Steven awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of something rustling around in his room. When he turned on the light nothing was there, but his room seemed a bit different. Everything was where it was before, but it's almost as if everything was moved just a bit. Chalking it up to paranoia, Steven looked at his clock 5 am? when did I even go to sleep? He turns off the light and lays back down in his bed. Right before he fell asleep he remember the notebook. It would only be an extra hour of sleep. I'm going to read it now.

He gets out of bed and walks to his desk. Remembering what the notebook said, he takes out the mythology book first. Gods, demons, and myths was the title. No page was marked in the gods so he looks through the demons no demons were marked either, that's good, right? He flips to the unknown myth section and there he sees a page with pen scribbles all over it this must be it. The name of the creature was Shiungaii the only thing that it said about the monster is that it exchanges favors for life. The rest of the page was just a picture of he legend. A dark shadowy humanoid figure that looked like the legs were cut off from the knee down and what looked to be wings. Seeing that image he got chills and closed the book. What was that? Have I seen that before?

Pulling the notebook back out he turns to where he left off. After seeing to measure the candle again, he does. 8 inches?! How did I lose so much? Frantically he continues reading what Willis left;

Now that you've made note of the candle there are things you need to know;

The luckier you are, the more it burns. Calling a coin flip right wont affect it, calling a coin flip right seven times in a row will make a bead of wax drop.

The Shiungaii is watching you. In fact he is there with you now. The only time you can see it is when you are about to die or if it decides to reveal itself. This candle was a contract. When you lit the match you bled. This is you giving your blood and soul to it.

There are ways to not be lucky that I've found. Covering your heart with one of your hands signals you do not want to give life for whatever you may be doing. Once you remove it though, it's free to take when it can.

How to get rid of it:

The easiest way, is to kill yourself, but even if covering your heart, the Shiungaii will stop it. He lives off of your life. So this method isn't as easy as it sounds, but it is the easiest. The only other way I've found to get rid of it are from old rumors in a book that references a creature that might be the Shiungaii (based on description of appearance and what it does) about transferring it to someone who has more life than you left. You might think younger, but it is based on life left and only the Shiungaii knows that. That is the only way it will accept the transfer. This is what must happen to transfer the candle based on the book.

1. The user must have less that 50 years left to live.

2. A third of the candle must be left

3. The transferee must have more life than the user

4. The transferee must be willing to accept

5. The transferee must intentionally drop their blood directly onto the candle flame (as I am sure you’ve found out other people cannot see it.) This will reveal the candle to them.

6. The Shiungaii will then decide if it will allow it

The Shiungaii wants life, but it also wants the user to die.

This last part I wasn't going to include. I was never able to do it. How to reset the candle. To reset the candle, you must take another’s life. While doing this you must not be covering your heart. It also has to be intentional, so no accidents or self defense.

I hope whatever you decide to do, you're sagacious about it.

"Stephen I hope you're ready for school." His mom yells through the door. Not know what to make of all this new information he hurries up and gets ready for school and leaves. He didn't finish reading the notebook but it was all too much. All day at school Steven was mentally not there. The entire day went by without him even noticing. Spaced out from tiredness and stress, before he knew it he was already in his last class

"Mr. Tannen I hope you have more of that article to present" Mrs. Fritz says. Steven took out the notebook he wrote in and went to the head of the class,

His luck ran out Mr. Jefferson’s incredible luck has seemed to run out while on chase from the police. Found dead in a building just outside of town only days after the robbery. On the run for two days Mr. Jefferson was found dead in a shack in the cemetery. As of now it is not clear how he died but more importantly the fortune he stole has yet to be found.

“That is all the article says, but I've spoke with his daughter and found some other information and it sounds like before he died he was confronted with the idea to take another persons life.” Steven say’s hoping it would be enough.

"Mr. Tannen, though you still didn't present as much as I had hoped that last part intrigues me. The idea to take another persons life. While it is very morbid, it is also polarizing in some cases. I've decided that concept is what we will discuss next week. I know it's not an article, but I feel the ethics of such an act should be touched upon while you all are still young, plus it is the week before Halloween so it fits. That is obviously not me telling you it's okay, that is." Mrs. Fritz says as she continues to lay the plans out for next weeks class. Before she knows it the bell rings for the weekend.

Steven gets home and pulls out the mythology book again. Staring at the picture of the Shiungaii he can't help but feel scared. Knowing at that moment it was watching him. Maybe it is what he thought, maybe he didn't know. then he noticed inside the back cover of the notebook there was an address 2234 N Willow Drive, Steven knew all of the roads in his small town, but didn't know Willow drive went north of town. I will go there tomorrow to check it out.

Steven goes down to help his mom with dinner "This is a nice surprise," his mom says, "I don't think you've done anything more than set the placemats since you were a little boy." The two of them stood there while his mom stirred the pot of soup she was cooking and Steven washed and cut vegetables. Steven was quiet all of dinner, he didn’t have much of an appetite all day and dinner was no exception.

After dinner as he is heading to his room his mom says, "Don't forget you have that nice boy Gus's gathering tomorrow." Oh great, I forgot about that. Marcus always says there's a lot of people maybe Gus won't know I am there. Steven heads to bed dreading the next day.