scary horror tales

i received a mysterious package in the mail

I'm a bit of a penny-pincher. I try to stick to the bare essentials when grocery shopping and I spend most of my free time earning money in other ways. I sell things, look for odd jobs on craigslist, and take surveys online. It's more than likely due to these surveys that I even received a mysterious package in the mail. Allow me to explain.

I take countless surveys online that range from questions about my shopping experiences to very intrusive, personal queries. After roughly thirty surveys or so, most sites will send you some money, anywhere from $1 to $5 (I mostly get $2 bills). It's tedious work, but if you have nothing else to do, why not make some extra cash? And like I said, I'm a penny pincher. It's not that I'm greedy or anything, I just feel more comfortable knowing that I have a good chunk of money to fall back on in case of an emergency.

Now, because of these surveys, I've typed my address into a lot of websites. As such, I receive an overwhelming amount of junk mail. I don't mind all that much. Between the money from the surveys and never needing firewood in the winter, it's worth it.

One day, however, I received a package.

The package was wrapped in leather, something I'd never seen come through the mail before. Embossed in the upper left corner was a rather impressive logo. It seemed that the mystery package was from a company called "SynthetiCorp".

Initially, I thought there was some sort of mix-up at the post office, but my name and address were right there on the package - embossed, just like the logo.

I asked my wife what she thought of it, but she offered no insight. After seeing it, she grew excited and tried pressuring me into opening it. In her defense, the thing did look... important? I guess? Like whatever was inside was at the very least, expensive.

After fending off my curious wife and mulling it over for a few moments, I decided it would be best not to open it just yet. I assumed that this "SynthetiCorp" accessed my home address in the same manner that all of the other junk mail companies did. After all, I did give my address away to various outlets, daily. Perhaps the package was a more elaborate form of the usual scams that made their way into my mailbox. It was more than likely harmless. However, normal junkmail is one thing. Packages are another.

I chose to do a little research before tearing it open.

In googling "SynthetiCorp", I found that there were multiple agencies using the moniker. None of them seemed like scam-manufacturers, but then again, they never do. I decided to call each of them and ask about the package.

A few phone calls later and I was back at square one. None of the SynthetiCorps I called were the one that sent me the mystery box. One of the guys who answered the phone even seemed angry that I was calling, as if the number should not have been widely available. In any case, I was still dumbfounded by the package. I so badly felt the need to open it, but I wanted to also feel safe doing so. For all I knew, it could have been a bomb. Not likely, but not completely out of the realm of possibility, especially in this day and age.

I spent the next couple of hours on google, looking for the company that sent me this damned thing. I needed anything that would put my mind at ease - just enough to cross that threshold, allowing me to open it and reveal its contents. After scouring thousands of results, I found something.

There was one complaint on one review site for a company called SynthetiCorp. I scrolled down to the comment in question and this is all it said:

"Don't open it."

What? Don't open it? Did they mean the package? I couldn't wrap my head around what this meant. Aggravated, I threw my keyboard aside and went to bed.