Wrong Wish

On this beautiful summer day, as I drive through this windy road with so much bushland and rainforest with my windows down, I can feel the breeze blow through my hair.

I’m driving up this hill and my car starts to thump, back and forth like jolt, lights are flashing in my car but I don't know anything about cars and suddenly my car turns off and I'm almost at the top of the hill!

All I can think is "oh crap", I had to roll back, luckily my breaks work, I slowly backed down, no other cars are around, and there's a little bit of space on the side of the road for me to put the car. I get out of the car and start kicking the car grunting in anger. Check my phone to call someone but there's no reception, I think "screw this, I need a walk".

I wander off into the bush next to the car with my phone hoping to find some reception. Around 20-30 metres in, I find a black notebook that's around the size of my hand, as I pick it up I hear the sound of wind but I look around and I didn't see any wind or even feel it! I look in it and the first page says "Choose an empty page, write your name and what you want".

I look through the book and see peoples names and things normal people would want, I look all the way to the end and nothing else, only around a dozen empty pages left. I put it in my back pocket and see if my phone has reception yet, it does and I call my friend Cherry to pick me up and take me home.

When I get home, I think about all the things I would want. I'm not one to be too greedy but some thoughts were wanting a million dollars, but I don't need that much so I tried to think of all I would need.

Maybe if I start off with writing $20,000 down and see what happens, I wrote my name, Chelsea Freds, then wrote below "1. $20,000" after I wrote it down I heard the wind, but again I didn't feel or see any wind. I waited all night and nothing else happened, I thought "oh well, I'm going to sleep".

I woke up the next morning to the sound of 3 slow knocks on the door, I mumbled out "hold on I'm coming." When I opened the door there was no one there, only a suitcase on the door mat. I took it inside, opened it on my bed and there was so much money stacked very neatly, I counted it all and it was exactly $20,000. "HOLY CRAP! FUCK YEAH!" I was so incredibly happy, jumping around my room, kicking the air, throwing the money up and saying "I made it rain, bitches!" and thinking, this book is magical, what else can I get out of it? No, no, no greediness, just spend this money on what I need, and what I need is a new car.

I called Cherry to drive me to the car dealership about 20 minutes away, she asked me where I got the money from and I told her it was a secret. I bought a brand new Toyota Corolla for $15,000. On my drive back home I wondered what I was going to spend the left over $5,000 on, but for now I need food.

I went and got a burrito from the mexican place near mine, it was so delicious that I wanted another, but an hour later I started vomiting as the burrito had given me food poisoning!

The next day Cherry and I decided to go to a waterfall for a swim. On the windy road up there, I drove around a corner and collided with a car who was driving in the middle of the road. Cherry wasn't wearing her seatbelt and she flew through the windscreen and landed on the bonnet. I had hit my head on the steering wheel, but I was ok, I got out of the car and checked to see if Cherry was ok, her head was facing the other way so I couldn't see her face, "Cherry, are you ok? Cherry?"

I walked around the car to see her face, her eyes were wide open and soulless with blood coming out of her mouth, I dropped to the floor screaming and crying, a minute after, I got up and checked the people in the other car, there were 2 people in the car and I could see that they were both dead too. I freaked out and continued to cry on the ground. Someone drove around the corner and almost crashed into us, he pulled over to stop, he got out and asked what happened and if everyone's ok, all I could say was "Please call the police and ambulance." And so he did.

After the police came they took me in for questioning, I was in too much shock to say anything, eventually they just asked if the other driver was in the middle of the road when we collided after gathering enough information and I said "yes." They told me I could go home until the court date having to wear an ankle tracker.

When I got home, I picked up the little black book and wrote 2. Keep me out of jail. Again, I heard the wind without feeling or seeing it. I then checked my social media and the news about the car crash was everywhere, I even got death threats from Cherry and the 2 other peoples' loved ones. I didn't answer anyone, instead I was so upset and broken I threw my phone against the wall, I grabbed my guitar and started smashing my room. Once I had calmed down, my emotions had made me so exhausted that I just cried myself to sleep.

Next morning, again I woke up to 3 slow knocks on the door. I got up to check it, and there was a man in a suit who said to me "Hello Chelsea, after the investigation, we found there were no charges to make against you, the fact that the other car was in the middle of the road set you free, we can take the tracker off you now."

"So, no court or trial or anything?" I questioned,

"No, you are free."

"Alrighty then." I said calmly in way that I was confused and wanted to be happy that I'm not going to jail, but this is just too weird, I feel like I should be locked up.

After the man in the suit left, I went back to the little black book, I read through it closely to see if there were any hints or anything else about the book. Some of the lists I noticed started off with normal stuff people wanted, but then went to weird stuff people needed, like one went from 1. True love. Then to 2. Help me disappear.

Most lists didn’t go further than 5 wishes, a lot ended with asking for help and it all got weirder making it more suspicious. I looked up on social media for some of the names of the people written in the book, one was call Sophia Prat, I messaged her and asked to meet up and she said yes.

I met up with her in a park near mine, I brought the book ready to ask her about it, I sat and waited for her on a big dead log, she popped up behind me and asked if I was Chelsea and I said yes and told her to sit down with me, Sophia looked dirty with torn up clothes and dirt all over her. I straight up asked her "What happened to you when you had this book?" I held it out in front of her and saw her face go green.

"Get rid of that book now!" She said fearfully,

"Not until I get more answers!" I said stubbornly,

"You want answers? I'll tell you, that book is evil, at first it's like 'yay I can get whatever I want', but it has a throwback of fucked up-ness. You have to throw it away and hope no one else ever finds it."

"What did it do to you?"

"Look at me, that book fucked up my life, I asked for a new house and it burned down right after I moved everything in so I lost all my possessions, I asked for love and support, it gave me a fucked up boyfriend who supported my suicidal thoughts and then he killed himself right in front of me. Now I'm homeless, broke and mentally fucked up, don't write anything else in that book, just throw it away." She got up and walked away.

When I got home, I had thought about what Sophia said about throwing it away but I didn’t think that’d work in case someone else finds it, and I thought maybe I could burn it, so I took it outside, made a little fire in my yard and threw the book in it.

A minute later and it still hasn't burnt the book, I put out the fire and grabbed the book, there weren't any flames on it and it wasn't even hot. I looked through the book again and noticed that underneath the lists was some more writing that appeared saying stuff like "What the hell is happening?!" "HELP ME" "Don't touch this book" "If you find this book get rid of it asap!"

The book started to shake, it scared me so much I dropped it on the floor, I started to hear whispers coming from the book, I couldn't take it anymore. I figured I could bury it, so I grabbed the book and my shovel, walked down the end of my street where there is some bushland and dug a hole, buried the notebook in a metre deep.

I went home calm and relieved. I felt I could finally mourn the death of my friend Cherry and made a little circle of flowers in my yard and burnt a rose candle in the middle of it. I felt the need to lie down in the flower circle, I laid there for a hours just crying and thinking of my memories with Cherry.

After dark I decided to order a pizza and didn't leave the flower circle until the delivery man arrived, then went inside to eat it.

The next day I woke up to 3 slow knocks. My heart ponded in my chest, I thought "what the hell.." I got up and opened my front door, and the little black notebook was there on my door mat. I freaked out and yelled "WHAT THE FUCK!" I picked it up and took it to where I buried it, the hole was still covered. Did someone dig it up and leave it here? Is it so magical that it just appeared here on its own? Whatever it was, I was so incredibly sick of it. I wrote in it "3. Kill me." And waited for the next day to arrive.

Woke up to 3 slow knocks, it was a someone in a black cloak, I couldn't see his face, he put his finger out to touch me, when he did, everything went black, then white, I realised I was dead when I saw Cherry.

At least I'm away from that little black hellish notebook.