The Black Book

The Black Book

By Philip Volosov

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For the first time in many hours, Sarah was alone. She opened her bags and began to unpack. She was going to stay at Mr. Thompson’s house for the summer. As a girl of only fourteen years old, she was very mature and well educated for her age. He parents had decided to tour Europe for the summer. Mr. Linden, a close family friend, had offered to take care of her during the months her mother and father were away.

The trip had been a long one. She had gotten up early to leave for the train station. Once there, she had to wait for the departure of her train. She got onboard the train with only strangers to accompany her. Her eyes gazed out the window as the train departed and looked upon the faces of her parents for the last time. On the train she categorized three kinds of people. There were those who completely ignored her. These were the majority. Then there were several, usually dirty looking men, who looked at her viciously. These scared her. However, the third group of people took to her kindly. Sarah was quite thankful to them. An old lady sat down next to her and talked for a while. She asked her where she was headed, why she was alone, and so on. There was also a man who sat down next to her. He smiled at her and asked if she was nervous. When Sarah replied “yes,” he told her not to worry and that nothing ever bad happens on train trips. Little else was said, but he sat there next to her and she felt safe with him there.

Mr. Thompson had met her at the train station and from there they rode for an hour or so into the country. When she had finally reached Mr. Thompson's summer house, Sarah was more than relieved to be shown to her room and relax. She hung her clothing in the closet but did little else. She decided that when the time came to be, she would take whatever she needed out of the bags. Her bed was a big and comfortable one. She lay down to rest and was asleep moments after her head touched the pillow.

Later that evening, Sarah was awakened for dinner. She and Mr. Thompson spent the meal making small talk. It was soon discovered that they both shared the same passion for books. After dinner, Mr. Thompson showed Sarah his library. The room was one of the biggest in the house. It had two floors and contained many shelves completely filled with books.

“This is why I come here during the summer,” he beamed. “I love to get away and read. I only have three rules here. The first is that I ask you to be careful with my books. Many are very old. I’d hate for them to be damaged. The magic in their stories would die. I’d also like for you to put the books back where you got them from. If you don’t remember where the book goes, set it on this desk here and I’ll place it back.”

Mr. Thompson then took a more serious tone as he looked down at the girl. “And my final rule is the most important one. There is a book in a black cover with no title. All its pages are blank save the first. The first page says, ‘This is the story of Eden.’ Do not read that book.”

The weeks passed by and generally Sarah saw very little of Mr. Thompson. He was always in his study. Sarah didn’t quite know what went on in there, but on several occasions she saw him entering with a book or two. She herself had found a nice spot to read in the living room on a couch by the fire. The scope of books in the library was fascinating. Sarah could live a lifetime here in bliss doing nothing but reading. There were so many books on so many different subjects. Soon, however, Sarah found a problem with the vast size of the library. She found that many of the books were average, if not downright poor. While there were plenty of great books for her to read, finding them became an issue. She found herself reading a book for about an hour before critiquing it and deciding whether to move on or not.

While Sarah was interested in reading most all the categories provided to her in Mr. Thompson’s library, she was drawn specifically to the fantasy fiction section. She found that those books, if rich in detail and plot, could paint a new world for her to explore like no other genre of books could. She loved that the physics of this world did not apply. Anything could happen. This gave way to allowing the authors to come up with entirely new and refreshing conflicts. It kept her mind busy.

It was in the fantasy fiction section of the library that one day Sarah came across the book Mr. Thompson had spoken of. Sure enough, it had a black cover with no title. At first she had mistaken it for a bible. That’s actually what caught her attention. She giggled at the thought of the bible being in fantasy fiction. Taking the book from its shelf, she was surprised to see the book was very old. The paper was rough and uneven. Out of curiosity, she opened it up. The pages were blank. Thinking it may be a diary, Sarah flipped to the first page. It simply said, in handwriting, This is the story of Eden.

At this point she remembered that this was the book that Mr. Thompson had warned her about, and she was about to close it, but her impulse to slam the book shut was hesitated as she saw that more had appeared on the page. And as she read what was written, even more appeared. She realized that in order for the book to reveal its text it had to be read from the beginning, not skipping over a single word.

Sarah took the book and placed it between two others she had picked out. Making sure that the identity of the book was hidden, Sarah quickly left the library and made her way to her usual reading spot on the couch to read. Cautiously looking around for Mr. Thompson, she made sure it was safe to start. And so she began to read the forbidden book.

Two hours in Sarah was hooked. The book told an alternate beginning of the world. It told of a world where demons hunted men. It was a world where men committed awful deeds to survive. God didn’t exist. And despite all the evil which the book described, it was in a sense paradise. It was a place where man’s sickest desires were granted. The savage men described in the book enjoyed themselves with no moral restraint whatsoever. In this world pain was pleasure, and pleasure was pain.

Normally Sarah would have been horrified by such a novel, but something about it hooked her. It seemed so real. She could escape into that world easier than any other she had discovered through books. A feeling crept from the book’s pages and into her body. It was one she could not describe. Her senses were heightened. She felt more than human, she felt enlightened. It was as if every single emotion was taken to an extreme. And for the first time in her life, she felt her soul.

Suddenly Sarah shut the book. For some reason panic had stricken her. She wasn’t worried about the fact that she had been reading the book Mr. Thompson had specifically told her not to read. She needed to make sure that he never found out. An urge overtook her to hide the book. Getting, up, she swiftly picked up the books and took them to her room. Guided by some force, she let her hands be drawn to loose floorboard near her closet. Pulling it up, she put the book down into the hole. She went back to her couch and began to read some other book she had picked up. This one didn’t quite grab her in the same way, and she soon found her thoughts wandering back to the book hidden in her room. Without that book, her senses settled down again. She felt empty. After comparing feeling she had while reading the book to feeling like a normal human being again, she felt almost nothing.

It wasn’t long afterwards that Mr. Thompson came storming into the room. He looked at the book she was reading and looked around her.

“Ok, where is it?” he demanded.

“Where’s what?” She surprisingly pulled off her voice without a hint of deception. Sarah had never lied in her life. She had never needed to.

“The book! The book I told you never to read. It’s missing, now where is it?”

“I don’t have it.”

“Don’t lie to me, child. You have no idea what that book is. If you’ve been reading it, you should know it’s not of this world. Please, trust me. Give it back.”

“But I don’t have it!”

Seeing that he was going to get nowhere with the girl, Mr. Thompson searched her bag. Finding nothing he marched away to her room. Sarah followed without a hint of caring. The book was safe. He moved the bed, looked behind the closet, and any other place he could think of. He found nothing.

“Child, I will tear this whole place down to find that book. I should have kept it locked up. I promised your parents I would keep you safe. That book is not good for you. Trust me, give it back.”

“I don’t have your book!” Sarah protested yet again.

“Fine,” muttered Mr. Thompson.

That night he went from room to room in the house tearing it apart. Each room held not the treasure he was seeking. Finally Mr. Thompson came to the library. Tears in his eyes, he started to carry the books out into the living room. He checked every single book. He searched every shelf. He emptied his giant library entirely. The black book was nowhere to be found. And while Mr. Thompson was tearing away the heart of his happiness, Sarah watched from the stairway down at him with a cold, uncaring look in her eye.

That night Mr. Thompson kept watch over the girl. He pulled up a chair outside her open door and watched her as she lay in bed and stared back at him. Slowly, hate for this man filled her heart. All she wanted to do was read a book, and this man was determined to prevent her from doing so.

She could tell that he was exhausted, and shortly he was asleep. Sarah didn’t know how she knew, but somehow she was sure that Mr. Thompson was in a very deep sleep. He wasn’t going to be awakened by anything. She took out the book from under the floorboard and headed down to her couch. The flames were dying out so she put more logs into the fireplace. She lay there and opened to book. She continued to read her story.

As soon as she started she was again amazed at the depth of this book. The story it told seemed so real to her. The further she got into the book, the more she began to believe in it. It became her reality more and more the closer that she got to the end. This book became her education. It was what she needed to know to go on, a requirement to enter the world. She felt excitement. It was as if a promise was made that soon she would enter this world of horror, torture, demons, and damnation. It was Satan’s rule of Earth, and it seemed so right to her. Sarah felt trapped in the real world. She wanted it no longer. The world she was in seemed like an emotionless hell. The world in her book was paradise. She wanted to imprison herself forever in this new reality she had found.

Mr. Thompson woke up with a start. His heart was already racing. Jumping up, he saw that Sarah’s bed was empty. Running down the stairs he called her name. It was early morning. He made his way into the living room and saw Sarah’s body. She was still sitting upright with the book in her hands. A single tear of blood had dripped from each eye and landed on an almost black page. Like many before her, the book had claimed her soul, and now she was trapped in the world she had come to adore.

 

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