Secrets

A box of secrets. 1

That's what the little girl loved to call it.2

A box where her big sister kept all her little secret things.3

~~~~~4

"Don't touch that!" The 15 year old cried desperately as her younger sister went to open the jewel covered box.5

"But, what's inside it?" Her heart skipped a beat as she looked down upon the girl. She was only 5, and already her brown hair hung in long waves, surrounding her face and cascading down her frail back. Her little sister was only 5, she could not be expected to understand.6

"Just," she stared, seeking the right words in her sisters large brown eyes, "just stay away from the box, okay?"7

~~~~8

She HAD stayed away from the box, for a while at least. But it was so beautiful, sitting on the windows ledge of her sisters room. Black and gold, it should not have been able to shine the way it did in the sunlight, nor glow the way it did once the sun had set far to the Western-lands.9

How could she not open it? That box of secrets. Just one peak would hurt no one. And it would be so easy too. 10

She was too young to be under her mothers watchful eye for long, and her ever cautious sister was far to concerned with her marriage to worry about the fate of her little box of secrets.11

So it was decided, in the mind of the pretty 5 year old. Her sisters box of secrets would not hold it's secrets for much longer.12

~~~~13

"Now where could that girl have gone so fast? I only had my back turned for a moment." The woman stood in the courtyard, surveying her home from the inside out. She was far too old for this, caring for one child was bad enough, but now she had a late wedding to prepare for and the littlest girl had gone off and ran from her lessons once again. 14

Truth be told, the woman only felt old. She was but 30 in years. But years in the sun had aged her skin, and years raising children had aged her spirit.15

"Gods help her once I find that little demon they sent me." And so, she stormed off in a desperate search for her offspring.16

Five feet from where her mother stood not moments ago, behind a very large jar of fresh wine, crouched the 'demon' in question.17

"She never even thought of the jar." Said the little beauty to herself, as fantasies of what lay in the astounding black box skipped merrily in her mind.18

Sneaking unnecessarily through the house, ducking pointlessly behind columns and into door frames, she quickly arrived at the room of her eldest sister. And, just as planned, there sat the box of secrets, shinning gleefully on the window sill.19

Forgetting her former secrecy, the child sped to the window and relived it of it's prize.20

The box. The box of secrets. Her sisters secrets, all trapped inside, calling to be set free.21

And so they were.22

Delicate fingers threw the lid off the box in a single heartbeat. And wished they hadn't in a second beat.23

The box had called for her, begged her to open it, and that was not just a fiction of her child's mind. The horrors of that cursed thing wished to be set upon the world. And by a child's hand, they were.24

~~~~25

"Pandora? Pandora?" Cried the child's mother, still seeking the girl she had so regretfully lost. "Pandora?"26

"Mother, why are you screaming so loudly? The whole village can hear you." Laughed the eldest daughter of that sad house.27

"Your sister is missing again. I swear, if I don't keep a constant eye on that girl she'll be the death of me."28

"Don't be silly, she's probably in my room, that's where she likes to hide. I'll go get her for you."29

A knowing smile spread across the worn face of the woman. "Please do. I have to finish for your wedding."30

"Don't worry Mother. What trouble can a 5 year old get into?"31

~~~~32

She wanted to scream but she hadn't the energy to do so. All the most horrible things were spewing forth from the box. Things that she could never have imagined nor decribed. 33

"Pandora? you in here you little..." She had been comming in to her own room, to get her youngest sister and bring her back for lessons. she had been expecting a little wavy-haired girl, playing in the midst of her room. What a site instead she saw. 34

"Pandora! CLose the box! Close it! Let nothing more out!"35

The crys of her sister awoke her suddenly, and, as she always did, she followed her sisters orders. The lid of the box smashed closed, catching a final horror in a black marble cage. The thing cried out, it's voice dreadful and frightening. Pandora dropped the object in fear and ran, seeking the comfort of her sisters arms.36

They were not there to catch her.37

"I told you not to open that. It was a gift from the gods and their only instruction was that it was to never be opened." The 15 year old could not look down into the innocent eyes of her sister. They could be innocent no more.38

"But why would the gods give you something to never open?" 39

"Don't you EVER question the gods Pandora! If they gave it, it was meant to be given! And you, you have released evils into the world."40

~~~~41

Pandora, the 5 year old with wavy brown hair and bright brown eyes had opened a pretty black box of secrets.42

And now, at the age of 8, she never had regretted it more. 43

One of the diseases she had released had taken her mother. A war her father. And now her sister was being sent to the ferry-man because of a broken heart.44

~~~~45

A box of secrets. 46

That's what Pandora always called it.47

A box where she kept the final secret thing.48