BOOKS

The box

"Miss! Miss I have something for you!" 

Lanie came to a stop, her work building so close, yet so far, and reluctantly pulled out her earphones to look at the man before her. 

He held something inside a dirty plastic bag, caked in dirt as though it had been buried for several months at the very least. Something shone and glittered in the morning sunlight through a tear in the bag, piquing Lanie's interest. He pulled the object out, holding it out for Lanie to take. 

Narrowing her eyes suspiciously, Lanie took her time in taking the object, her suspicion obvious to the nervous and trembling man.

It was a box. 

Lanie looked at the box. It was a pretty box, encrusted with expensive jewels, with a golden clasp at the front.

"I can't take this." She said eventually, thrusting it back into the mans hands.

"What? Why?" The man replied, shocked.

"It's too much. I would perhaps accept a sock toy- or something along those lines, but this, this is just too expensive."

"Nonsense," he stuffed the box back into her hands. "I don't want it."

"Did you steal it?" Lanie persisted. "Is that why you don't want it?"

"No! Of course not! It's an- an early birthday present for you!"

"My birthday was last month. Anyway, I don't want it either."

The man sighed frustratedly, running a hand through his dark curls. "Look, at least open it."

Lanie stared at him, the hunched, nervous man she had met on her way to work, who had given her this box for a reason unknown. 

She tried, several times, to shove the box back into his grubby, calloused hands. 

"Fine." She snapped, annoyed when he wouldn't take the box back. "Fine!"

Her fingers fumbled clumsily on the clasp, and she had just unhooked it when the box began to shake, violently. Lanie gasped in shock and dropped it, watching as a bright, shining acid green light began to shine through the cracks of the lid.

With no warning, the lid threw itself back. The effects were enormous- the ground was shaking, buildings crumbling around her like an earthquake and the green light became so bright it almost blinded her, Lanie stumbling and falling onto her rump as she shielded her eyes- before it stopped.

It stopped so fast that Lanie just sat there, on the floor, surrounded by the dust of the buildings and the silence of the city, blinking the light from her eyes.

There was something else, too. A monster. He was big- no, enormous, about as tall as the tallest skyscraper. He was muscly, with boulder-like shoulders and of course, abs. He was scaly, his skin tougher than steel and covered in scales, similar to those of a fish. And he stood there, in the middle of the city, sunlight glimmering all over, with a smile spreading across his monstrous face as he admired his arms, sucking in deep breaths of fresh air.

In the distance, the man was running away, laughing.

"Why you little-"