The man, a shell really, had shambled on with life, moving from one 'milestone' to the next, drifting through time till now.

To the Genie, the man seemed just like all that came before him. The beginning of yet another cycle. They went like this- everything that happens before it was freed, wishes three granted to its finder, its freedom and thereafter the world was it's plaything. There's more to the cycle, but as the Genie granted the man's wishes, it felt a dissonance as its powers seeped into the man to grant his wishes. A curious anomaly, but not unusal over innumerable cycles. It peeked into the man's heart, and realised it had lapsed in caution in its eagerness for freedom. So wretched was the man, that no mere Wish could fix him. Even the Genie had to draw back from the Void that lay within him, lest its' power be drawn into him, lost. Too late, it realised that the true wants of the man was imprisoned within a Void that had never been fed. It had granted the man's wishes.

Fate. Future.

Heart. Meaning.

Past. Love.

Meaningless words it had spoken, save as ritual to guide its power to the man's wants. The power to fulfill three wishes sank into the Void, and the Void started to grow.

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Between the blood loss, the stress of being in the presence of the Genie and the burgeoning Void that had begun growing within him, the man passed out. Shards of glass squealed briefly as he shifted into unconsciousness. His blood flowed freely weaving a dark, crimson river across the shattered glass beneath him. The shards, each a tiny reflective island, gleamed starkly against the spreading pool, then dimmed, as though the darkness within them was screaming to break free. Now empowered, the Void fed on man's subconscious, leeching concepts and ideas.

Prison. Chains. Oppression.

Fear. Loneliness.

Acceptance.

The world rippled. The darkness within the glass stilled completely and seeped out, dancing across the blood like smoke on water. It thickened into a dense, motionless fog that simply built up around the man. At some critical point, it condensed even further into chains that coiled around him and lashed into the walls and floors of the room for support as it pulling him upright, before suspending him off the ground entirely.

The Genie, now unbound, saw no reason to stick around so close to the growing disaster it had inadvertently helped to create. It would watch... from a safe distance.

The Void grew, and by the time the man awoke bound in chains of his own making, the world knew an Old One had been stirred awake.

His eyes opened in a single, smooth motion, calm and unhurried. Soon, others would come to take his chains. Everyone would, eventually.