The Black Book

by George Shadow

  Chapter 8: Misunderstood

  THE clock said 5 o’clock. The rain still poured down heavily outside. It must have gone on for like two hours now, but it looked like ages since it started.

  “Matthew, where’s Nora?”

  “She’s not yet back, Steph,” Matthew told his younger foster sister. “She must have gone to see her friends before we came back.”

  Both kids were alone in the house. Stephanie watched Matthew from his door as he went through a comic book in his room. “I’m afraid, Matt,” she confessed, closing the door behind her and walking over to sit down on his bed. She wore a pair of jean pants on an orange sweater and looked quite pretty. Her foster brother admired her for some time. “What of the book?” she asked innocuously and he turned towards it on his table. She had just reminded him of something he’d always wanted to do and he reached for his marker. “What are you doing?” Stephanie asked him, stretching out on his bed.

  “The book is now mine and I must indicate this,” Matthew simply replied, opening its leather cover and putting down his name below the captain’s with a smooth flourish. It was bolder than that eerie soldier’s inscription, although the captain’s appeared neater.

  “Matthew, will you write down my name as well?” Stephanie asked in a drowsy voice. “I want to own it with you.”

  Matthew obliged her.

  And fell asleep.

  The book’s cover felt very cold.