Dating : Open Me

Damn! It’s 3:24 in the morning, who could that be? Chiya thought as she made her way down the stairs towards the front door. Sleep had just arrived when she heard the doorbell slice through the peaceful silence of the house. As she pressed her face against the coolness of the wooden door, she saw no one but figuring they may just be too short to see she cracked the door slightly to get a better view.

No one, the hinges of the door creaked as she pulled it completely open causing her to cringe. Her eyes darted quickly around before landing on the strange box that rested on her porch with the words OPEN ME written on the top. “Hello, anyone out there,” she shouted looking around her yard once again for any sign of life. Nothing but the rustling of the trees responding to her call, no insects, no frogs, there was nothing. The eerie silence of the darkness before her sent a chill through her spine.

Grabbing the box and immediately turning on her heels slamming the door and locking it back so quickly that the hinges had no time to creak in response. “What the hell is this?” Looking down at the package she held in her freckled hands, her heartbeat quickened as her eyes adjusted to the partially lit hallway the clear view of recognizable handwriting that said OPEN ME. “This can’t be…,” unable to keep up with the speed of her thoughts as though they were running a marathon with abnormal velocity.

Rushing to the kitchen table, she debated whether or not to call her brother to come over. She did not like the sinking feeling in her gut, and the thought of being alone in the house with this box staring back at her made the decision an easy one. After, fifteen minutes of wearing a hole in her kitchen floor she finally heard the front door open and seconds later Jason appeared in the doorframe.

“Are you okay?” he asks, his eyes wide and breathing tapered.

“I don’t know,” Chiya responded. The sting of tears she had been holding in now streamed viciously down her cheeks.

It took only a minute for him to notice the package on the kitchen table with the words OPEN ME in big bold red letters. Jason understood why she had called him in such a horrified panic, that familiar handwriting, it was the handwriting of someone who could no longer hold a marker, someone who could no longer send mail or deliver it. He could do nothing but hold on to his sister as tight as possible.

“Calm down Chiya, where did you get this box from?” Jason asked, wiping the tears away from her eyes.

“It arrived this morning on my doorstep, someone must have dropped it off because they rang the doorbell,” she said, her voice as soft as a scared child on the first day of school.

“What do you mean this morning?”

“Right before I called you someone left it on the porch.”

“Chiya it is almost 4:00 in the morning,” he snapped, his voice now deep with anger. “Why did you open the door?”

She knew he would be upset with her it was already dangerous enough that she lived in the house alone with no neighbors and he was a whole 25 minutes away. “I wasn’t thinking clearly” she responded softly.

“Well do you want me to open it, or are we just going to stand here and talk about it?” frustration crystal clear in every word.

Looking down at the box once again she nods her head. “You open it because I know I can’t do it,” she said, her eyes still holding tears at the corners.

Nodding his head in agreement Jason steps toward the table a bead of sweat rolling down his cheek. Why would he send this? How could he send this? What is going on here? He had so many questions but the thing that worried him the most was those words, OPEN ME. Resting his hands gently on the box he slowly opens one of the flaps, jumping back instantly as a small head pops out of the opening.

“WOAH,” Chiya screamed.

“That damn thing almost gave me a heart attack,” Jason yelled, before bursting into uncontrollable laughter.

Grabbing the kitten and the envelope that had fallen to the floor Chiya read aloud “Happy Anniversary.”

By: Rylie Rowe