X Marks The Spot

“What if we find something hidden in the walls?” Mark smirked at her as he readied his hammer to smash the “X” he had marked on the wall.

“Ewww like a dead rat?” She replied, feeling a chill run down her spine. She got that feeling often, ever since they moved into this house.

“Or treasure? I heard someone found thousands of dollars once. Like, their friend robbed a bank and hid the money and then got caught and they got to keep it”. He took another swing, smashing through the drywall.

She rolled her eyes at him, more at his insistence on remodeling this room without any carpentry experience than over his silly story.

“Well, they got to keep it until someone questioned why they had new cars and fur coats and no income.” He said breathlessly, the work clearly tiring him out.

She flashed him an incredulous look.

“No seriously!” He laughed. “They like, went to jail or something…” He trailed off as something in the wall caught his eye. “Hey, what’s this?” Mark pulled a small tattered black book from behind the drywall. He tried to flip through the pages, but they were too fragile. “An old Moleskine”, he said handing it over for her to examine.

“Someone’s little black book?” she replied with a wink, accepting it.

She opened it to the first page and in clear cursive was written:

“X Marks the spot”

Curious, she thumbed through the remaining pages, but they were blank. Looking back to the first page the original writing was now a cursive:

“Interested?”

She glanced back at Mark who was oblivious to what she was seeing as he continued to rip out the wall.

She looked back down to now see: “Curious?”

“Yes” she said quietly.

“What was that?” Mark paused his work.

She watched the “Curious?” disappear, replaced by: “Take 5 steps back”.

She followed the instructions without thinking, looking up quickly as a loud crack and crash brought her back to reality.

Her husband was gone, buried in the wall and roof that had collapsed onto him.

She looked back down at the page.

“You’re welcome” appeared slowly as a paper slipped out from the middle of the book.

Still shocked by what was occurring, she slowly opened it up to find a life insurance policy in her husbands name for 1 million dollars. She was the beneficiary.

Hands trembling, she slipped the policy into her back pocket, dropped the book, and dashed forward, hurriedly digging through the rubble, calling his name.

There was no reply, and the beam she tried to lift off his body was too heavy.

The distant sounds of sirens soon became blaring as the sound of banging and footsteps pulled her from her daze.

“Ma’am, are you alright?”

She jumped, dropping the chunk of drywall in her hands, her eyes widening as she realized the room was filling with police and paramedics.

“He..help…” she stuttered, whispering an attempted reply. “My husband.” She finally croaked out, pointing to the rubble.

She was quickly ushered out of the room, stumbling slightly over the little black book she had dropped, her heart rate picking up as she tried to make sense of what happened. She doubled back to pick it up, pausing only to notice the sun was setting. How much time had gone bye?

“I’m officer Jacobson, but you can call me Mark.” The police officer introduced himself as he pulled her aside. Her eyes grew as he said his name, the book seemed to burn hot in her hand. “A neighbor called 911 after hearing the crash and seeing part of your roof caved in. What happened?”

She reached into her back pocket, finding the folded-up paper tucked in safely, and slowly drew it out.

“What’s this?” He took it from her hand and opened it up, his eyes widening as he read.

“It, it was in this book!” She suddenly exclaimed, watching his face grow sterner. She opened the book to show him the pages and watched as more writing appeared: “X Marks the spot.”

Her face grew pale and a chill rushed down her spine. She was going to vomit. No, she was going to faint. She stumbled back 5 steps, suddenly blinded by a bright flash of light.

“Ma’am, are you okay? We have to get you out of this house.” A paramedic lowered his flashlight and helped steady her. She looked back, and the officer was gone. The little black book and paper felt hot in her hands.

“Where did the officer go?” She asked, panicked.

The paramedic looked to where the officer had been.

“Huh, maybe to help the others? Let’s get you outside.”

She opened the paper back up, jaw dropping as she saw the payout had increased to 2 million dollars. She opened the black book again and watched “You’re welcome” slowly appear on the previously blank page.

“Is there another Mark here?” She called out, looking up at those around her.

“I’m Mark.” A paramedic replied, walking up to her.

A slow smile came over her face as she watched “X Marks the spot” appear on the page.

“Nice to meet you Mark.” She replied, taking 5 steps back.