Beads of sweat ran down Ralph’s forehead and stung his eyes. He silently crept through his grandma’s attic toward the black box taking one small step at a time, he knew if he opened the box he would die. It was a small wooden black box, but he wanted it so badly and he would get it. Ralph took his last step and a drop of sweat fell from his nose and hit the box. He stood in front of the box and as he looked at it he couldn’t realize why his grandma had told him not to touch it. He couldn’t realize why his dying grandma in her last breaths had pointed him out alone placed her little frail gloved hand to his face and whispered in his ear this secret. He couldn’t realize why he was disobeying his grandma’s last wishes for him and was in front of this black box now. He shook. His white hand, nervous as he reached for the box. A noise came to his ear and Ralph pulled back viciously, he looked around and nobody was there, but a whimper and a sniffle could faintly be heard. He fell completely silent trying to take in his surroundings. To the left of him was a small pink rocking horse that looked ancient, it was his grandmas. In the very back of the attic the window was cracked open. “Ahhh ahhh ahh” the air blew through the window with a strange sound. He quickly shut the window. Ralph took another look at the box and reached for it again. Suddenly a burning sensation hit his hand and ran down to his middle finger, the candle wax bled over onto his hand. As he wiped off his hand he set the candle down on the ground in a small crack in the floorboards. He thought again about his grandma why she had given so much warning about this black box. He had no clue of what it was or that it ever existed. She didn’t say Ralphie destroy the box, if she had wanted me not to see in the box why did she say anything about it? Perplexed he sucked his burnt finger and reached for the box. His index finger touched the black wooden box and immediately it was different. It was strange he tried to remove his finger from the box, but he couldn’t. It was stuck, there was no hole, the box wasn’t sticky, he yanked and the box didn’t budge. From the corner of his eye a rat scurried towards him and then stopped in front of the candle and started eating the dripping wax. Ralph pulled his finger again, but harder then he heard the noise of the cracked window whimper again “Ahhh ahhh ahh ahhh ahhh”. But he had just closed the window, his head shot back and he focused on the window. It was closed. He yanked his stuck finger away from the box again and nothing would budge. He stuck his foot against the box and pried away, he could feel his finger cracking under the pressure and stopped. Again the whimpering shot out but now it was louder and more distressed “ahhhhhhhhhh ahhhhhhhh!” it became a scream and Ralph grabbed his hand with his free hand and yanked with all his might in one ferocious jerk. “ahhhh ahhh ahhh ahhh!” the ear piercing scream became louder and louder and it was coming from right near him. “Ahhhhh ahhhh ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” Ralph fell to his knees and blood came dripped out of his ears. He jerked his finger away with everything he had and the black box let him go, but kept his finger. Ralph let out a scream, but it didn’t match the screaming of the little girl that he could tell, was coming from the box in front of him. In a mad dash he ran for the attic door, but in the midst of everything he realized why his grandma had whispered to him. He realized why his grandma had said on her deathbed “Ralphie don’t open the black box”. She said it because she knew he would open it. Ralph turned and faced the screaming box and ran back to it. There was still a little dim light so he could see. He placed both hands on the box; he could no longer hear the screaming or anything around him. With one swift click from the latch, he opened the black box. Chills ran down his spine when he saw what was in the box. He picked up a picture of his grandma’s coffin ready to be lowered in the ground. But his grandma wasn’t in the box instead there was a little black wooden box, and standing next to Ralph was a short little girl with her mouth open, screaming. Ralph looked at the picture one last time and suddenly his sister burst open the door and said with a slow whining tone “grandma just died Ralph” the gathered herself and wiped away the tears, what did she tell you?” Ralph looked back at the picture and it was blank, then he looked back at his sister who had let a breeze of air in. the candle blew out, and everything went pitch black, almost as black as the box.