Strange Desires

Water is engulfing you, filling your mouth and lungs! You were sitting at your desk, slouched over your journal, and pouring into it all the words that made you feel happiness. Exhausted, your body began to give in to the pull of sleep. Your head tipped forward, lowering your newfound necklace onto the page... Realization hit, and your head snapped up to pull the necklace back! It was too late. There was a blinding flash of light, and all around you water fell heavily, gushing into your bedroom. You scrambled up onto your desk, trampling the journal while trying to pull open your window, but it was stuck tight!

The water churning and manifesting by 10s of gallons alarmingly fast, and the room already halfway full, you couldn't risk getting thrashed by the vortex attempting to swim to the door. Heart pounding, chest heaving, you screamed for help, but abruptly stopped- the crashing sound of water would drown out anyone's voice who might try to respond even if they COULD hear you.

It's up to your neck now, rising faster! You dive to grab the book, as it may be your only way out. Clambering to grasp it floating just out of reach, your chest starts burning, but you know that if you try to resurface there will be no air left at the top anyway. Your hand misses the little black book yet again- it's no use.

Fighting to swim towards your door, all you can hear is the pounding of your heart. Which direction is the door even IN?! Your vision becomes blurred as you start losing consciousness. The last thought that occurs to you isn't "What the heck just happened?" or even your life flashing by. It's "Well that was stupid!" before being swallowed up by the smothering black void one enters when suffocating to death.

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This all started yesterday at work. Beginning the morning shift at your local diner, you breathed in the wafting smell of eggs, bacon, and coffee. This (plus the ambiance of early risers chattering under quiet music) lifted your spirits as you tried to shake off the morning's stiffness. You were up late last night again, working on your big writing project. Someday you were gonna stop waiting tables, and pursue your passion to become a legitimate author! But sadly not today.

An older gentleman arrived, so you bustled over to show him to his seat. When he said he preferred the table near the door, you cracked a joke about him needing to flee the scene. He chuckled good-naturedly, and showed you a picture of a young, pretty lady. "I've got to be on time to meet my daughter at the airport!" he cheerfully explained.

You quickly got his order started so he could stay on schedule. Upon bringing him his food, he sparked up some small talk. Not many customers had come in, so you both had time to swap stories. It turned out that his daughter has a passion for writing as well, and is an aspiring journalist. You stuck around chatting enthusiastically until someone called you back to your job. The two of you smiled at each other warmly. "It was nice meeting you!" He exclaimed. "You too!" you replied over your shoulder, rushing back to work.

The next time you glanced at his table, the nice man had disappeared. Another waiter must've picked up his payment, but when you approached to clear his dishes, you noticed that he'd left something behind. At first your heart sank because he might've forgotten it, but then a note caught your eye. Scribbled across a napkin were the words: "Keep the change." You could swear he was somehow winking at you through the note...

The item on the table was a tiny, black book with no title, and you could see intricate designs pressed into its cover. You had just enough time to glance over the fancy clasp, and note the oddity of there being no money- "keep the change" felt like such a peculiar thing to say.

Internally shrugging, you tucked it down into your apron pocket before getting back to the business of tidying his table. A load of blank pages held far more value to you than a few dollar bills (not that you weren't grateful for the tips you DID receive by any means). The little black book would have to be pushed to the back of your mind while you ran around tending to the demands of customers and the diner, but as soon as your lunch break arrived, you hurried to the back room for some privacy while eating, and got your first real chance to explore this cool gift. You'd fixed yourself a sandwich, and munched on it contently while carefully turning the book around in your hand.

It was about 3 by 2 inches- entertainingly tiny. Celtic-knot type designs were pressed into the (seemingly) leather binding. Upon opening the clasp, you saw a strange, slender blue crystal protruding from the inside that fit perfectly hidden within the clasp's unique shape when closed. Frowning in concentration, you tugged at it, and were startled to see the gem pop out with a chain necklace trailing out from the inner lining of the clasp's belt.

Intrigued, you threw the necklace over your head to wear, and proceeded to flip through some of the pages inside. A distinct aroma of campfire and earthy musk wafted up at you from the browned pages, so pleasant to inhale. You revealed one empty lined page after another, unsure what you were expecting to find.

Shaking off a strange feeling, you continued flipping until you reached the first page, and were glad to see that there actually was something written there. In slanting, skillful calligraphy, the words read "This Journal Is Meant Only For Your Heart's Deepest Desires."

"Huh," You say quietly, scanning through it's pages one last time. You had to go, so accepted that there was nothing more written. But before heading off, you felt compelled to put pen to page. That familiar itch to write something- anything- sweeping over you. "What to write?" you thought, and laughed to yourself while penning in the words, "My deep desire is for this book to be a more practical size to write in!" in your best cursive.

Feeling lighthearted, you got up, stretched, and closed up the tiny book to store away with your personal things. You were heading toward the bathroom when the diner's cook bumped you- someone who has such an attractive personality that you'd developed feelings for them after some months of working together, but were too shy to ever ask them out.

"Hey, that's a nice necklace! It's new?" They complimented, making your hand jerk up to it unintentionally. You'd meant to take it off. Stammering "Yes", you blushed, and thanked them for the compliment. As you placed the necklace back with the book, a burst of white light emitted from the crystal! Gasping in surprise, you stared down at the two objects in time to see the book growing at a rapid rate! It's now almost twice as big.

Your coworker however, apparently didn't notice anything, even while standing right next to you. So you quickly shut your gaping mouth. When they asked why you gasped, you just deflected by telling them that you thought you'd seen a spider. Whisking your pile of stuff up off the desk and away to it's shelf, and scurrying to the bathroom, you try to process what you'd just experienced. After much splashing of cold water to the face, you got back out on the floor. Every passing second felt like an eternity. This was one of the most mentally-excruciating 4 hours of your life.

Unable to maintain much composure, you flew out the door, forgetting to bid anyone a good evening, and vigorously stuffed yourself into your car. Feet aching, mind reeling, you took a deep breath and dug the black book out from your bundled coat- necklace included.

Multiple times you placed it over your apron pocket, astonished at the fact that it could no longer fit inside. The same pocket you'd previously placed it in for safe keeping while waiting tables! You drove home in a daze, unsure how no traffic laws were violated. Once in your apartment, you locked the doors, forgot to feed yourself, and holed up in your bedroom.

The first thing you thought of was sleep, but as tired as your body was, you knew there was no way that that was going to happen. Delirious, what ensued for the next hour was, of course, the most RIDICULOUS bout of 'your heart's deepest desires' entries being submitted to the mysterious black book. With each submission, you incredulously touched the crystal to the pages, causing one bright flash of light after another.

Firstly, the aches and pains from working 9-5 made you DESIRE to do away with gravity. After drifting out of your window, and barely managing to grab hold of something, you looked out to see trash cans, cars, and a lady walking her dog floating around- the dog marking its territory while hovering near a treetop- as if things were totally normal! Pulling yourself back to safety, you set out to retrieve the journal, struggling not to shoot off in the wrong direction. Awkwardly positioned amidst floating objects and billowing blankets, you wrote reality back to normal, careful this time to write a safer description.

Next you wrote the desires to bring your puppy back to life, have your favorite hair color on-demand (including that everyone else should have this ability- in fact...why not write down world peace, haha), and then $20,000 dollars to get your own house! You daydreamed about how you'd manifest a fortune for an education and SO much more once you could deposit it all. Heck! write that in as a desire too- maybe make money unnecessary altogether? "Now I'm rich and all-powerful, muahahaha," you yawned to yourself as you settled in to write down what you desired for dinner, and began scribbling out a story of how you'd like to live in an underwater world.

If there's anything you love more than writing, it's swimming! The freedom, the feel of it on your skin, and you've wanted to live in the ocean since you were small, but learned over the years to accept that this was impossible. Your mind wanders to how deep the desire has been to ask the cook at work to go out with you. Not wanting to manipulate their feelings or anything, you just can't seem to ask, so you planned on having them show up to your house asking themself why they were here, and you'd just shrug and say "Wanna go out for lunch?"

But you'd nodded off, tapped the book too early and brought an entire pool of water down upon yourself- finally (involuntarily) getting some of that much-needed "sleep" you'd tried to skip...

When you wake, you hear a thud on the door, and blink awake. Your face and body are pressed against the ceiling, the bedroom light illuminating your water-filled bedroom. You should be dead from asphyxiation! But you can feel liquid squishing through your wind pipes and magically giving you oxygen. It's unpleasant. Suddenly remembering that you'd written about the cook showing up out of nowhere, you swim as fast as you can to greet them. They're not phased by the state of things, and like the idea of lunch together. Grabbing a $100 bill that's lazily drifting by (this DID get a strange look from your coworker, as there were several large bills suspended around like a money snow globe). Butterflies in your stomach, the two of you swim off out the window and down the street for your date.

You are now certain that you understand what that kind man had meant by "Keep the change."