Greed

It was rumored that those that came into contact with the little black notebook obtained money in a mysterious manner. The amounts were at random, some received $1,000 and others received up to $10,000. It was impossible to predict the amount an individual would get and only five people in total were known to have found the book. Some thought the book was cursed. The last person who had found the book, fisherman George Stokes, had received $5,000 inside of a fish that had been caught in his fishing net. That same night he disappeared and was never found. While I was in need of money because I had lost my job two days ago and was now behind on my rent, I wasn’t desperate enough to put my life on the line to get an amount of money that could end up being only $10.

It was Tuesday evening, after another day of no luck finding a job, that my life started to change. I was taking a stroll through the center of town when an antique shop caught my attention. Right on the other side of the display window was a notebook that was binded in black leather. It looked relatively new, but at the same time it gave the illusion that it had existed for various centuries. It was lightly covered in dust. Could this be the cursed black notebook everyone was talking about? The alarms in my head went off warning me that I shouldn’t get close, but curiosity got the best of me. I went inside and ran my fingers across the notebook. “So smooth,” I thought to myself. The cover had no bents to indicate mistreatment or use. None of the pages were wrinkled and to my surprise all the pages were blank. My body relaxed. I had gotten worried over nothing. There was no way this book was the same. It it was, there would have been writing in at least one of the pages. The spine of the notebook would have been bent from use. I put the notebook back. I wasn’t interested in buying it nor did I have the money to spend. I left the antique shop and continued my journey home. Once at home I picked up the mystery novel I was reading and ate half of a chocolate chip cookie and a mug of coffee. I briefly glanced at the newspaper, crossed off the job ads I had already looked into and circled the ones I would visit the following morning.

“Time to sleep now,” I mumbled to myself and I lied down on the mattress that creaked and complained with the slightest movement. I didn’t even have enough to make it through the weekend if I didn’t find a job. After staring at the ceiling for what seemed to be an hour, I finally fell asleep. In my dream I was holding a small black notebook in my right hand and in front of me stood a blue gray door. The book felt like it gained life and it wanted to go through the closed door. Then I felt hands on my back that were pushing me towards the door. The door started opening slowly and...

I woke up covered in sweat. It was difficult to catch my breath at first. Thank goodness it was just a dream! It was 4 AM and and as much as I tried the adrenaline in my body kept running and I wasn't able to sleep again. It was the same thing everynight with the exception of the blue gray door which kept opening more and more. The bags under my eyes continued to get darker. From the usual 7 hours of sleep I used to get before I went down to a maximum of 30 minutes. What was happening? Could it be that the book I had touched on Tuesday had indeed been the cursed book? I needed to go back to the antique shop. When I asked the owner of the shop about the notebook she looked at me puzzled. “I’m sorry sir, the book you have described has never been in this store. We don’t sell any type of literature or even notebooks. This is strictly for antique furniture.” I was even more confused! There’s no way I would have come across this cursed book by chance. It may be that my bad luck was about to get worse.

I ran home and looked through all of my stuff. Maybe I had bought the book without realizing it and it was hidden somewhere. After disorganizing everything and throwing many items on the floor I had only ended tired and more irritated. Tonight my eyelids were heavier than usual and I fell asleep within a few minutes. Again, I saw myself standing in front of a blue gray door. I looked down to my right hand and I was holding the same little black notebook that had a leather cover. It started pulling me towards the door. Same as previous nightmares, I felt hands that started to push me forward. This time the door was fully open and in a swift moment I was on the other side with the door closed behind me. My eyes almost jumped out of my face and panic spread through my body. I saw the bodies of five people. I didn’t recognize all of them, but I knew that they belonged to those who had gotten their hands on the notebook before me. In a few seconds I was startled awake.

I looked at my nightstand to the left of my bed to glance at the time. Once I did I really regretted it. At first I thought I was dreaming, but I could clearly see that the little black notebook was there. I couldn’t just leave it there, I had to get rid of it! When I got up and tried lifting the book it didn’t budge. It did allow me to move the cover and the pages to look inside, but I didn’t dare to look. I didn’t have to move the pages either because the notebook opened and went to the middle pages. Inside the words, “In the mattress”, were written in red ink.

“In the mattress?” I questioned, but got no response. I went to the kitchen and brought back a knife. It wasn’t extremely difficult to tear an opening in the mattress. Money started flowing out. Once I managed to get all of the money out and counted it totaled $20,000. That was a lot of money! This could definitely help me for a few months to get life back on track. I felt a swoosh of pages moving and in the notebook on another page was written, “What will you do? Keep the money or share?”. In my mind there was no doubt, I blurted out, “Of course I’m going to keep the money! Why would I share when I’m in need?” With that the notebook closed with a loud thud and vanished. In front of me the blue gray door appeared. The blood left my body as I realized that the decision I had made had an effect on the overall outcome. The door opened and I was pushed inside. The last thing I saw was the body of fisherman George Stokes. He must have made the same decision as me.