The Book of Clauneck

I found it on a desolate winter day like any other, in a quite midwestern town. Working as a server, you can work anytime you want, somebody is always looking to give up their shift. Except on the last week of the month, when everyone wants to work, as everyone is trying to make rent. I'm one to talk, as I was behind on rent myself, again. As I looked out the windows of our dining room the sun shone bright, aided by the snow left over from a recent flurry. It was fool's gold though; the sun would set long before our hopes for a dinner rush had died.

My second, and last, table of the night was a 1-top. It was a regular, an older man who would come in three to four nights a week, always by himself. As I went to get his usual drink, I let out a sigh of disappointment. The problem was that he used my turn in rotation for what would surely be a 5-dollar tip. Usually, I wouldn’t mind but I was hurting pretty badly for some extra cash. I put on my best customer service smile as I went to take his order.

The night dragged on for what felt like an eternity. Only a few more tables trickled in before my manger told me I was cut. Snow began to fall and so did my spirits. I waited impatiently for the man and my other table, two middle aged women having some reunion while nursing a bottle of wine, to leave so I could leave too. I rolled silverware and wondered who I could convince to give up their Friday night shift.

When my tables both finally left, I went to collect the server books left on the table, which collectively make up the entirety of my yearly wages. Every time I would open one of those little black books my heart would flutter. I've served for a long time, so I usually know what to expect, and when I am surprised it's usually an unpleasant one. Still, nothing was better than opening one of those little books to an unexpectedly big tip, and if there was ever I night I needed one it was then. I held the books and sat at the edge of a booth as I flipped them open. The first was from the ladies, 20 dollars on 117, pretty good, but a little lower than I'd expected. The second book however, the one from the old man, turned out to be exactly what I'd expected, 5 big ones. "Yeah, that's gonna pay the bills" I muttered to the empty dining room.

Feeling lower than the single digit temperature, I went to wipe down my tables. While cleaning the table where the old man had sat, I noticed something underneath. My first inclination was to leave it for the cleaning crew in the morning, but then I thought it was a server book. As soon as my hand touched it, I could tell that it wasn’t, it was real leather, unlike the cheap faux leather of our books. The cover was worn and tattered, there were no distinguishable markings. I opened it halfway in and flipped through the remaining pages, all empty. I thought to bring it to lost and found, he'd likely be back the next day, but instead I slipped it into my apron and went to cash out.

I returned home to find a familiar notice attached to my door, one of my utilities has been shut off. I knew that it was the gas because the note was pink, power is yellow, and white's the worst of all, notice of eviction from the complex. I was trying to avoid getting one that month, it looked like that meant I'd be without heat or hot water for a week or so.

I went inside, feeling overcome by all the pressure. I crashed down on my couch and curled up in a ball, tears streamed down my face. “What’s the point?”, I cried. Working every day to barely get by felt so pointless, I wanted to give up. When I calmed down, I remembered the book still tucked away in my apron.

I pulled the book out, somehow it had changed. It was no longer battered and there were now considerably more pages. It looked almost new with only a little wear and tear. The title was now visible on the cover and read; “The Book of Clauneck”.

Opening the book, you are greeted with a strange symbol. It looked to me like a backwards fish hooked, except the head oddly resemble male genitalia, as if drawn by a pubescent schoolboy trying to slip one past the teacher. The next page asks a simple question; “What do you desire?”.

“Yeah, that ought’ to do it”, I laughed as I grabbed a pen and scribbled on the bottom of the page. I threw the book on the table and climbed upstairs to bed.

I woke the next morning feeling like I’d been hit by a freight train. It was a considerable effort to crawl out of bed, muscles that I didn’t even know I had ached. My cat met me outside the bathroom door as always, crying for food. He almost tripped me several times as I inched my way downstairs. When I saw what was on the table next to the book, I forgot about both the cat and my aching body. The stacks of money looked a lot smaller than I’d have expected, had I expected anything, but there were two neatly stacked and wrapped piles of hundred dollar bills there. The bills were so crisp that they stuck together while I counted them, I got through the first stack and was satisfied, by then I knew that the book had given me exactly what I asked for, 20,000-dollars.

It was enough money to change a life if managed properly. My mind raced to everything I could buy, then crashed where the money had come from. I picked up the book, it looked exactly the same as it had the night before, the words I had written were gone, though the question remained. “What do you desire?”.

My apartment was full of hand-me-down furniture, falling apart from years of abuse, and outdated devices. My T.V., purchased a few years ago, was ancient by today’s standards, so I told the book that I desired a new one. By the time that was set up, along with my new Xbox, I realized how outdated my phone, purchased last year, was, so I got a new phone too. I rounded into the kitchen and decked it out with all new appliances, despite the fact that I don’t cook. The aching in my body had intensified tenfold. I hunched over where I stood, told the book I desired a massage chair, and collapsed into it as it was still materializing.

I’ve not left my apartment, save for once to deposit money to pay bills. I stopped showing up for work, who needs it when you have everything you could want at your fingertips? I spent the next few weeks trapped between the pain and the pleasure. I would spoil myself to nice meals and enjoy all my new electronic toys but then spend hours in agony from what it was taking from me. I knew it even then, but wouldn’t accept it, not until the old man came to my apartment.

I was sitting on my massage chair, half-awake, half-alive, when my new camera-doorbell alerted me someone was there. I grabbed my new tablet to see who it was to no surprise; I’d been expecting him. I grabbed what the book had given me when I told it that I desired ‘to protect what is mine’ and turned off the safety as I approached the door.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, opening the door but leaving the chain-lock, like they do in the movies.

“When I didn’t see you at the restaurant, I knew you found the book and-“

“You can’t have it back!”, I barked.

“You don’t understand”. He said, backing away from the door. “I’m not here to get it back. I, I shouldn’t have left it, I should have gotten rid of it, but the book...”

“Go away, old man, the book is mine now!”

“You’re not listening…I don’t want it back; you need to get rid of it too. Bury it, or throw it into a lake where no one can find it…The book is great, but something can’t materialize from nothing…Every time you use the book, it uses you too, it takes-

I slammed the door in his face before he could finish, I heard him yell through it; “Did you even search the name, dude?” For the first time I wondered how old the man really was, was he really much older than me?

He was right, I didn’t need him to tell me, I knew what the book was taking from me. I had been so caught up in it that I never questioned the name “Clauneck”. If you’re reading this, I advise you look up the name now, as I expect you are or will soon be too enamored, I’ll give you a quick summary. ‘Clauneck’ was said to be a daemon who had the power to manifest wealth or material objects to those who followed him. I didn’t believe it either, still not sure that I do, but it certainly fits the bill.

What I do believe in, is what I can see, and when I looked in the mirror, I didn’t recognize the man looking back. My hair had gone completely white, my face was covered in wrinkles. I picked up the book and noticed it’s condition had deteriorated, now worse than how I’d found it. I should have gotten rid of it then, thrown it into a lake like the old man said, but I wasn’t ready to let go.

I thought, what could this supposed deamon do that can’t be countered by modern medicine? I would have everything that I need, pills, IV’s, tools, I had WebMD to diagnose me, and if I had to, I believed I could even perform minor surgeries on myself. None of it worked, of course, because every time I asked the book for something new it took another part of me. A part of my life, my soul, a page of my life.

I finally realized where I’d gone wrong, I couldn’t beat the book with modern technology. I had to fight fire with fire. I picked up the book, which was now a battered cover holding a few shriveled sheets of paper and scrawled two words under that fateful question.

“Life Eternal”

The book started to return to it’s better condition, the cover fixed itself and started to fill with pages. Though once the pages came to be too thick for the spine, they started to fall out all over the floor. My legs gave out and I collapsed, pages still flowing from the book all around me. My whole body tensed, I tried to scream but had no voice. I’ve used the last of my will to write this note. I’m running out of time, I don’t know what will happen to me now, but I can feel the muscles in my fingers beginning to betray me so Ill wrap this up.

If you are reading this note, you have found “The Book of Clauneck”. You will soon know how it feels to have the world at your fingertips. I won’t try to convince you not to use the book, my only remaining hopes are that you have found me before my cat got too hungry, and that you head my warning. Remember, nothing in this world is free, everything has a cost.