One simple request

Carmen looked down at the table and pinched the bridge of her nose.

Across from her, Sean sat with a look of sour disgust on his face. The math should work but neither of them is good at math is seemed. Carmen sighed and then looked at the calendar, trying to cram the time into a way that would work.

“I could go give plasma.” Sean said softly, “It would give us two hundred dollars.”

Carmen scoffed, “We need more than six hundred to pay these bills. You and I don’t get paid for another week and even if we both gave plasma; we would still be two hundred dollars short.”

Sean pulled on his lip piercing and then met her eyes with his. His eyes looked like pools of water. Carmen had never cared for her amber colored eyes, but Sean always said they looked like gold in the right light. His dark brown hair was shaggy and all but hanging in his face. Carmen tugged on her curly hair and then snorted. She often debated if they should give up their respectable jobs for something a little less than proper. Their friend worked at the strip club and made bank every other week.

Carmen let her head drop onto the table and gave a groan. Sean pet her hair and promised that they would figure it out. Carmen sighed and then got up with a slump in her shoulders. She opened the fridge and nothing greeted her. She opened and closed the door a few times and nothing popped into existence. Sean said he would go out and get them something.

“With what money?” Carmen sighed, “We are so broke that if we had twenty-five cents, we would be rich. Sean, I think we might need a hail Mary here.”

A pound sounded at their door and they looked at each other. Sean gave a chuckle, “Maybe it’s the landlord telling us we owe him money now.”

Carmen sat back down in her chair and sighed. Sean came back in with a large box and it had her name on it. Sean got her the box cutter and Carmen racked her brain for what could have been ordered and for how much. As she opened it, both her and Sean saw it was full of money and a little black book was sitting on top of the money. Carmen grabbed the book and opened it up. Inside was a little pen and a note on the first page.

Miss Carmen Iglesias,

Inside of this box is $20,000 and it is yours along with this little black book. The book is important and so long as you follow the rules written inside of it, you will get $20,000 every day. If you do not want the book and all of its reasonability, then you two things will need to happen. First, the money will have to be spent all in one day and second, you will have to send the boo to someone else. These rules apply all the time, if you chose to change your mind later.

Carmen looked up at Sean as he counted the money on the table. She turned the page on the first page was written in elegant hand writing one simple request. Kill your friend. Carmen looked at Sean and how happy he looked. She tucked the little black book into her back pocket and moved toward the kitchen drawer. She opened it with her heart beating a mile a minute in her chest. She grabbed the butcher knife and looked at it.

Carmen would not ever be able tell anyone how she killed Sean since she never got the courage to do it. She grabbed the little black book and the pencil. She wrote under the request that she couldn’t do it. She watched as writing appeared in the book. It made her blood turn cold. The words were so simple yet so deadly. Then we’ll have to think of something else for you to do.

Carmen felt like her mouth was dry and she blurted out, “Let’s go pay all the bills we are behind on and then go spend the rest of it like rock stars.”

Sean laughed and they made quick work of getting the bills paid in cash and then going out to spend the rest of the money. By the time 11:30 at night rolled around, they still had three hundred dollars left. Carmen bit her lip and looked around. They only had thirty more minutes to spend the money. Sean looked around then down an alley. Sean pointed down it and said they should go that way, try to find a drug dealer. He said he always wanted to try coke.

Carmen nodded her head and as luck would have it, they did find a drug dealer. Sean handed him the three hundred dollars and was given a very large sandwich bag. It was filled with white powder. The drug dealer explained to Sean that it was a pure cut and taking too much might kill him. Sean nodded along but Carmen would bet he didn’t hear a thing. As they walked home, Sean kept sticking his finger in the bag and licking white powder off his fingers. They went into their little apartment and Sean went into the bathroom.

Carmen sat down at the kitchen table and pulled the little black book out of her pocket. She read the words on the page over and over again. None of it made any sense. She grabbed her hair and tugged on it. The sound of a pencil on paper was heard and her eyes flew up. The words being written made no sense to her. The little black book had written, see it wasn’t that hard to kill your friend.

Carmen got up and went to the bathroom. The door was unlocked. She threw the door open and saw Sean, gasping for breath on the floor. Carmen took a step back, then another. Then another. She went back into the kitchen and sat down at the table. Her world was out of focus. She looked down at the little black book. She grabbed the pencil attached to it.

How do I get rid of the body? She wrote.

What body? The book wrote back.

Carmen frowned and went back to the bathroom. No one was inside. She walked back to the book and glared down at it. She grabbed the pencil again. Now what?

What are you willing to do for money? The book asked her.

Carmen honestly didn’t know.