Upvoted / NoSleep: Scary Stories · No Sleep Reddit RSlash Fiction Horror Story

Surplus by Reddit User LightinTheDungeon - Like Scary Horror Stories by Dr. NoSleep

September 19, 2023·11 min

Upvoted NoSleep reads Surplus, written by Reddit user LightInTheDungeon. The narrator, a woman named Marie Evans, is confronted by a vaporous djinn who offers her five wishes rather than the conventional three. Marie immediately recognizes the danger of wishing carelessly and attempts to engineer wishes that cannot be exploited. Her first wish, for complete lasting financial security that is non-corrupt and will not cause her physical harm, is granted by the death of both her brothers, whose life insurance and inheritance fulfill the letter of the wish without causing her direct physical harm. The djinn explains matter-of-factly that she set the boundaries and he fulfilled them. For her second wish, Marie attempts to bind the djinn by the Three Laws of Robotics as written by Isaac Asimov, believing this will prevent him from causing harm. The djinn accepts, then immediately demonstrates that the Three Laws can be heavily distorted: he brings in a man, tears off his head to demonstrate compliance with the laws by arguing that killing one person can save others, and leaves the convulsing body in Marie's apartment. When she demands he remove it, he says any use of his abilities will cost a wish. She spends her third wish removing the body and head, which the djinn deposits in a neighbor's apartment while shouting Merry Christmas before vanishing in green mist. The fourth wish is for the djinn to bring back everyone he has killed, which prompts genuine shock followed by a wicked grin. The story is dark comedy that plays on the classic monkey's paw tradition of wish-granting horror, with the djinn as an ancient, bored entity who has spent millennia finding creative interpretations of human wishes.

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