The Black Book

I watched as my now ex-husband locked me out of our house after he broke my phone in half.

“DO YOU WANT ME TO FUCKING KILL YOU?” He spat in my face. His eye burning with hatred towards me.

There was a storm in the area and the black clouds filled the sky. I rushed to my car afraid and in tears. As I sat in the car watching the rain fall down the wind shield and listened to the pitter patter of the rain drops and the thunder roar. I thought to myself ‘what have I done?’ I was all wet, cold and shaking from everything that just happened. I could see him peering out the window with his piercing eyes and felt so uncomfortable that I scurried to my parents house that lived about 170 miles away with constant tears running down my face.

On my drive to my parents house I cried like a baby and almost hit two vehicles driving down the turnpike. All I can think about is my ex telling me he was going to take everything away from me and the strange messages I saw from an anonymous woman on his phone saying “hey daddy, I miss you.”

Once I got to my parents house I realized my ex husband took my wallet from my purse that I had left inside the car. He must have grabbed it while I was inside the house taking a bag of clothes. “Greedy jerk.” I said under my breath. He had asked for a divorce that week and he decided to take matters into his own hands. I no longer had a home, love was out of the picture and I also noticed on top of taking my wallet, he transferred all the funds from our joint bank account to his own private one.

“Does he want me to starve?” I cried angrily

My parents welcomed me back home with open arms. They lived by the beach so as soon as I got a chance I left to smell the sea breeze and feel the wet sand between my toes. While I was at the beach, the awful thought of harming myself came to mind- walking into the ocean and drowning my life away because I had nothing to live for. I lost my world. Everything I had worked for was stripped away.

Just then, I received a call from my mom to come back home because she had made me a warm dinner of my favorite things- perhaps she sensed what I was feeling at that time and I drove back to her house. Her home was warm and it always smelled like yummy food but my parents house wasn’t MY home anymore. I felt out of place sleeping besides them on their bed. You wouldn’t think that as a 26 year old that you’d have to sleep with mommy and daddy again. But here I was lying beside them listening to them fart in the middle of the night.

“It’s has been a sad couple of months.” My mother said as she looked at me. She was a tiny Spanish woman less than five feet in height with long black hair and a kind and beautiful face. She saw the tears run down my face and brushed my hair off my cheeks. “You are like a pheonix Davina, you will come out of these ashes.”

My grandfather had passed away a couple months ago from a deadly virus and I felt a void. The void kept getting bigger and bigger. I lost my grandpa, husband, money, house and everything I once knew.

I had to start over and build my life from zero again.

“Dav, your grandpa left me a letter to give you, let me go see where I hid it” mom said as she went through her dresser drawers.

“He wrote me a letter? I might just cry again. I didn’t think he cared too much about me...” I responded.

“Oh honey, of course he did! Your grandfather was crazy about you.” She paused

“When you were born and he held you in his arms for the first time he said that you looked exactly like me when I was born.” she continued.

She handed me the letter that was locked inside a pretty small black book. I held the black book close to my heart. It still smelled like tobacco and rum just like grandpa.

I opened the book and the letter was inside the first page. It read:

To my dear beautiful granddaughter,

Davina Rose Castillo Montadeu, I am so proud of you for getting married I hope you give your mother grandchildren soon, it was a joy being your grandfather and seeing you grow up to become a kind and compassionate woman just like your mother. I wanted to write this letter too you because I have entrusted you to continue to take care of my business matters. I have left you an inheritance and you may do with it as you please. But I trust that you will put it to good use. Your mother has already received what I wanted to give her so everything that is left is yours to keep and she approves. You must go to the Bank of Spain in Madrid- this is where I have your inheritance. Your mother has the rest of the instructions. As for this black book- it is very special as it possesses magic like you’ve never seen before. Growing up you’ve seen me take this book everywhere I went, keep it with you at all times and you must never let it go.

Love you always and forever,

Grandpa Arcadius Montadeu

What the heck? I thought- he must have hit loonyville. I looked at the black book he gave me it was bound in black leather with a pretty skull painting and gold flakes around the edges. It looked old and worn out. But the pages were a glistening gold. It was as if it had been protected. I opened the book that was locked shut by a delicate gold key that was attached to the bind and checked the pages for its content and it was blank.

Extremely confused- I looked page by page to find that there was nothing written in that book. ‘Perhaps he wanted me to journal?’ I thought.

What is so magical about an empty book? I laughed.

Thinking about the letter and how proud my grandfather was for me getting married I had a moment of weakness and called my ex... I wanted to tell him about my inheritance. Perhaps he would want to be with me again if he knew about the money. But all he did was insult me and so I hung up on him.

That night I held the book as I fell asleep next to mom and dad. I had a crazy dream about a monster trying to kill me. I wake up to the sound of the alarm, I had a last minute flight to Spain at 7 am with two connecting flights and a 9 hour layover. I would finally arrive to Madrid at 8 am the next day. My parents had purchased this ticket for me in advanced. I was excited as I’ve never stepped out the country. My grandpa did most of the travels and I lived vicariously through him and his gifts. He was a man of wealth but I lived a completely different lifestyle. His money was all his own hard work and I never imagined he would think to pass down his riches to me.

I arrived to aeropuerto de Madrid-Barajas and had to make a short 20 minute drive to the bank of Spain. I grabbed a taxi from the taxi stand and upon arrival to the bank, made my way to talk to one of the bank representatives. They took me to a small room and handed me one key while they held the other that led to the safe deposit box and left me in the room by myself. I watched as they closed the door behind them. I sat looking at the long metal box and couldn’t get myself to open it . I took a deep breath and opened the flap. Hundreds were stacked upon hundreds.

Here it is- I felt a moment of relief as I thought about the ways I was going to put it to use. I didn’t want to haul this much money during my travels, so I put it back in the safety deposit box and decided I would come back for it later.

I wanted a coffee and pastry from one of the local bakeries so I made my way to a cute little one called Cafe de la Luz and ordered a croissant and cappuccino. As I headed out I noticed a tall built man in a black jacket. He had a strange vibe to him that made me feel uneasy. He had very thick short black hair and an olive complexion. His eyes were hazel and almost green. I remember seeing him outside the airport and also when I left the bank of Spain. Could it just have been a coincidence or was he following me?

I didn’t want to take the chance, he didn’t appear to be a nice person, so as he looked away I decided I was going to run off into the crowd, so I did. Further in the crowd I disappear and looking back to my left I noticed the man was no longer there.

“Where the hell did he go?” I thought.

In a panic I run into the street and that’s when a sketchy old beat up blue van stops in front of me, the man in the black jacket comes out running and punches me in the face and knocks me out.

Everything was pitch black.

I wake up to find I was lying on a cold hard cement floor and my hands were tied up horribly. I loosen up the rope tied around my wrist and I feel around my body to make sure nothing else was hurting. I barely touched my face and it was throbbing. My face must have been badly bruised for it to hurt this much. I noticed my clothes are still intact. I drag my body to an open door and peer out to see the man in the black jacket that was following me.

He was passed asleep on an outdated old paisley couch watching Egyptian television.

“Egyptian television? How the...? Where am I?” I asked myself in a haze.

The place was dark and gloomy, I wasn’t sure how long I was knocked out for but from the looks of it I was no longer in Madrid. It appeared to be a small warehouse of some sort. I was looking for a way out but all the doors were bolted shut. I noticed he had placed my things in the kitchen which was a dirty yellow and had roaches crawling all over. I crouched down and grabbed my things. While going back to the room I noticed pictures of my grandpa and me and it became very clear that this was probably a ransom for my inheritance.

“No one knew about my inheritance except for my. . .” I paused and realized the only person that knew about the money was my ex husband. “No, he can’t possibly be this greedy.” I went back and forth thinking about how messed up that would be because if this were true then who did I marry?

I looked back at where the man was lying and saw he was no longer lying on the couch... “Oh fuck” I thought.

He grabs me by the hair and drags me back to that cold disgusting room while I screamed at the top of my lungs. He kicks me in the room and threw my things at me.

He locked me in and I bang on the door yelling and crying til I lost my voice. I spent the night at a corner of the room in the fetal position because that was the only comfort I’d find. Is he going to kill me once he gets what he wants? Is he going to rape me? Did he get paid to do this? Is my ex behind all this? So many questions were going through my head.

I grabbed my bag and went through my things. Of course my phone wasn’t in here but I saw my beautiful black book that my grandpa had lovingly gave me. I reached for it, opened the first page and wrote.

I imagined that I was outside far away from this God forsaken place. I wrote about feeling the sunshine on my face and wind blow through my hair. I don’t know why this was happening to me. Perhaps I was being punished for wanting to kill myself while I was standing in front of the ocean but I realized I wasn’t ready to die.

“I have to do something” I said in a low voice.

Soon after I had jotted my thoughts down into the book, I looked down and the letters began to disappear into its gold pages and the black book began to glow brightly.

It was so bright that it was blinding. It was as if the sun and stars were on the pages and the stars came out and filled the room. I was blinded from the bright light and once I regained my vision I saw I was somehow transported to the middle of what appeared to be a desert.

How the heck did I get here? I looked down at my book and recalled my grandfathers letter stating about the magic of this book.

“I guess the old man wasn’t crazy after all” I chuckled with new found hope and optimism.

I decided to take a walk through the desert and about a mile in I stumbled upon an underground opening.

I was always fairly adventurous and I loved studying about ancient Egypt. I thought to quickly take a peek because it’s not everyday that a magical book takes you to the middle of a desert. I make my way down the steps to a dark corridor. On the walls was beautiful Egyptian hieroglyphics and the pillars held old torches. I walked deeper in the corridor and as I walked past the torch it suddenly lit a fire. One by one it would light up down the dark and creepy corridor. My curiosity got the best of me and I just had to walk further and further in. Could it have been the magic from my black book?

As I was getting closer to the end of the corridor I heard this eerily beautiful voice singing and I felt a bit uneasy knowing I wasn’t alone. I think anyone else would have gone running out of there, but my curiosity was too strong. The corridor led to a large opening and in the middle was an over hang into pitch black nothingness. At the corner of my eye I see a woman in ancient cloth standing there. Was she about to kill herself?

She was the one singing and I went up to her to check if she was ok.

“Hello ma’am are you alright?” I asked worriedly

She kept singing and looking into the black hole in the ground.

I got closer and tapped on her shoulder “ma’am?”

She quickly turned around and slapped my hand away which startled me and I fell back. The skin on her face was distorted and falling off, upon looking at me she asked glumly “Davina, Have you returned to torment me?”

“H- how do you know my name? Have I been here before?” I asked confused.

“You shouldn’t have returned, you’ve just set free the demon Hisada that your grandfather trapped here.” She responded.

At that moment the ground shook beneath us and a dark presence had blocked the entrance of the temple. As it got closer and closer the torches would blow off and darkness would follow.

The woman cried “he’s here! We must flee! Hurry! I can’t take anymore torture. Come follow me.”

She grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the black hole.

“We must go Davina, you’ll die.”she paused

“I might hate you and your grandfather but I do not wish death upon my enemies.” She continued.

She at that moment threw herself in the depths of the black hole.

My heart was racing and I was scared I looked behind me as the darkness blew out each torch slowly reaching the end of the corridor. As soon as the darkness blew the last torch I quickly dropped into the dark abyss and the darkness swallowed me whole.