The Box Creature

The smell of green tea filled the kitchen in Akilah’s small apartment constantly. It was something that she was known for. When she had the rare visitor, they would always comment on the pleasant smell as it drifted through the apartment. She hummed a strange little tune she couldn’t remember learning as she poured herself a large mug of green tea to start off her morning. It was her ritual. Wake up, turn on the kettle – which was the only thing she’d ever spent more money on than she’d needed to, wash last night's dishes, eat breakfast, then settle into her reading nook for ten minutes while she drank her first cup of tea for the day. Then she would settle in for a day’s work from home, working in at companies being a thing of the distant past.

This particular morning had other ideas. The first disruption in Akilah’s routine came when a loud knock sounded at her door, startling her and making her spill her tea in the process. Quickly placing the mug down, she swept through her sitting room to the door, almost falling over her sofa in the process. When she opened the door, a plain brown cardboard box was sitting neatly on her doorstep.

Glancing up and down the corridor, she caught what looked like the tails of a very short man’s coat as he flitted around the corner. A low hum that she couldn't quite place came from the same direction. She looked down at the box again. She couldn’t remember ordering anything recently. Inspecting it from where she stood, she couldn’t see her name written on it. There was a return address on it though. Her address was also scrawled on the top in the neatest handwriting she’d ever seen done in sharpie on cardboard.

Slowly, she picked up the box and brought it into her kitchen. She placed it on the bench. A few metres away, an alarm went off on her phone, and she cursed quietly, rushing over to it and turning it off, before setting about readying herself for work. She tidied the kitchen from breakfast, finished her cup of tea, rather begrudgingly now that she had to rush, then poured herself a thermos of hot water before she sunk down at her desk to work on her tasks for the day.

Akilah’s routine was interrupted for a second time when the box on her kitchen bench started to make small scuffling sounds. Initially, she figured it was some small animal running through the walls. When the sound grew louder, Akilah realised the sound was instead coming from the box, and got up to investigate. The box began to rattle more as she got closer, and it occurred to Akilah that she should have checked the strange, minimally labelled box when it arrived unbidden at her front door. Not for the first time, she wondered if there was something missing in her brain that attached an urgency to anything outside of her regular routine.

Cautiously approaching the box, Akilah peeled the tape off the top of the box. The scuffling stopped, and she lifted one of the flaps the slightest amount to peer into the box. She couldn’t see much. The box held what looked like complete and utter darkness. That was, until a small, whiskered nose pushed out between the flaps of the box. Startled, Akilah jolted back, only to creep forwards again when nothing threatening appeared. It was a small, wet, black nose, similar to that of a dog. The fur surrounding the nose was the deep blue of the ocean. Small specs of light spotted the blue - like tiny freckles dusting the softest fur Akilah had ever seen with stars.

Edging forward, Akilah reached out and eased open one of the flaps of the box. A small, strange creature looked back at her with large, glowing blue eyes. A tiny crescent moon lit up the space between two tiny antlers and soft puppy ears. It was the cutest, strangest looking creature Akilah had ever come across. She let the flap of the box go, letting it fall shut again and flopping back into a seat at her dining table. Akilah blew out a breath. The creature could not stay. She had enough work just caring for herself, not to mention she had no idea what the creature would even eat.

Mind made up, Akilah resolved to send it back to the return address. They could care for it properly. She got up to search through her apartment drawers, there had been some tape in them somewhere. Ten minutes went by before she gave up trying to find tape. Approaching the box again, she inspected the box, noting that the return address had the same postal code as hers. Convenient. She pulled out her phone, looking up where it was. It was close by, within walking distance. She walked over to her laptop. Drafting out a quick note to her boss letting him know she would be temporarily unavailable, she sent it, picked her apartment keys and the box up off the counter and left.

It was a pleasant day outside, a few lazy clouds floating through a brilliant blue sky and the sun shining pleasantly down. Akilah was grateful for the light breeze as she turned left down the street, following the directions her phone spoke quietly to her in its robotic voice. It was a pleasant walk to the address on the box with the nice day. It was quiet too. Most people would be settling in for a day at work for their respective jobs now, as it was midmorning. It was a shame that people didn't leave their houses quite so much anymore. The streets felt peaceful, yet somewhat barren as she wandered through the empty city. The air was clear, pollutants like cars and factories that spewed out greenhouse gases having been reduced almost to extinction a few years back. The earth was still at the beginning of its healing, but it had begun.

Akilah was nearing the address when the creature poked its head out of the box, blinking rapidly and squinting in the sunlight before ducking under the flap of the box again to peer through the slit between the flaps. From its vantage point, the creature watched the buildings around them as she walked. It was then that her phone made a small sound, announcing that her destination was to her right.

Akilah turned, looking up at the charming old building, nestled among the highrises. A creeper twisted up the brickwork, bursting with beautiful purple flowers Akilah had never seen. The green and purple stood out starkly against the deep orange of the bricks that made up the building. She could barely make out a small green door that sat at the end of a path that meandered through a garden bustling with life. Most of the gardens in the city were pretty in their own right, neat, tidy, but this garden had a wilder feel to it, an orderly chaos that Akilah loved. She pushed open a pretty blue wooden gate and stepped onto the wandering path. Just behind her, she could see a thick line of daisies of every colour bordering the garden. Following it with her eyes, she saw it led right around the edge and disappeared on either side of the house.

Wildflowers of every different colour adorned the sides of the pathway, blooming sporadically the further from the path they got. It felt as though she had stepped into another world. All around her was green. Green, and every colour imaginable in the form of leaves and flowers and insects and life. It felt and looked as though the essence of life had seeped into everything around her. Slowly, Akilah made her way towards the green door. The walk there felt longer than it had looked from the street, but Akilah figured that was because she was so enthralled by the beauty surrounding her.

When Akilah finally made it to the green door, she lifted the smooth bronze knocker and let it fall in a single, sharp rap on the door. A small chattering sound came from the box she'd almost forgotten she was holding, and she looked down to see the small creature staring at her with its large glowing eyes. At some point, the flaps had flopped over the sides of the box to leave it completely open, and Akilah was surprised the creature hadn't tried to escape.

The second that thought had crossed her mind, Akilah regretted it. The creature popped its head out of the box, looking around the garden. It glanced back at her, then leaped out of the box. Akilah was too busy cursing at her misfortune to pick it up again before it bounded into a nearby bush, disappearing almost immediately from sight. She was about to scramble after it when the green door opened, and the strangest being she'd ever seen stepped into view.

Akilah was pretty sure she couldn't call the creature that had opened the door human, as it hardly resembled one. The creature was just tall enough to reach her midriff, and made up predominantly of spindly limbs and hair. The hair in question was dark, tumbling down its back to stop just before the ground. Twigs had been very intentionally twisted into the hair at the top of its head to resemble a crown. The skin of what Akilah was beginning to think might be some sort of faerie or pixie was a rich, warm brown, and seemed to be spattered with stars, much like the creature from the empty box she was now holding. Large grey eyes, with pupils the shape of a splattered drop of water, stared at her, watching. It was oddly beautiful. She shook herself, clearing her throat and trying her best to act normal talking to a creature half her height.

"Um I seem to have recieved a package not meant for me." She gestured to the box in her hand. Long, gangly fingers reached forwards to grasp the edge of the box as the creature pulled itself up to peer into the empty box. Flustered, she tried to come up with a way to tell this creature that the other creature was frolicking through its garden as they spoke. She decided blunt was the best way forwards.

"It's in your garden. The creature, I mean. It jumped out and ran into the bushes when I got here and I don't know where it went." The creature in the doorway nodded, and stepped aside, invite her into the house. Unsure she should be walking into a faerie's house alone and without any form of defense, Akilah hesitated, then figured her day had already been strange enough, and that she should embrace the weird. It was the most exciting her life had been so far anyway.

The inside of the house was as magical as the outside. Walking through the doorway, Akilah stepped after the creature into a hallway. Floating lights that seemed to move of their own volition lined the ceiling, and a soft, familiar music floated through the house from somewhere further in. She was led to a sitting room, where the creature gestured at her to sit, before bustling out of the room. Almost immediately, another creature entered the room, standing near the doorway. This one resembled a dandelion, with long white hair and what looked like dandelion fluff growing out of its head. Its skin was a pretty pale yellow, with green freckles spotting its nose. Where the other creature had been mostly limbs and thin as a twig, this one was a rounder shape, softer like the dandelion fuzz growing from its head.

A noise at the window drew her attention away from the dandelion creature at the door to the creature that was peering through the window at her with large, glowing blue eyes, and she leapt up, running over to the window to open it for the creature. At least it would save her having to look for it. As she opened the window, though, the creature sped off along a path she hadn't been able to see from her seat. It moved remarkably fast for something with such small arms and legs on it. Akilah jumped through the window after it, running down the same path it had just taken. Noises behind her indicated the dandelion creature was also giving chase, however she was pretty sure it was chasing her and not the box creature.

The path wound through a garden behind the house in soft twists and turns, through arches made of flowers and under large trees and towards a line of daisies on the other side of the property. Dimly, Akilah noted that she couldn't see any buildings around, and that the garden seemed to go on far longer than she would expect for a property in the city. It wasn't until the whole world seemed to tilt and ripple around her that Akilah stopped short and looked around. She'd just passed through a strange, standalone stone archway. She had spun to inspect it, but as she turned back to the way she'd been running, she gasped.

Akilah was standing in a ballroom. The massive space was decorated in silver and green, with a staircase leading from either side of the room and joining to form a balcony overlooking a scene of glittering gowns and opulent tuxedos. A balcony that she stood on. Faces in soft pastel colours peered up at her from below. They all seemed to be waiting for something. All of the people in the room at least looked mostly human, though she wondered if they truly were as she glimpsed a faint silver sheen to some of the faces. Upon closer inspection they seemed to have fine points at the tips of their ears. Smaller creatures like the twig and dandelion ones crouched in the shadows, their colours shining more brilliantly than any of the ballgowns.

Something at the other end of the room moved, and all of the gazes switched from her to the man there. Had Akilah not been as distracted as she was by the room and the strange, shiny people down below, and the other creatures, she might have noticed the raised dias and the throne on the other side of the room, in which a young man had been lounging. Now, he stood, and made his way through the crowd. It took her far too long to realise that the man was headed straight for her, and before she could make an escape, he had reached her.

"Welcome to my court, human. Thank you for bringing back my pet." Glancing back at the throne, she could make out the shape of the box creature crouched on the armrest. Lost for words, she just stared at the man for an uncomfortably long time. He remained impassive, waiting. She frowned, and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"It was mailed to me." The man gave a benign smile, offering her his elbow, and began to lead her towards the curious people below when she took his proffered arm. He stopped three steps from the bottom, holding Akilah there. She felt a rising sense of panic, as though her body were registering something that her mind hadn't yet picked up on. She glanced around. Everyone was staring at her, but that wasn't it. Something still nagged.

"Please welcome the human, your future queen." Laughing, Akilah turned to look at the man, thinking he must be joking. His face remained serene as he looked over his subjects, the crowd gave a cheer. Her eyes widened when she realised the man was being serious. He truly meant it. Why, she couldn't imagine, she didn't even know him. She glanced up at the dias, her eyes connecting with the wild, restless eyes of the box creature. It was then that she noticed the metal collar around its neck.

It wasn't often that Akilah experienced panic, but this was one of them. In her panic, most of the next few minutes remained a blur. Somehow, she managed to pull herself out of the man's grasp, and quickly walk through the room, a fake smile plastered on her face as people reached out to her, up the dias and to the box creature. The chain connecting the collar to the throne was simply looped onto a hook at the back. It was when she yanked the chain off the throne that a spell seemed to break.

Amidst the chaos of people trying to clamber onto the dias towards her, the box creature gave a tug of the chain, and she followed it, not questioning it. Another arch stood just behind the throne. Just before she ran through it, she glanced back, catching the mournful eyes of the man, still standing on the stairs. Then he disappeared into the illusion. Somehow this arch was connected to the other one, because the box creature was dragging her towards the house. They reached the house, then the hallway with the strange, beautiful floating lights and finally the front garden.

The beauty still struck her dumb, and she slowed a little to take in as much of the life that surrounded her as she could. Somehow, intrinsically, she knew that if she could get through the little blue gate at the front of the garden she would be safe. A hand grazed her back and she yelped, putting on a burst of speed and you practically leaping through the gate that had appeared before her. She ran the whole way home, the box creature close behind.

It was when she was standing back in her apartment, panting, staring at the creature across from her that she realised - still had no idea what it ate. She supposed she had a pet now.