The Little Black Book

Augustus was walking on Fifth Avenue after he had been kicked out of his mother’s house. She had had enough of his lousy attitude towards life. For most of his 17 years he had been getting in fights with his classmates because he was teased about his dirty old clothes and rough appearance. Shoes with holes and dirty feet were always leaving a waft of a decay each time he passed by. His sewed-up backpack could hardly hold his books in, and his jeans were frayed and full of holes. What bothered him the most? His haircut. His frizzy, wavy, and oily hair was an embarrassment. Luckily for him though, he had found a hat thrown in the trash just a few months ago. He was still uncomfortable and had an itchy head most of the time but with the hat he managed to hide most of the flaws.

He allowed others to get under his skin because he had no respect for himself. His judgmental classmates and his toxic surroundings held him hostage in his own body. Unloved by his family and with no friends, or any compassion from the world he had given himself permission to act impulsively and with aggressive behaviour that always got him in trouble.

Augustus went home after school one Friday evening. His mum Ava had received a phone call from his school at around 2pm earlier that day. He tried to walk in on his tippy toes so he could go to his room without being noticed. He knew he was in trouble. The old rusty entrance door creaked loudly and with such disappointment Augustus knew that he was heard. Little did he know though that his mum had been waiting by that door for thirty minutes now. She was standing and waiting for him with her hands in fists and her mouth closed so tightly because she desperately wanted him to hear her exhaling loudly. Her sweaty red face looked like she had been in the hot kitchen all day and her tensed body looked as if she could easily strain a muscle. She clenched her jaw, exhaled one more time and with a trembling voice she said, “Get out Aug.”

“Please let me explain, it wasn’t my fault”, Augustus pleaded.

“Last time you got into a fight, I told you if you did it again, I would kick you out,” Ava reminded him.

Without being given a chance to explain himself, Augustus ran out the door, but his loosened laces caused him to trip on the last step of the porch. Even though he was humiliated, covered in mud and desperate for forgiveness, he looked over his shoulder straight into her eyes one last time. No, not even his teary eyes broke that woman’s concrete heart. She found a final opportunity to be clear and reminded him that he was not welcome. “Don’t you EVER come back here; do you hear me?” Ava repeated.

***

Lost, alone and trying to find shelter in the rainy late afternoon Aug came across an abandoned two-storey house. The grass surrounding the house was 6 feet tall and was filled with hundreds of gigantic poisonous mushrooms. The house was leaning to the right and the windows had pallets nailed across them. Half of the roof was missing, and the main door was upside down.

He knew this was a dangerous place to hide however he had no choice but to spend the night there. He walked to the entrance and opened the door with ease. The smell of freshly brewed coffee wafted through the door as he took his first steps onto the stunning spotless marble floor. The high green ceilings sparkled, and the white walls shined. A strong difference from the outside aesthetics. The empty living room did not really raise his curiosity, so he decided to continue upstairs. He took the twenty stairs cautiously, leaving a trail of muddy footprints behind. The second floor caught him by surprise because he had to walk through spider webs, monstrous snails crawling on the walls, hissing snakes hanging from the ceiling and buckets full of golden frogs.

After passing all these mysterious obstacles he came to an old dusty chest. He opened it without hesitation ignoring the sign on the chest that read, "Facite non patentibus.”

The chest released a green light into the room that came from a 5”-by-8” classic little black book that had an elastic strap barely keeping it closed. He grabbed it slowly, took the elastic off and opened it to the first page. The book had specific instructions that asked, “if lost please return to Augustus Forte,” and it offered a reward of $20 000.

“Please move the grey and black ribbons to the next page and sign the contract so you can receive your money”, the little black book had printed on its first page. Aug with excitement and a lightened spirit, immediately signed the contract while dreaming of the money. He then shut the book so viciously that dust particles clouded his face.

The book released a bigger burst of green light into the room and it suddenly transformed Augustus into a Herculean figure. His deltoids, pecs and traps were clearly defined as if his muscles had just been pumped with steroids. His muscles were now solid as a rock, effortlessly transformed by the magic. Each eye was a light blue canvas speckled in white that radiated from his iris. His ashy grey hair was a silky wave that curled over his forehead. On the sides his hair was shorter and a few shades darker that created a noticeable contrast. He was a breathtaking piece of art created by the magical book. The massive electron waves crossing the airy gap from the book to Aug flung him a few steps backwards causing him to trip over his old pile of clothes that now lay at his feet. He stood now in a brand-new tailored suit. The green light fell away from Aug to the floor, and unbeknownst to him slowly absorbed into his clothes. Suddenly a 7 ft tall clothing creature stood before him.

“Who are you?” Aug asked the creature.

“I am Chlamys”, he replied. “I thought you would recognize me.”

“Don’t be tricked by your disguise nor your reward, the money won’t solve anything,” Chlamys hinted.

“I am not going to listen to a pile of clothes that was just put together to scare me away,” Aug snapped at him while rolling his eyes. “I am not like you anymore. Finally my time to shine has come. The book is giving me $20,000. I can buy clothes, phones, computers, everything I ever wanted. Then I will be loved,” he added.

"So, tell me, what do I have to do in order to get the money that was promised to me?” asked Aug.

“You will get $1000 every time you kill a relative of yours. You have 20 relatives all together. It does not matter who you kill first. You can stop at any time, but you will only receive your money if you complete each kill,” the creature informed him.

“They don’t care for me, so this will be so easy”, Aug said out loud with a smirk.

“It wouldn’t have chosen you if you didn’t have anyone,” replied Chlamys with great disappointment. Chlamys shook his head and got out of his way.

Thirsty for his reward, he ran down the stairs, slammed the door behind him, ran to his uncle’s house and killed his three cousins and their parents. He committed this act while they were asleep. He used his magic to suck all the oxygen out of the house, leaving them to asphyxiate. Without a drop of blood anywhere, he slowly walked away with his hands in his pockets while whistling his favourite song. After twenty minutes of walking, he arrived back at his new house and with his dry steady hand and low heart rate he reached and opened the door. The freshly brewed coffee smell escaping from the open door possessed him and lured him toward the back of the room where his coffee pot was. It was when he was forced to pass by all the statues that he realized that they were the ones who he had murdered. His icy heart temporarily cracked when he saw his younger cousin holding his now solidified favourite hat that he had gifted him. He looked at his cousin, reassured himself that he had done the right thing and went back upstairs. Unshaken, he sat down with his cup of coffee next to the chest and opened the little black book. He had his first sip and then turned over the page and saw his cousin’s portrait beautifully drawn with lots of colours and motion. There were five additional pages that had been drawn on since the last time. The book showed Aug his victims. He thought it might be trying to perhaps convince him to stop at only $5000. A single tear ran down his cheek, but it might have been the dust.

As the weeks passed and his greediness grew greater than ever, his family kept getting smaller. He continued to spend lavishly with his newfound riches. The first floor was getting fuller with statues and it was making it harder for him to get his coffee after every kill.

One last blank page was left to be drawn and then the book would be filled. The last relative that he could kill was his mother. The woman that had told him to never return.

Blinded by rejection he went straight to his mother’s house and rang the bell. “I see you still haven’t fixed the creaky old door,” Aug commented. “I thought I told you to never come back here,” retorted Ava. Augustus looked straight into her eyes and with his piercing gaze destroyed her with a ray of electrons.

Augustus went home and admired his new statue addition. His collection was up to his standards now. He had added the missing piece. Aug was so stubborn and bitter he could not see past his anger. It did not matter how colourful those pictures were, he could not make the effort to forgive them. He killed everyone he knew, including what was left of his humanity. When Ava was killed by Augustus, back at home the Little Black Book suddenly radiated powerful magic and killed Chlamys by setting him on fire. When he returned, he walked around the room, sipping his coffee, surrounded by his family, alone.

The End