The Magic Book - [Malum Fanfic]

                I walked down the street with my hands in my pockets and sighed. I was walking to the antique shop to talk to Annie. Annie was the old lady who’s run the shop since before I was born. She’s always had wise things to tell me and I really admired her.

                “Hello, Annie,” I said with a smile as I walked into the shop. Nobody else really came into this shop since they expected it to all be junk, but there were usually 2 or 3 curious people.

                “Good morning, Calum,” she grinned back at him then whispered, “Did the medicine I gave to work? Did it really make your—“

                “Shhh, Annie. I was wondering if you had any good books here,” I said. Annie usually had books with meaningful themes.

                “Oh, yes. I know a book you’ll really like. Just found it a few days ago. I was saving it for you. Apparently it’s magic,” she whispered the last part.

                “How much?” I asked.

                “For you? I’ll give it to you for free,” she said, handing him the book, “You’ve already spent so much money here.”

                “Thanks, Annie,” I said, anxious to begin reading the book.

                As I walked home, I stared at the birds in the trees. I basically stared at everything except for where I was going, so I ended up bumping into Michael, one of the most popular guys in school, only his gang wasn’t with him.

                “I-I’m sorry,” I mumbled to the ground, avoiding eye contact.

                Michael didn’t say anything for awhile as I kept on walking constantly mumbling the world “stupid” to myself.

                “You dropped this,” Michael said, handing me the book, “Is this a journal?”

                “N-no,” I said, trying to walk away as fast as I could.

                “It’s okay, I’m not going to like eat you or anything. What’s that book about?” Michael asked, grabbing my arm causing me to uncomfortably tense up.

                “My diary,” I blurted out, immediately cursing to myself as I ran away.

                It wasn’t easy for me to talk to people. It was really only easy for me to talk to Annie. She just had this sort of soothing tone to her voice, and I’ve been going to her shop since I was 7 years old, ten years later and I still do.

                But now I have one of the most popular guys in school believing I own a diary. And now he’s going to tell everyone and everyone’s going to call me names. How fantastic.

                When I got home I ran into my room and opened the book, it was empty. I turned through every single page when I saw writing on one of them:

                Instructions:

1.       Write what you want to name your book on the first page.

2.       Write someone’s first and last name down after your title disappears

3.       After their first and last name disappears, write down what you want to happen to them.

I got out a pen and carefully decided what I would name my book, and trust me, I had a lot of ideas. I was going to name it “The Magic Book,” or maybe “Zeus” or maybe “Fuck with people’s lives,” but in the end, I named it Annie.

                The book flipped back to the cover and the word “Annie,” appeared in cursive on the front. I opened it again and wrote the name Michael Clifford. After his name disappeared I scribbled, “Forget I said this book was a diary.”

                The words disappeared and I closed the book. I had no idea what to do with it yet, so I hid it under my bed and watched television until it was time for bed.