Dreams & Desires

The sun was shining brightly, people were bustling around doing their afternoon shopping and even the birds seemed to be in a good mood singing to each other from the nearby terrace.

It made Randall’s stomach turn. Why did his life have to be so hard compared to everyone else? Why did he seem to be the only one suffering?

“Randall, this last month was hard for the company with all of the imposed cutbacks, and unfortunately we have to let some people go, and, well, since you were the newest to be hired on, we have to let you go.”

He could still hear his supervisors sympathetic voice ringing in his head. Right, like she actually cared about what happened to him.

The gravity of his situation was weighing heavy on his soul.

He couldn’t help but start to worry, how was he gonna pay his rent in two weeks? His landlord had already made it clear that he couldn’t get another extension like he had last month after his car broke down.

Speaking of which, the old sunken sedan sat at the curb with a parking ticket flapping in the wind.

He ran his hands down his face tugging at his sweatshirts collar feeling like he was suffocating.

“Excuse me sir?”

He turned around to find a beautiful woman with long flaming hair and big emerald eyes standing only a few feet away from him.

Her smile seemed almost as alluring as it was frightening, with her pearly teeth glimmering in the sunlight.

She extended a long slender arm to him with a small black book in her hands. “I believe that you dropped this a moment ago.”

Randall’s brow furrowed as he took in the books appearance, “I’m sorry miss, but I believe you are mistaken, I’ve never seen that book before in my life.”

Her eyes sparkled as she smiled again, “Are you quite sure sir? Maybe you should double check.”

She then extended her arm out to him again and he noticed her nails were long, black, and looked as though they had been sharpened into points.

He tentatively took the book from her, careful not to make contact and opened it up to the first page.

A small gasp escaped Randall as he read the one and only line in the book.

Property of Randall J Williams dreams and desires.

He looked back to the woman and couldn’t find her, she had disappeared completely. There’s no way he had imagined her, where could she have gone so quickly and why?

Unease aside, Randall put the small book in his bag and continued to his car ripping the ticket out of the windshield wipers grasp.

As he made his way home he kept running the encounter through his head trying to make sense of it all. Who was that woman? And why did this book have his name in it?

Randall looked over at his desk where he had left it sitting and couldn’t help this foreboding feeling that crept down his spine.

Dreams and desires? Money would be nice.

He ran his hands through the dark disheveled mess that was his hair before deciding, why not?

Randall gingerly picked up the book and grabbed his lucky pen before opening it up to the first page and writing his first desire.

“I will receive a large windfall of money tomorrow,” speaking it out loud as he wrote made it feel real.

As he read over what he had written he started to feel foolish, he needed to focus on what was important, like paying his rent on time, not desires.

He threw the book back onto his desk and went to bed thinking nothing more of it.

The next morning the sun shone through the crack in his blinds forcing Randall awake. He had all but forgotten the black book from the day before as he focused on making his breakfast.

Thump, thump, thump!

Randall nearly jumped out of his skin as three loud bangs came from the front door. They didn’t sound urgent, more like alerting him to their presence.

He quickly ran to the door opening it to find the empty hallway of his apartment complex.

Randall looked down and there sitting on his welcome mat was a large black briefcase. He poked his head out again looking for sight of who had left it and saw not a soul. So he picked it up and brought it inside.

The briefcase looked quite fancy and was heavy, with a single small key hanging off of the handle.

Randall detached it and used it to open the briefcase when his breath caught in his throat.

Stack after stack of neatly bound 100 dollar bills filled the briefcase.

All he could do was stare open mouthed at the beautiful sight before him.

After several moments of deliberation he decided to count the stacks and came to the total of 20 grand.

Twenty thousand dollars, right here in his hands.

Goosebumps broke down Randall’s neck spreading down his  arms as he looked over at the little black book.

He went to it and opened the book finding a neat red check mark next to what he had written last night. He definitely did not add the check mark.

More goosebumps broke out across his body and his head felt light.

What the hell was going on?

He should turn this money in before something went wrong, but the desire to keep it was so strong. He could survive for so long with this kind of money, but the reality of it was that this was probably some kind of mistake.

So he quickly got dressed to head down to the police station, and hurried out with the briefcase and little black book in case they asked for more evidence.

But as soon as Randall set foot outside he saw that his car was being towed away.

He started running after the tow truck but he had already rounded the corner and was gone before Randall could even get close.

He fell to the curb in despair. What was he gonna do now?

Almost like a sirens call, the little black book came to his attention again.

Randall pulled out his lucky pen and began writing underneath yesterday’s entry.

“I have an amazing brand new car.”

He began feeling foolish again and put the little black book back into the briefcase.

“Excuse me sir, but are you Randall Williams?”

Randall looked up from the curb to see an older man with a clipboard standing next to him. He was dressed in a nice red business suit and he reminded him of the woman from yesterday with his intense stare.

“Yes?” Randall answered tentatively.

“Excellent, if I could just have you sign here on my contract, the keys will be all yours.”

He held his clipboard out to Randall while a set of car keys dangled in his other hand.

“Keys?”

He chucked and it seemed more frightening than friendly. “We’ll keys to your new car of course!”

“New car?” Randall repeated looking around until he saw it.

Sitting on the curb where his old car had been just moments before was a brand new red sports car. It looked like a new corvette, one that he had been drooling over just days prior.

“Yes sir, new and ready to go, just sign here and she’s all yours!”

Randall looked back at the man and felt unease at his smile and black cold eyes. “But I haven’t purchased anything and I don't have the money for this.”

If possible the mans demeanor changed slightly and seemed to radiate malice. “Sir, I assure you that everything is paid for and the car belongs fully to you. All you have to do is sign here on the bottom line and she is yours.”

Something told him not to do it but he found himself reaching for the clipboard nonetheless.

Randall signed his name and the man immediately snatched it back before he could read anything else.

The mystery man handed Randall the keys and then disappeared much like the woman from yesterday had.

He tried not to think too much about it as he approached the car and got in. The keys worked and the car roared to life before settling into a nice purr.

This is all too strange, he had to be dreaming, but even as Randall pinched himself repeatedly the car and briefcase were still there.

He looked at the small black book again, and yet again there was a red check mark next to his desire.

What in the world was going on?

Randall brought out his lucky pen again and wrote underneath the last desire a new one.

“I have a job that makes me enough money to afford the life I want.”

Before Randall could even finish writing the line, his phone started buzzing in his pocket.

He pulled it out and answered not recognizing the number.

“Hello?”

“Yes is this Randall Williams?” Came a woman’s soft voice.

“Yes this is he.”

“Excellent sir, I see here that you submitted your resume this morning for our database management position and we would love to have you join our company. Would I be able to schedule a meeting for you so we can go over the details of your new position?”

Randall couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He had never even went in for an interview and here she was offering him a job on the spot.

“Uh yes of course, what company is this again?”

“Oh of course sir, I apologize, it’s for a database managerial position at our company Charles and Co.”

Randall’s mouth fell open and he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Charles and co were the top company in IT sales.

“Shall I schedule a time for you to come in sir?”

“Yes! Yes of course, whatever time you have available next.”

“Will tomorrow at 9am work for you?”

“Yes that’s perfect.” He couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face.

“I have it noted, I’ll be seeing you tomorrow sir, have a wonderful day.”

“Yes you as well.”

Randall couldn’t fathom this. He looked over at the little black book with a new sense of awe.

What was this thing?

He opened it again and saw another red check mark next to his last desire. As well as a new line, an address.

Randall quickly put the address into his GPS and made his way to the location.

He needed answers and this seemed like the most likely place to get them.

When Randall arrived he pulled into a long driveway that lead up to a massive manor. The grounds were kept immaculate and everything seemed to scream money.

He made it to the front entrance where a demure man in a black suit greeted him and took his keys disappearing with his new car. Randall almost didn’t want to let him take it but he was sure he’d get it back.

Randall clutched the briefcase to his side and made his way up the concrete steps to the door.

Before he could even get close enough to knock the large wooden door opened with a small woman in a maids outfit holding it open for him.

“Thank you, am I supposed to meet someone here?” He asked walking in. 

She merely nodded at him before motioning for Randall to continue in.

He made it to the main foyer where his breath caught in his throat again.

The woman with the flaming hair from the previous day was elegantly laid out on a chaise drinking a glass of blood red wine. At least it looked like wine.

“You?” Randall couldn’t form the sentence.

“Hello Randy, it looks like we meet again.” Her voice was different this time, it seemed to drip with warning.

“What is going on?”

She drained the glass before throwing it into the lit fireplace. “Are you not satisfied with your hearts desires?”

Randall clutched the briefcase closer to him, “My hearts desires?”

“Yes, you see that book belongs to me and it grants the users deepest dreams and desires. Much like you have already seen.”

Unease and dread started to fill Randall. “Why did you give it to me?”

She cocked her head to the side in question. “Give? No, loaned is more like it. I very much intend to have it back.”

“I don’t understand any of this, why are you doing this?”

She broke out into a large unnerving smile that made Randall want to run for the hills.

“Because you have quite a delicious soul Mr. Williams.”

The voice from behind Randall came into view and his fear spiked as he recognized the man from earlier who had given him the car.

“Delicious soul?” Every fiber in his being told him to leave and leave now, but something about the way she stared at Randall kept him rooted in place.

“Yes Randall, you have quite the pure soul and you see I feed off of pure souls. But if a soul is too pure it’s toxic for me, so I like to taint them a little. Almost like fattening up a cattle for slaughter.” She said it so matter of fact with a bright smile it took him a few moments to fully absorb what she was saying.

Randall turned to run and leave but the man from before had grabbed him by the neck and his brute strength kept him pinned to the spot.

“Let me go, keep everything, I don’t want it!” He screamed panicking.

The woman’s eyes had turned completely black as she approached him, “Oh dear Randy, it’s much too late for that.”

She ran a finger down the side of Randall’s face and down to his neck where her cohort was holding him still.

“Please, please just let me go,” Randall begged with tears running down his face.

“You’ve full filled your desires Randy and now it’s my turn.”

The man released Randall as she grabbed his neck and bit down, her pearly teeth sinking in as she drained him of all his blood.

Randall’s last sight was the mans cold black stare as she drained him until his eyes fell out of focus and his lifeless body fell to the floor, never to rise again.