The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
Step Inside
by Rie Sheridan Rose
The box sat on the doorstep when Brita got home. She hadn’t ordered anything from Amazon in weeks. She wasn’t expecting any sort of delivery, but carried it into the house and set it on the kitchen table.
It was late in the evening when she had a chance to open the parcel. It only offered more questions.
Inside the plain cardboard wrapper was a wooden box about two feet square. The dark wood was bound in leather with brass studs. It was beautiful…but she didn’t understand it at all.
There was a note under the box:
Inside this box is a whole new world.
To take advantage—step inside.
The box was tiny. How could she “step inside”?
Shrugging, she placed the box in the center of the floor. She knelt beside it and opened the lid. The result rocked her back on her heels. A beam of golden light shot to the ceiling.
What the hell is it? She bent forward, trying to see inside the box.
All she could see was the light.
Why not? I’ve got nothing to lose…
She thought about her life. No family. No real friends. A dead-end job. Why the hell not?
She got to her feet and tentatively stepped into the box.
The glow surrounded her—and then the pain struck. She felt like she was burning from the inside out.
She tried to step back out of the box…but she couldn’t move. Her body dissolved, releasing her consciousness to the cosmos.
Her last thought was Well, this is a whole new world alright…
As her consciousness dissolved around her, the lid slammed shut.
The front door opened, and a figure dressed in a long black robe glided into the room and picked up the box.
Who’s next on the list? he thought, as he turned and walked away.
Fiction © Copyright Rie Sheridan Rose
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
More from Author Rie Sheridan Rose:
Overheard in Hell:
Dark Poetry
Poems exploring hell and damnation. Tales of sorrow, vengeance, betrayal, and redemption. Ghosts, ghouls, and demons stalk these pages. Don’t read in a lonely house…in a darkened room by a single candle…
…unless you like the touch of an icy finger up your spine.
Spreading the Writer's Word 
A creepy story, excellent.
What a great story – it was chilling and yet there’s something uplifting about your MC’s choice to step into the box – her seeming lack of regret – fascinating!