Box from the Past

Lana was an outgoing young lady, with dark eyes and a pale complexion. She was an outgoing person even on her worst days. Lana never met a stranger and enjoyed all life had to offer, but not because she led an easy life, given everything she wanted. In fact, it was quite the opposite, she lost both of her parents at a very young age.

Lana slipped out of bed, feeling as though she had been sleeping for many hours, but when she looked at the clock on her wall it had only been 2 hours since she crawled in bed. She was wide awake and couldn't force herself back to sleep no matter how hard she tried.

Lana lived alone now, at the age of 19. She worked 2 jobs just to make ends meet in her tiny studio apartment. She had 2 rooms in this apartment, one was for living and cooking. The other was a tiny bathroom with a shower, toilet, and sink. The whole place was no bigger than a motel room, but it was home for Lana.

Crawling out of bed, she made her way to coffee pot and started brewing a pot. After all, she had to be at her first job at 5 am. She waited tables at a local diner in the small town. Lana didn't own a car because to her that was considered a luxury item. The town was small enough to walk anywhere she needed to go, including to work.

A typical morning consists of waking up at 3:30 to shower and begin her day.

Though this morning she was up extremely early, maybe even early enough to enjoy her coffee without being in a hurry. Lana sat at her make shift table and stirred her coffee, taking a tiny sip. This time was the best part of her day, the only time for herself.

As she enjoyed her coffee she heard the sounds of a siren pass by which was unusual for this hour. Especially seeing the small town was normally quiet at night.

Lana looked at the clock, 3:33, time for her to be getting ready for work, but was curious what was going on outside.

She opened the door and noticed a small box wrapped in plain brown paper. It had no name or return address, but Lana knew it didn't belong to her. She rarely gets mail, especially packages and never so early in the morning.

Without hesitation Lana picked up the box and carried it, placing it on her bed. She then went to shower, forgetting all about the sirens she had heard moments earlier. Stepping out of the shower she felt a cold draft, and began to shiver uncontrollably. Goosebumps forming on her arms and legs she crawled back in her bed and covered up to try to warm back up. Next to her on the bed was the package she brought in earlier. She examined the box and gave it a slight shake, like a child on a holiday. Nothing in the box moved, it was light, no real clue as to what was in the small box.

Lana could have opened the box then, but decided instead to finish getting ready for work. She would carry the box with her to work. Maybe someone at the diner would know something about it, or at least be a witness if it was bad. She finished getting ready and walked out the door, grabbing the package before she left.

As she walked down the steep dark stairs she heard a loud band behind her.

Lana walked more swiftly, not wanting to see what caused the noise. At the end of the stairs there was normally a bit more light, but this morning it was flickering, lighting everything for seconds at a time, much like a slow strobe light.

The diner was close, not close enough though. At this point the box Lana was carrying started to violently shake. It was as if someone had boxed up an earthquake. She dropped the box about 10 feet from the diner and ran. Chest pounding, she knocked anxiously on the diner door, looking back to see the box still shaking, now on the ground.

Wes, the manager of the diner opened the door and let her in, noticing she was frightened by something. He locked the door behind her as he typically did until opening. Wes asked what happened and Lana quickly began spitting out words a mile a minute. He tried his best to calm Lana and said there had to be a reasonable explanation. After all, everything that happens has an explanation, or so Wes thought. Finally after several minutes Wes was able to make her story out enough that he decided to look outside for this box she spoke of. Lana didn't want to be alone so she followed Wes closely as he went out the door. He looked around confused, there was no box where she said she had dropped it.

Lana wasn't one to make up stories, as a matter of fact, she wouldn't lie to save someone from certain death. Lying was something Lana couldn't tolerate because she was lied to for so many years about her parents death. It physically pained her to lie, but Wes didn't see a box and at this point neither did Lana. She now thought she must be going crazy. Things don't just vanish and no one had been in the area. She had to calm herself down and rethink the morning. After a bit she was ready to start work and soon forgot all about the shaking box. Several hours went by and Lana was a bit more comfortable, less unnerved by the things that happened just hours before.

She had a steady morning of her usual customers, nothing else out of the ordinary.

Around 9 am a couple walks in carrying a box that looked like the box she had dropped outside the store earlier that morning. Lana begins to panic and Wes tried his best to comfort her. Seeing she was unable to take the table he stepped in and walked over, greeting the couple. They nod and point at an item on the menu. Wes quickly puts in their order and continues his duties. The order was ready and Wes grabbed it to bring back to the couple, but arriving back at the table he was shocked to see that only the package remained. He grabbed the package and brought it back to Lana, asking if this was the package she was talking about. She looked worried and nodded. He asked her if she wanted him to open it and she agreed to open it together.

They very slowly opened the box and saw just a folded note that had Lana's name hand written. He handed her the note and asked if she could read it. As she unwrapped the note, inside was a picture of her and her parents, dated two days before they were killed. The note read "Dearest Lana, We are ready for you to join us. We have missed our baby more than you can imagine."

She began crying, but was unable to control the tears. The couple that sat at the table looked identical to the couple in the photograph. She had no idea how this box got to her, or how the picture was there. She had no pictures of her childhood, no proof of who she was. The date of their death was this very day, 15 years ago.