires that you should be."

"Well we'll see about that when the time comes I guess."

"Would you consider yourself a rich man Counselor?"

"No, not especially."

"But you're comfortable right?  I mean you earn a good wage no doubt?"

"What does this have to do with anything?"

"What I'm trying to determine Counselor is if you can even understand the level of boredom that comes with being extremely wealthy.  I'm twenty five years old and I have never worked a day in my life.  I've had everything I could ever need or want literally handed to me on a silver platter.  The value of my family estate and holdings, my inheritance, means that I will never have to work for a living like you do Counselor, but consequently I will never experience the simple pleasures of achievement that you will.  I have never once wanted for something and not been able to simply reach out and take it.  Have you any idea how dull such a life can become Counselor, how false and contrived it constantly seems.?"

"No, I don't fathom I can."

"Well trust me Sir, that is exactly how my life feels, false and pointless.  I have lived my whole existence inside a cocoon of privilege and protection, but I am not so cut off from the world that I don’t realize it.  I see how people live, I see their struggle, their suffering and although I cannot truly empathize, I can, in a twist of irony. envy them."

"Envy?"

"Yes Mr Preston I envy them, the regular people of this world like yourself are living a life far more colourful, far more a real existence than the pampered, coddled dream I walk through each day and I envy them for it."

"Mr Burrows, I am sure that most of these people you are talking about would envy your life considerably more than you envy theirs."

"I doubt it.  For many, many years I have yearned for even the slightest taste of reality to add some flavour to my life. But the average Joe? All he has to do is save up his money and then he can simply buy a taste of mine.  Climbing up the social ladder can sometimes be far easier than climbing down, trust me."

"Perhaps, but why mention this now?"

"Counselor, I only brought up the question of your financial standing because I wanted to know if you could even understand how directionless and mundane my social station has made this life for me.  From the look on your face I can see that you cannot."

"I understand your perceived plight Mr Burrows, but in no way does it excuse your recent actions"

"Perhaps not, but it does explain why I sought out the game in the first place."

"Tell me again how that came about."

"A friend, someone from my circle of friends,  David William Dalton if you must know."

"He was your last victim."

"Yes sadly he was, I shot him right in the face… it was a Wednesday.  Though I'd like to point out that he was no more 'my victim' than he was the victim of the gun or the bullet, or even the gunpowder inside the shell."

"Why did you shoot him?"

"Because somebody wished him dead."

"And they hired you to kill him?"

"No Counselor, they did not.  They simply wished for it."

"And this has something do with this game does it?"

"Yes. Some time ago David and I, were discussing the tedium of our lives, which was a common theme, and he remembered a story he'd heard when he was back at Harvard. There was a rumor that one of the students had been arrested as a result of playing some kind of social experiment game, a game called "genie". It was many years ago, but the student in question and the game had acquired legendary status around campus.  My friend told me all that he'd heard about the incident, which to be honest wasn't very much, mostly guess work, rumors and wild exaggerations…"

"…but you were intrigued to find out more?"

"… yes obviously. David and I discussed the game at great length, what it might entail, we theorized its origins, we speculated to its boundaries.  Eventually we decided to track down anyone who might have first hand information about the game, just to see what we could really find out.  It became our little project, and if it turned out to be real, well we wanted to find out how we could get involved."

"And eventually you did?"

"Yes, but our first connections to the game were all second and third hand, the reality of what we found was nowhere near as exciting as the fantasy we'd built ourselves.  It turned out to be mostly a collection of frat pranksters taking things a little too far once in a while. It was a big disappointment, we felt let down, so let down and disappointed that we almost decided to give up, but then one of our contacts said he'd been contacted by the original Harvard student from the very core of the legend, and he wanted to meet us."

"And did you meet him?"

"Eventually, yes we did."

"And were you disappointed once again?"

"No we were not.  He called himself "The Genie Master" and he was more than we could have ever hoped for.  He explained everything to us, from the beginnings of the concept, through his run in with the law at Harvard and surprisingly right up to the present day.  He showed us how he and others have created a life of power and excitement for themselves, all through playing the game.

There are more people playing than you could ever imagine Counselor.  He guided us into his world and ultimately showed us how we could abandon the tediousness of our previous existences.  The normal rules of society don’t apply to those playing the game, it elevates us.  He helped us learn how to continue the legend and I think you'll agree, that I have been reasonably successful in that."

"I wouldn't know about that Mr Burrows, all I know is that on the other side of those doors is a courtroom and the members of that court are going to hang, draw and quarter you if you don’t accept my advice and give up this pointless plea of not guilty. This yarn about a game is not going to wash with anyone and when you are found guilty, and you will be, then you will be punished to the maximum extent of the law, I guarantee it. You do understand what that means here in California don’t you Sir?"

"Yes I do."

"Then will you please take my advice and allow me to change your plea to guilty?  If you do, there is slim chance that I will be able to convince the court to refrain from issuing you with the death penalty."

"No Counselor I will not plead guilty, because I am not guilty."

"Do you feel no remorse Mr Burrows? Do you perhaps not understand the suffering and misery you have caused? Do you not see that there is blood on your hands and that someone has to pay for the death and destruction you have unleashed in the last thirty days?"

"I feel pity for those affected of course I do, I am not a heartless man, but do I feel remorse?… No, no I don’t, because that implies culpability and I assure you, the death and destruction visited on the people of this city in the last thirty days by my hand was honestly their own doing."

"The psychiatrist's report makes for good reading Mr Burrows, however, what it states categorically is that you are not mad.  That defense will not be available to you."

"I know."

"Excuse me usher, would you please check to see if they are ready for us yet?"

"Sure thing Counselor"

"Tell me more about the game, how did it work?"

"Ahh do I sense a little curiosity Counselor?"

"No Mr Burrows, you sense your defense attorney trying to understand what you have done and why."

"Of course.  Very well, the game then… it is very simple.  If one commits to playing one becomes a 'genie'.  You carry on your normal life until you hear someone wish for something and at that point it becomes your complete and total responsibility to make whatever they wish for… come true."

"Regardless of what the wish was?"

"Exactly.  At first it started out very simply, people wishing they had another drink or wishing they could go home because they were tired. Surprisingly people seem to utter the phrase "I wish" about once per day.  Obviously these wishes were very easy to fulfill, especially when money is the only barrier to completion and you happen to have the resources.  But as the game progresses one finds oneself almost deliberately trying to get in to company and situations where the wishes become more, shall we say exotic.  A late night party in a hotel can turn into a minefield of broken lives, lost dreams and debauched desires.  A dark and dingy back street bar can be a harbor of hate and resentment, or unfulfilled vengeance.  And even during that phase of the game it can still be fairly simple to cover the wishes of others with nothing more than gleeful exuberance and cash.   Hookers, drugs, booze, cars, guns, even the more base pleasures such as violence and extreme sexual perversions can all be catered for in a city like this with the correct application of coin."

"So when did it get out of control?"

"It was always out of control Counselor, that was the whole point, but I take your meaning.  The moment the game took a turn for the deadly serious actually and ironically came at one of the social functions that I am often obligated to attend.  My father as you may know is quite a big cheese.  Garden parties, formal dinners and the such are a weekly occurrence for my family.  Have you every heard of the Forbes Foundation?"

"No."

"It's a sycophantic business conglomerate, masquerading under the guise of a charitable fund raising organization.  They hold events all the time supposedly to generate revenue for their chosen charities, but they are in fact a massive tax dodge and thinly disguised excuse to network and pat each other on the back, it's quite tedious and sickening to be honest.  Regardless, it was at such an event that, as I've said, the game took a new and deadly turn.  David and I were both attending along with a number of fillies we often court.  David had been taking cocaine and drinking solidly all day, he despises his father and does everything he reasonably can to embarrass him.  Recently David had started to pride himself on the amount of disruption that he caused to his father and his business colleagues at such functions. Anyway, as I said he'd been drinking and he was particularly taken with one of the girls we were with, but she was playing difficult."

"And that usually doesn't happen I suppose?"

"Oh absolutely it does!  But that is a completely different game.  Anyway to cut to the point, David excused himself for a moment, probably to 'powder his nose' again and while he was gone, completely out of the blue, this girl, Clarice I think her name was, hands me a piece of paper, I open it and as clear as day the words 'I wish David Dalton were dead' are printed in strong black letters across its middle. Well you can imagine my shock, there I was riding high on a rush of drugs, drink and adrenaline over the antics I'd gotten up to playing the game and here was this slip of a girl handing me a slip of paper with formal death wish writing on it."

"You felt obligated to deliver her wish, even though he was your friend?"

"It turned out not to be her wish at all, she'd be coerced into delivering it to me from a third party."

"But you decided to grant this 'wish' regardless?"

"Of course.  You don’t start a game like this unless you're prepared to play hard ball.  But there were obvious problems associated with this particular 'wish'.  Obviously David knew about the game, he also knew, as we had discussed may times, that just such a turn of events might occur, you see David was playing the game as well."

"You were both playing?"

"Yes. When we were together it was all very easy, we would complete wishes together, or simply try to out do each other with the lavishness or single mindedness of how the wishes were fulfilled individually.  But we had both speculated that something unpredictable like this might happen.   And when he returned from the bathroom, I could see in his eyes that he knew just such a thing had occurred while he was away.  Maybe my body language gave it away, maybe he had simply gauged the situation to perfection, anticipating it, I don't know and I never will.  Suffice to say the moment David returned to the table, we both knew that the game had moved up a gear, something had to be done and even though he might not have known that he had been marked for death, he knew he was in trouble and I suspect he wouldn’t want it any other way.

"Are you serious?"

"Completely. We were both experiencing a wave of new sensations the likes of which we never had before.  We were drunk on the game, we both knew it and we both knew that we could not stop it. To stop would be to fail and destroy the very thing that to us seemed like the fulfillment of our dreams. No Counselor there could be no end to the game and there never will be."

"Why didn't you just put some distance between yourselves?  Sacrificing your friendship to save your friend as it were. "

"I did think of that, but then realized that if I did I would be undermining everything else accomplished in the game, none of it would mean anything."

"So what did you decide to do?"

"David had to die. It was the only way I could maintain my integrity and the integrity of the game.  He simply had to die."

"Excuse me Counselor"

"Yes?"

"You'll be called in about five minutes"

"Thank you.  Sorry Mr Burrows please continue. You were saying?"

"…there was no other reasonable solution to the dilemma. David and I both knew that something like this might happen, and although we had not discussed this particular chain of events, we were both smart enough to understand the ramifications if it should.  If the coin had flipped the other way, I'm sure David would be sitting here explaining to you these events instead of I.  We were playing a game, but we were playing at the deadly, major league level."

"What is it you want me to do Mr Burrows?  What is it that you want me to say once we enter that courtroom and the charges are read out?"

"Counselor I want you to immediately request a side bar with the judge.  Explain to the court that the I would like to officially mount my own defense and that I wish to speak briefly with the judge and that is all."

"What if the judge refuses your side bar, he's quite entitled to do so especially if the charges against the defendant are of a particularly violent nature, for which yours most definitely qualify Mr Burrows."

"He won't refuse the side bar."

"But what if he does?"

"He won't."

"What makes you so sure?"

"I would bet my life on it Counselor, but I know you wouldn't take my bet."

"I already have taken that bet Mr Burrows."

"I understand your hesitation to carry out these instructions Counselor, but they are my wishes.  If you cannot for any reason, in good conscience carry out my requests, the case will be adjourned until I can find another Counselor who can."

"Seriously son, I'm just trying to understand why you would want to sabotage your own defense like this?"

"Because Counselor, I am innocent and in a way the game is still being played out, right here and right now."

"Gentlemen, it's time."

"Thank you Usher."

"Are my wishes clear Counselor?"

"They are."

"Then let us enter the ring and begin this circus."

"After you Mr Burrows."

…

"Your honour?"

"Counselor."

"Your honour, before we begin my client has instructed me to inform the court that he intends to defend himself and that I should remain in attendance purely for council."

"Very well."

"He has also informed me that he wishes to discus an urgent matter with your honour in person, and so requests an early side bar."

"Then let him approach the bench then."

"Thank you, your honour."

"What is it you have to say Mr Burrows?"

…

"Genie Master…I wish to be free."