Ok yeah I know there hasn't been a challenge in a while, but they're back baby and better than ever! Well back anyway. Had some personal issues at home not the least of which is my dad being out of work and my mum going back to SA to live with my sister BUT THE POINT IS BESIDE THAT. Here it ism the point! the challenge! Just write a paragraph or so.. It'll be fuuuuuuuuun. This week's challenge: The mysterious box
I stood in front of a house that looked abandoned. I wasn't exactly sure what I was getting myself into when my friends told me about the place. They said that there was some sort of mysterious box laying around and that it had a bunch of things in it. They were not exactly sure what was in it, but they knew that it was something worth of value. I couldn't believe that they wouldn't do it. I could remember hearing Brian's voice. "Go on. You know you want to. You seem like you're the type of girl that's up for almost anything." The words were so plain in my head that I couldn't get them out. Although, I couldn't let my friends down either. I was the dare devil. I closed my eyes letting the sun beam down on my face. It was in fact hotter than it has been in the last few days; and I liked it, but the others didn't. I stretched slightly, pushed my arms out in front of me locking my fingers and then moving my arms up over my head in an oval shaped form. I walked slowly up the broken steps and twisted the door knob letting it swing open as it slammed against the wall behind it. I shrugged slightly, then looked around letting my eyes adjust to the darkness of the place. The only light that was available was the sunlight slipping slowly through the broken windows and the half blinds that were crooked or snapped in two. My friends told me the box was upstairs in the master bedroom. I just had to figure out where exactly it was. I walked up the dusty staircase of the house, running my hand along the railing letting them hit the cobwebs. If I could remember correctly they told me it was like the third room from the top of the stairs. I reached the top, and started towards the third room. Finally, I was there. I stood for a moment, taking a deep breath in then letting it out slowly. Twisting the door knob, and pushing it open; I let my eyes re-adjust enough so that I could see where I was going. I went to turn a small light on that was next to the closet, and breathed in slowly letting air out once more. There it was. A beautiful Mysterious Box. I had found it. Now, I just needed to get it out of the house and back to the friends that were waiting for it. But, I felt like I shouldn't take it. The box seemed to be a part of the house. I was in a rut. Maybe I could just go back to them and tell them it was there, and they'd go and get it themselves; though that was a likely chance. They never cared enough about it. I stared at the box for a few moments, then heard a few voices... Ghosts... couldn't be. The cries and screams of a girl coming from somewhere I didn't know... and as terrified as I was, I ran, grabbing the mysterious box, and running out of the house. (I know you said a paragraph, but I couldn't help myself. )
They always said that curiosity killed the cat, but what is life without adventure? These thoughts were on her mind as she inspected the box. It was an old thing, dusty and cracked, and the iron latch holding it together was rusted and on the verge of breaking. Something was engraved on the top, a warning, but she couldn't be bothered to read it. She'd found it in the new house's old basement, and she was determined to see what it held. She opened it. And inside glittered the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. What it was, she wasn't sure. But it was purple, and she loved purple. She reached inside. Her small hands clasped over the glass jar that held the mysterious pulsing object. And then it exploded. Glass shards shot into her chest, piercing her to the heart. And in her dying moments, she watched as the jar's contents ate away at the rest of the world, exposing her fragile life for what it was- just a story. Words on a screen. And she had to wonder if the monster would enter the writer's world as well.
"Levina!" Saf growled, struggling to free his wrist from her passionate childish grip - unsuccesfully. "Slow down; you'll give me a heart attack!" His daughter chuckled, as she always did when she decided that her younger version of sensibility has proven superior to that of the elders in her life. "No I won't daddy; it's the running that will do that to you, not me." Despite his discomfort at being forcefully dragged up the stairs of the abandoned wing of their home at a breakneck pace, Saf found it within himself to chuckle. Levina would make a magnificent Lanigator, if women were ever allowed to participate in that profession. She finally halted to allow the glow of the candle in her free hand to reveal an ornate, narrow door set into the wall. It was decorated with a faded gold pattern around all four corners, forming an oval that might have glowed if not for the layer of dust over it, and if there had been any natural source of light. Saf gripped her hand more tightly, swallowing the building tension in his throat. Oblivious to her father's paling face, a single flailing kick from her small foot knocked the door inwards, and she dragged him into the small alcove beyond. Choking on the words to warn her, there seemed nothing he could do. She carefully set her candle on the floor next to a small box about the size of one a jewelsmith might use for a particularly uniqe ornament, and crouched next to it. A quick puff from her tiny mouth sent the dust on the box's lid swirling into the darkness, and with her face aglow from within, she carefully raised the lid.... ....and it was too late.
Kevin had been acting strangely all day, and being oddly mysterious. What in the world could he be cooking up? they'd been dating for a year now and things seemed to be going very well, so she wasn't worried about anything bad, but maybe he was planning something for their one year anniversary. That would be so sweet. She smiled as she clung to the thought and wondered then what he might do. A romantic dinner for two? A special trip? Maybe even take that next step and ask her to marry him! She blinked, was she ready for that? She wasn't sure. That night though Kevin showed up dressed mush better than he normally was, not suit and tie but definitely slick and polished. He had asked her to wear a dress, and she had. "You look amazing!" "Aww thanks Kev...you look really nice too." "I did try. Glad you approve." he smiled as he kissed her cheek. "I have a big surprise for you!" he said and there was a sparkle in those gray eyes and that smile was so wide his dimple was peeking out. "Ok..." she said peeking around, "What is it?" "Not here..." he said and took her hand, "Let's go for a little walk." "Ok," she agreed shutting the door behind her and then followed as he led her to the small park at the end of her block. He stopped by the fountain and turned to face her and handed her a small velvet box. OH MY!! He WAS going to ask her to marry him. Was she ready? Yes she loved him, but marriage? They were so young. Was that wise? She took the box in suddenly shaky hands and lifted the lid expecting to look up and see him on one knee smiling hopefully up at her. Instead in the box was an old coin that looked a bit worse for wear and that wasn't even polished. She lifted her eyes to him and the confusion on her face could not be hidden. Kevin was beaming at her in pride though, "That is the nickel I picked up when I bumped into you right here the day we met. Remember?" She looked back at it and then up at him. "I do remember...you almost made me fall in the fountain." He blushed a bit and shrugged, "yeah, but I caught you..." "Yeah...you did..." She looked back at it again and smiled, "You kept it all this time?" "Well yeah!" he said as if that was an obvious thing, "Can't let go of the most lucky thing you ever found now can you?" She shook her head and threw herself into his arms and realized when he did finally ask her, she would say yes for sure.
He should have known better than to tell his wife she couldn't do something. Ever since they'd met, he'd always realize - just a little too late - that he had figuratively dangled the carrot in front of her nose. She had always been a nosy person, a curious person, ever since his cousin introduced him to her, and sometimes that got her into trouble. Of course, he'd always forgiven her for her intrusiveness, figuring it had to do with her upbringing, the fact she seemed to spring forward as a fully formed person from the ether. Her family, as far as he knew, was nonexistent, which he'd considered a boon - no in-laws to contend with. But his brother had always warned him to be attentive to her needs. And he'd agreed wholeheartedly to do just that. He did think his brother could be a little too presumptuous, considering he also warned him to keep a keen eye on her, too. She was the love of his life. What could she do to hurt him? And then, his cousin gave him a box to keep. A simple cardboard box, packaged with tape, sealed. He had said he needed him to just keep it for him for a little while. His cousin never said what was in it, and frankly he didn't want to know. Knowing him, it was some aphrodisiac, a cancer of lust in the form of nudie mags and masturbatory aids of all kinds. There just some things people were better off not thinking about. But she asked him about the box, and he said she couldn't open it, and just as he'd said those words, he knew he'd made a mistake. It was too late by then. He couldn't take the words back. And so, when he arrived home, he found her with the open box, empty but for a single thing. "I think I let something out," she sobbed. "I-I didn't know. I just..." And he knew what she would say. "...was curious." So he knelt beside her and found, in the box, a bunch of vials that had opened, labelled with frighteningly scientific names. All that was left was a single vial reading potential vaccine.
I've been challenged to use a randomly generated character for as many prompts as possible, so here's a continuation of that. I'm starting to wonder if I might be able to make an interesting story out of all this...hm... Most people didn't realize that immortality came from the gods. There wasn't a magic spell or some ritual to be done. Rather, it all came down to a mysterious little box, gifted to those who proved themselves worthy. Mara Sweet had a box all her own, swinging from her hip in a rather comical fashion. Any common thief might grab it, and they could certainly try. None had ever succeeded, but they would never find anything of value if they ever did. For these mysterious little boxes only mattered to those who had received them in the first place. There were only three rules about the boxes. First, as long as you never opened them, you would never die--not of natural causes, at least. Second, if you do open the box, you will receive all that your heart desires, but you lose your immortality. Third, you must never lose possession of your box, for there are fates far worse than death. Mara had never opened her box, so she had yet to die. She'd never lost possession of it, so she suffered no horrible fate. And yet, there was always the temptation. The echoing idea--just one peek won't hurt. She knew, deep down, that the box was both a blessing and a curse. That somehow its very presence wormed its way into her mind constantly. She resisted the temptation so far, knowing that there was both good and evil to getting all that one desires. But there was always that chance that she would fail... She tried not to think about it too much.
