The Music Box Mystery

The package arrived on the doorstep of Adrianna's apartment at 2:17 AM. The plain brown cardboard box was slightly damp, it's corners crumpled as if it had been tossed down a flight of stairs. Adrianna had searched the outside of the box top to bottom for a return address, but had come up with nothing. What was more curious to Adrianna was the fact that her address wasn't written on the box either.

The lack of mailing address meant that someone had to hand deliver the package. Adrianna had scoured through the footage of her Ring Doorbell camera for hours, hunched over her laptop with unwavering concentration. Although she had been able to find the time the package had arrived, the sender remained unknown. The package hadn't been delivered directly by a person, but rather by a small drone. It had flown into frame, gently lowered the package onto Adrianna's brightly colored doormat, hovered in front of the camera for a long moment, and abruptly flown away.

Adrianna sighed and leaned back in her chair, straightening her back for the first time in hours. She had watched the clip of the package's arrival over three hundred times, and still had no new clues. The brown box sat unopened where Adrianna had placed it hours prior; dead smack in the center of the coffee table. She stared at the box in exasperation. She knew she had to open it eventually, but had watched one too many horror movies to be able to dive blindly into a mysterious box. Her curiosity was quickly growing, however, and she knew in her rational mind that the possibility of there being something horrifying in the box was slim to none. Even given the odds, Adrianna had never really done anything that would provoke someone to send her something horrible.

Adrianna worked as a secretary at a large publishing company in New York City. She had moved to the city to pursue a career in writing...a career that hadn't been successful so far. Adrianna had thought that if she surrounded herself with the buzz and excitement of such a highly populated area, she would be inspired to write award winning novels. Life, however, had other plans. Instead of writing fantasy romance novels, Adrianna wrote articles on dreary, realistic things. She wrote about recipes she had never tried, goat yoga, and even the latest fashion trends. She had an online blog which was really more of a diary, that a whopping ten people read.

Once, she wrote a short fantasy romance story. She remembered being so excited when she had published it online, so proud that it was the best thing she had ever written. She refreshed her statistics page on loop, waiting for the comments and views to start pouring in. Only one person read her story. No comments. No likes.

Adrianna had given up on her award winning author dream that day, settling into her dreary routine of writing useless garbage that truly no one cared about. She took the secretary job, filtering in calls from famous authors, all the while wishing she could be the one calling instead of taking the calls.

Adrianna was not famous. Adrianna was not popular. She did not go out clubbing on weekends, or go to movies, or socialize really at all. She had never put herself in a position where anyone would want to do her harm.

With all of this in mind, Adrianna snatched the box off of the coffee table and opened it without hesitation. Inside was a small wooden box, with intricate flowers carved into the wood. Adrianna lifted the wooden box from it's cardboard prison and placed it onto coffee table. Setting the empty box on the floor for her cat to play in, she opened the wooden box slowly.

A broken, metallic melody drifted from inside causing Adrianna to jump with a yelp, foolishly scrambling back on the couch before scoffing at her own actions. A little ballerina twirled around on a small pedestal, accompanying the haunting sound. As scary as the music sounded, Adrianna realized that it was just a silly old music box. Peering down into the box, she noticed it was completely empty save for the little ballerina spinning on it's little stage.

Not only was it simply an empty music box, it was her music box. Adrianna had left it on the dresser in her childhood bedroom when she left her hometown to seek fame in the Big Apple. Thinking about it more, she remembered her father's birthday had passed just a couple days before the package arrived. Maybe her mother had gifted her father a drone for his birthday, and he had tested it out by...flying it seven hours from home to Adrianna in New York City. No, that made no sense. A drone couldn't fly that far away from the controller unless it was military grade, and just by the look of the drone she caught on her Ring Doorbell, it definitely wasn't some military drone. It was one of those drones photographers used to capture aerial footage, not a drone used to organize a SWAT team strike.

Once again, Adrianna felt exasperated. Any explanation she could think up for the music box's arrival was unrealistic. Her parents were well into their seventies, and cantankerous to boot. They wouldn't have travelled all the way to the city to deliver the music box in some convoluted way. In all the years Adrianna had lived in her little apartment, her parents had not once come to visit. She had thought maybe her parents had mailed it to the wrong apartment, and one of her neighbors had been too lazy to walk it to her door themselves, so they dropped it by drone. Except, the box had no mailing address on it. Unless one of her neighbors had received the package, opened it, realized the music box was not something shiny or cool, and re-packaged it in a blank box, that theory also wouldn't make sense. Adrianna highly doubted that if her neighbors were too lazy to deliver it by hand, they probably were far too lazy to go through all the trouble of re-packing it.

Adrianna briefly considered calling the police, but what would she tell them? She had no evidence of any wrong doing, and definitely no evidence of a crime being committed. Worst case scenario, it was a neighbor who had been kind enough to return the package when they realized it wasn't worth anything more than sentimental value.

The whole situation was extremely odd, but with no evidence of malicious intent, and no clues to who could have sent the package, Adrianna was out of luck. It was getting late, and from her living room window she could see storm clouds gathering over the river. With an annoyed huff, she scooped the music box from the coffee table and set it on the top shelf of her pantry, shutting the door with a slam. The 'music box mystery', as Adrianna had been calling it in her head, could wait till morning.

Although Adrianna wanted to forget the real-life Nancy Drew novel that appeared to be unfolding in front of her, she couldn't shake the uneasy feeling as she puttered around her apartment, locking the door and feeding the cat. She dressed for bed in her penguin pajamas even though it was far from bed time, and stewed over her situation some more. As hard as she thought and as many new angles as she tried to approach the problem from, she could not find a logical explanation for the package's appearance.

Adrianna climbed into bed, burying herself in the soft warmth and comfort of her numerous blankets, before beginning to mindlessly scroll through TikTok. In a matter of minutes, she had almost completely forgotten about the music box sitting in her pantry. She was just beginning to feel herself relax into the blissfully mind-numbing TikTok world when a notification banner appeared across the top of her phone screen. Adrianna felt her heart leap into her throat as she read the banner; ONE NEW COMMENT. With hands shaking in anticipation, she clicked the notification.

It was a new comment on her short fantasy romance story she had posted two years ago. Not only was it a new comment, it was her only comment. The comment read: I stopped by your house, but you don't live there anymore.

Chills ran down Adrianna's spine as she stared at the comment in disbelief. The username above the comment was simply AnonymousLove799. She clicked on the username, and saw that the user had no profile picture, and no published stories. As she scoured the website for other stories the user had commented on, another notification banner appeared; ONE NEW COMMENT.

With hands no longer trembling from anticipation but rather with anxiety, Adrianna clicked the banner. The comment read: It's alright though, because I found your new home.

Adrianna practically leapt from her bed, all but flying down the hall to her front door. It was locked and deadbolted. She looked through the peephole, half expecting someone's eye to be staring back at her, but no one was there. Adrianna exhaled shakily, realizing she had been holding her breath since the second comment had appeared.

She backed away from the door, hurrying for a glass of water in the kitchen. Her throat felt uncomfortably tight as she filled a glass from the Brita and leaned heavily on the counter, gulping at the water as though she had just finished walking through a desert. Glancing out of the shared kitchen and living room window, she realized it was pitch black outside. She finished her water and set the empty glass down on the counter with a dull clink. Taking a deep breath, Adrianna reassured herself that it was just a troll trying to scare her. Just her luck that her only two comments on the only work she truly cared about were from some loser sitting in their mom's basement.

Adrianna was just about to return to bed when she heard the notification bell on her phone go off. With her heart still racing unusually fast, she picked up her phone. ONE NEW COMMENT.

She rolled her eyes. Having convinced herself that this AnonymousLove799 was a troll, and genuinely over the entire day, Adrianna clicked the notification without hesitation. Her stomach immediately dropped, and she felt faint.

AnonymousLove799: You forgot your music box in the move. Aren't you glad to have it back?

Adrianna felt absolutely sick. True fear gripped her insides and she was frozen in shock as she read the newest comment over and over again. After re-reading the third comment a dozen times, her fear turned to anger. Thumbs flying across the keyboard, she replied: Who is this? I hope you're having fun.

Immediately, three typing bubbles materialized. Adrianna waited with baited breath until finally, a new comment appeared: Surely you haven't forgotten me. Summer camp of 2008? We definitely had fun that summer.

Adrianna's brain hurt as she grasped desperately at the recesses of her memories for the people she knew that summer. There was her childhood best friend Jenna, but she had died a few years ago, so this couldn't be her. There were her cabin mates; Elaina, Mairin, "Birch" and Stevie, but they all still kept in contact. Once a year at most, but it was still contact. It didn't make sense for any of them to do this. Adrianna tried desperately to remember any of the boys from that summer, but the only one who came to mind was David. She and David had 'dated'...if you could call it that, they were only 13 at the time, before David ended the relationship due to religious differences. Adrianna had been crushed at the time. They hadn't spoken since, but she distinctly remembered Elaina telling her that David had died in a car accident last fall. Before Adrianna could come up with a response, a new comment appeared.

AnonymousLove799: Was I really that unmemorable?

Once again, Adrianna grappled for a response. Having settled on 'Yes, you were, now kindly leave me alone before I call the police', a sixth comment appeared.

AnonymousLove799: Regardless of whether you remember me or not, I remember you. Those penguin pajamas look great on you, by the way.

Adrianna threw up on the floor. None of this made any sense at all. Was this person saying they were looking at her right now? Wiping her mouth on the sleeve of her penguin-printed pajamas, she opened her phone app to call 911. As the line rang, another comment was posted.

AnonymousLove799: The cops won't be here in time.

"911, what's your emergency?" a voice on the other line said loudly, causing Adrianna to yelp.

"Someone...someone is watching me. I'm in my apartment and they are commenting on one of my stories. They knew what the print on the pajamas I'm wearing are," Adrianna rushed.

"OK Miss, what's your address?"

"4235 Baker Street, Apartment 8D," Adrianna replied.

"Alright Miss, officers are on their way but they are still ten minutes out. Is your door locked?"

"Uh..." Adrianna looked behind her at the door, knowing logically that it was locked, but wanting to check it for the third time that day. "It is."

"Alright, and do you actually see anybody? Is there anyone outside your door or out the window that you can see?"

Adrianna walked nervously to the door, putting her eye up to the peephole. There was no one there. Her phone dinged, and a new comment appeared.

AnonymousLove799: Knock Knock.

Adrianna would have found that cliché if the sentence hadn't been directed at her in such a menacing way. Another notification, this time from her Ring Doorbell: Motion Detected. Adrianna stared at the live video feed in shock, as a man leered into the camera.

"Knock knock..."

"Oh my god, he's right outside my door!" Adrianna whispered to the 911 operator frantically.

"Do you recognize him? Whatever happens, stay on the line. The police will be there in approximately seven minutes," the operator responded.

Adrianna couldn't even bring herself to answer the operator.

"Come on, Adrianna...you know me...okay, okay, let me refresh your memory...you and your friends used to call me Tiny Timmy?" the man outside the door rasped. His voice could be heard both through the live feed and the door itself, making the already haunting situation that much scarier.

"Tim?" Adrianna vaguely remembered him, a scrawny twelve year old who always followed David, Jenna and her around. Tim had been quite small back then, with bulging eyes, strawberry blonde hair, and freckles.

"Of course it's Tim!" the man yelled, punching the door with his fists, "I waited for so long for this, Adrianna, and you couldn't even have the decency to remember me?"

Adrianna stumbled back from the door a few steps, genuinely terrified of the man who was just a piece of metal away. "I-I'm sorry I didn't remember you, Tim, really. Why are you doing this?"

"I-I-I'm sorry," Tim mocked dramatically, "You weren't sorry when you let Jenna and David bully me. You weren't sorry when you let David beat the crap out of me. Hell, you even laughed along with them! Tiny Tim they called me...Freckle Face they called me...well I sure showed them, didn't I?! I pushed Jenna off that cliff, she didn't jump. I stood in the middle of the road so David swerved into the other lane. I showed them that Tiny Timmy doesn't exist anymore! They tortured me...you tortured me. Do you know how long it took me to find you? After your big move and all, you practically vanished. Until you started writing that online diary of yours again, crying about every little thing in your life. I found you, Adrianna. Now I'll be the last thing you see, too."

The door shook as Adrianna watched Tim slam his whole body into the metal door, over and over again. It was like watching a man possessed, his eyes frenzied and crazed as the door frame cracked. Adrianna couldn't even hear the 911 operator over her own screams. She willed herself to run into her bedroom, but she was frozen in fear, looking frantically between the door and the live feed.

Suddenly, Tim froze. The sound of shouts came from outside, and Tim took off running towards the fire escape. Not a second later, Adrianna watched two police officers run past her door and vanish out of frame. There was a loud crash, and then silence.

Adrianna waited for what felt like forever, shaking with adrenaline, staring at her phone screen until an officer came back into frame. He knocked on the door briskly, and Adrianna found herself finally able to move, as she unlocked the deadbolt and flung open the door.

~

It was a beautiful morning in Hawaii.

Adrianna sat on the balcony of her beachfront apartment, holding her cup of coffee. The "Music Box Mystery", as her award winning novel came to be known, had been published two years earlier. She twisted some of the details to fall into the fantasy romance genre, and it turned out, her writing was a hit. She had profited from that horrible night and the days that followed, and really made something of herself. She had quit her secretary job and moved to Hawaii.

The truth was, Timothey Rosent had never been found. He'd slipped through the cracks, and hadn't been heard from since. His recorded murder confession and countless nationwide warrants had ensured that he would not be getting on a plane anytime soon.

Adrianna was safe, and she was famous. She finished her coffee and turned to go inside, absently checking her Ring footage from the night before as she always did.

Her cup shattered to the floor.

Last night, at 2:17 AM, a brown, unmarked box arrived on her doorstep.