Careful What You Wish For
It was a stormy night on the 14th January 2009. Thunder and lightning had cut off the power. The rain turned the road into a river. The house was pitch black, and silent. A newly wedded couple, Kevin and Sarah Berwick, had stayed up late trying to sort out the power. Suddenly...
Their ears were pounded by the loud sound of hammering at the door. They slowly crept towards the door. The thunder was getting louder, the rain stronger and the hammering faster. As they almost reached the door it slammed open. A man covered in scars, dripping with rain and blood, skin as white as a fresh corpse with five bullets in his back, plummeted through the door and onto the ground. Blood gushed out of his back and sped across the floor; in the middle an outline of a skull formed the sign of death.
Sarah was paralysed with fear where she stood. Kevin dropped to the man’s side, rolled him onto his back and glimpsed a peculiar metal box in his left hand. He gave the box to Kevin. The stranger grabbed his chest, tugged him down and with his last dying breath whispered, “Don’t make the same mistakes as me”.
Seconds later the storm had stopped and the power returned. They put the box on top of the shelves in the lounge and called the police to investigate what had happened to the man and to take the body away. As soon as the police had left Sarah took the box from the top of the shelves and found a note with it. She was sure there wasn’t a note there before and she was also sure that neither Kevin or the police had gone anywhere near the shelves. That’s when Sarah started to feel uneasy. The note, which looked about sixty years old and was on a small piece of muddy, screwed up paper, said:
“This box you now hold in your hands
contains a soul. A soul
that will grant you
your wishes. But be warned,
if you use the box for
anything other than the
good of mankind, you will suffer
the consequences”
She showed the note to Kevin, but he thought it was some kind of prank she was trying to pull on him.
“Do you really think I would do something like this after what just happened last night?” she said. “I would not even of had the time after the day I had yesterday”.
Kevin replied with frustration, “After the day you had? What about the day I had? I can guaranty mine was much worse than yours”. That was their first fight since being married. As they walked into different rooms the note vanished from Sarah’s hand.
Kevin worked in the basement of a swanky office block from eight till five and he hated every day of it from Monday to Saturday. All he would ever do was sort out the mail, order lunch for half the employees and just get pushed around as if he was back in school. His dream was to be a partner in the business, and having seen the job advertisement he was excited to hand in his application form.
Every day on his way to work he would pass by this homeless girl called Maria, who lived just down the road, he wasn’t too fond of her but his wife felt very sorry for her.
A few days went by and Sarah had seen on the news that an enormous amount of charities were about to shut down and the banks were refusing to help. At that moment she slowly turned her head to look at the box. She started to ask herself questions like does it actually grant you your wishes? What type of wish will it grant you? And how long would it take? She then took the box in her hands, held it tight to her chest and made her first wish.
“I wish there was a way to save the charities”. The box then suddenly started to shake in her hands. The sudden shock caused her to drop it. As soon as it hit the ground it started to float in the air and glow as green as fresh grass, brighter and brighter until without warning it stopped. She then spent the rest of the day sat in her chair staring at it until her husband came home. She ran over to him has soon as he walked in and dragged him into the room while pointing at the box. She tried to tell him what had happened but yet again he didn’t believe her.
On week days Sarah would volunteer down in the homeless shelter from ten till three to pass the time and to help those most in need on the streets. This was the one thing that Kevin and Sarah could not agree on.
“I don’t understand why you do so much for people who are too lazy to try in life,” Kevin complained.
“They are not too lazy to try! Unlike us they do not have families to support them. How would you feel if you were in their situation and had people say the same thing about you?” she said immediately.
“Don’t know, don’t care cause it’s never going to happen to me.” he replied.
It was Sunday and they were both sitting in front of the TV watching the news. While Kevin was reading the paper some shocking news came up. There had been a bomb fired in the National History Museum, 15 people had been seriously injured in the blast and it would be a miracle if they were to survive the night. Sarah shot out of her chair and grabbed the box out of the draw that she had put it in.
“Now I can show you what happens.” she said to Kevin.
“Ok then, show me how this little box works and what happens.” he sarcastically said back.
She held the box tight to her chest, again with both hands and made another wish.
“I wish for the people who were caught in the blast to survive”. The box again then suddenly started to shake in her hands. This time she kept hold of it and it started to float in the air above her hands. Kevin then slowly came to his feet staring at the box. Again it started to glow as fresh grass and grew brighter and brighter as before, then stopped. Kevin was gob smacked and nervously whispered
“How did you do that?”
“I only made the wish; the rest you just saw for your own eyes had nothing to do with me.” she replied. Kevin wasn’t completely sure that she had nothing to with what had just happened and so he spent the rest of the day puzzled and confused. By the next day his mind had eased off a bit about what happened the day before. He did his usual routine in the morning and then left for work. At about quarter to nine, as he was handing out the mail, he caught a quick glimpse on the TV in the manager’s office of something extraordinary. The people who were caught in the blast had survived the night and were making a miraculous recovery. He then quickly handed out the rest of the mail, told his boss that he wasn’t feeling well and ran home. He had just managed to get home as Sarah was walking out the door to go to the homeless shelter. He explained what he had just seen on the news at work.
“I told you I wasn’t lying.” she laughed.
“So if it does grant you your wishes why haven’t you wished for us to be millionaires? Or why haven’t you wished for me to get that partnership?” he asked.
“Because the note said that we could only wish for things that were for the good of mankind, not for your selfish self.” she replied.
“Ok then prove it, show me the note.” he demanded.
“I can’t, it disappeared out of my hand after the first time I tried to show. Oh but please you have to believe me, if you use the box for your own self then you’ll have to suffer the consequences.” she begged.
“Ok I believe you, I won’t wish for anything for myself. I’ll only make wishes for the good of mankind.” he lied.
Kevin had waited for the next Sunday to arrive so that he could have his chance to make his first wish. As soon as Sarah had left the house to go shopping and was out of plain sight he grabbed the box out of the draw, held it high in the air in his right hand and made a wish.
“I wish for a brand new sports car.” but this time the box did something very different. Rather than shaking, the box flew across the room. It bounced off the walls, breaking everything in its path and smashed into the back of Kevin’s head causing him to tumble to the floor. The box suddenly stopped and landed right in front of his face. Before he could get to his feet devilish arms and hands, as red as blood, with claws as sharp as knives and as long as a crow bar, came out of the box and grabbed hold of him. The claws were scratching, cutting and digging into him as he kicked and screamed in pain. Blood squirted out all over the walls and the floor.
After a few minutes it stopped. The claws were gone; Kevin was left lying there on the floor his skin slashed, stabbed and slick with blood. Blood was still slowly pouring out onto the floor. Silently the box flew over Kevin, back into the draw which calmly slid shut. He laid there still for some time and had just started to move when Sarah walked up the driveway carrying the shopping. As soon as she saw the state of Kevin and the room she dropped the bags and ran over to him. Her hands, now covered in blood from turning him onto his back, were shaking with fear as she phoned for an ambulance.
Kevin was released from hospital two days later after making the claim that he was attacked by strangers who had broken into their house. When they got back there was no room in the driveway as instead there was a brand new sports car.
“Where on earth did that car come from?” asked Sarah looking puzzled and suspicious.
“I’m just looking after it for a friend.” Kevin replied with a smirk on his face.
“Which friend?” she asked.
“A very old friend. You wouldn’t know him.” he replied.
After Sarah left, Kevin took the box from the draw, dived in the sports car and shot off to the big streets, buzzing with a new feeling of wealth.
A few hours had passed during which he saw a billboard advertising a Ferretti 225 yacht and of course he had to have it, but was afraid to wish for it in case it would appear outside the house. So he thought of something else. He drove into Gilber Road and stopped at a back alley, which was dark, closed in and plastered with endless graffiti, trash cans and had a revolting stench. As he walked down the alley he check his surroundings, making sure there was nobody there and when he reached the point where his car looked like a little red speck he pulled out the box from his pocket. He held the box in his right hand again but held it at his waist level and started to shiver with fear for he knew something bad was going to happen but didn’t know if it was going to be just as bad, or worse. He took a deep breath and made his second wish.
“I wish for £800,000.” The box flew up in air about two feet above his head and blasted out a blinding green light. As Kevin started to run back to the car, he was lifted into the air and thrown against the walls again and again. Blood sprayed out of him and started to form a picture on the wall. It was as if the box was using Kevin as a spray can and the wall as a piece of canvas. Kevin was thrown hard into a trash can and rebounded onto the ground. The box then somehow opened the car and went in the boot. Kevin had broken, bloody, sticking out bones in his right ankle and in his left elbow. He also had several broken fingers to each hand. The picture on the wall showed a man kneeling in fear begging for his life, about to get stabbed to death by the grim reaper’s scythe. Kevin took a quick look at the picture and passed out.
Kevin had laid there for half an hour by which time the picture was nothing more than a puddle of blood on the floor. Having received reports from concerned neighbours the police checked every alley on Gilber. There were three alleys down the road and as the police shone their torches down then third they saw Kevin’s body. Kevin was rushed to hospital once again.
He was unconscious for two days and when he woke up with Sarah by his side he made the claim that the same people who attacked him at their house also attacked him in the alley. Sarah was now more suspicious than ever. When they returned home Sarah went into the kitchen to make some lunch and Kevin limped outside.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Sarah asked. “The doctor told you that you have to rest.”
“I’m just going to stand outside for some fresh air.” Kevin replied
He went over to his car, took the box out of the boot and returned inside. He placed the box back in the draw and sat down in his chair ready for lunch.
After the second, so called attack, Sarah got really anxious to find out what had actually happen to the guy that night of the storm. While Kevin was at home recovering Sarah took the box from the draw and went to the library. Because of how old that note looked she checked the papers with all the deaths that had happened over the last sixty years. After she had finished reading them she found four deaths that had one thing in common. These four people had gone from being poor to rich within a single day without winning or doing anything. All but one of them were holding the same box that Kevin and Sarah now possessed; the one without the box was the one that had died in their house. The stranger, George Cash, had lived an unexciting life with his wife and two kids until he encountered the box. She looked him up on a computer and found that he had died the day after he was promoted to assistant manager in Barclays bank.
She left the library and went to the police station. She managed to sneak in through the back door and stalked the corridors until she had found the evidence room. As she crept into the room she saw shelves after shelves buried in evidence. She searched through all the evidence and finally found two things with George Cash’s name on. A video, and a gun. She took the evidence to her parent’s house because she didn’t want Kevin to find out what she was doing and her parents were away on holiday so the house was empty. She took the video out of the packaging and carefully placed it into the video player.
On the video Sarah saw George Cash standing in the top right hand corner of an office with the door open in the top left and because of the angle of the camera you couldn’t see anything in the bottom corners. He was dripping with sweat and shaking with fear. He then suddenly ran for the door and the door slammed shut in front of him. As he was trying to tug the door open he slowly turned his head which on Sarah’s screen was towards the bottom right. He swung the door open and fell on his back. As soon as he got to his feet and got in the doorway five bloody holes appeared on his back one after the other. Once he was no longer in view of the camera a green glow appeared in the bottom right, the exact same glow that Sarah had seen before from the box. She then had a quick look at the gun and found that there were no reported finger prints.
She left the house and went home. On her way home she saw the homeless girl Maria begging for some money. Sarah went down on her knees, placed £2 in Maria’s hand and said.
“One day your luck will change.” She got back on her feet and continued to walk home. When she got home rather than going inside to see how Kevin was doing she went into the garage. She closed the door and took the box from her bag. Like she had done before, she held the box in her hands tight to her chest and because the walls of the garage were very thin she whispered her third wish so that no one could hear.
“I wish for that poor homeless girl down the road to have better luck in life”. While Sarah was in the garage Kevin got up out of his seat and went over to the draw where he had last put the box. It was gone. He hunted all around the room but couldn’t find it. As Sarah walked in through the door Kevin stared at her with piercing red eyes.
“Where is it?” he demanded.
“Where’s what?” Sarah asked back.
“The box! Where is the box?” he shouted.
“The box is right here.” Sarah replied as she took it out of her bag. She walked over to the draw.
“And this is where it will stay.” she added as she dropped the box back in the draw and locked it shut with a pad lock. She then hid the key somewhere in the house.
It was Monday and Kevin was now well enough to go back to work. As he limped down the road with his crutches he had just remembered about that partnership job and thought that it was bound to have been taken by now. As he passed further down the road he noticed that Maria had gone.
“Hah, and good riddance.” he thought to himself. As he was sorting out the mail at work he saw on the wall that the advertisement for that partnership had in fact been taken while he was away. Because he was really curious to know who had got the job he decided that he would put up with the pain in his leg and hand out the mail by himself but when he eventually got to the office next to the managers the sight that he saw stung his eyes as if someone had sprayed pepper spray in his face and dropped the rest of the mail all over the floor. The one who had got the job, was Maria. Full of rage, he limped out of the building as quickly as he could and rushed home. His eyes felt like they were going to shoot out his head. His head felt like it was going to burst open and scatter his skull and brain everywhere.
He hunted all over the house for the key. He trashed everything in the house with his crutches. By the time he had found it, which was hidden in a secret compartment within Sarah’s dressing table, the entire house looked like an indoor junkyard. He hurried back down the stairs, unlocked the draw, took the box and held it high in the air in his right hand and shouted his final wish.
“I wish that homeless brat was dead!”
The box didn’t move. Outside the sky went grey and huge, thick, black storm clouds gathered in. Kevin dropped the box and went to the window. He saw the lightening flash and for a second saw the devils face. As he tried to run to the door, it slammed shut and locked. While he was trying to bash the door open weird things started to happen down at the homeless shelter, where Sarah was still working. The plates started to fly across the place, smashing into the back of people’s heads and into the walls. Shadows started to appear on the walls and on the ceiling. Just as everyone started to run out of the building four ghost figures appeared from behind Sarah. They were the ghosts of the four people who had died from the box over the last sixty years. They grabbed hold of Sarah’s arms, threw her out of the building and chased her home with her screaming all the way.
As Kevin was still trying to open the door, the box gradually raised off of the floor and into the air. He slowly turned his head to look at the box and as he did, it started to spin rapidly. In the kitchen, the cutlery draw opened and four razor sharp knives hovered into the air. The door unlocked, threw itself open and tossed Kevin into the shelves in the lounge. Sarah raced in through the doorway with the ghosts still behind her. As soon as she was in the doorway of the lounge, the knives dashed through the air and into Sarah, causing her to fly back into the corridor and crash to the floor on her back. The box stopped spinning and fell to the floor. Sarah had one knife in her left leg just under the knee, one in her right hip and two knives in her chest, with the one on the left piercing her heart.
Kevin got up on his feet and limped over to her side. He fell down on his knees, put his right arm under her neck and lifted her head off of the ground. With one final tear coming out of her left eye and slipping down her check she slowly whispered with her last dying breath,
“How could you?”
As she shut her eyes Kevin clung on to her, burst out in tears and rocked back and forth repeatedly shouting one question,
“Why? Why? Why?”
That was 3 years ago. I spend most of my time at my wife’s grave now. I got fired from my job a month after she died because either I turned up drunk or just didn’t turn up at all. Tomorrow I’ll be kicked out of our house due to not having any money to pay the mortgage because I never found another job. To me there’s no point. When you have that one thing that’s most important to you, you feel like your life is worth living. I don’t have mine anymore so my life now feels meaningless. I wish it was me in that grave. In case you’re wondering what happened to that box, it’s with her. Buried six feet underground where no one can get it so that no one has to go through the same pain as I have and as I still am. Sarah, in case you can still hear me, I am so sorry. The door in my heart has slammed shut, never to be opened again.
