A New Apartment

The quaint building stood at the end of the street proudly. Its bricked pattern stood out from the surrounding buildings, yet it’s a welcomed sight next to the flourishing greenery and stairway to another road.

The five friends stared at the building with mixed curiosity and excitement. Cheryl had just moved into this new apartment unit, and according to her raving review, this apartment unit is perfect. The main entrance boasted the building’s long-standing history with its rustic, conservative design, especially its wooden mailbox. However, Cheryl’s unit had just been recently furbished with its fresh white walls and wooden floors, contrasting the unit’s age with the building. The kitchen remained unchanged, preserving the rustic element with a touch of warmth and familiarity.

“Come in, guys! Don’t be shy!” The short brunette ushered her friends. “You can put some stuff in the living room and some others in the room. I’ll rearrange them later.”

Cheryl delegated her friends as they brought stuff up, passing things along from one another and giving a hand to one another. Fortunately for the group, the previous owner of Cheryl’s unit was lovely enough to leave some furnishing behind along with random memorabilia that decorated the house. Charlie, Cheryl’s brother, who had been there before them, mentioned that the owner even left some random journals on the coffee table.

Before Charlie could continue his sentence, Olly made a run to the coffee table and promptly made herself comfortable with one of the journals. Dee, their designated driver, quipped that this move might finish later than their journey to Cheryl’s new address.

Olly, who had helped packed, made a cough of disagreement and Joseph replied that the resident grandma might need a drink now. Dee laughed and patted Olly’s back while the shorter woman stuck her tongue out at Joseph. The said resident grandma then jumped on explaining about the journal she picked randomly from the table.

The journal she was holding was a beautiful black leatherbound journal with a matching elastic closure around it. Olly continued on rambling about the paper’s excellent quality despite its mature age of twenty years and how the leather retained its quality even though it’s quite evident that this journal had been beloved. The yellowed pages displayed its durability through the years and the embossing on the front persisted.

Before Dee could finish her question about the journal’s markings, Cheryl and Joseph yelled in unison, attempting to stop the long rambling. Joseph remarked that grandma really needed her tea right now and Cheryl offered to make one for her. Olly stuck her tongue out at both of them and decided to read through the journal with Dee.

While the banter happened in the background, Rita was currently occupied with finding a space for Cheryl’s broom in the cleaning closet. As she rearranged the items for the umpteenth time, Rita heard a clack before a heavy thing fell out with a loud thump. The sound halted the banter, and the three friends went towards the cleaning closet to find Rita holding a broom, ready to strike someone and a wooden box which laid passively on the floor.

The five occupants stood frozen, not ready to touch the suspicious box. Rita poked it with the broom. No reaction.

Charlie deemed it safe and took the box to the living room. The six friends gathered around as Dee attempted to open the box with no luck. Charlie and Cheryl tried as well but to no avail. Rita just simply refused to touch it, much to the amusement of the group.

Olly hummed with an idea, “Hm, this might be crazy, but I did saw a journal entry about this box. Hold on.”

She flipped through the first few pages and began instructing Joseph on which things to press. When he pressed the last symbol, the top part of the box popped open without warning, exploding dust and a pungent scent through the room.

The box contained an assortment of jewellery, some random gemstones, and a pile of cash hidden in a compartment below. Joseph immediately placed the wooden box on the coffee table, expression slowly turning apprehensive.

Olly flipped through the journal and interjected, “Oh! Guys, apparently, this box is a family heirloom,” she paused, trying to skim through the entry. “Each generation of the lineage contributed one precious thing to the heirloom… and ha,” Olly snorted. “Someone got lazy and deposited cash in there.”

“Hilarious,” Cheryl huffed in laughter. “The cash doesn’t look that old and kind of matches our current ones. Should we count them?”

“Um, hold on…,” Olly mumbled. “I’m trying to find here if there’s anything about that random cash….”

What Olly found about the stack of cash was that it was apparently savings from one of the family members. This family member couldn’t afford any expensive items like the previous members, so they had been saving up for almost eight years to contribute something. Unfortunately, someone who married into the family heard about this heirloom and wanted it for themselves. The family head knew about the evil plot and switched the box to something plain with complex mechanisms so only the true lineage can open it.

“Okay, that’s so dramatic. Are you sure this isn’t made up?” Rita asked.

“I mean, it’s written here? And the fact that Joseph just opened that box by the instructions, I’d say no,” Olly replied. “But honestly, I’m sceptical. This entry is like, twenty years old? I mean, it’s not that ancient.”

“I’d say let’s count the cash first and maybe check if they’re legit cash,” Dee interjected. “If it’s fraud, we can definitely report this.”

The group agreed and split the cash by denominations. Olly and Dee took the chance to read through the journal together, trying to decipher whatever drama unfolded through the pages of each entry. Once they finished counting, the cash totalled precisely twenty thousand dollars. Rita, who studied Criminology, checked some of the notes and verified that they’re genuine.

“So what do we do with them?” Rita asked.

“I think we should donate it. To Vinnies or something like that,” Olly suggested. “I mean, it’s not like you need them? Technically it is a family heirloom, right?”

“Maybe I should contact the previous owner about this…,” Cheryl hummed. “You did say it belonged to their family?”

“Uh, I don’t know?” Olly flipped to the very first page in the journal. “Says here it belongs to uh,” Olly paused. “Amber Sachet? Amber Sachrell? Sash– I can’t read this.”

Cheryl plucked the journal from Olly, “It’s Amber Sacheverell. And that’s definitely not the previous owner’s name.”

“Let’s just donate this box,” Joseph said. “They’re super creepy and the stress of finding the owner isn’t worth it.”

Dee laughed, “This box might be cursed!”

The group of friends ended their day by donating the mysterious box along with the journal to a community centre nearby. The lovely woman who worked there looked very baffled but took the box and the journal with a huff of amusement.

Now, my dearest readers, you might think the story is finished, don’t you?

Well, it will soon enough.

Unbeknown to our group of friends, a group of spirits had been watching them. And collectively groaned in annoyance when the donation had taken place.

“Far out, now what?” One spirit with a thick beard asked the rest of the group. “They literally threw away the bait and Amber’s money too!”

The spirit in question was crying, “They threw away my journal too! Humans are such savages! Well, at least one of them was smart enough to know about the journal, but! That journal was a good quality journal with some good paper in them! Not even once my ink bled through! And the leather was perfect–!”

“Alright, alright,” Another spirit with a high bun stopped Amber’s rant. “William, I need you to do a quick research about this community centre if you can.”

The spirit with the thick beard saluted before he slowly disappeared. The rest of them comforted Amber, who’s agonising continuously about her journal and money. A pair of glossy eyes observed the community centre; the slick modern architecture, the high windows that boasted natural lights, and the large garden in the middle.

“Cecilia,” a tiny spirit called out to the high bun spirit. “What are we gonna do?”

“I don’t know yet, Maya,” Cecilia pondered, looping her arms around the tiny spirit. “Once William return, we’ll discuss further.”

Cecilia paused, and a smirk slowly formed on her lips. Yes, they are entirely bound to the journal and the box, an eternal curse that fuels their vengeance upon humanity. For centuries they have cursed anyone who dared keep the box and the journal to themselves, driving humans to the brink of insanity resulting in death. It seems that they’ve missed their prey this time.

If Cecilia’s glossy eyes are correct, they might be snatching a big prey that would last them for centuries to come. In her sight, the community centre bleeds profusely with pride, dripping its seductive allure to spirits and human alike. She wonders what secrets and corruption lie behind the slick, gorgeous architecture. Cecilia keeps her smirk wide at the delicious greed overflowing from the community centre, inviting them for a grand banquet.

But for now, Cecilia has to wait patiently for William’s report. After all, a good meal comes to those who wait patiently.