NO ONE SHALL GET MY TREASURE

Hahaha, burn, burn, all of you will burn.

Wild maniacal laughter filled the small enclosed room which was dark and filled with an air of depression. This was followed by the sound of furious writing and the shuffling of paper being turned over and over.

In the room, there was only a single light source that was coming from a stick of candle that was placed on top of an old hardwood table. Before the table was the stooped form of an old man. The old man had a sloppy mop of hair that was sitting on top of his head and he wore a coat that was dirty and filled with holes, his face was filled with wrinkles and he had sagging cheeks that hung loosely on his face as spittle flew about. He was writing with wild gusto and his aged body shook every once in a while as he filled the room with echoes of his deranged laughter.

Yes, this is it. This is how it is supposed to be. This will put my name in the news, this will reach everywhere and will be regarded as my greatest work ever. My name will be mention along with the likes of Da Vinci, Bach, and Napoleon. Hahaha.” More maniacal laughter came.

The old man let out a loud satisfied sigh as he leaned back on the old chair he was sitting on. He took a glass from the side of the table that was filled with crystal clear liquid as he took a sip in satisfaction. As if he had just remembered something, he looked to the side of the room, towards the door, where there stood the form of another man. He was dressed in a sharply tailored suit and was standing upright. He also had an old face but unlike the madness in the eyes of the other man, he portrayed a stalwartness that comes with the advancement of age.

From the table, the old man looked at the butler with a mocking expression on his face. Lifting the glass to his face, he twirled it before the dim light of the candle as he said, “you’re still here Philip.”

It was not a question as much as it was a statement.

“yes MR. Shaw. I am.” The butler, Philip answered.

“Why have you not left? Everyone else has left.” He asked.

“I’m not going anywhere sir,” Philip said.

“hmm, for all I know, you might be a spy for either one of those people who call themselves my family.” The old man said.

Philip did not give a response and so the room fell into silence. Twirling his glass, Arthur Shaw thought back to the past, when he was still in his prime. When he still called the short and everybody was filled with respect and envy towards him as they tried to suck up to him.

Arthur Shaw. This name was a legend synonymous with the rich and influential. He started a listed fortune 500 company from scratch, from the time his father was just a small-time farmer in Texas. Now he had grown to have one of the retail franchises in the whole of America. From the beaches of Miami to the coat of New York, to Las Vegas and Hollywood, his franchise had stores that covered the whole of America.

As a Texan, Arthur was a hard man and it was this that lead him to succeed in the cruel environment of business, and with each success, he made in business came its own fair share of enemies.

Like all Texans, he was used to everything being in his total control, including his family, and like all others, it also led to there being no love in his own home.

After fighting for more than fifty years, he was now in his declining years. Plagued with cancer and with a house filled with vultures who call themselves family as they waited for him to die, Arthur was unwilling to go just like that.

Leaving the bleak memory, Arthur turned once more to Philip and said to him, “how long have you been working for me?”

“I have been in your employ for more than thirty years now sir,” Philip answered.

Nodding his head, Arthur continued. “in this time I’m sure you have gotten to know the situation of this household very well right?”

“yes sir, I do know a thing or two.”

“well then, I want to know what you think of this house?”

Not hesitating for a moment, Philip answered, “I think you have done a fine job as it is sir, and would gladly like to continue working for you.”

looking at Philip, Arthur then smiled and said, “in that case, I'll allow you to work for me one last time.”

Turning to the stack of paper that was on the table he said, this here is my will. I want you to read it for me.

Philip finally left his post by the door to make his way to the table and picked up the papers. Standing in front of Arthur, he looked at them, and with a level face, he started reading.

“by the time you all read this, I’ll have already been dead for a year now. As a successful businessman, I’m proud to say that I got through life without a single friend but with countless enemies. Right now I’m sure that my corpse will have been sitting under the sea without any of you bothering to look for me. don’t pretend to cry, I know all of you are laughing inside, but jokes on you soon.”

Without batting an eye, Philip continued, “from my wives to my children, my partners and competitors who have been eagerly awaiting my death, I want to say from the bottom of my heart that I hate you all.”

“now on to business. For the moment you have all been waiting for, Richard, my first son. The heir apparent to my fortune, your mother was the only sunshine in my bleak world. A small country girl whom I grew up with and was arranged to wed by my father. I miss her so much and I’m sad to say. Of all the things I miss about her, it was that she was a total bitch. I would not have married her if it were not for the beating my father gave to me especially since she tried to give me the bastard son of another man. Thank goodness for the miscarriage. I hope we meet together in hell.”

“Richard, I leave with you nothing but what you already have to your name, but trust me, it will not last.”

“Joshua and Jesse, you both are the spitting image of your mother. I know she’s right there with you. Being the second wife, I of course had to spoil you, but I wish I had sent you to the psych ward, trust me it was not easy taking care of your multiple personalities.”

“Joshua, I despise you among all my children. You think you are just so smart. Well, you’re not. Like your mother you are so caught up in the mental game that you cannot get out of your own heads. I leave you with nothing and since you own nothing in the first place, Haa sucks to be you.”

“Jesse, you were my favorite child. Oh, how I doted on you. What I like about you is how you like to screw everybody around you including your brother Richard. Yes, I know about the little affair that you have going on with him behind his wife’s back. It is so fun watching you screw over your life along with the life of others. For you, I also leave nothing. But don’t worry, I know you will be able to pull out a list of lovers and married men who will ensure your survival.”

“lastly there is Trevor. Don’t put your hopes up because you’re not my son. Your father is an old drunk that your mother shagged at a bar on time I was not around. She’s there isn’t she? You thought I didn’t know, eh Elena? When I found him I broke his legs and shattered his balls before throwing him into the river somewhere. the only reason I got married to you was that I wanted to be one of those powerful men who would shag his secretary before marrying her. I have to have some face among my peers, right. So there is nothing for you.”

“Finally, my partners there is no need to think about it because is also nothing for you.”

“you all must now be wondering, what is he going to do about his fortune? Is there an illegitimate child that he is going to pull out of his ass, or is he donating all his money to charity?”

“wrong. You’re all wrong. Why do I have to share my hard-earned wealth with anybody else? This is the time to tell all of you a story. In my childhood, I wanted to be a pirate. I wanted to sail the high seas and rob merchants of their loot. But since I did not have the chance to live that life, I decided to be a modern-day pirate by robbing people on wall street.”

“now that I’m about to die, I’ve decided to fulfill my long lost dream by robbing you all and sailing the ocean to await my death at sea.”

It was at this point that Philip paused and looked up at Arthur who was smiling sinisterly in contentment.

Nodding his head, Arthur urged. “go on, don’t stop. The best part is coming.”

With no other choice, Philip continued.

“if you have not guessed it by this time, then I can only say that you are all stupid and lack imagination so I’ll have to reluctantly fill you in on the details.”

Right now, as I write this will, I have liquidated all my assets and converted them into gold. I’ve bought a ship that I'll use to sail the oceans before ill disembark with my fortune and find a nice remote island somewhere in the Bermuda triangle. There I’ll wait for my death. For those that I cannot liquidate, I’ve signed a contract that will be effective immediately on the day this will is read. All the other assets that I cannot take with me will be destroyed. All my shops in all the corners of America will have their stocks destroyed and everything that I have built up will disappear with me. I know that it will lead to the bankruptcy of my partners, but so what, that’s exactly what I want.”

“hahaha, I told you that the joke would be on you. You all did not care about little old me, well now you have to care because if you ever want to find my treasure, then you’ll have to search for it yourself, that’s if you’re not too busy taking care of the fires in your own house.”

“take care suckers and let the greatest treasure hunt that has ever been seen since the time of Columbus begin. X marks the spot.”

When Philip had finished reading, he looked up only to see that mad laughter of Arthur Shaw as he set in motion what was to be the most talked-about case in time to come.

….

Sometime in the future, a year has passed and the will of Arthur Shaw has been read to a small gathering of people in a small room. As his last words fell, everybody who occupied this small room felt like they were still hearing the sound of his mad laughter from the time he wrote his will. It was like the lingering sounds of a demon’s laughter.