My Life after the little black book

I am writing to anyone who will read this and make better decisions than I ever did. It all started one day at my workplace which was a convenient store just three blocks from my house. I was working the late shift to make a little extra money so I could make rent for the month, it was a normal slow night with not that much happening, as I sat behind the counter doodling on the back of a receipt a man burst in “You got to help me, I've been shot!” he screamed I quickly ran to the phone we had and began calling 911 “No, don't call the police they know about me they will kill me too” I was struck dumb at the moment I didn't know what to do. “Look I don't know how long I've got to live, take this and destroy it any way you can.” he said handing me a small black book. “Let me get you to a hospital,” I told him “ My car is out front”. “ I don't have time, just make sure no one knows you have the book before you can destroy it or they will come after you.” as he said this he collapsed to the floor. I tried to pick him up but he was dead, what the hell was I going to do there was a dead man in my shop, I had to call the police or else it would look bad for me, but not before I erased the footage of everything on the security cameras no one would be suspicious since we always had problems with our cams, so I locked up shop deleted all the footage and then called the police. They got to the shop so fast like they had been just around the corner so it scared me a little. “Hello, I'm Officer Rose and this is Officer Andrews, What’s your name?” they asked me “ My name is Brandon Dune, Officer” I said shaking from fear and cold since it was the middle of November “Ok, now Brandon I know it's been traumatic for you tonight but I need you to tell me everything that happened, even details that you think are useless.” so I told them an amended version of events leaving out anything about the book and what exactly the guy had told me when I finished they looked at me and began questioning my version of events “So what time did you say this was.” “This was around 10:30 pm Officer” I had watched enough tv detective shows to know I only answer questions they ask me and never to give out more info than they had asked. After questioning me for like twenty minutes I said“Officer, I don't want to be rude but I'm very tired do you think I can go home now?.” He looked like he was angry but forced himself to smile and said “Of course you can, but one last thing do you have any surveillance cameras in the shop?” Officer Rose asked me “Yes we do but I can't permit you to look at them my boss will have to allow you” “Ok you just give us his number and we will call him” so I gave them his number and then got in my car and drove off. I had never been happier to be in my run down car than at that moment as soon as I got home I picked up my backpack and ran into my house and locked all the doors and windows and then double-checked them twice for good measure. I then went into my kitchen and finally pulled out the little black book the guy in the shop had probably been killed for, for a whole ten minutes I just stared at the book wondering if I should let my curiosity get the best of me or if I should destroy it as it was the last words of the now-dead man. I told myself I'll look then destroy it, I opened a page at random and began to read it's contents. How was this possible, how could all this be true? it had events that had not yet happened from sports games to Award winners to invention I had never heard of. I closed the book more confused and scared than before I opened it. Was the guy in the shop from the future, it sounded crazy but that was the only logical explanation for the book and all the information in it. I had to see if this was true I looked inside the book again and located tomorrows date and saw there would be a football match tomorrow maybe it was a crazy guy who liked to make wild predictions, but everything was so detailed from who would score, at what time and all the fouls, and most importantly who would win and what the last the score would be. The next day I woke up to knocking at my door, I just managed to wake myself up as I heard a third knock at my door. It was the Officers from the night before. “Good morning, Mr Dune we hate to wake you up but as you know we are dealing with a possible homicide, do you mind if we come in?” I stepped to the side and gestured for them to come in “Could I offer you some coffee Officers?” I asked them. “No, that will be okay, we would just like to know if you might remember anything else you may have failed or forgotten to add last night once again even the smallest or what you might think to be useless piece of information could help us”. I walked over into my kitchen and said “No, Officer, there is nothing else I can remember only what I told you last night”. I told them pouring myself a cup of coffee “ Are you sure Mr Dune?” “Yes Officer quite sure” “ Then we will be on our way, here is my number should you remember anything at all.” I collected his card and escorted them to the door as they were leaving Officer Rose turned to me and said, “ I'm not saying you are but if you are keeping anything from us it's best you don't, we will find out in the end.” I said nothing but nodded “ Have a good day Mr Dune” he said as I closed the door. At this point I was scared shitless maybe it was best I destroy the book right now. I quickly retrieved it from it's hiding place beneath my bedroom floorboards and lit a match a tried to burn it “What the fuck!” I couldn't help saying out loud it wouldn't burn I lit another twenty matches still nothing, maybe the flame was too small so I lit my cooker and put it on there, you had got to be kidding it didn't even have smoke coming off of it. No, this thing had to made of some crazy material. Just as I was planning to damage the pages with a knife I was startled by my phone alarm ringing, reminding me of the match, my curiosity took over from my fear and I switched on my television, my mind went into a freefall everything the book said would happen happened down to the final score. Clearly, people knew about the book and it might not take them long to find out where it was, but if everything in the book was true then I had in my hands the power to predict every future event, Oh my gosh I could make all the money I wanted as well, it had every match that would ever be played even if I would destroy the book in the end, there was no reason I couldn't have a little fun for a few days. What was supposed to be a few days became months, plus the case of the man who died in a convenient shop soon went cold, and I was now a substantially rich man seemingly overnight. I had won two lotteries but I always made sure it wasn't the grand prize so I could remain low key, I had also correctly predicted a few football games and been able to win a beautiful and wonderful girlfriend called Lauren due to being incredibly knowledgable about many world events. Life for me was sweet I could go on holidays whenever I wanted to buy myself the latest anything and treat Lauren to every luxury the world had to offer, but I should have known that everything would soon come crashing down. One afternoon just before I was set to fly to Australia for a two-week getaway where I would propose to Lauren there was a knock at my door now I had been playing music in the garden but I had heard the faint knocking on my door and was making my way slowly to open it before I could get to it, my door was booted open and a sea of men in all black S.W.A.T like uniform flooded my home and grabbed me, blindfolded me and threw me into a back of a vehicle. “Please where are you taking me?, Where is my girlfriend?, Please tell me something?, despite all my questions nothing was said to me until finally the vehicle finally stopped moving after what felt like hours. “Hello, Mr Dune I'm so glad you could join us”, I knew that voice before they even took my blindfold off it was Officer Rose. “I was nice to you and gave you so much time to confess to having the book, so now make this nice and easy and give me the book and I’ll let you and your girlfriend go”. If he knew about the book the he obviously knew what it contained and a the guy in the shop had said the police knew, he may have been talking about Officer Rose. “ I don't know what you're talking about Officer. He came right up to my face, he was visibly irritated “You don't, do you?” he then pointed a gun at Lauren “No, don't please” I begged “Tell me now or I shoot her” he could still kill us once I told him, if he knew I knew it would be game over, I had to convince him I didn't know what he was talking about “Officer Rose, what book are you talking.....” before I could even finish he shot Lauren. I felt myself falling as she fell lifeless to the ground “I'm not here to mess around Brandon tell me now or you join her”. I was numb. My fear, my selfishness and greed and not destroying the book when I had a chance had led to me losing the only person I truly cared about. “ Shoot me you pig” I shouted then spat on his face. He smiled and said “I’ll find it with or without you” he then put the gun to my head and pulled the trigger. That was the end, after getting all the money and freedom to do whatever I wanted I was now dead just like the the guy who had passed it on to me. The story began tragically and so it has ended.