The Little Black Book Demon

I placed my drink on the coaster on the table in-front of the couch. I could hear the murmur of approval even though it'd be a ghost and I was no medium. I glanced at the paper will next to my can of soft-drink and sighed. I looked up to the sound of footsteps and Karli was focused on a shoe-box and barely on where she was walking. She bumped slightly into the kitchen counter on her way to the couch, gave the counter a dirty look and then found a seat next to me, placing the shoe-box on her lap.

"I found it. It was inside a big ass wooden box in her walk-in wardrobe" Karli said.

"It's called a glory box. Inherited from our mother" I smiled, nodding at the shoe-box, unopened, on her lap.

"The will says for us to open it in here. So mysterious" Karli mused, picking up the paper will to quickly re-read the contents.

"My sister was known for her eccentricities. Why would it stop just because she's passed on?" My reply was more rhetorical and Karli placed the will back, and then the shoe-box onto the table in-front of us.

"Ready?" she asked me. I shrugged, blinking away sudden threatening tears. Karli noticed, paused.

"We can do this later, mum. I know how much Aunt Cass meant to you" she gently squeezed my hand. I swallowed, gave her hand a return squeeze and shook my head.

"No, I'm ok. Curiosity is a trait this entire family seems abundant in. Let's find out why she requested this dramatic revelation" I smiled. Karli nodded, taking the lid of the shoe-box off, pulled the box towards us both so we could see inside and we both let out an audible 'huh'.

"Look, I know Aunt Cass wasn't exactly broke, and I know she had some interesting rituals, but..." Karli trailed off, her hand reaching into the box to take out a wrapped bundle of $100 dollar notes, her quick mathematical skilled eyes attempting to count how many bundles were in this box. It appeared to be just a box of these bundles of $100 dollar notes, however, after Karli takes a few out to get a better judgement, the note bundles also reveal a bottle with a ship- one of the hobby things that require tweezers and insane amounts of tedious patience-, a feather quill with an empty bottle of ink, a photo album and, tied to that photo album, a little black book. About the size of a regular journal. After a quick count, Karl announces there's $20,000 in the box.

"I want to respect Cass's wishes in the fact that everything in this box goes to you, Karli, but, I have to wonder if she was actually aware of what was in here" I make a wry, concerned expression. Karli gives me an equally wry side-eye look.

"I don't have much to leave my favorite niece and hope that the contents of a special shoe-box inside the wooden chest in my apartment will suffice and perhaps give her new business a boost" Karli quoted the will's contents perfectly, her eyebrow raised, giving me a pointed look. I raise my hands, jokingly, in defeat.

"That's all I have to say about it, Karli. The bottled ship is...curious." I move out attentions to the rest of the box.

"The entire contents of this box, twenty thousand cash included, is curious" Karli replies, taking the photo album and black book out to inspect them closer. She opens the album to find a miniature scrapbook of her own baby photos. Karli chuckles.

"Well. I never really took her for sentimental" we both say, almost simultaneously. Photo album, amusingly, put aside, Karli opens the black book and reads the first page.

"Huh. It looks like a short-story. Not one I've read of hers, and I'd like to say, with pride, that I've read everything she's published" Karli comments, skimming through the rest. I lean back into the couch, taking my can of drink with me.

"Why don't you read it? Maybe she wanted it to be the last thing to be published in her name" I suggested. Karli shrugs, joins me, leaning back on the couch, clears her throat.

It had red eyes. At least, that's what my brother told me a day later after the horror ended.

But I should actually begin properly. Explain the situation. So allow me.

I'm twelve years old. It's late, probably around 2am and I am awake. Not by choice- I was woken up. Laying in my bed, in the bedroom I shared with my younger sister and finding myself listening to the sounds of potato chips being eaten in the kitchen. It was dark, no lights on, which already wasn't a terrific indicator. The potato-chip eater was undisturbed by this sheer darkness. My mind wondered who it could be, and I thought of my father. Grasping at a logical explanation.

"Dad?' I call out, pause. "Is that you?" There's no response and the potato chips continue. I blink in the darkness, ponder for a milli-second on whether I should get up and investigate, but it's dark, it's kind of creepy and my blankets currently offer the only bit of security I have right now, and so I remain in the bed, and call out again, firmer.

"Dad? Are you there?" I ask. Still no response. My calls have woken up my brothers who are in the next room.

"Dalia? Why are you shouting? Go back to sleep" I hear my eldest brother, Damian, grumpily scold me. I ignore this.

"Can't you hear that?' I respond with. There's another pause as I assume he's listening. The sound from the kitchen hasn't let up and I hear both brothers whisper to each other.

"Who is there?" My other brother, Liam, sounds equal parts frightened and annoyed.

The sound stops. We all breathe. It's replaced with a closer, more audible sound, in the bathroom. I don't know whether to be glad of this or wish I couldn't see, but my bed has quite the optimal view of the bathroom. The door is halfway shut, but the light is off and the sounds of brushing teeth are obvious. If we all weren't frightened, it would be funny. The sounds stop. I get up the courage to run to my bedroom light and switch it on, and then the bathroom and shove the door open. Damian is watching me from his top bunk and I investigate the noise. Nothing, no-one. I look out towards the kitchen but it is dark and I don't want to go out there.

"I'm leaving these on" I say and begin to head back to my bed.

"No, don't, I can't sleep with it on" Damian protests.

"Then you turn them off. I'm too scared" I say and dash back to my bed. He groans, gets up and I watch him scurry back to bed in the dark. The top-bunk is noisy as he climbs up. We all seem to duck under our blankets and wait to see if whatever is making these noises has gone.

It hasn't.

We all hear the slow, horrible drag of something on the tiled floor, right up the hallway to the entrance to both our bedrooms. I hear Damian shriek in fear and we all hide and wait for the sound to stop and long after that. I hear and feel things being thrown at my blanket, around the room. As soon as it feels safe, we, without further discussion, jump up and wake our parents. As I run to turn my light on, I noticed in the doorway, halfway up the carpet, a piece of cardboard. It has clearly been the culprit of the screeching noise in the hallway- but what had dragged it? It took forever for our parents to calm us down and school tomorrow had been cancelled because it was late.

"It had red eyes" Damian tells me the next morning as we're drinking a mug each of hot milo. "It was see through, had sharp teeth in a snarl and it had red, glowing eyes" he tells me. "That's why I shrieked. I couldn't see the piece of cardboard it had been dragging, but it could see me.

Karli looked up from the last line as she finishes reading it and notices my grimace.

"Damian, Liam, a little sister. They wouldn't be Uncle Damian, Uncle Liam and a little Cass, would they?" Karli asks me.

"You'd be right" I respond, still grimacing. "I'm not surprised she wrote about that, but I AM surprised it was hidden away. It wasn't a pleasant experience. Cass slept right through but she could sleep through a nuclear storm" I sigh. Karli closed the book, looking it over.

"Do we want to publish this?" she asks me, more specifically. I shake my head.

"It's too short, and I wouldn't want to try to build on it like she would. We don't share the writing talent" I shake my head at this concept.

"But why would it be in the box if she wouldn't want anything done with it?" Karli asks. I know she's not trying to upset me.

"Maybe it was her way of getting me to face a demon" I shrug.

The Little Black Book Demon