Weird Reads

The man in the matchbox

Awoken by a tumbling sensation;  James Bellows struggled to collect his thoughts. He felt confined and claustrophobic in the dark environs of his containment.

Light suddenly appeared in his cramped quarters. Confusion drowned his reason. All about him were wooden matches with sulphuric red knarly heads.

Two monstrous fingers reached into his terror stricken world and removed a match. Immediately it was struck on the side of the box illuminating his mind like a short lived fireball.

As suddenly as it happened it was abruptly dark again. For one month this exercise repeated itself. The box would be exposed briefly to the natural light of day or within the four walls of an commercial office.  

Once, the box was left on a conference table and James could smell the sweet perfume of cigars and see men and women engage in conversation. He tried to cry out but his voice was mute.

Surely they could see him? Desperately he attempted to move and could not. He was a captive in a nightmare that wouldn't awaken.

Days passed by, then months before the box was opened. There looking down at him were two young children. They poured out all the matches and began to strike them one by one.

Screaming in terror as the horrible lottery was played out, James was at last picked up and struck on the side of the matchbox.

His head became an inferno and his tormented screams startled the fingers holding him.

'Did you hear that?' shouted out one of the kids as they hurtled James away in shocked repulsion.

'Yes! Yes! came the horrified reply.

Running away in terror they discarded their cigarettes leaving a smouldering ember within their hideout.

Flames suddenly spread and engulfed the scene rapidly.

Screams of tortured pain drifted into the air.

James was incinerated in the inferno. His ordeal and final moments unobserved as the sound of a fire engine echoed in the distance.