The year was 1939, or soon to be anyway. A mater of hours really. It was more or less the end of the great depression, and alcohol had been legal for more than half a decade. This would be a new years to remember,  but the amount of liquor he’d been consuming would make sure it was a clouded memory. He wasn’t even really sure were he’d found the coin, but that didn’t change the fact that  he had it. A genuine gold coin, at least as big as a silver dollar, but a great deal thicker. It had to be worth a fortune… he’d somehow discovered something that he imagined could change his life. The first thing he would do is find a collector, first thing tomorrow he would look into it. But for now, he had to keep an eye on it. He had too get himself together. No more drinking, no sir. No chasing skirts, or getting into fights. He had intended to really live on the edge tonight, but that was before he had something to lose. No, he had to think about the future now, something he hadn’t done in a while. He was almost home, he knew it was the best place to be, he wasn’t the only one in this neighborhood that liked to get a little rowdy on new years eve after all. If he stayed out here, who knew what could happen.

He finally made it into his apartment, it wasn’t much of a place, but he had the feeling he could change that soon. He locked the door behind him, and sat by the window. it was almost time, the new year was almost upon him. It was time to make make his resolution. He flipped the coin into the air, caught it, and held on tight as he prepared to change his fate. “This year, I’m going to do things right, and get every thing I deserve. This year I want to be in control.”

“Is that all,” he heard a voice say, from the deep shadows of his darkened apartment. He turned to look for the source.

“Who’s there? What are you doing in my place?” he demanded.

“Calm down buddy,” the figure said as it moved towards him. “I’m here to grant your wish. So is that your wish then? You want to be in control… of what?

“Of everything,” the man snapped back. “But hold on a second, you aint told me who the hell you are, or what the hell you’re doing here.”

“I did, I’m here to grant your wish. So I guess that makes me a friend, right?” the man said, standing before him in a pin-striped suit.

“Sharp threads, and a slick tongue. What are you, some kind of gangster? Look, I don’t know what your deal is, or how you got in my apartment, but I think you ought a leave.” the man insisted, just before catching his unwelcome guests gaze.

“No need to be so suspicious,” the stranger said, as he stared back into his host’s eyes.

“Yeah… OK, your right. No need to be suspicious,” the man agreed as if suddenly unable to comprehend the reason for his own behavior.

“So you want to be in control of everything?” the stranger reiterated.

“Yeah, like everything in my path, I want to be able to control the outcome of my own life, demand peoples respect… you know, have thing my way for a change.” the man clarified.

“Done. And if you need anything else. just flip the coin and I’ll come to your service,” the stranger declared.

“Wait a minute, anything like what? What kind of gag is this? you try’in to tell me you’re some kinda genie or something?” asked the man.

“Yes, Marcus… or something like that. So feel free to ask me for anything. Money, love, whatever your heart desires.” the stranger replied just before vanishing into what seemed like vapors.

Marcus grasped the coin, dumbfounded, and considered his situation for a moment. then he flipped the coin, and said, “I want to be filthy rich, so rich I never have to work a day in my life… I never have to call nobody boss.”

“I like it,” said the voice, only it seemed to be coming from inside his own head. He had become the creatures new vessel, with that second wish. They would share the body for a while. But slowly, the human personality would be subsumed, and Marcus Halloway would become little more than a name. The human part would be no more than a passive passenger, a witness, as the demon ever so slowly burned out his human body and soul.

The demon would eventually return to the coin, and wait for a new host to summon It. It had known many names throughout the years, and no doubt would come to know many more. Or so it thought. But after Marcus it would find its way into the hands of a man called Steady Eddy. A world-class safe-cracker, and accomplished cat burglar. A man who stole rare valuables, and fenced them among collectors, for a respectable sum that afforded him a fairly good life. Eddy would pass the coin on to a collector, who would have a run in with yet another, more carefree candidate.

Jinn of this level had a bad habit of burning through their host bodies in very short periods of time, lacking mastery of the power which lay at their command. As a consequence, they could end up occupying multiple host even within the span of a single century. See, it was the level of command a Jinn had over its power that made it powerful, without this control, most of their vast power was wasted. Those who possessed mastery over certain aspects of this power were said to have innate abilities. The greater their mastery, the more broader their range of innate powers was. It was believed that even contained within a human host, Lucifer’s powers would not be diminished in the slightest, and that the host body could be preserved indefinitely with no real effort. Because he had been made a perfect Jinn, as if the powers they possessed had been tailored specifically for him. For others, commanding powers they did not posses an innate mastery of would likely become catastrophic to the preservation of the vessel within moments.  Overtime, even the existence of the Jinn would wear down the host, without proper preservation.