The Black Box

This is a Fable loosely based off of Pandora's Box. It is just a little thing I wrote for English class back in 2010.

    Once upon a time there was fuzzy brown bunny that lived in the Candy Forest. One day he was out hopping with his friends Fox and Squirrel. They were going to the Chocolate Lake to swim around. But on their way to the lake they stumbled upon a black box in the hollow of a tree. “What’s this?” Squirrel asked picking up the black box. “It’s a box, a black box.”

            "What should we do with it?" Fox asked the others.

            "I don’t know it looks evil,” said Bunny, "maybe we should just leave it alone.”

            “But it could be treasure!" said Squirrel, greed in his eyes.

"It could be" said Fox examining the box closer. It was black with golden trim and weird red markings on it. There was a lock too, a very intricate and complex-looking one. “What are these? Could it be writing?” Fox asked the others.

            “It might be! We should take it to Owl he would know. He’s the wisest elder in the forest.” Bunny said. They all thought about it.

            “Okay, let’s go!” Squirrel said, “I want to see if he knows how to open it!” So they took the box with them to the tallest tree in the forest. They rang the bell at the bottom of the tree to let the wise owl know they were here. They waited for a few minutes. Then they heard a whooshing sound as Owl swooped down from the top of the tree.

            “Whoo goes there?” Owl asked looking at them with his all knowing eyes.

            “Bunny, Fox, and Squirrel,” Bunny said, “we need to see if you can read these symbols.”

            “Well let me take a look, whoo.” Owl said pulling out his spectacles and putting them on. “Let me see here. Whoo, this is strange; these markings are very old. They read: ‘Beware whoo ever opens this box, for he will release a great and terrible power into the world. Beware!’ This box holds a great evil, whoo. Promise me you will take it back to where you found it and leave it there, whoo.” Owl said handing the box back to Bunny.

            “I promise Owl, we’ll take it back. I didn’t like it to begin with.” Bunny said taking the box from Owl. “Thank you for helping us, we’ll be on our way now.” Squirrel looked like he was about to object but he thought better of it. The trio left Owl and headed back the way they had come.

            On their way back to where they had found the black box Squirrel spoke up. “Are you guys thinking what I’m thinking?” he didn’t give them a chance to answer and went on. “I think that Owl knows what is in this box: treasure! And he’s going to have us take the box back and then he’s going take it from there. I think he was lying to us and he wants the amazing treasure that is in this box. I say we take it to Rat and see if he can open it.”

            Bunny looked at him, “What are you talking about? Owl is wise and kind, he would never lie to us!”

            “I don’t know I think Squirrel is right maybe Owl wants it for himself! We should keep it.” Said Fox, she looked excited.

            “I don’t know guys; I really think we should just listen to him. It said ‘Beware!’ we should just leave it alone.” Bunny said. He looked at the others, “let's just take it back.”

            “Okay, okay, let's go,” Squirrel said. They started to walk again, but before they could make it two steps Squirrel took the box from Bunny in a flash. “There let's go to Rat!”

            “Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Bunny said following Squirrel and Fox as they started to head to Rat's burrow.

            They got there at sundown, and knocked on the door. “What the hell do you want?!” a gruff voice asked from behind the door.

"We're here to see if you can open this box for us." Squirrel said.

"And why exactly would I do that?" the voice asked from behind the closed door.

"Because if you help us get it open we will give you part of the treasure that is inside." Squirrel said knowing Rat would take the bait.

The door opened and standing there was a big fat grey rat. "Oh, really? What kind of treasure?" Rat asked, his eyes sparkling.

"We don't know for sure. We took it to Owl and he said that these markings here tell of as great treasure inside the box." Squirrel said lying so Rat would open it.

"But that's not…" Bunny started to say but was cut off as Fox elbowed him in the ribs.

"Shhh, he doesn't need to know what it says." Fox whispered to his ear so rat wouldn't hear.

"Well if that's the case come in, come in. By the looks of it this lock it will take me a bit to open." Rat said as he ushered them in. Rat took the box from Squirrel and put it on his workbench and started tinkering with it. Squirrel went and stood behind him and watched. Fox went and sat down on the coach next to a pile of junk. Bunny just stood there inside the doorway.

"Are you guys sure we should be doing this?" Bunny asked the others. They all ignored him and kept on doing what they we doing. Thirty minutes passed and Bunny was about to leave when Rat let out a cry of triumph.

"I got it open!" Rat exclaimed, "Who wants to do the honors?" Rat asked the group.

"I do!" Squirrel said grabbing the box from Rat. Fox got up to go stand over by the box next to Squirrel. Bunny stayed right where he was afraid of what might happen if he got any closer. "Here we go…" said Squirrel in a barely audible voice as he lifted the lid.

When he got the lid all the way open the whole burrow went dark and Bunny couldn't see anything. Then he heard it. It was like the screams of thousands of kids being tortured, only worse. It was like they were being gutted alive. Then it was over and the darkness was gone. Only Fox, Squirrel, and Rat weren't there anymore. In their places there stood three hideously disfigured creatures. They were all black and slimly and blood was seeping from wounds all over their body. They were mockeries of the animals they had once been, with pale white eyes and long grotesque claws. Their teeth where sharp and yellow and they had no hair, just slimy black skin.

They all turned their eyes on Bunny and he wanted to run or scream or something, but he couldn't move. "They should have listened to you." The three demons said as one. Their cold menacing voices sent chills down Bunny's spine. "Now that I have been release there is no hope for your world." They said as one, "Once I open the portal that will let more of my kin into you world there will be no hope for you! And you and your friends are the only ones to blame. Now die creature, for your time has come."

At that moment Bunny turned tail and ran. But he didn't get far before he felt something behind him. He looked back to see the creatures were chasing him, gliding through the air. He tried to run faster but he just couldn't. It was over, he knew he was dead and there was no point in running anymore. As he slowed to a stop he closed his eyes against what he knew was going to come next. But nothing happened, so he turned around to look behind him. There was nothing there; the creatures must have stopped chasing him.

Bunny turned around and started to walk again, but stopped dead in his tracks. There standing in front of him where the creatures. "Surprise!" The creatures said as one as they plunged their claws into bunny. Bunny crumpled over on the ground as they took their claws out blood covering them. As he lay there on the ground looking at the blood pooling around him, the creatures bent down and whispered in his ear. "Goodbye weakling." Then Bunny was dead.

           

    The creatures went on to open up a portal that let thousands of demons into the world. They quickly wiped out all of the animals and the world fell into chaos. The world had come to an end, and it was all brought on by the opening of one little black box.

THE END

Reviews

[Decanter Red]

Hahaha! The characters are so cute! It sounded like a sweet fairy tale with animals that spoke in squeaky voices, until the gory ending O_O I suppose that this is meant to be a twisted fairytale, like the movie 'Hanna'. Well done though! I like the transition from innocence to horror in a smooth glide, and your friday night story-telling approach. The main thing that attracted my attention to read this was your story icon, however.

[Joshua Hunter]

Thanks, I started to write it as a cute little fairy tale, but got kind of bored and decided the twist would be interesting. Yeah that is a Jack-o-Lantern I made last year for Halloween with some photo effects to make it look better. I use all my own pictures in my stories.

[Decanter Red]

Hahaha! Yeah I understand that feeling too so I tend to go overboard with some...not so pretty ideas LOL. It certainly look creepy, that lantern! Same here though, I don't like messing with copyright stuff >.>

[Joshua Hunter]

Thanks, that is exactly what I was going for. Yeah, me neither.

[MoriartyMesa]

In my mind all I could turn over was this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M2TKnWpm_s&feature=share&list=PL4B0D8FA7C02FFB27 it was like the words melted upon the music and exclaimed the excitement and tone of each sentence.

[Joshua Hunter]

Thanks and a great song!