It was Sarah’s first time staying alone at her house while her parents were at a concert. Sarah wasn’t very nervous since she would just stay in her room. It was around 10:30 when Sarah heard a knock at her door. She walked to the window to the left of the front door and looked through a gap in the curtain to see who knocked. At first she didn’t see anyone but in the corner of her eye she saw a box on the front mat. She hesitantly opened the door to see what was inside the box. She bent over and to her surprise the small box was heavy. She carried it inside and set it down on the kitchen table. Sarah tore open the box and on the inside was a new book. She took out the book and read the title. The title was “The Life and Death of Sarah Bass.” Sarah laughed because she thought that it was just a practical joke and her friends were messing with her. She went to her couch and cracked open the new book. She started to read and after just 10 pages, she started to feel weird about the book. The book told exactly what had happened when she was born up to when she was 5 years old. She shook it off because she thought that maybe she told her friends awhile ago about her early years. She kept on reading and then on page 43 she stopped and her face turned white. In the book there was a paragraph about her imaginary friend she had when she was 8. Sarah knew that she had never told anyone, even her parents, about having an imaginary friend because she was so embarrassed. Sarah realized that this book was not a joke. Frantically, she skipped through the pages and stopped on 200. The book read, “On May 22nd, 2019, Sarah Bass graduated high school with a 3.3 GPA.” Sarah felt sick. She then skipped to another page that said, “On January 25th, 2027 Sarah married Trenton Cane.” Sarah felt overwhelmed by the fact that then knew exactly when and who she was getting married to in the future. As Sarah started to process all of her thoughts, she came to a conclusion that it must all just be some weird joke. Sarah slammed the book shut and she threw the book in her closet.

5 years later

Sarah rushed into her house on May 22nd, 2019, after her graduation. She ran to her room and started digging through her closet trying to find the book that she received 5 years ago that she thought was a joke. After a while she found the book and she nervously opened the book trying to find a certain page. She finally found the page she was looking for and she placed her fingers on the sentence as she read, “On May 22nd, 2019 Sarah Bass graduated high school with a 3.3 GPA.” She unrolled her diploma and her heart sank. She had graduated with a 3.3 GPA. She was shaken by the fact that the book had given the exact GPA, but she still thought that it must’ve been a crazy coincidence. She tossed the book back in her closet and forgot about it.

8 years later

Sarah visits her parents to collect some old belongings from her old room. As Sarah was looking through her old closet, she came across the mysterious book. She laughed, remembering how freaked out she was by the book. She skimmed through some pages and she stopped at a page written about her marriage. She started to read and Sarah’s heart skipped a beat. The book had said the exact name of her husband of two months and the exact date of their wedding. Sarah was shocked and she felt scared holding such a book in her hand. She knew that the book was not a joke or coincidence; it was a book about her life. Sarah felt scared holding a book that shows everything that has happened in her life. And then Sarah realized something else that would change her life forever. She realized that the book said it was about her life and her death. Her heart started pounding because in her hands was the exact date of her death. She started to skip to the back of the book, hands shaking. She reached the last page but stopped. She didn’t know if she wanted to know when she would die. She thought that if she knew when she would die, then she would start to lose the will to live. Sarah took the book that had her whole future in it and she started a fire in the fireplace and burnt it.

In doing this, Sarah had destroyed her whole life that was written in that book. Time reversed to the night when she was given the book and she didn’t discover anything about her future. Her life went on after that night and she didn’t remember anything about the book. Although Sarah would never know who or what had placed that book outside her front door, she knew that she would rather have life come as a surprise rather than an open book.