The Book

A short story that i had to write for a project for school, lol. Anyways, it is about a teen who is telling his story to someone about how he found a book that had his whole life story in it. Enjoy.

The Book

I’m not going to lie. Nope, not at all. Whenever I tell one of my friends what happened they always tell me how cool it sounds or how awesome it must of been to of gone through something like that. In reality, it was the scariest experience I have ever been through in my entire life. And if I could go back and sort of rewrite what happened, I would of made it so it never happened in the first place.

I have to make this kind of quick because I have stuff to do and places to go. So dont judge me if this is short and if you have lots of questions in the end, but bear with me and just try to understand as much as possible. It all really began when I found the book.

We were walking down Conti St. Me and my friend Chris, that is. We lived on Conti St. and were basically neighbors. We lived about two houses apart, so ya, neighbors. Anyways, we were walking down the street, heading towards the park, Louis Armstrong park, and please remember this because I don't feel like repeating the name of every place I come across twice. I feel like it would take up to much of our time.

Every time we walk there we have to pass up St. Louis cemetery. The first one of many. The park was a common attraction and Chris and I went there alot, passing the cemetary almost everyday. I guess because of that, the cemetary never really bothered us much. We were passing it up, Chris’s long, dark, brown hair slowly flowing along with the slight breeze that was amidst. His long, fairly built body moving easily and with confidence. He worked out often. I was never one for working out.

“Who do you think is playing tonight?” he asked

There was always some kind of jazz band playing in the park, filling the green scenery with a smooth rhythm that almost made it feel like heaven.

“No Idea,” I responded

“Not even a guess?”

“Nope.” I said as I was looking down at my feet, making sure I don’t trip on any of the little cracks that were in the sidewalk.

We got to the park and sure enough, there were three guys already at the center of the park playing there own style of jazz. Everyone else at the park that was watching fell in tune with the music, swaying softly back and forth. And that was how most of the night was going to play out. Almost everyday, we came here and picked a nice spot in the grass to chill. We would listen to who ever new was here and talked about, well, we talked about normal stuff I guess. School, sports, girls, new movies we saw or the new games we played recently. It was what we referred to as “The Chill Spot” and we would stay till’ the sun goes down.

It was coming around 7 and the sun was starting to fade away. We were walking back from the park. I was a little resentful that we couldn’t just stay there forever. It was a silent walk back. Mostly because everything we had to say, we already said at the park. It was okay though. It wasn’t one of those awkward silences. It was more of a kind of peaceful silent that you could enjoy. There was now just barely a sliver of light coming out from over the edge of the world. We were passing by the cemetery. Maybe it was just me, but while we were passing by it, I felt a change. I wasn't sure what it was. Maybe a change in the wind or temperature. But I felt it.

“Hey, dude,” Chris said as he tapped my shoulder, “see that over there.” He was pointing over to a tomb with candles all around it, and flowers decorating it in every way possible.

“Ya? What about it?” I asked

“Right there,” He pointed at what appeared to be a book right in front of the tomb, “That book.”

“Do you finally wanna start catching up on all that literature that you missed over the years?”

“Ha, no, but I do think we should check it out. What if it has all of Marie’s secret spells that could make us billionaires in there?”

“Ya, I’m good. You have fun with that.” I stated. I just wasn’t really one for stealing a book off the Great Marie Laveau’s grave. It's not like I believed in curses or anything. I just wasn't comfortable with it, you know?

“Come on Kyle, Lets just check it out.”

I eventually caved in and we walked towards the Great Marie Laveau’s grave. Marie’s tomb is also a big attraction here in New Orleans. She has been long dead now but people still come everyday and lay flowers down or any gifts they had for her in hopes that she will use her magical powers or what not to make their wishes come true.

I never really actually did any research on her or anything, but from the rumors and stories I heard from family and locals alike, I guess back in the 1800’s she was this big voodoo queen. She was well known for being isolated and also for her potions that were supposed to have great healing properties to them. There is also a creepy factor to her as well, because what kind of voodoo master wouldn’t. Not only did she specialize in the healing arts but some darker supernatural stuff as well. Apparently she got married to some guy named Jacques who “mysteriously” disappeared about a year later with no body to be found.

She had two children with him. Both who died young. She did eventually get married to some other dude and had around 15 children with him. A Lot of them died. I'm not sure how many survived or how the ones that died, died, but they are all dead now. So I guess it doesn't matter too much anymore.

Anyways, Sometime in the late 1880’s, she finally died. Her tomb was brought here. People do have doubts about whether her body was even actually in there. But I'm not going to go and try to find out. There are also stories and rumors circling around that some people even saw here walking among the graves, prowling for a body to take over or something. Besides all of that, I guess if you do make an offering to her and ask her to grant you a wish, you go on with life as normal. But if your wish does come true, you are suppose to return and mark three X’s on her tomb. It was covered in x’s.

And that was the story of the Great Marie Laveau. Things are going to start to pick up a little from here so don't get lost, ok? We got to the tomb and I casually picked up the book to inspect it. It was a pretty plain book. No title printed on it and all the pages inside were empty. It was when I was flipping through all the pages to see if I could find anything that we heard a noise coming from somewhere in the cemetery. A voice no doubt. It was a woman's voice and Chris and I got so scared that it was the Great Marie Laveau coming to claim our lives, that we ran out. And when I say ran, I mean we ran. Like all the way back to our houses kind of ran. It wasn't till then that I realized that I took the book with me. My heart was beating and it was dark out so we said our quick goodbyes and went to our houses.

I only live with my mom. My dad died when I was 4 and neither I nor my mom knew exactly what happened. We always just kind of blamed it on he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. For the next thirteen years, it's always just been mom and I. She already had food made when I walked in. I remember walking right past her as she was asking how my day was and just going straight to my room. Feel bad about it now, but I guess you really just don't tend to think about that kind of stuff during the moment, huh?

I threw the book on my bed and looked at myself in the little mirror that hung up in my room. My black hair was a mess because I never bothered to do it. I stared. Stared at how one of my green eyes were slightly darker than the other. Stared at my wrinkled shirt and at my hand me down jacket. Stared at all the little imperfections. And frowned. Every time I looked at that mirror, I became more and more self conscious.

When I turned around and looked at the book, it was different. It had something written on it. I walked over and looked at the title which said ukuphila. At that point I didn’t know what was going on. When I flipped through all the pages, each and every single one of them had words upon words inscribed on them. I was a little freaked out but decided to sit on my bed and start reading through it anyways.

It was interesting, yet, creepy. It started off with a baby being born. How when the baby was born, love was filled into the father's eyes. How the mother couldn't wait to hold her baby in her arms and cuddle with him. It became instantly wierd when the parents decided to name their child Kyle. I kept reading for what seemed like hours, fascinated at how detailed it made everything sound, and how everything that was there, I could relate to. The father in the story represented everything I imagined my father would be. Then it got to the part where it explained how the boy, or Kyle, was four… and how his father was murdered.

I threw the book down then. I was breathing hard. Scared. There was actually no way that what was in there could actually be in there. On the verge of hyperventilating, I forced myself to breath and calm down. Running out of patient, I picked up the book and started flipping through it rapidly, skimming the pages, slowly realizing what this book really was. It was a book about me. Everything about me. Things that happened to me that I never told anyone and stuff about me that I never even knew.

I kept flipping and flipping until I got to the part where Chris and I went to the grave to get the book. Then I stopped. I was only about a quarter way through the book and all the rest of the pages were filled. Which means it must have much more than what already happen to me. I flipped past the part of me coming to my room and reading it and flipped past where i’m at now.

It said something about my phone ringing and me explaining frantically to chris what was happening. No sooner than a few minutes of me reading that, my phone began to ring. I checked the caller id and it said Chris. I answered and held the phone up to my ear.

“Hello,” I said.

“Yo,” It was definitely chris, “do you still have that book?”

I went off a little and started explaining everything that happened since he went to his house, and how the book was basically the book of my life. We talked for hours about it, till’ we came up with what sounded like a solid plan to us. I would read just a day ahead, see all the mistakes I would make throughout the day, and try to fix every single one to make it a perfect day.

Once we hung up, I continued to read the book to see what I would do tomorrow. Tomorrow, I would leave the house not doing my hair. Chris and I would hang out and talk most of the day until we decide to head over to the park. I would trip on one of the cracks on the way over there, falling and scraping my arms up. We would get to the park, and would see that Daniella was there. Or the girl that I liked. I would talk to her, embarrassed about my wrinkled shirt and my messy hair.

Some point during the conversation, a Football would come flying and hit me in the head. It would be thrown by Michael. Or, for me, the most stereotypical football player slash bully you could probably imagine. It would result with him humiliating me in front of Daniella about my clothes and hair and blah, blah, blah. You get the point. That was how the day was suppose to play out. But I was about to change it. I slept soundly that night.

When I woke up, I already knew what I was going to do. I started off by ironing my shirt, throwing it on, then heading to the bathroom to spend thirty minutes making my hair look somewhat decent. I Threw the book in a bag, slung it over my shoulder, Grabbed a pair of sunglasses to cover my eyes, and walked out the house.

When I was with Chris, we were talking but I wasn't really listening. I was thinking about the rest of the day. I read it over and over about a hundred times. We Started heading towards the park, passing up the cemetery. I saw the crack that was slightly elevated from the rest of the sidewalk, and stepped over it.

We got to the park and found a nice place to sit, a very upbeat jazz playing in the background. Chris already knew most of the plan. We sat and waited.

“There she is,” Chris said, motioning with his head to her position. “When are you gonna go and talk to her?”

“I don't know, it made it sound a lot easier in the book,” I stated, now doubting if I should even do this or not.

“Look, you already know whats going to happen. Just do what you said you were going to do and nothing bad should go down”

“I guess,” I said as I began to get up. I walked up to her, Michael nowhere in sight at the moment.

Really, starting a conversation with her was a little easier then I thought. All I really had to do was say hi, and she just kind of took off with it. Talking to me like we’ve known each other forever. I was beginning to get distracted by her shoulder lengthed black hair that looked like it was as soft as silk and the way she would look up at the sky whenever she was thinking. Like she was waiting for the stars to write out the answers for her or something.

I was getting so caught up in all of this that part of me forgot that I was suppose to dodge a flying football at any second. That was until I saw it out the corner of my darker green eye, turning last second and catching it inches from my face. I was so surprised that I caught it, I wasn't really sure what to do. So, I just dropped it. I turned back to Daniella with what probably looked like the biggest, stupidest grin ever on my face.

He came over to us and looked me up and down, probably surprised that there wasn’t much he could comment on. He was stuttering and all trying to come up with something. No doubt, one of the best moments of my life. I don't know what made me do it, but I turned around and kicked the football as hard as I could. Making it fly into the bushes on the other side of the park.

You could tell he was mad then. He probably would of kicked the crap outta me to if Daniella wasn’t watching. Not only her, but random people were starting to stare trying to catch a glimpse of the conflict. He turned, and he walked away. The jazz only getting more upbeat the farther he got away.

I turned back to Daniella and asked “So, what do you like to do for fun?”

She smiled which made me smile, which in turn made me enjoy the rest of my night at the park.

Chris got me when it was a little past 8. The sun was gone at this point and he had to practically drag me away from Daniella. Once he finally got me away from the park and on the path back home, he started doing that really annoying friend thing where he would just tease me over and over again about Daniella and I.

We were coming up to the cemetery. I got that feeling again and still couldn't pinpoint what it was. All I know was that it didn't feel right. I heard giggling coming from somewhere inside the cemetery. I looked at chris and could tell he could here it to. We started to pick up the pace, my breathing gradually getting heavier. We got about half way through the cemetery when all of a sudden the ground started rushing towards me and I put out my arms to protect myself.

Chris quickly helped me up and was looking at me asking if I was ok. He was staring at my arms, which were all scraped up. I didn’t have much time to answer when a football came flying out of what seemed like nowhere and slammed into the side of my head. Everything started to blur and my ears were ringing. Ringing so loud I couldn't hear anything. I looked at Chris and just saw his mouth moving as he was grabbing my arm, trying to drag me somewhere.

I turned the other direction and saw Michael coming out from behind some gravestones with a couple of his football friends, each of them basically like giant moving rocks. They said something to me. I'm not too sure what it was and I definitely wasn't going to sit there and find out. Chris gave a final pull and it was enough to snap me out of the hypnotic state I was in. We started running. I was running as fast as I could for as long as I could, letting the adrenaline do its job and completely take over.

We got back to our houses. I was heaving and gasping for air, feeling like I was suffocating. It was all really a blur from their. I remember having to sneak into my house so that my mom wouldn't ask what happened. I remember looking at myself in the mirror, my shirt now all messed up and wrinkled. My glasses gone, no doubt lost somewhere in the graveyard, revealing my two slightly different colored eyes. My hair that was now a mess.

I grabbed the mirror and threw it to the floor. I fell back on my bed and took the book out of the bag. The whole entire time I was just staring at it. What happened. I noticed something different about the book. It was smaller. A lot smaller. As if someone took and ripped out half of the pages. I was freaking out. I guess by doing something different than what I was suppose to do, I somehow changed my whole story. By the looks of it, it ends a whole lot sooner.

I opened the book, where I read a whole recap of what just happened to me today. I noticed that when I got to where I was at now, there were only twenty three pages left. I slowly began to flip through the last pages. Taking in every detail that I read.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow, I was suppose to cut my foot on the glass that's on the floor in the room. Tomorrow, I was suppose to be alone because Chris had a job interview. Tomorrow, I was supposed to meet him at the park. Tomorrow, Michael and his friends will be waiting for me at the cemetery, jumping and beating me up as I try pass by. Tomorrow… Michael pushes me to hard and I fall and hit my head against a gravestone, putting me into a coma . A coma that I wont wake up from. I shut the book

I Couldn't sleep that night. Stayed up all night, thinking about the end. It's scary, you know? To know when and how you will die. Something no one should ever have to know. At that point I was keeping count of how many pages I had left. When I was sure Chris would be awake, I called him.

It was a quick conversation. It consisted of me telling him that I could really use his help today and him responding that he already left to go to his interview. He told me that he would be able to meet me at the park that night. I hung up and threw my phone down. I was walking to pick out clothes when I stepped on a piece of glass that I completely forgot about, making a nasty gash on the bottom of my foot. It hurt bad. And it resulted in a bunch of silent curses as I walked to the bathroom to wrap my foot with bandaging.

I was in no rush that day. Took my time with everything I did from eating breakfast to brushing my teeth. Its funny how much you start to appreciate everything when you know your probably never going to see it again.

I knew I could of avoided everything if I would of just stayed home all day but part of me knew I had to go. Knew that I had to tempt fate somehow. Plus, I wouldn't want any danger coming to my home, especially to my mom.

I left the house, book in my hands. Dawn was closing in and Chris was most likely already at the park wondering where I was. I was coming towards the cemetery, walking and reading at the same time. 17 pages before the end.

I had to go through the cemetery if I were to get to the park. My train of thought at the moment was strange. I was calculating stats and different possibilities and what the results could of ended in. I knew where they were all hiding. In fact I had an advantage just knowing that they were there.

I figured, if I just ran straight through, as fast as my body would allow me, then they wouldn't have time to get to me and start beating me before I got out. I gripped the book in my right hand, bracing myself for whatever might happen. Then, I started running. The wind was flying past my face. My heart beating faster than a train.

I made it to the other side, amazed really that I was still alive. Then the confusion set in. I didn't even see one of them in there. I was at the pace of a really fast walk and I took a look at the book. It got shorter again. Only 13 pages left.

I opened it. They were following me. Far enough so I couldn't see them but they were definitely following me. I guess they expected this to, because the third guy was supposed to be further up ahead waiting for me. I would run into him then run back the other direction. I would slam in the other two that were behind me and they would hold me down, Michael continuously punching me. Eventually when they felt like I had enough, they would throw me down in the road and leave me there to suffer.

One of the party goers from the park drank a little too much that night and wouldn't be able to tell that the little bump in the road was actually a kid. I closed the book before I got to the end.

My hands were shaking. I stopped walking. It was dark out now. Music was playing from the park. It was a really slow jazz, setting the mood in this kind of depressing state. The wind was cold and I was sweating.

The only place that I could hide was this small line of bushes on the side leading to the park, so I ran to them and fit myself into them as much as I possibly could. Staying deadly silent. I finally started seeing there figures come from the darkness, slowly passing by me. I waited a minute or two before I jumped from out of the bushes and started running back towards the cemetery.

When I made it in the cemetery, I came back to a steady walk. I was still able to hear the slow jazz from the park. Its tune slowly playing in the background. I lifted the book and flipped through it. There were only 6 pages left now.

“Why?!” I screamed at the book, “What am I doing wrong? What do you want from me?”

I set myself by a tombstone and quickly scanned the remaining pages.There was a fourth guy, I guess. Placed at the Entrance of the cemetery. Michael and his little gang would already be at the other exit of the cemetery by now. They somehow heard my ruckus when I jumped out the bushes and ran for it. They had me trapped, and would split up to start looking for me.

I closed the book before I got to the last page. I just didn't think I would be able to handle reading another way that I would somehow die. I heard footsteps, walking slowly and deliberately.

“Come out, come out wherever you are.” Michael said out loud in a taunting voice, “I know you're here somewhere.”

He was hitting each tomb as he walked by them, making a loud thumping sound. He was hitting them with something heavy and hard. I was thinking that this guy actually lost his mind. He was actually insane.

“You can't hide forever, Kyle,” his voice coming no more than five feet from where I was hiding.

I slowly crawled over to the next gravestone as quietly as possible. Then to the next one, putting as much room between me and him as I possibly could. He smashed the gravestone that he was standing next to, shattering it into tiny pieces of broken cement.

“Come on Kyle, I won't hurt you,” Michael said sarcastically “just come out and we can set things straight.”

I kept on crawling. All of the long, dead grass surrounding the area lightly brushing against my skin. I heard him calling for another one of the guys to come over to the area and help him look. I glanced at my book. Three pages left.

Before I could open the book to see what I could do, I smelled something that made me freeze in place. Then I heard it. The sound of a blazing fire. Michael was actually lighting the graveyard on fire. The jazz playing in the background not helping at all.

I heard him walking towards where I was at again, the fire slowly starting to spread, surrounding us in its grip. I started to move again, scared and in a rush. The book slipped from between my arms and made a little thud as it hit the floor. I froze, praying that Michael didn't hear anything. After thirty seconds, I picked the book up and started crawling again. Until I felt something smash on top of the back of my ankle.

I yelled out in pain and turned to see Michael stepping on the back of my leg.

“Found you,” he whispered as he grabbed my leg and started dragging me towards whatever my new demise was. As he was dragging me, I was thinking of the million ways that my story could end. Maybe they were going to beat me to death? Bury me alive? Maybe he was just going to drag me and throw me in the fire.

“Let me go!” I yelled at him, ferociously kicking him with my good leg. My heel finally connected with his knuckles that were grabbing my leg, making a sickening crunch. He let go and screamed.

I got up and started running as fast as I could with my injured leg. I saw his gang start coming out from every corner. Limping, I would run, changing directions everytime another one of them appeared from the smoke. Panic Started to set in.

One of them came from behind me and wrapped his arms around me,trapping me. Everyone else started advancing towards me, Michael at the center of it all.

“You didn't think you could run forever, did you?” Michael asked me.

“Why are you doing this!” I yelled. Tears falling freely from my face. I couldn't hold it back anymore. Crying was never my thing. But when your life is about to end, you find it a little difficult not to cry.

“Don't act dumb,” he said to me, walking closer and closer with what looked like a metal pipe in his hands. A cynical smile on his face. Fire roaring all around us.

My feet found their grip in the ground and I pushed back as hard as I could. We fell back till’ whoever it was that was holding me got his back smashed into a tomb, losing his grip just enough for me to break free. They all started running after me. Pushing myself with my one good leg, I dove into a giant cloud of smoke. Crawling through it until I could get to a section were I could see again. When I was finally in a small clearing where I could breath and see, I looked up.

I was right in front of the Great Marie Laveau’s Tomb. The slow jazz seemed infinitely louder from here. The fire was creeping towards me, licking one of the roses attached to the Great Marie’s tomb, Instantly lighting it on fire, spreading to all the other flowers attached to it. The tomb was now ablaze, completely engulfed in fire.

I Had that feeling again. The feeling that let me know this was it. This was the final page. This was where my story comes to an end. I saw another figure start walking towards me. I didn't bother to move, fully accepting my fate now. I closed my eyes, waiting for a slam to the face, or the burning of fire. Nothing happened.

I slowly opened my eyes and standing in front of me was Marie Laveau herself. The Great Marie Laveau. She was staring at me with black eyes. Eyes that knew everything. She just stood there, staring at me.

“Please,” I begged, voice cracking and tears still running down my face, “please help me.”

She stood there, unmoving.

“Please!” I yelled are her “I just want everything to go back to normal.” She kept on standing and staring. The fire so close now, I could feel the hair on my arms start to burn.

“Why aren't you doing anything!” I got up, feeling a mixture of a bunch of emotions that I couldn't control anymore. “What do you want from me, huh? Do you want an offering?”

I turned to her fiery tomb, “Well here you go.” I said as I threw the the godawful book in the fire with her tomb. Watching the pages slowly start to curl and crisp and eventually burn away.

When I turned back towards her, she was gone. I turned back towards her tomb and she appeared right in front of my face. He hand came up quick and covered my mouth. She slammed me to the ground. She then covered my eyes with her other hand. I couldn't see. I couldn't breath. This was it. The final paragraph. The final sentence. However you want to put it. Then, everything stopped.

I couldn't hear the fire anymore. I didn't feel anything covering my mouth or eyes. I slowly started to open my eyes. And I saw myself. I was looking in a mirror. My black hair was a mess because I never bothered to do it. I stared. Stared at how one of my green eyes were slightly darker than the other. Stared at my wrinkled shirt and at my hand me down jacket. Stared at all the little imperfections. And… smiled.

I looked around only to realize I was back in my room. I grabbed my mirror from the wall and started kissing it. Telling myself how beautiful I was and how I would always treasure my life. When I said that the whole part about me humiliating Michael in front of Daniella was my favorite moment. That was a lie. It was this moment right here. The moment that I truly accepted myself for me. The moment I stopped trying to go out and make everything about me perfect.

And that's that. You wanted to know what happened, you wanted to know my story. Now you know. It's now coming to a close. About two weeks of staying at my house and never going near the cemetary, I finally decided to return. I stood in front of the Great Marie Laveau’s tomb, a piece of chalk in hand. I rubbed one hand over the rough surface of her tomb. Then I began to draw three X’s on it.

As I was finishing on my last x, my phone started going off with a bunch of spam text messages from Chris. And from Daniella. Both telling me to hurry and get to the park. I smiled then, not being able to remember a feeling of joy better than that moment. Maybe by burning that book, I will finally be able to write my own ending.

Author's Note

I am a teen and I know myself that I am terrible at writing, so don't be afraid to say anything. I came here for feedback and help, so any would be appreciated.