Leather Wallet

The Leather Wallet is a scary story about two sisters who find a man's wallet on the bus. Inside, they find an odd note, written in Latin. This is based on a story from the Philippines. My sister Maria was one year older than me. We went to the same boarding school. Every weekend, we were allowed to go home and visit our mother. One Sunday evening, my sister and I went shopping in the city. When we were going home, we caught the bus. Maria found a leather wallet lying on the floor beneath our seat. The wallet was pretty old and it looked like it was worn out. There was 20 dollars inside. I told her we should split the money, but my sister refused. She was always such an honest person. She said we should return the wallet to its rightful owner. When we got home, the house was empty. There was a note on the kitchen table from our mother telling us to behave ourselves while she was away. She had gone on a two-week holiday with her new boyfriend. Maria opened the leather wallet and started going through the contents. There was a bank card with no name on it, a bus ticket, an old black and white photo of a man and a folded piece of paper. She took out the paper and looked at it. 'What does it say?' I asked. 'I don't know,' replied Maria. 'I think it's in Latin.' I grabbed the note and began reading. ''MORITVM TE SALVTAMVS, EST DEXTRVMI CVRITE... AVE VERSUS CRISTUS, VERUM DE TREVI, VERMI EST REFLEXUM, ARUM DRI TRIPUM... DEXTRUMI LENTENUM, AVE SATANI.' 'No, silly,' my sister laughed. 'You're pronouncing it all wrong. Don't you know anything? When the Romans were writing down Latin, they used a V instead of a U. Those Vs are pronounced like U.' 'OK, if youre so smart, then you read it,' I replied. Maria snatched the piece of paper from my hands and read it aloud. 'what does it mean?' I asked. 'I have no idea,' she replied. 'We studied Latin in school, but I don't recognize any of the words.' She tucked the paper back into the leather wallet and left it on her bedside table, telling me she would hand it in to the police station next week. During the night, as I was drifting off to sleep, I heard Maria suddenly jump out of bed and run into the bathroom. She was retching and vomiting into the toilet. Shocked, I climbed out of bed and went to see if she was alright. I found her bent over the toilet bowl, supporting herself with one hand. She was crying. 'What happened?' I asked. 'Maria, what's wrong with you?' She didn't answer and just waved me away. The next morning, Maria had a fever. She said she felt dizzy and couldn't go to school. She wanted me to go alone and tell the teachers she was sick and would come to school tomorrow. I spent the rest of the week at boarding school, but Maria never showed up. I kept sending her text messages, asking where she was, but she never replied. The next weekend, when I went home, I found the house in darkness. There was a horrible stench in the air. It smelled like rotting flesh. 'Maria! Maria!' I called. 'Where are you? It stinks in here!' When I went upstairs, my sister suddenly appeared from the bathroom. 'Maria, what's that stink?' I asked, wrinkling up my nose. 'It smells like a decomposing rat.' She nodded her head. 'It's coming from the neighbor's house,' she said. 'Their dog died. It got hit by a car. After it got run over, it still managed to get inside its dog house and died there.' 'Why didn't they bury it?' I asked. 'The neighbor is on holiday. It's been days and he hasn't returned yet. The gate is locked and nobody can get in.' 'Really, the gate is locked? But how did the dog get back inside?' 'Beats me.' 'Well let's keep the windows shut so the stench won't get inside,' I said. 'It's enough to make you vomit.' Maria went around the house closing all the windows. A little while later, I made dinner and called my sister. She said she didn't want anything to eat because she had lost her appetite. I ate alone. That night, as I lay in bed, I could still smell the neighbor's dead dog. The stench was overpowering. I got up and sprayed the room with a can of air freshener. The next day,