Pandora's Lunch Box: Don't Open!

Chapter 3

RRRRRING!!! Pandora and Lyle walked out of the school building as kids everywhere headed for home. Pandora was her usual self, bubbling with curiosity.

But Lyle wasn't happy, sporting a real black eye.

"Wow!" said Pandora. "Can you believe Randy Cornbluth eats alfalfa sprouts?!"

"And it only cost me one slug in the face to find that out," Lyle grumbled. "How'd he find us anyway?"

Just then, Lexy, Haylee and Kaylee giggled as they passed Pandora and Lyle.

Pandora glared at the retreating Lexy. "Lexy! It figures."

"Great," deadpanned Lyle. "You guys hate each other, and I'm the one with the black eye."

But Pandora was already onto her next bout of curiosity. "Hmm, I wonder what's in Randy's thermos..."

Lyle shook his head as he and Pandora headed into a wooded area behind the school that led to their neighborhood.

"Maybe it's milk," Pandora continued, "but not just milk – milk with stuff in it, like raw eggs and ketchup and – "

"No!" Lyle interrupted. "My other eye's blue, and I want it to stay that way! Why do you always have to know everything anyway?!"

This question struck Pandora as very odd. "Don't you?" They stopped at a fork in the dirt path. One direction led to their bright, inviting neighborhood. The other led to some very creepy deep dark woods. "Like don't you want to know what's down that trail? How come we never go that way?"

"'Cause we're not crazy."

"I wonder what's down there..." Pandora peered down the dark trail.

Lyle just shook his head. "If you want me, I'll be at my house playing Zomboid Attack 3 with my good eye." He walked off towards the houses.

But Pandora hardly noticed he was gone. Her mind was dead set on exploring the creepy woods ahead.

She worked her way into the thicket. As she walked, spiders crawled across their webs above... odd birds fluttered in the darkness... slithering lizards scurried past Pandora's feet...

After a minute, it got hard for Pandora to proceed. Branches crossed the path, and leaves obscured the trail below. "It's got to lead somewhere..." Pandora whispered to herself, her curiosity aflame.

Just then, something flew by Pandora's head, grazing her hair. "Hey!" She looked up, and the dark 'bird' attacked her again. "That's a bat!" Her eyes bugged out as many shadows now passed over her. "Make that 'bats'!"

Pandora ran fast down the trail, trying hard to swipe the brush out of her way. But she was just getting deeper and deeper into the thicket.

Then she tripped on something unseen and tumbled to the ground. WHUMP!

Pandora looked up. The bats were gone, and she found herself in a small clearing. She pushed herself up onto her knees and brushed her clothes off.

Then she spotted the thing she tripped on. She reached over and brushed some dirt off of it.

It was a children's lunch box. But it wasn't something lost recently; it was made of metal, the kind popular in the '60's and '70's. Pandora rose to her feet and angrily kicked the box away. "Stupid lunch box!" But as she kicked it, some crusted dirt fell off of it, revealing that it was bound tightly with white tape – and something was written on the tape.

"Huh?" Curious, Pandora looked closer, brushing off the remaining dirt.

All over the box was written: 'DON'T OPEN!!!' In red felt pen, in blue crayon, in black ink, in every way and color you can imagine, someone had written 'DON'T OPEN!!!' everywhere.

"Don't open?" asked Pandora, getting curious as always. "I wonder why not..."

Now, a normal 12-year-old girl would probably walk away at this point, maybe take the advice of the person who wrote all those warnings.

But not Pandora.

She picked the box up and tried to open it right away. But the tape held it tightly closed. So she peeled off the tape, strip by strip, getting more and more excited. Finally, she peeled the last of the tape off and prepared to whip the lunch box open... but then she stopped herself.

"Maybe I shouldn't." For a moment, it appeared that Pandora had come to her senses. She put the box down hesitantly. "But if I don't open it, someone else will!" She picked up the box again. "Why should I let them get what's inside? I was the one who found it first!"

Pandora slowly opened up the box. The rusty hinges strained and creaked.

Then FLASH! Blinding light blasted out of the box!

Pandora dropped it to the ground. The box landed hard – and then it started to tremble... Pandora stared in amazement as the box shook, the light still beaming out of it.

Then, suddenly, a head popped out, like a genie from a bottle! It was the head of an arch-looking middle-aged lady, wearing a brilliant pearl necklace and ruby red lipstick.

"Phew! Finally, a little air!" she said, taking a number of deep breaths.

Pandora stared, stunned. "You're... a head... in a lunch box!"

Just then, another head popped out, squeezing in beside the lady's head. But this head was more of a cross between a blue-blood poodle and a monocled librarian. "Quit hogging the sunlight, Greeley!" he said with a bored sneer.

Pandora did a double-take. "Another head??"

"Besides," the new head continued, "I've been stuck in there with that rabble long enough."

Pandora looked confused... and a little afraid. "There's more?"

Almost on cue, three more heads popped out – but now all their upper bodies did too. One of them was a cute fat blob. And the other two looked like Siamese twins, attached at the waist, and they didn't seem very happy about it.

"OOF! That's better," said the fat one, relieved.

One of the twins gestured wildly. "I was wondering how a-long you were going to make-a me wait!" he said in an Italian accent.

"Hey, you're a-blocking the sun," chided the other brother. "You always get-a the best side!"

"No I don't!"

"Yes you do!"

"Boys! Put a sock in it!" snapped the lady. "We've got a new master." She and the others turned to Pandora.

Pandora stood there, surprised but intrigued. "A new master??"