The attic was so stuffy with summer heat and dust that she could barely breathe, but she persisted. Ever since she was a kid, she was obsessed with going through other people’s things. The house her family just bought was filled with boxes and knickknacks from the previous owner. The old lady died suddenly and left behind no family to clean up her belongings. The attic was the last place on the list, and it was filled to bursting with old books and magazines. A journal lay on top of the first box she opened. “Write Your Dreams” was embossed on the cover. Sarah rolled her eyes. She hated live, laugh, love sayings like that. Curious, she opened the front cover of the journal and began reading the words printed on the first page. She was confused. She tried to think what it was trying to say. She disregarded the warning printed at the bottom which read, “Write with caution as the words you write decide your fate!” 

She went to the junk drawer to find a pen to write in the journal. She already had her first wish in her head. She wrote on the first piece of paper that she wished for a brand new car. When she finished writing the sentence, she immediately ran to her window to see the car appear. She waited an hour, staring out that window, waiting for her car to come. It never did, so Sarah went to sleep. When she awoke the next morning, she didn’t even bother looking out the window. She brushed her teeth and hair and walked downstairs to eat breakfast. Her little brother said, “Whose car is in the driveway? Is one of mom’s friends here?” Sarah leaped up from the stool she was sitting on and lunged toward the door. Sitting in the driveway was a brand new car, just like she had wished for. Sarah ran towards the car with a smile on her face and hopped into the driver’s seat. She took the key and started the car, put it in reverse, and started backing out of the driveway. THUMP. Sarah quickly jumped out of the car to see what she had run over. Sarah looked to the ground to see her brother laying there, unconscious, with his legs broken. She ran inside to get her parents and quickly brought them to her brother. They called 911, and then they took Sarah’s brand new car away. 

Furious, Sarah ran upstairs to her room and slammed the door. She dug through her trash can to find the journal she wrote her wish in. Opening it, she flipped to the page in which she wrote her wish. She flipped to the next page when she saw something printed on the back of the piece that her first wish was written on the front of. It read “If you are patient, good things will happen soon, because good things come to those who wait…” Sarah was so confused by what this could have meant. She brushed it to the side and began writing her second wish. 

Sarah had her first day of school the next morning. She didn’t know anyone and was very nervous. She wished to be invisible. After she finished writing, she threw the pen and the journal on her bed and ran to the mirror. In front of that mirror, Sarah stood for two hours waiting to become invisible. Frustrated again, she picked up the journal, opened her junk drawer in her desk, and shoved the journal inside. She went to sleep. When she woke up the next day, she went to look in the mirror. She was still able to be seen. As she looked around the room, everything else was invisible. In a panic, she ran downstairs and asked her mom if she could see the furniture. Sarah’s mom said she could see the furniture fine and asked Sarah if she was possibly running a fever. She said she felt fine and went back up to her room. She couldn’t see anything so she ran into everything. She managed to find the journal because it was one of the only objects that wasn’t invisible. She aggressively opened it and began to write her third wish. Little did she know there was a message on the back of her wish from the other day. “I told you good things come to those who wait, maybe next time you will listen. This is your last warning as I haunt this journal. Beware Sarah, for bad things may be coming…” 

Sarah wrote her third wish and slammed the journal shut. This time she wished for something that could not possibly have a consequence. She wished for a million dollars. Sarah waited and waited for the money to arrive but it never came. She eventually gave up on waiting and went to sleep. The next morning when she woke up there were about 200 packages sitting on the front doorstep for her. She carefully ripped the one box open. When she opened it, it was nothing but pennies, nickels, and dimes. She had gotten her million dollars, but it was all in coins. She quickly rushed back upstairs to find the journal but it had vanished. All of a sudden, Sarah heard a voice from above. “I told you I haunt this journal. When your time is up it will be your turn.”