Hellstone

Gabe sat down on the sofa, with his feet propped up on the coffee table. It was surprisingly well-furnished for a room that only needed to be used for a day- though, it occured to Gabe that if he could magically create whatever he needed at the blink of an eye, he'd make sure it was comfy too.

He didn't think it would take very long for Dan and his roommate to figure out how the stone worked. And, once they did, he could just walk over and explain it to them. And until then, he had satellite TV to keep him company.

A series of muffled shouts interrupted a commercial for a new bar opening over on 21st and Maple. "Huh, that was quick," Gabe muttered to himself. He looked down at his wrist, only to discover Doug didn't actually own a watch. "Well, still, it can't have been more than fifteen minutes."

Somebody started pounding loudly at the door. "Geez, I'm coming, I'm coming" he shouted. Gabe no more than turned the handle when the force of the knocking shoved the door open. Two rather angry frat boys were standing in the doorway- one of them was holding the stone in a fast food napkin, but neither of them were Dan.

"Hey," said the guy holding up the stone. "Is this yours?"

"Uhhh...no?" replied Gabe, backing away slowly; his eye on the Hellstone.

"Oh, really?" he replied, even more hostile than before. "That's odd. Dan thought it might be yours. Well, we don't want it. How about you keep it? Here, take it out of my hand!"

"No, that's, ummm..." replied Gabe, backing away as the guy began waving the stone in his face. "I...uhh..."

"Oh, come on! Are you afraid to touch it? Just touch the stone, and I'll leave."

"Dude, I really don't want to touch the damn stone!" yelled Gabe.

"Oh?" he replied, dropping most of the anger from his voice. "Why? What's the worst that could happen?"

"I...look, I'm not going to touch it. Would you mind getting the hell out of my apartment? What makes you think you can barge in here like this?"

"It's pretty simple, actually. You say you don't know what this stone is, but you knew not to touch it. I say you're lying!"

"Yeah, well, I...ummm...Geez! Calm down and I'll-"

"Calm down and you'll what?" he interrupted. "Trap another person inside a rock?"

"What in the hell are you talking about?" Gabe was supposed to be explaining how the Hellstone worked- why wouldn't he shut up? What was he so pissed off about?

"You know exactly what the hell I'm talking about, you fuckin' bastard!"