The Little Black Book

Kyle Garrett ran his hand through his dark wavy sweaty hair as he cleared out the last of the junk in his grandmother’s home. The memories Kyle had of this home were not pleasant. His father was an alcoholic and would verbally abuse him and his grandmother. Why she tolerated him Kyle would never understand? Kyle knew he wanted to sell her home to get rid of the dark memories of being yelled at, beat and made to feel less than human when his father had a bad day. How could someone so evil could outlive such a sweet woman? He stared at a picture of his grandmother Bunny Garrett. Her smile was bright as the sun. She had the softest hands and the warmest spirit. He placed the photo in a box and headed down the hall to her bedroom to clear the rest of the junk out. As Kyle was moving the nightstand a little black book dropped to the floor. It was taped to the back of the nightstand.

Kyle opened it to see nothing but blank pages in it. “Why was she hiding this?” Kyle thought to himself. He pushed the nightstand out further to see one of the floorboards didn’t look the same as the others. He wiggled the board loose. In the darkness under the board was a black box. He pulled the box out of the secret place. He opened to see two stacks of cash in it. Kyle’s eyes widened. There was a note in the box. Kyle opened the note, it was not his grandmother’s handwriting.

“Hide it. Do not allow anyone find it. I will be in touch.”

There was no name. No other information as to who the money belonged to. Why was his grandmother hiding this? He looked at the little black book again. What did all of this mean? He took the book and the money. He walked downstairs to the kitchen to make sense of it. He stared at the little black book and the money. Kyle scratched his head. As he leaned in to look at the book, he looked up to see a man staring in the kitchen window. The man walked away from the window. Kyle ran outside to see who the man was, but he disappeared. He went back inside to the kitchen. He knew he needed to hit them both. He didn’t know who was involved or where the money came from.

When he was a boy, he would hide cookies and candy in a secret compartment in the wall of his room. Since his father wouldn’t allow him to have many sweets, this was his only way to console him on the nights his father was unbearable. He hid the money and the book. He needed to get the house packed up before the moving trucks tomorrow.

As Kyle settled in the house for the night, his mind wandered back to the money and the book. Who was the man he saw? He laid down on the couch in the living room. He closed his eyes. A loud bang woke him up. He jumped from the couch. The noise was coming from the back of the house. He walked slowly to the backdoor that was wide open. He hurriedly closed the door and had an eerie feeling someone was watching him. He walked slowly back to the living room to see the money and book was sitting on the table. He looked around the living room to see who put it there, but no one was there.

He listened to see if he heard footsteps but nothing. He moved closer to the book and the money to see a note next to it. It said, “open the book.” Kyle picked up the book and this time there was writing in the book. On each page there was a word written. It turned out to be a riddle.

“WHAT CAN BE LOST BUT NOT RETURNED?”

Kyle turned the page slowly to see something else was written.

“Solve the riddle before the sun comes up and you can keep the money. If you don’t solve it, you will die.”

His heart began to race. He hated riddled. His mother before she died would challenge him with riddles to help him to think more critically. He repeated the riddle over and over. What was the answer? Kyle went for his cellphone, but it was missing. He ran to find his laptop, but it was gone from the table in the kitchen. No phone, no laptop and only one person knew he was at his grandmother’s home packing it and they were out of the country. Why did his grandmother have to live out in the country? Her nearest neighbor was ten miles up the road. He went to grab his key to drive to the neighbor’s, but his keys were gone. He thought he left them in the car. He ran outside all of his tires were slashed.

Kyle felt sheer panic as he ran back in the house. He thought, “the man he saw outside did this. It had to be him.” He ran to see if he could find the answer in the house. He looked at the clock on the wall, it read four thirty-two. The sun would come up at six o’clock a.m. He ran back to his grandmother’s room where he found the cash and the money. He looked for a clue. He looked under the side table to see a bald up piece of paper on the floor. He opened the piece of paper to see it was a page out of the little black book. It had words on it.

His eyes widened he felt his chest tightened. “No, No, No, No.” Kyle mumbled to himself in fright. Tears whaled up in his eyes. He ran back down the steps to see if he could solve the riddle. His answers were money, fear, happiness, virginity. He was lost as to what the riddle was asking. The clock ticked and tocked. Time was running out. He started laughing. “This is a dream. Only a dream.” He shakingly whispers to himself.

The sun was peaking through the windows. Sunrise was approaching. “I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.” He looked at the clock and it was fifteen seconds to six o’clock. He felt a voice from within. “Life son.” Kyle ran back to the book to write it in the book, but he didn’t have a pen. The only thing he could think of was as he saw on the paper he found. He ran to the living room, grabbed a box cutter and cut his finger. With five seconds left, Kyle wrote the word LIFE in blood. The clock bell chimed at six o’clock. Nothing happened. There was no one there to confirm if the answer was right or wrong. He looked around the room to see if there was someone there, but no one was there.

Kyle began to laugh and yell, “I beat you! I beat you! I got the answer right! This money is mine!” A distinctive knock at the front door startled Kyle. He walked slowly to the door to open it. Three men were standing at the door in dark suits.

“Hello Kyle. We came for the little black book.”

“You were the one who did this. Do you know what I’ve been through?!”

It was the man who he saw in the kitchen window.

“We didn’t do anything. The book chose you. Just like it chose your mother and your grandmother. Riddles were your struggle. You were your mom’s. She had to choose between the life she honored the most or her own. That is how the book works. You are $20,000 in debt, are you not? Loan sharks don’t take payments. The book knew what you needed, and it used it to bet on your life. Your mother’s incentive was to save you from your father. It healed your grandmother to stay alive for you, while the law caught up to your father. Your mother sacrificed her life to make sure you were safe. That’s how it works.” The man smiled grimly

“That’s not fair! It tricked my mother.”

“It didn’t trick anyone. It makes the rules plan for keeper. If you succeed, it grants your deepest desire. If you fail, you die.”

“Who are you?”

“Who I am is not important. I will take the book now.”

“What if I burn it so it can’t harm another soul?”

“Your grandmother tried that but failed. Its work is done here. You won. Now be free Kyle. Give us the book.”

Kyle walked back to the living room to grab the book. He handed it to the man at the door. The man smiled and nodded his hat to Kyle.

“Goodbye Kyle. Glad you stayed alive.”

Kyle watched as the men walked away, get into a black car and drive away. He walked back to the couch and opened the paper he found under the side table. It read.

“The life you gave, is the life you save. Write his name in the book and I will spare his life. In return you must give up your own. Do it before sunrise or the life will be taken by the one you fear.” KYLE was written in blood on the bottom of the page. Kyle realized the first note he found was on the same paper he was holding. The message was to him, not his grandmother. The little black book started this all. "I will be in touch." Kyle grabbed the money shakingly, and held it close to his chest with the paper and began to cry.