Dybukk Box Revenge

A girl screwed over and harassed by a manipulative classmate seeks revenge by sending her enemy a Dybukk box.

chapter 1

Kylie’s black finger nailed; index finger hovered over the left click button of her mouse.  The online shopping page illuminating off her pale face like a Ghost in the dark bedroom.

 

“F**k it, I’m buying this!”

 

Her finger hit the button like a guillotine blade coming down on a notorious criminal.

 

“The stupid b***h deserves this.”

 

The screen read.

 

‘Congratulation on your purchase of 1 x Dybbuk Box…’

 

Kylie shuddered for a moment.

 

‘Is this an overkill…?’

 

But the memories of all the horrible things came back to her.

 

‘Nah, she deserves every bit she gets.’

 

Kylie yawned, logged off her PC and crawled from her desk chair to the black and white clad bed that was on the right side of her computer desk.  No guilt or shame in what she had done.

 

 

chapter 2

One week later, Kylies nemesis, Erin opened the front door of her parents’ brown bricked suburban home.  She cringed at the view of the frost on the front lawn.  Braving the cold in her pink, fluffy bunny slippers and pink night gown. Pink beany pulled over her pale ears.  Erin bent over to pick up the newspaper from the porch when she noticed in the corner of her eye a brown behind the opened door.

 

‘Would’ve arrived late Friday evening.’

 

Stepping back inside she put the frosty newspaper in the pocket of her fluffy night gown and picked up the brown paper wrapped box then let the fly screen door slam shut followed by the heavy wooden front door.  Erin wasn’t going to inspect the parcel carefully until she noticed her name on it.

 

‘To: Erin Da Ville’

 

Realizing it was for her, Erin walked quickly inside ignoring her parents’ morning greetings as they sat at the dining room table having breakfast.

Her Dad had a follow up comment he managed to shoot out from his newspaper before Erin jogged down the hallway.

 

“What is it?”

 

He gestured his head towards the box Erin was holding.

 

“Late birthday present from Aunty Sal!”

 

Just as her mum spoke up, Erin went down the hallway turning left into her bedroom.  Away from her parents prying eyes, she placed the parcel on the white duchess that stood next to the bedroom door.  Carelessly tearing the brown wrapping paper to reveal a dark brown, wooden box with Hebrew lettering inscribed in gold on the top and bottom edge.  Rolling it around in her hands she found the front of the box. It had two, ring handled doors.  Overlapping both doors  was a gold star of David within a circle that had a ring of golden Hebrew letters and some more symbols.

 

“Huh, this is nice…I guess.”

 

Before Erin considered opening the box, she rattled it only to hear the small ringed handles tapping the box as she shook it.  Disappointed she moaned out loud.

 

“It’s empty.  Cheapskate, Aunty Sal.”

 

Erin threw the box it into the corner of the room where it hit the wall and landed on a pile of dirty laundry that sat on the floor.  The doors of the box popped open as it crashes, releasing a gush of freezing cold wind and the smell of rotting eggs.  The wind blew Erin’s pink night gown as she stood facing her duchess, her beanie flew off her head and the wind messed up her black and grey speckled wavey hair.  It was so strong she bumped into the white duchess almost hitting her head on its mirror in front of her.  Disturbed by the force of such a breeze, Erin slowly turned around, staring at the mysterious box as it lay open on her floor.

 

‘My window’s closed, where did that breeze come from?  And that stench!’

 

 

 

 

 

 

chapter 3

Monday morning and Kylie was first in classroom.  She sat at her desk, turned on the PC, soon as she was logged on the computer, Kylie opened YouTube and started watching Cat Videos.

 

“Anything to boost my morale.”

 

Kylie mumbled to herself as she did when nervous.  She used to love going to Tech College, it was her comfort zone but all that changed with Erin.  The two were great classmates but Kylie felt uncomfortable when Erin kept pressuring Kylie into spending personal one-on-one time together which made Kylie feel even more uncomfortable.  Then one night after late class sessions, as the two walked through the well light parking lot, Erin finally confessed.

 

“I can’t stop thinking about you…”

 

Erin anxiously clutched her hands as she stood in the orange light of the widespread parking lot, with the cool evening air.  Kylie took a step back and a deep breath, thoughts flashing through her mind, not sure what to say or how to react.  Kylie had been rejected many times by boys and girls, so she was thinking of ways to let Erin down gently.

 

“Erin, I’m sorry.  I do swing both ways but I’m just not feeling it with you…”

 

Before Kylie could continue Erin blurted out.

 

“I have a husband! Well, I mean….a fiancé….well maybe not a fiancé but a boyfriend.  I’m in a relationship.”

 

Now Kylie just felt put out by this.

 

‘Okay, she knows I’m not attracted to her why would she mention this?  Wait…if she’s in a relationship why are we having this awkward conversation!?’

 

Kylie tried to maintain being nice and put on her warm smile.

 

“Is he rich?”

 

That broke the tension, the pressure was released from both people like an over-carbonated bottle of beer had been opened.

Erin laughed and started to blabber about her boyfriend, who lived overseas.  She met him online and had been in a relationship for 5 years although they’ve never met in person.  Erin continued to blabber like a schoolgirl making Kylie wonder about this person.

 

‘Oh my God!  She’s over forty but she’s just like a thirteen-year-old girl.’

 

Kylie felt more uncomfortable, she was trying to think of ways to escape the awkwardness.  Kylie looked at her black leather wrist band watch then back at Erin.

 

“Look Erin, I’m sorry but I’m just not attracted to you.  But Martin sounds great, I think you should focus more on your relationship with him.  I  gotta’ go, bye!”

 

Kylie quickly walked away with a sigh of relief, thinking that was the end.  But for the next few months Kylie would struggle to keep a platonic relationship, Erin made things difficult with her flirtatious comments and over flattering messages.  Erin would often d or say something that would make Kylie think.

 

‘Poor Martin, what would he make of this!?’

chapter 4

 

“Yessss!”

 

Kylie whispered to herself triumphantly as she finished her classwork early.  The teacher stepped out of the classroom for a long-deserved break, most of her classmates finished even earlier.  Kylie got excited and turned off the PC then quickly packed her things.  She turned around to the window at the back of the classroom to see the sun was going down.

 

‘Hopefully I can walk to the shops before they close.’

 

Kylie gave a quick look to the desk in front of hers and said goodbye to Erin.  Then she turned left, stepping away from her desk that’s when she saw a pair of pink, feminine, women’s underwear on the vacant desk next to hers.

 

‘What the fu….!?’

 

Kylie thought as she paused for a moment, not believing her eyes.  She shook her head and walked quickly out of the classroom, but the image kept popping back into her head.

 

‘Did I really see that…?’

 

Kylie nervously laughed it off.

 

‘I’ll just dismiss it and put it in the back of my mind vault.  In three, two, one and……done!’

 

Later that night, Kylie was riding her scooter to park in her neighborhood.  Her mobile kept buzzing with text messages.  Kylie zoomed into the park, riding along its footpath past the playground and turning left towards the skate bowl.  She climbed up onto the concrete ramp, dragging up the scooter then sat, pulling out the mobile from the right pocket of her dark blue camouflage trousers.

That’s when she discovered a bombardment of lengthy and melodramatic messages from Erin, the final one confessing the underwear belonged to Erin.  Kylie’s face dropped.

 

“I don’t think I like this person anymore.”

 

She mumbled out loud to the oak trees around her.  The mood to scoot around the skate bowl had gone, overwhelmed by this very strange and exaggerated behavior.  The rest of the Friday evening was spent messaging Erin, trying to let her down gently, but more string of constant messages which led Kylie to text back.

 

<Look, I’m freaked out by all this.  Please just give me some space.>

 

But that didn’t stop Erin from sending more groveling messages.  Kylie gave up, turned her mobile off, rode home and hopped on her computer then emailed her teacher, letting her know she wouldn’t be in school on Monday for ‘personal reasons.’  But her teacher was very intuitive and knew what was going on.

chapter 5

 

A month had gone by, the teacher had stepped in making Erin move to the furthest corner of the classroom much to Kylies relief.  It was also a month of Erin with the mysterious.  Since its arrival strange things have started to happen to Erin, items would disappear more so than normal, items were breaking at their own accord, scratching and growling noises keeping Erin awake at night, when she id sleep she had nothing but horrific nightmares.

 

Erin would arrive late to class more frequently and at later times.  Kylie could overhear Erin talking about her ‘living nightmare’ which made Kylie smile but after some time the thought kept popping into Kylie’s head.

 

‘This gone for long enough.  How do I end this?’

 

Kylie kept thinking this as she was trying to read her Harry Dresden novel while sitting at her desk.  Erin and the rest of Kylie’s classmates were huddled together in the small lounge area at the back left corner of the classroom.

Kylie had won, Erin stopped harassing her but Kylie was now alienated as Erin had hogged the attention of Kylie’s classmates and in no way was Kylie comfortable being in the same social circle as Erin.

 

‘It’s like forcing Rose McGowen to sit at a small tea party with Harvey Weinstein.’

 

Kylie often thought.  That’s when she put down the novel down and logged back onto her classroom PC.  She looked up the ‘For Sale’ advertisement for the Dybukk Box she ordered then looked up Dybukk Box on Wikipedia, print both web pages and searched for the bravery to get up from her desk.  The printer was at the top of the classroom near the teacher’s desk but if Kylie got up she’d draw the attention of Erin, risking awkward and bitchy comments.  But she did it and Erin was too engrossed into telling all kinds of woes to her classmates.

 

‘This should be plenty of information to get the message across.’

 

Kylie reassured herself as she made two paper airplanes of the printouts placing one inside the other.  She took careful aim and threw them towards the lounge areas where the others were.

Kylie’s aim was good for the paper plane landed in Erin’s lap.  Kylie quickly picked up the novel she was reading and stuck her round tip nose back into it.

 

Erin jumped as the paper airplane landed in her classic tartan skirted lap.

 

“Who threw that!?”

 

She thought as she picked up the paper plane and noticed something was printed on it.  She opened it up and saw an advertisement for a small wooden box.

 

“Hey wow, I got one just like that!”

 

She cried out with a smile on her face.  She opened the other paper plane but just dismissed it as.

 

“This is cute wrapping paper!”

 

The others looked at Erin like she was stupid, they were smart enough to figure this was a hint of some kind but didn’t want to get involved so they just moaned, shook their heads and looked away  Kylie discreetly observed this as she noticed Erin crush the paper into a ball.

 

chapter 6

 

Time came and went, the IT course Kylie was studying finished successfully followed by a well-earned break.  Friday, when Kylie would normally be in class, she decided it would be a novelty to go for a walk.  Her mind was wondering about what she was going to do next when she suddenly realized some time had passed and…

 

‘S**t!  I’m in Erin’s neighborhood!’

 

Overwhelmed by her success, Kylie forgot that her nemesis lived in the suburb nearby, and Kylie was walking right through the street Erin lived on.  To make things worse she noticed she was standing next to Erin’s house, she knew this because she was there for a movie night the class was invited to though….Kylie was the only one that showed, she often thought that was a trap.  Her heart dropped a beat, and a cold chill went through her body she slowly turned her head to her right and saw.

 

‘Yep, that’s Erin’s house alright.  I don’t wanna’ be here!’

 

But that’s when Kylie noticed the ‘For Sale’ sign in the flower plagued garden followed by the nicely dressed real estate agent walking down the garden steps of the front yard, he looked up and saw Kylie.  With a big white tooth smile and wave, he called out.

 

“Hi!  You looking to buy this house?  It’s a nice house, one story but has a beautiful garden!”

 

He waved a free hand of his white shirt indicating the front yard.  Kylie was kind of taken by the man, he looked like a skinnier version of Chris Pratt but with a friendly Australian accent.

 

“No, sorry.  I was just wondering…I knew the family that lived here.  What happened to them?”

 

Kylie asked as the salesman’s smile faded a bit.  He walked closer with a black clipboard under his left arm.

 

“Oh, they moved!  He, he!”

 

Kylie felt stupid for asking.

 

Right, sorry.  Just curious, does the house come with furniture?”

 

Kylie assumed he couldn’t give information on the previous owners so tried to tip-toe and trick the agent into answering.

“Nope sorry, took everything with them.  The house is dead empty, which is great!  Because it means there’s plenty of space to start fresh!”

 

It dawned on Kylie.

 

‘That stupid b***h never figured it out….she took the Dybukk Box with her!’

 

Kylie made small talk, gave the appearance of a possible buyer then thanked the nice real estate agent, turned on her heals and walked back home.  She did feel a little bit guilty until she remembered the long list of awkwardness and manipulative behaviors she got from Erin.

 

‘Nope…she brought this on herself.’

 

THE END

Author's Note

A Horror story with a sense of humour. For those that don't know it, a Dybukk is an cursed item in Jewish mythology. It's a wooden box that contains an evil spirit, whoever opens it becomes haunted by the spirit from within the box.