text: Courtney winced as she stuck the tip of the charcoal-colored feather quill into the underside of her arm. Her blood flowed up through its slit and into its hollow shaft. She placed the tip on the alabaster page inside the obsidian book, and inscribed the name, “Cynthia.” Next to it, she wrote the word, “Cruelty.” She then put the quill down and looked at the words with a quizzical expression, unsure of what to expect. As she put a bandage over the wound on her arm, she recalled the strange conversation she had earlier that day with the customer at the bank where she worked as a teller. The customer was an unusually tall and thin woman who wore a shapeless grey dress and carried a matching grey purse. She seemed to hover a few inches off the ground when she moved. “Hello, how can I help you today?” Courtney asked in her best fake-cheery voice as the woman approached. The woman replied, “Oh, I think it is I who can help you, miss.” Courtney thought, “Oh great, a salesperson. These people are relentless.” Courtney said to the woman, “I’m afraid I’m not the one to talk to about whatever you’re selling. If you’ll wait a moment, I’ll call my manager over to discuss it with you.” “I don’t need to talk to Cynthia, my dear. She wouldn’t want to talk to me anyway. Besides, you and I both know that you don’t want to talk to her right now.” Courtney furrowed her brow and remembered how she’d made a small mistake earlier that day, and that Cynthia, her manager, had berated her about it in front of everyone, including customers. “How do you know that, and how do you know my manager’s name?” Courtney asked, incredulously. The woman said, “You’d be surprised what I know,” and smiled. Courtney caught a fleeting glimpse of her teeth and noticed they seemed unusually wide and pointed at the end, almost like those of a shark. Courtney felt uneasy with the strange woman’s presence, but maintained her composure and asked, “Do you have an account with us?” “My name is Lilith,” the woman said, ignoring her question, “...and I’m here to give something to you.” Before Courtney could react, Lilith reached into her purse and pulled out a small book with a jet-black binding and a matching quill feather. She then placed them on the counter and slid them over to Courtney as she whispered, “Prick yourself with the quill and fill it with your blood, then use it to write the name of the person who deserves your vengeance along with their wrongdoing on one of its pages. Soon thereafter, they’ll meet a befitting fate.” Courtney was stunned by such a bizarre statement. As she stared at the book and quill that sat before her, she said, “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” However, when she looked up, Lilith had disappeared. Courtney arrived late for work and braced herself for another verbal assault from Cynthia. However, she didn’t see her anywhere. “Maybe she took the day off,” Courtney thought, hopefully. Courtney’s coworker Shauna passed by and Courtney asked her, “Have you seen Cynthia today?” Shauna stopped and said, “Didn’t you hear about what happened?” “No.” “Search for her name on Google. It’s terrible.” Courtney pulled out her smart phone and typed Cynthia’s name into the search field along with the name of the city where she lived. Links to several news sites came up in the search results and her eyes widened as she read the text of the first one, “Local Couple Killed During Home Invasion.” She clicked the link and it took her to a story that read, “Local woman Cynthia Newsome and her husband, Thomas were killed during a home invasion last night. Police believe that Mrs. Newsome was forced to watch as the intruder killed her husband by slitting his throat before she was stabbed to death. Nothing was stolen, and police are exploring possible motives.” Shauna said, “Pretty cruel, huh? Nobody deserves that, not even Cynthia,” then turned and walked away. Courtney’s began to feel sick with guilt. As waves of regret washed over her, she looked up and saw Lilith floating two feet off the ground in the middle of the bank lobby, smiling at her with a horrible shark-toothed grin. Courtney blinked hard in disbelief, and Lilith disappeared. Courtney dry-heaved into her toilet for the third time that day, then crumpled onto her bathroom floor, groaning. Every muscle in her body ached, and she felt as though she had all the symptoms of a cold, a flu, and food poisoning all at once. The wound where she’d pricked herself with the quill itched intensely, and then burned with equal intensity when she scratched at it. She removed the bandage that covered it and saw that it had turned a sick purple color. Dark red veins spiderwebbed around the wound and pulsated under her skin. “Not feeling too well, are we?” said a voice above her head. “What? Who is that? Where are you?” Courtney asked weakly, looking around her bathroom. “Up here, silly,” the voice said playfully. Courtney realized that it was Lilith. Courtney put her hands on the vanity and slowly pulled herself up as she grimaced with pain. She looked into the mirror and gasped. Instead of her own reflection, she saw Lilith smiling back at her, her shark teeth now noticeably more prominent and menacing-looking. A stream of drool trickled from her hideous maw. “What’s going on?” Courtney asked. Lilith chortled sadistically and said, “Why, I’d say you’re suffering from a bit of... withdrawal. You see, sweetie, if you don’t continue to write names in the book, well... let’s just say things will become more and more uncomfortable for you.” Courtney’s shoulders slumped and she began to cry. “But I don’t want to hurt anyone,” she said. “I just wanted to teach my boss a lesson. I just wanted her to be nicer to people.” Lilith smirked and said, “Oh you taught her a lesson, alright,” then cackled evilly. “Who else do you know who needs to be taught a lesson?” “I... I don’t know.” “Come now. How about your ex-boyfriend? What was his name? Oh yes, Brad.” “How did you know that?” “Didn’t I tell you before that you’d be surprised what I know? Want to know what else I know? I know he cheated on you, on your birthday of all days, when you turned 25.” Courtney trembled and said, “Yes.” “That day, you caught him in bed with another woman, didn’t you? And what was it that you said to him?” “I said, ‘How could you do this to me?’” “Ah yes, that was it. Well, why don’t you do something to him in return? It would make you feel so much better, and it’s not like he doesn’t deserve it.” Lilith reached below the vanity in the reflection and pulled out the obsidian book and charcoal-colored feather quill, then held them out to Courtney through the mirror as if it wasn’t there. “Take them,” she said in a commanding tone. Courtney hesitated as she looked miserably at the book and quill, then slowly reached out for them. “Yes, take them,” Lilith hissed with pleasure. Courtney opened the book and laid it on her vanity, then pricked herself with the quill a few inches away from where her other wound was. She wrote Brad’s name on the page, and next to it, she wrote the word, “Betrayal.” Courtney curled up on her couch in her living room as she waited for her Netflix profile to load on her television. She absentmindedly ran her fingers over the quill wounds on her arm. Neither itched or burned, and she otherwise felt completely normal physically. The television screen filled with static, and Courtney used her remote to try to change the channel, but it didn’t work. She tried to turn the television off, but that didn’t work either. The channel then changed by itself to a local news station with a newscaster sitting behind a desk. “Good evening,” said the newscaster, a pretty woman in a smart-looking suit. “We bring you a breaking news update. A local man was found dead in his home earlier today after he was apparently killed last night.” A picture of the man appeared on the screen, and Courtney recognized him immediately. It was Brad. She stared in shock and horror as her eyes filled with tears. “Police say the victim, Brad Johnson, was stabbed 25 times in the back as he lay asleep in bed, and that his girlfriend has been arrested on suspicion of murder.” The screen cut to a video of a woman in handcuffs being led out of a house by police. She was thrashing about and had to be forcibly restrained. Courtney recognized her as Jennifer, the woman her ex-boyfriend had cheated on her with. “How could you do this to me!?” she screamed toward the house as she writhed around. “How could you do this to me!?” Courtney sat in stunned silence as the screen cut back to the newscaster who said, “The motive for the killing is unknown, though police say they believe the man’s girlfriend thought he was cheating on her.” The reporter smiled, and her teeth resembled those of a shark. Courtney moaned as she lay in her bed. She was drenched in sweat and felt as though her skin was freezing and on fire at the same time. Even the slightest movement caused shooting pain all over her body. She glanced at the wounds on her arm and saw they’d turned a putrid brownish green color. The skin around them was completely rotten. She’d gone from having dry heaves to throwing up blood, and she wondered how much worse it could get. “Oh, I’m afraid it can get much worse,” Lilith said as she stepped out of the shadows in the corner of the room. She seemed to have read Courtney’s mind. “Much, much worse,” she continued. “You should know that you can’t die from this. In fact, you can’t die at all. When you wrote the first name into the book, you also entered into a pact in which you must continue adding names until all the pages are filled. Only then will you be allowed to die. Only then will the suffering end, yours and everyone else’s.” Courtney whimpered in response. “What’s wrong? Aren’t you enjoying our little game? Two of your enemies met gruesome fates already, and we’re just getting started. Why don’t you want to keep playing? You know you must continue if you want to feel better.” Lilith floated across the room and held the book and quill out to Courtney. “Take them,” she said. Courtney summoned all her strength and sat up. Pain wracked her body, but she forced herself to take the book and quill from Lilith’s hand, then thudded back down onto her bed. Her hand shook as she laid the book next to her and opened it to a blank page. She grasped the quill in her fist and jabbed herself in the arm. Lilith said, “Yes...” With the quill now filled with her blood, Courtney moved it back over to the open book and weakly scribbled her name onto the page. Next to it, she wrote the word, “Unforgiving,” and dropped the quill in exhaustion. Lilith sighed with disappointment and said, “You’re no fun,” then opened her mouth to reveal several rows of shark teeth and viciously bit Courtney’s heart out of her chest, killing her instantly.