The Book of Secrets

I walk in and drop my keys on the counter. It’s been one of those days at the precinct. You’d think after being a detective for three years a person would be used to working cases nonstop, but some cases destroy you. I look around the house and notice some of my stuff on the floor. I must have knocked it over earlier and forgot. I walk upstairs to my bedroom. Pictures of my ex-fiancé and I are laying on the floor. My clothes are hanging out of drawers pulled halfway out.

“Okay this is weird,” I whisper.

I keep looking around and see pieces of broken glass from my window on the floor. Someone must have come in through here. I don’t think anything’s missing. I see an open drawer filled with jewelry all still here. I grab some tape and start taping up the window.

After reaching for the last piece of glass I see something halfway under my bed. It looks like a book. I grab it. It’s a little black notebook. From the outside the pages look like they’re completely black. Whoever broke in must have dropped it.

I open the notebook and a bright glowing light hits me in the face. I close it fast and throw it on the bed.

“What the hell.”

Maybe I didn’t get enough sleep. I’m probably just tired. I get the last piece of glass and so I can finish taping the window. I step back and feel something under my foot. It’s the notebook. How did it get back under the bed in the same exact spot I found it? I scratch my head while looking around. I think it’s time for me to call someone to come by. I’ll just tell them about the break-in without mentioning what I think just happened with that book. I don’t want to seem crazy.

I call my work partner, Scarlett. We’ve been partners for a year now. She started working with me when my previous partner moved up.

I dial her number and ask her to come over. I let her know its urgent. Scarlett’s the type of friend that will drop everything for you. She’s kind of a loner too, so maybe she likes the fact that I depend on her.

Thank God, she’s at the door. I open it in a hurry.

“Cole,” she says looking concerned.

I hold my hand out, “Come in.”

“What’s going on?”

“Someone broke in through my bedroom window. Luckily, they didn’t take anything,” I say.

“Are you sure they didn’t take anything?”

We walk upstairs to the bedroom.

“Positive.”

She looks around the room, “Did they leave any kind of evidence?”

I don’t want anything to do with that book, but I pick it up anyways and hand it to her. She looks at the front then flips it over.

“Hm, she says,” She’s about to open it so I stop her.

“Wait! Something strange happened when I opened that book.”

“How strange we talkin?” She says in a joking way.

I look at her unamused, “Well.”

“Cole is everything okay?”

I pause for a moment.

“Look this may sound crazy but a bright light came out of that book and it almost blinded me.”

She laughs uncontrollably while I sit waiting for her to stop.

“I’m gonna open it, I want to see this magic portal”, she says sarcastically.

Out of nowhere I get an odd feeling. I don’t know why but my gut is telling me something is about to happen. I stood beside Scarlett leaning over her shoulder while she opened the book. The light. It was so bright this time we were both blinded by it.

I wake up with my head spinning and my ears ringing. I look around and see we’re in a park with a picnic basket. Scarlett’s asleep with her head on my shoulder. She’s wearing some white dress.

“SCARLETT, SCARLETT.”

“GET UP.”

She jumps up and starts rubbing her eyes, “Please don’t yell my head is killing me.”

“Weird, mine is too.

“Do you remember anything?”

“I remember coming to your house and opening a black book, but after that everything's a blur.”

“What about the light?”

“I remember that too, how is any of that real?”

I start questioning everything in my head. Somehow, we end up in an unknown place with no idea how we got here, and it looks like we were having a picnic.

What was the hell was that book? Where is it now?

We see a stranger approaching us like he’s in a hurry to get over here. He runs up and stands over us.

“Give me half the money and I aint gonna call the police.” he says aggressively.

“What money? I say.

He gets angrier, “The money in the backpack.”

Scarlett stands up. “We don’t have any money, we’re detectives, back off”.

“Hey, everyone just calms down okay,” I start looking at both of them.

The stranger starts laughing.

“Detectives huh.

“This is a small town ya know. Been watching since you set up your little picnic. That backpack of yours aint left your side since that faceless fella handed it to you.”

Scarlett taps my arm like she doesn’t want me to take the backpack off, but I do it anyways. All of this is so creepy.

“Cole, the guy said someone handed you that backpack, they must have covered their face,” she whispers.

I take the backpack off and look inside trying to hide it away from him. It’s filled with money. I see that black notebook on the side pocket.

Scarlett looks in the bag, “Woah.”

The stranger gets closer and sees the money. There must be a reason someone gave me this. It must involve this black book.

“I knew you had sumn’ in there, looks bout twenty grand. Now give me what I asked for or I get the cops here,” he says.

I figure it would be best for me to play along for a while until Scarlett and I can make a run for it. If a ‘faceless man’ really did give me this backpack full of cash, there’s no telling how he got it or what I'm supposed to do with it. I won't be able to explain any of this to the police.

I look him in the eye, “Okay fine. But first let us figure out what we’re going to give you.”

“Fair, make it quick,” he says as he starts pacing back and forth.

Scarlett and I head over to a nearby tree. It’s not too far away from him. He glances over at us occasionally, clutching his phone in his right hand.

“What are you thinking Cole.”

“Well, we have to make a run for it. We need to figure out who gave us this money.”

Scarlett nods her head, “But we don’t know where we are and where our badges are.”

“Well, wherever we are, we don’t have our badges to help us.”

“Look Scarlett we’re going to run into those woods, don’t stop until I tell you to.”

“Thats your big plan.

“Run into the woods.”

“It’s temporary, either you come or stay and explain to the police how we ended up with this money.”

We look over at the stranger. His back is turned for a quick second. We start running towards the woods. He starts shouting everything he could. I look back very quickly and see him calling the police. I start running faster leaving Scarlett behind a little.

“C’mon Scarlett!”

We make it to the woods and we’re both breathing heavy while getting poked by tree branches. My plan worked to get away from the area. We still don’t know where we are. The police will be in these woods soon. I check my jacket pocket and feel a phone inside it.

“Hey Scarlett, check your purse.”

She checks it and she also sees a phone.

“Do you have a signal?” I say anxiously.

“Ugh no.”

“Shit.”

I hold my phone in the air while walking trying to get at least one bar. It's not working. I decide we should keep walking until we see a a road.

“Let's walk for five miles.

“Maybe we’ll find a road.”

Scarlett and I continue walking. My heart’s beating fast and I can barely wrap my head around this. I feel lost and Scarlett looks scared. She’s always playing tough guy around me, but I know the real her. She doesn’t like showing her vulnerable side, but I’ve seen it.

“Cole look.”

We see an alley next to a street. This is the opposite of what I expected. A busy street just five miles away from what seemed to be an abandoned town. At least we made it here before it got too dark.

We head over to the alley and sit on the ground. I put the backpack down and open it. I look at the book and the money. I know one thing that book’s the last thing I’m touching.

Scarlett pulls out her phone, “Maybe we can check our location on these phones.”

“Good idea.”

We look through the phones. I see nothing but a weather app and a contact list. Weird I have a contact with “One” saved as the name and the other is blank.

“San Mora,” Scarlett says.

“What?”

“This app says were in some place called San Mora.”

“San Mora?”

I look at the location on my phone and I see the same thing. San Mora. What is this place. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t exist.

“Hey, Scarlett look.”

We both look at the phone. I start zooming out of the map. I still see nothing but this San Mora place. The more I zoom the more the phone starts heating up.

“Ahhh.” I lick my finger trying to relieve it.

My hand starts burning and the map app disappears. I try to go back, but everything on the phone disappeared except for the contacts.

Scarlett feels my hand, “This is unbelievable.”

I look at her in disbelief, “Fucking, San Mora.”

“We have to open the book.”

“What makes you think that’s a good idea?”

“It’s pretty obvious we’re here because of that thing.” Scarlett says.

“Of course, but don’t know what else that book can do.”

“Fine.”

We sit in silence for a while. She’s hitting her hand against the pavement. I can tell she’s pissed. I decide that I’m going to call the contact in my phone saved as “One”.

“What are you doing?”, Scarlett asks while nudging my shoulder.

“I have a contact in this phone, maybe they can answer some of our questions. She snatches the phone out my hand and holds it against her ear. She puts it on speaker, and it rings three times then stops.

We see someone in all black standing at the end of the alley. This guy has a long white beard and a hood on his head. I close the backpack and throw it on my back. Scarlett and I stand up and start walking backwards slowly.

He yells from a distance, “COME.”

I stand in front of Scarlett holding her back.

“I am One. You called. I see you made it past the woods, I am impressed.

Scarlett gets from behind me, “How did you know we were here?”

The guy holds his hand out. He shows us the same black notebook we have. I take my backpack off and see mine still there. He stares at us for a moment.

“This is the book of secrets.”

“What does it have to do with me and why am I here?” Scarlett asks, getting upset.

“You opened the book of secrets my friend. I am one of the first persons to discover the book so I was been chosen as a speaker for the book. Once you open it there’s no turning back. The money in the backpack is for you to start your new life. The rest is up to you. The choices you made in your past life determine how you live here in San Mora. There is no way for you to contact your family or friends, only for the best. You two coming here together is very rare. You are lucky.”

I drop down to the ground. Everything I just heard, I can't take it in. My family will never see me again. I'm in some nonexistent place just because I opened a stupid book. A book I knew nothing about. I dragged Scarlett into this mess. She’s never going to forgive me.

“How can we get out of this place?” I say.

He pulls me up from the ground.

"You simply cannot.”

I get up, “So we just pretend like this is normal?”

“As time goes on this will become your reality. You two have the same occupations as before. You work together. You have each other.”

Scarlett gets in his face, “You expect me to solve crimes in a place that I know nothing about.”

One steps back.

“Sure, it may seem that way now.”

“But once you have been here long enough you will see why San Mora needs you. It wasn’t an accident that you came here. You were chosen.

“The book of secrets will reveal itself soon. The pages appear small and blank only for now, give it time.

“Now let me show you around.”

To be continued…