The Wooden Box

What Happened?

Leo closed the book he was reading and laid it on the coffee table in front of him, got up and walked to the window and stood there looking at the streets filled with Christmas decorations and colorful lights, people rushing to their homes with bags full of gifts.

He sighted then checked his phone "nothing as usual" he said with a hint of disappointment in his voice.
It's been 5 years since he left his home family and friends and flew away to Canada.

A sudden knock on the door pulled him out of his thoughts.
He stood there staring at the door frozen in place, he hears another knock abit harder this time.

"It's me Leo open up! "

A soft voice rang in Leo's ears, he then smiled with a sigh of relief and went to open the door.

Gaya came in drenched in cold white snow,

"what brings you here?! "said Leo surprised, Gaya is a friend Leo met while pursuing his studies she was the only person whe trusted, they dated for a while but things didn't really flourish between them. So, they became best friends ever since. "You sound like you don't want me here" said Gaya sarcastically and gave leo a mean look.

"No! No.. It's not like that it's just..." he got lost in his own thoughts again, he then lifted his gaze and looked past Gaya at nothing in particular, "what happened.. Happened along time ago" said gaya with sadness in her eyes "so please snap out of it, plus it's been 5 years already since that incident."

Leo blinked a few times then said nothing, they both stood there looking at each other listening to the sound of the dry wood crackling in the fire place making the silence even more awkward than it already was.

" Want me to make us a cup of hot chocolate and try to relax?" Leo loweres his head then looks at his fireplace "sure.. I guess."

Without any hesitation Gaya passes Leo and goes straight to the kitchen, Leo with a sigh goes to the picture frame above the fireplace and looks at the photo with tears in his eyes.

Gaya comes back holding two mugs of hot chocolate and hands him one of them so Leo places the picture frame back and takes the mug from her and nods with a smile.

Gaya looks at the picture containing five people she turns it around and reads five different signatures : 'Leo, Sam, Amy, Emma, and Jay,' they're all wearing Christmas hats with big wide smiles on their faces with the caption 'Christmas 2015' in the bottom right corner of the picture .

"That's when it all started" said Leo "you know it's my fault they're all dead right..?"

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" screamed Gaya, Leo points to a weird looking small wooden box "it's all because i wanted to open that box to know what was inside of it.. And.. It  it.. Came after us"

Leo started crying "that horrible THING! it killed them one after the other, i can still hear their screams as they begged for help but none of us was able to do anything."

"Do you know what it looks like?" asked Gaya.

A grin appeared on Leo's face he looked her dead in the eyes and said "if i knew what it looked like i wouldn't be alive right now..."

He sighed "I'm sory for snapping it's just that i can't forget what happened that year.. It was horrible.. I guess you want to know the whole story." said leo while looking at Gaya then walked to his chair and sat down.

With his head he motions for Gaya to sit so she does "do you want to know the whole story?"

Gaya silently nodded curiosity filling her eyes "you never actually told me the story of what happened."

Leo leaned down and pulled out a small metal box opened it and in it was a bunch of pictures of him and his friends.

He took a deep breath and started.

"It all started 5 years ago today on the 20th of December when we all decided to go camping and enjoy Christmas together as a group in the woods not too far from my old home."