Balancing the Book

Woodsville was the last place that James Smith imagined that he would make his home. One year ago, James lived in the city with his wife, Carol. He was a successful writer in a happy marriage. This happiness wasn't to last as a messy divorce turned his life upside down. James found himself alone and decided to move away from the big city for a quieter life in small town America.

Woodsville was a rural logging town nestled in a valley and surrounded by lush, green forests, the perfect place for James to get away from his troubles and focus on writing his next book. Strapped for cash after the divorce, James was looking for a place on a budget and seemingly had his prayers answered when an unusual property became available. The old, Victorian-era home, with all the charm and creep factor worthy of a Stephen King novel, was the perfect abode for a creative writer, James believed. The property was a life tenancy, which meant that James could live there for 99 years or until his death, at which point the ownership reverted to the previous owner. This was ideal because James had no children to consider and these terms meant the asking price was considerably below the average in the area.

James quickly arranged a showing of the house with a local real estate agent, Mary Sinclair, where he inquired about the previous owners. He was surprised by the lack of information that Mary was able to provide, given that Woodsville was such a small town. Mary was able to share that the previous occupant was a woman in her 70s who was a very private lady. During her residency, the house was never decorated for seasonal festivities as was customary on the street with the neighboring homes. The home had the sort of reputation that children tell horror stories about when trick-or-treating on Halloween night.

The inside of the house was dark and musty, but James felt that he would be able to clean it up quickly. Mary showed him the main living areas but apologized for being unable to show him the locked basement. She assured him that the key was in her office and she would be able to bring it to him before closing.

James was not dissuaded by the home’s atmosphere and chose to purchase the property. Soon after, he began the task of moving his remaining items from the divorce into his new home. The process started off ordinarily enough. He gave the living and bedroom a new coat of paint, made minor repairs to the aging electrical system, and a deep cleaned years of dust that had accumulated in the old house.

The first sign of the unusual nature of the previous occupant of the house was discovered in the basement. James liked to make homemade beer and spirits as a hobby in his spare time and figured that the basement would be a perfect place to use as a cellar for this purpose. Mary had given him the key at closing, so he was finally ready to tackle cleaning the room.

The old basement was dark and damp and unremarkable as far as basements go, however the contents of the basement were more than a shock to James. A small wall window barely illuminated the dark room but immediately James observed large wooden shelves attached to walls. The shelves were packed with mason jars filled with all manner of disgusting liquids, some of which looked like they had dead animals and body parts inside of them. The floor had strange symbols painted onto it in a circular orientation, which reminded James of the trite representations of satanic rituals that you read about in cliche horror novels. Symbols such as balance scales, an hourglass, coins, clocks, pentagrams, and the Baphomet made up the circle. While James was taken aback by contents of the room, the basement was surprisingly clean, so James proceeded to set up his home brew equipment and planned to “redecorate” after he finished his renovations of the upstairs living space.

Some weeks passed in Woodsville, and James had started to settle down nicely in his new home. Although renovations and had been a success, the writing inspiration that James had been hoping for had failed to materialize. Constant fatigue as a result of sleepless nights had plagued James since the renovations had been completed. Loud and unexplained noises, creaking floorboards and a plumbing system with a life of its own had made James feel anxious and uneasy at nighttime; however, he wrote this off as being the workings of an old house. Headaches in the daytime due to the lack of sleep, James reasoned, were not conducive to inspirational writing. Frustrated with his lack progress, James decided to explore some of the rooms in the old house that he had yet to check out thoroughly.

The Victorian home was exceptionally large with 7 bedrooms. The home had likely been occupied by a wealthy family in the 19th century, but he was surprised to discover that it had a third story attic, which might have been used as servants’ quarters. James was excited to explore the attic and wondered what lay within.

As James ascended the stairs into the attic, the dark room with checkered floors was illuminated with a red hue from an unusual, stained glass window. The window was in a circular shape in the middle of the attic wall. From the outside, the window looked like a plain red decorative window, which showcased the character of the Victorian structure. However, from the inside James could see it was embedded with black lead work in the shape of a pentagram, an unusual symbol to be sure.

James reached for the light switch to give proper illumination to the room so he could see what he was doing. To his surprise the attic was not empty; it was filled with old paintings, taxidermy pieces, and odd sculptures of animals. The paintings were particularly eerie since they were portraits of various people, many of them in period dress. James surmised that these paintings may have been of the previous occupants of the home over a century or more. James also noted that the opulence and stature of the occupants seemed to diminish over the years, suggesting that the prosperity that had once occupied the home may have waned across the generations.

One notable portrait was of a elderly woman posing with a priest and younger women at her side. While it was unnerving, he chucked to himself that the younger women looked similar to his real estate agent, Mary, so it couldn’t be all bad.

James continued to explore the attic, examining the various antique pieces that were on display. One of the more interesting pieces that caught James's gaze was a black notebook. The simple book was sitting on an old bookshelf. Remarkably, the book did not have a single speck of dust on it, unlike everything else in the musty attic. As a writer, James was curious about what stories might lay within. Maybe the book could provide him with some inspiration for his own latest novel.

James proceeded to open the book and skim through the contents. He was disappointed to find that the pages seemed to be filled out almost like a spreadsheet with dates, abbreviated words, numbers, and monetary values next to them. The dates in the book were as old as the 1860's. James reasoned that this was some sort of ledger for stocks and investments which was kept by the previous owners of the home. What was unusual, however, was the pristine condition of the black book; it seemed as though it was an item out of time and not consistent with the worn and dusty antiques in the rest of the attic.

James continued to examine the book to determine when the ledger entries cut off because it might give him some clues about the previous owners and when they left the house. However, circumstances took a turn for the bizarre. James realized that the ledger didn't stop with the present day but had thousands of entries for future dates complete with share prices. Was this some sort of prediction or modelling of future stock direction? Why was this information here, and who wrote it? Skeptical that the future dates were anything other than guess work by the author, who may have had some understanding of financial investments, James took the book downstairs and proceeded to his computer to do some research.

James knew that this wasn't some crystal ball into stock prices, but nevertheless, it had piqued his curiosity. James started by looking at the accuracy of the historical ledger entries and surprisingly, the numbers checked out. James then started looking at entries that, according to the dates, were the present day. James was astonished when checking the stock prices on his computer to realize that the ledger in the black book was spot on. How was this possible? How could someone have known the outcome of future stock prices before it happened? Was this the work of an insider trader or some other white-collar criminal?

James continued to look through the pages of the book which seemingly had years of future stock values for particular shares, some of which didn't seem to exist yet on the public markets. As James reached the end of the book, the very last page was inscribed with words in a foreign language which he did not understand, "Opulentia acquisita libra per annus". Overwhelmed by the implications of what he now possessed; James paid little attention to the foreign gibberish at the end of his book.

Like many Americans, James dabbled in the stock market with an online investment account to support his retirement. James, realizing what he had in his possession, decided to do an experiment. He would buy a stock listed in the black book, paying attention to tomorrow's date. James would see if his shares would exactly match the price in the book.

"I’ll start small" he told himself, “just in case this turns out to be a book of predictions that don't materialize.” James would start with just one share. James clicked his mouse to make his order.

The following day James waited in anticipation for the closing bell at Wall Street; he then proceeded to check his new share. To his amazement, the book was correct! This book was his key to a fortune. Over the coming weeks, James abandoned his writing entirely and became focused on his black book and researching the best moves to maximize his fortune with bets on the stock market. His investments quickly snowballed to $10,000 only a week after discovering the book.

The morning after reaching $10,000 in profits, James awoke to searing pain in his joints.

"I feel like crap," he thought to himself. "I know I am 52 years old, but this is ridiculous. Maybe I need more exercise. I have been stuck in this house for days," he pondered.

The call of the black book was irresistible, however, and James immediately began planning his next big investments after barely getting through his morning coffee. In three days, there would be a huge stock movement for one of the companies in his book, and he could double his money in 72 hours.

This was the big one, the score that could really turn around his financial situation following the divorce. The plan was set in motion.

Three days past, and once again, the black book delivered; James had now doubled his investments to $20,000. This little book was his ticket to a life of wealth and ease. James went to sleep that night contemplating the prosperous future he had to look forward to.

During the night, an unusual thunderstorm raged through Woodsville, ravaging the woodlands with gale force winds and torrents of heavy rain. Despite the weather, James slept right through it all. James had been sleeping much better since he had discovered his black book.

The next morning, James awoke in severe distress; he could barely move or get out of bed as his bones ached, his stomach was filled with raging nausea, and his strength was zapped from him. James staggered to his bathroom and was terrified when he looked in the mirror; he had aged what looked like two decades. His hair, once brown with greying sides, was now completely white. His face sagged with wrinkled skin, and he gasped as he observed liver spots where his skin was once clear. His hands, neck, and arms had also taken the appearance of that of an elderly man.

James was severely ill, vomiting uncontrollably with extreme shortness of breath. Feeling faint, he had no choice but to call 911 for an ambulance. At the hospital, James was stabilized but was diagnosed with heart failure and kidney cancer.

"How could this be?" he thought. "How could I go from feeling totally healthy to this condition overnight?"

Further analysis by doctors found that the cancer was in an advanced stage; James had days to live. The hospital would be the place where James would spend his past days.

Fearful as his life was coming to an end, James took solace in a Bible brought to him by the hospital chaplain. The chaplain, Marcus, would spend time with James and comfort him since he had no immediate family to speak of.

Reflecting in his hospital bed, James began looking at his black book, regretting that he would not live long enough to profit from it further and lamenting the cruel twist of fate that had robbed him of the time he needed to enjoy all the book could give. Turning to the back of the book, he again noticed the foreign phrase that he had casually ignored when first examining the book.

James called on Marcus the chaplain to come to his bedside to translate the foreign phrase out of curiosity. James reasoned that the chaplain was a Catholic priest, and the phrase looked as though it might be Latin, so he may be able to understand it.

Marcus came to James's bedside and agreed to look at the phrase.

“Yes, this is Latin,” Marcus stated. “It means "wealth gained is balanced by the years". Do you have any idea what that means?” he asked James.

James swallowed regretfully and replied, “Yes, unfortunately, I think I do.”

Within a day, James received last rites before dying in his hospital bed. As his body was taken to the morgue, Marcus quietly picked up the black book and placed it in his pocket as he walked to the door. He pulled out his cell phone to make a call before leaving the room.

“Hello, Mary. This is Marcus. It is done. You can place the house back on the market. Tell mother I will be home shortly.”