The Box

 It was a typical Saturday morning.  The sun was warming the dorm, and the birds sang with melodic voices outside.  The dorm still needed to be cleaned, but its occupants were too lazy.  They were always lazy, the two of them, but when they put their minds to it they could do anything.  Yet the comfort of the device is stronger than the work of the cleaner.  Aside from today, when Kristeen and Woody were sitting on the couch surfing on their phones.  Woody was tall, had brown eyes, dark brown hair, freckles and olive skin.  He had a focused look on his face as he scrolled, and Kristeen who sat across from him had a nice and relaxed countenance.  Kristeen was short, pale, had long brown hair in a loose braid and had green eyes.  Woody finally set down his phone and looked up at Kristeen.

     “Hey, Kristeen?” Woody asked, “can you get that box on the top shelf?”

     “But you know I can’t reach it,” she whined.

“Please. I put it up there and now I need it, and my leg is still broken.”

     “Fine.” She opened the door and walked down the hallway to stop in front of a food shelf.  A lone shoe box rested a top of the shelf, mocking her silently.  Odd place for a shoe box. She glared at it, “Is it fragile?”

     “Most definitely. The object inside is made of glass, so don't go around thinking you can knock it off.”

     “I wasn’t!” Kristeen found a ladder and rested it against the shelf.  She carefully climbed up and reached for the box.  She briefly glided her fingers across the corner of it.  She looked at her finger and it was really dusty.  She placed her fingers on the box again, but her finger slipped and her weight shift caused the ladder to start moving.  She tried to fix herself, but it was too late and she and the ladder both crashed on the ground.  She quickly got up and brushed herself off.  Whatever was in that box would have to be good if she was going to break a bone as well.  Her joints ached heavily from the fall, but she knew that if she did break a bone it wasn’t going to be as bad as Woody.  He broke his leg because a tree fell on top of it.  She never asked how because he was always clumsy.  Aw, what was she thinking?  She didn’t need to do acrobatics to get the box, she could just use a few books to get it.  She would use them as clamps to secure the box, but they would need to be attached to a contraption that she could control.  Ten minutes later she was sitting on the ground building a claw grabber.  Woody came into the room with his crutches.

    “What’s taking so long?”

     “I’m making something to grab it. The ladder didn’t work,” she murmured.  She continued fidgeting with her claw grabber.

     “Ever heard of KISS?”

     “What does kissing have to do with this?”

     Woody facepalmed. “KISS. Keep it simple stupid. You know you could have just asked for help.” He balanced one hand on a crutch and set the other aside.  He reached and took hold of the box.  After carefully lowering it down, he handed it to Kristeen. “Next time don’t go setting boxes that contain glass on shelves taller than you,” he said smugly and then walked away.  As he was nearing the dorm door he shouted, “That was a joke, by the way! I set it up there to be amused by your struggle!” She raised her hand angrily to call after him but lowered it.  Kristen looked at the box for a minute.  On the top of the box it said, For Kristeen. Please open when you are ready to accept our invitation.

      “Wait–,” but her curiosity stopped her.  This wasn’t Woody’s handwriting.  She wondered if he knew what was in the box or why it was there.  It was a bold claim for saying the object was glass, because it wasn’t glass.  She could feel it from the bottom side.  It felt heavy and dismal.  And yet, it emitted a comforting feeling that she loved, and a smile slowly crept on her face.  Then at that moment nothing else existed but her and the box.  In a lone space where consequences didn’t matter and thoughts of curiosity were endless, she opened it.

      Inside the box was a small paper slip.  What?  Why was the box weighted then?  She tried picking up the slip but it was too heavy.  What was even worse was that the slip was blank.  No, there was a small dot on it; the dot was placed with delicacy, and each tiny blob was carefully placed so that the dot looked like a small cat head.  She heard a monstrous meow.  She quickly dropped the box and looked around, frightened, nervous, blood pumping quick, because all the lights dimmed away.  What was once a boring hallway became a spacious place for the essence of horror.  She tried getting up so she could run to Woody.  Her feet wouldn't move.  She tried to scream for him, but couldn’t find her voice.

     Then she tried closing her eyes for relief, but instead she heard footsteps.  Her eyes shot open instantly and standing before her was a figure cloaked in black holding a lantern.  Their lips opened into a smile and out came a smooth voice that said, “Hello, Kristeen. I see you have accepted our invitation.”

Kristeen could feel herself get warmer, sweat was gleaming all around her face, tears pooled in her eyes, and her lips quivered in fear.  At the moment she was free from the floor, she began to stumble down the hall to her dorm’s door.  The door melted at her touch and what was left was a black abyss.  Nausea started to kick in when a cold hand pushed her from behind, she fell in silently, too scared to make a sound.  She eventually fell on hard cracked ground, but couldn’t make sense of her surroundings because her vision was blurred from the shock.  Kristeen slowly closed her eyes and decided to accept whatever fate had in store for her.