The Box

"I told you it was going to rain, but no, we had to take this hike today." Lucas was completely over his best friends' constant need to keep moving and active 24/7. Sure, he loved going on adventures and being active but not every single day and especially not when on vacation. All he wanted to do on this rainy day was relax in their rental cottage with some hot chocolate with a book or a movie by that massive fireplace, but 'that's not what we are on vacation for' as Blake had so nicely put it. That's how the two found themselves stuck in an abandoned barn while a particularly bad storm hit.

"I get it, Lucas, you were right okay. Look I just wanted us to go on as many adventures as we can before we go back, we'll be college seniors then, which means we will barely have enough time to breathe. That's one year before we go out into the real world to start our careers, I just wanted to do something great and memorable before then." After hearing his friends' explanation, Lucas felt bad. He knew Blake just wanted to have a good time, so he gave his best friend a bashful smile and apologized.

"Well since it looks like we might be here a while, why don't we look around? This barn is pretty massive. I'm sure we could find something good around here." Lucas suggested to cheer his friend up, it worked. The young men divided the barn in half and started their search, it had taken them at least an hour before they found something other than wood and shed tools.

Lucas had just found another batch of shed tools when he heard his best friend calling for him. Running towards Blakes's voice, Lucas found him crouched over a box. The size was no bigger than a shoebox but it was its design that caught their eye, the box was out of place with its surroundings. It was a beautiful golden box with unique detailing but what stood out most was the emerald green pearl-like clasp that kept it shut.

"This is insane..." The two young men were definitely in agreement. The friends looked at each other as their smiles grew, they had both agreed without even having to utter a word.

They needed to open the box.

Yet, the moment Lucas touched the clasp it was as if all the blood in his body turned to ice causing him to snatch his hand away from it as if it had burnt him. Concerned, Blake dropped the box and grabbed the hand that Lucas had pulled away, and began inspecting it for an indication of what was wrong, but after finding nothing he looked up at Lucas questioningly.

"I don't know if this is a good idea" Lucas looked and felt like he was going to burst into tears, he couldn't understand why but he was frightened. Blake, who had not felt what Lucas had, was at a loss. He thought they had both wanted to open the box, he still wanted to but after seeing the look on his best friend's face, he knew that he had to put it back. Lucas meant more to him than some box, no matter how beautiful, he refused to ignore how scared his friend was at that moment.

"Okay, we'll put it back, okay? We won't open it." Blake told his friend, and in return received a thankful and relieved smile from Lucas.

Blake turned back to the box only to find that it had disappeared.

"Where is it? I swear I dropped it right here, you saw that right?" as Blake turned to confirm with his friend, his confusion turned into fear as Lucas, who had been there a second earlier, was gone. Shooting up, Blake immediately started calling for Lucas, and after searching for almost two hours, Blake had gone through the entire barn without a sign of Lucas or the box.

With the thought that Lucas could have gone outside since it was no longer raining, Blake ran for the doors. The moment he set a foot out of the barn, he felt his heart plummet. He stood frozen and completely terrified.

Outside, everything was dry. There were no signs of the storm that had taken place, the ground and trees were completely dry.

No storm...

No box...

No...Lucas.