The Book

The Book
        It was the middle of December, the coldest day of the year so far. It rained a bit last night so there was a thin layer of ice covering the road in the morning. I had just spent the entire night trying to get my 8 year old daughter to go to sleep. She was very fussy, she never liked going to bed much. I was finally able to get a little bit of sleep at around 3 AM, however, I woke up late and quickly called the babysitter over to come watch my daughter. I got dressed into my normal work attire, black worn out pants and a light grey t-shirt. I kissed my daughter goodbye when the babysitter finally got to the house. I enter my car and I forgot to put my seatbelt on because, obviously, I wasn't exactly thinking about it at the time. The only thing I noticed was a tan colored book on the passenger seat. The words on the cover read, "You Go First". "Go first? What is this? My friends must be pranking me right now", I thought to myself. I threw the book in the backseat and as soon as I let the book out of my embrace my vision faded to black for only a moment, I quickly regained my vision not worrying to much about it, I just slammed my foot on the gas because I didn't want to be more late for work than I already was. I tend to have very little patience when it comes to this sort of stuff.
            On my way to work my head started hurting so I opened the glove compartment and grabbed my pain meds. I looked up to see a mangled face with nothing left of it except for cold dark eyes staring right at me. I started screaming at the top of my lungs and the car spun out of control on the ice covered road, I tried to recover from the spin but the car hit the guard rails and broke through them into a forest next to the road, the car flipped to its side and kept flipping until it hit a tree, I hit my head on something and I lost consciousness.
            A few hours after the incident, I woke panicking while blood rushed down my face from a wound I received in the crash. I looked around, the car was nowhere to be seen, and the road I had just slid off of was gone. I was in the middle of a forest, I had no idea where this forest was. "Where the hell am I?" I thought to myself, "How did I get here?". I looked around for a bit, looking behind trees hoping to at least find my phone so I could call someone. However, I found something else. The moonlight was reflecting off of the leather cover of the damn book that I had found in my car this morning. I picked it up, it felt different from how it did earlier, the leather did not feel like cow leather, it was thinner. the words on the front of the book had changed as well.. they read, "My Turn". I was beyond terrified at this point, I needed to find answers, so I opened the book. There was nothing on any of the pages, no ink splashes, no erase marks, nothing. Except for the last page. There was only 2 words which read, "Go Hide". I closed the book, and looked up at the glowing moon. I figured that since the moon rises in the east and sets in the west, I should just follow the moon and hope I find myself somewhere, anywhere. So I picked up the book and went on my into the pitch black darkness of the forest.            
            It felt like hours that I was out there. My heart was pounding, my vision was fading to a darkened blur, and the owls had started singing their song of the night. I could only think about how late I was with getting home and how worried my daughter was. I get home around the same time every day and it must have been hours since i should have been home. I stumbled upon an old shack, the windows were broken and the door was rotted. I was feeling quite tired so I thought I would go inside to lay my head down for a bit, at least until morning where I could see my way around better. I opened the door, it was nearly off of its hinges. In the shack was a bed, a lantern, a desk, and a small box of cutlery. I went over to the bed and simply fell into it because I was so tired.
            After about half an hour, I heard the door slowly creak open. I jumped out of the bed and went underneath the desk for it was big enough to fit me. I heard footsteps so I slightly looked out from the desk so whoever it was didn't see me. I wanted to throw up after seeing what had walked in. The face was the same as the one I had seen earlier, mangled with cold dark eyes that burrow into your soul. Its legs were torn to shreds, blood dripping down them. With each step it took I could hear a cracking noise like breaking bones. It was wearing a white night gown that was ripped at the seams and covered it dirt and blood. I could hear a faint sound of distress expel from its mouth every time it took another step. I was so scared, I was frozen there, I couldn't move. I felt something had changed about the book again, so I turned away from the creature for a moment out of pure curiosity and turned the pages of the book to the last page. The words had changed. It now read, "She found you.." I closed the book and closed my eyes hoping the creature would go away if I did not look at it or move.
After a little while, I opened my eyes and found myself back in my bed. It was the same day, I woke at the same time I had done this morning. I sighed in relief, realizing it was only just a dream. I picked up the phone on the nightstand and called work telling them I had gotten sick and got a temperature. I put the phone down and went into the kitchen to see my daughter sitting at the kitchen table, at first I thought nothing of it. I just went to make myself a cup of coffee with 2 tablespoons of sugar and lots of milk. I turned over to my daughter realizing what she had in her lap... the damned book that had seen in my dream. The same tan leather, the same everything. My daughter turned to me and what i saw was the most terrifying thing I had ever seen in my entire life.. her face was mangled, dripping with blood. The only thing left of her face was her mouth and her eyes. They were as dark as the midnight sky. They pierced my soul. She opened her mouth and said, "Read this to me mommy! Read it to me!" I grabbed the book from her hands and flipped the book to the last page. What I saw was horrible.. it was my face. I was looking at myself through my own eyes in this book. I flipped the page back one and saw my daughter's face as well. I looked through the book and every single page had a different face on it. Me and my daughter became part of this creature's book. I closed the book and looked up. I was back in the shack with that creature. I was still under the desk and the creature's face was right in front of me. I screamed, and then.. blackness. I saw nothing. Nothing is what I felt. Nothing is what I thought. I was gone for forever in purgatory.