The black book

The black book

The clock is ticking as I am staring out the classroom windows, the lunch bell couldn’t take any longer. While watching the birds, I see a small black book floating down the building next to my school. That’s odd, my curiosity is at its peak. The lunch bell rings and my class is dismissed. As the youth stampede through the hallways I head to my locker which is not to far from my classroom considering this school only has one floor and by my locker I see my two friends, Ron, and Larry, who I normally eat lunch with waiting for me.“Hey Jim,” they say. After a short greeting, I briefly explain that I saw a black book falling out of a building and I want to see what it is. With a smile, Larry says, “that’s interesting I guess, just make sure you don’t get cursed by this book.” They say their farewells as I grab my jacket to head to the building. A little black book, It’s untouched, exactly in the place where I seen it land. This town is fairly quiet so I wouldn’t expect anyone to pick it up, after all It’s just a book that was thrown away.

No one is around, would someone be upset if I take it ? As I’m picking up the black book I notice that the cover is blank but slowly white numbers begin to appear, it reads 1107. I hear a-bit of ruffling coming from the building and out of nowhere I see 7 men in black suits aggressively rushing out of the building together shoving their way through. Immediately I stuff the book inside my jacket pocket to avoid attention then I slowly gaze my eyes at the building entrances as if I’m deciding weather I want to go inside or not. They look flustered and conspicuously dangerous as if they’re looking for something of great value, maybe they are looking for this book, maybe I should take my leave now.

My feet uncomfortably start walking back to school with my trembling body following along. My gut tickles and I notice in the far distance behind me that I’m being followed by a man in a black suit… Weird. It’s just a book, a really important book apparently, and those guys I saw back at the building must of assumed that I’ve taken that book. It’s just a book, what does this book even contain? I don’t want to look suspicious so I calmly enter the school and put away my jacket, then head to class.

Processing everything is giving me anxiety, I may have picked up something that i shouldn’t of touched. Are they going to kidnap me now? Or maybe he will kindly ask for the book and I’ll give it to him then gracefully part ways. As I’m thinking about it, I look outside the classroom windows and I see someone in the distance stomping. Its the angry guy in the black suit on the phone probably talking to more angry guys in black suits. This is not good, I need to get out of here.

“Jim… Jim.” The teacher clears her throat, “Jim, can you please read the next page.” I suddenly tune back into class, forgetting we were reading a book as a group and my book isn’t even open, I was completely spaced out.

“You’ve been spaced out since you have entered the classroom today, maybe you should get some rest when you get home.”

Shes right, I’m terrified right now, I wanna be in my bed and if I go outside that man is guaranteed to see me.

Normally after school, I would find my two friends and walk home together since we all live in the same direction. Although we are a group, we’re still just kids so even with my friends here it doesn’t mean I’m safe, and I would probably end up involving them in a issue that I cannot manage. By my locker, I see my friends waiting.“Hey guys, I have something to say. I’m have a little problem going on right now...”

Its a weird thought to process and explain, but thankfully my friends openly listened to everything.

“Do you know which floor the book fell from?” Larry asks inquisitively.

“Not exactly, but I did see it fall from one of the top floors.” As I think about his question a bit more, I was able to draw a strange connection, “the book, the title says 1107, now that I’ve thought about it, when the book was falling it looked like it came from the 11th floor.. so maybe it fell from apartment number 1107.”

Larry scratches his head. “So we have a book that a bunch of men in black are looking for and it fell from the 11th floor. That’s really creepy. Returning to that building is just asking to get caught… Why don’t we just go home and wait till next week to check out the apartment?”

As Larry and I are discussing our options, Ron interrupts. “Well, we could just visit a friend at the building and hang out there . There are plenty of kids that live in that building, so let’s just stop by Jared’s house and play some video games then maybe we can check out the apartment before we head home.”

“That’s brilliant!” Larry and I responds.

Ron’s phone rings as we wait in anticipation.

“Hello?”

“Hey Jared, want to play some games today?”

“Sure, I’m already home, can you get some snacks from the dollar store? I got beverages.”

“Alright see you soon.”

Ron hangs up the phone and gives us a snarky smile. “Let’s do this boys, operation black book has begun!”

We leave the school and head to our local dollar store to grab snacks. A lot of kids go there to buy supplies and snacks so it won’t look suspicious that we’re heading there. On our way there the man in black is following us from behind but this time he’s following me a lot closer.

As obvious as he is, we try not to notice him and head inside of the dollar store to buy our snacks.

“Did you guys see !? He’s literally following me!”

Larry grabs some chips from the shelves and attempts to look through the shopping lanes to see through the windows, “I didn’t think he would actually follow us all the way here… he’s waiting outside by the doors and he looks impatient.”

Ron begins to smile.“Guys I have an idea.”

We finish grabbing all of our items to purchase and head outside. Immediately we are stopped by the man in black and his eyes locks eyes with mine, very nerve racking.“Hey there, sorry to stop you but may I search you for shoplifting?” He says.

Ron cleverly responds to the man. “We have our receipts sir, would you like to see it?”

The man looks at Ron with a straight face and responds. “I’m sorry, but receipts won’t prove your innocence. You may of easily stolen a few items along with the stuff you’ve purchased.”

“Sir.” Larry looks at the mans attire then back in his eyes. “We seen you outside watching us, your no security guard or police, you’re a stalker. What do you want from a couple of kids, Stranger?”

There is noticeable frustration in the mans face after Larry’s comeback, and the density of air got a-bit thicker.

“Okay, I’ll drop the act. I have lost my work notebook by the building, its black and very important.” His eyes locks eye with me again. “And you were the last person I seen in front of that building.”

“Me? You mean you seen me during lunch? I actually wanted to visit my friend during lunch who is currently sick, but I changed my mind and went back to school”

Larry adds to my statement and says, “Yah, we were just getting snacks to bring over there.”

A moment of silence arises as his glaring eyes pierces into my soul.

“You must of seen the black book, there was no one around kid.”

The man takes a step forward imposing his authority reminding us that we are Cubs playing with lions.

“Black book?” Larry and Ron repeats?

Ron then pulls out his black book, “you mean our astronomy note book? Sir, maybe you’ve mistaken our black books for your black book. I’m pretty sure a lot of people would mistaken a black book for our astronomy notebook.”

The silence becomes awkward followed by a sigh of frustration by the man.“Forget it, this is stupid. My boss is going to have my head if I let a couple of kids give me the slip.”

The air intensifies. “If I ever find out that you kids have that book… Just make sure you don’t have it. You’ve been warned.”

I confidently look at him and say, “you need some some rest sir, maybe tomorrow you’ll find it.” The now agitated man in the black suit walks away from the store towards the curb where a shiny black car is parked waiting for him, he hops in and you hear a bunch of angry men in black suits arguing in a car. The door slams and they drive off.

“I cannot believe we fooled them, buying those black books was brilliant Ron!” I say with the happiest smile.

“Shh,” Ron stops me from speaking. “They might still be following us. Let’s just head to Jared’s place and get this mission over with. There may be a clue about this book on the 11th floor.”

Since I’ve picked up that book, things have gotten bizarre but finally, I can relax a bit thanks to my friends. Jared was waiting patiently for us, when we arrived there was no waiting to get the games started. There were tons of pop cans waiting on the tables, and we added the snacks. At last, we can relax.

But there is still one thing to be done. After two hours passed of gaming, I decided to check out the 11th floor. My friends were to focused on their games so they told me to go check it out and tell them what’s there, so I did.

I took the stairs four floors up which brought me to the 11th floor. Already, I can feel a ominous energy radiating all throughout the floor. It’s to late to turn back, I must return this book.

I steadily take my steps to door number 1107 and knock a couple times and wait. No answer, but my body is telling me to open the door. I slowly turn the doorknob, and push. The door opens smoothly as I take my steps forward with my head down examining the patterned tiles. When I lift my head, I noticed that the apartment is filled with books, and on the floor there is a man on top of a whole pile of books with his head down and legs spread out. His hair is covering his face but I can slightly see bruises all over his skin and his clothing is torn. “Excuse me sir.”

The man lifts his head up and asks me, “do you have the book?”

I hesitated for a second before I answered. “Yes. I’m assuming this book belongs to you?”

His upper body starts to lightly shake as he quietly laughs which turns into a maniacal laugh. This man is not okay. I hand him the book and give my farewells.

“Judging from your body language, you haven’t looked inside the book yet, have you?”

I was just about to walk away but my curiosity has hit its peak once again. “No, but I do find it strange that your door number appeared on the book as I picked it up.”

“Well kid. For your help and kind gesture, here’s $20,000.”

“Wait, for real? Just for returning a book?!”

“Yes, I bet now you want to know what’s in the book.”

He’s stroking my curiosity, there’s no way I can leave until I know what’s inside that book now.

The man moves his hair from his face revealing his battered face and he looks me in the eye.

“What is known cannot be unknown, if I show you what’s inside this book, I will have to take you in as my apprentice and I will pay you a lot more than $20,000. But if I just show you what’s in this book, and you decide not to work with me, I cannot let you leave this room. So please decide”

The words that came out of his mouth made the whole world slow down. This is a real life cheat code. What is this book and why is it so valuable ?

I nearly put the lives of my friends in danger, but the turnout was $20,000… there is no one here to help me decide, and I have to make the decision now. What to do…