Short and Long Stories Part 2

I bought a mystery box

I don't know what I was thinking really. I had been drinking with friends and got home drunk. I decided to open Tor and one link led to another. I ended up on a marketplace website that was selling all sorts of shady shit. I could buy my own weight in Cocaine if I saw fit, and had the money. Though something caught my interest. A posting said, "Mystery Box - Made to Order - $250".

I read the description, which listed what it could contain. A brand new iPad - that was it, that was the thing that made me send $250 worth of bitcoin to some random guy in some random place on the Internet. I had vague memories of sloppily messaging the seller that I really wanted the iPad. Oh God, I remember sending them an extra $50 to sweeten the deal. What a dickhead.

When I woke, my head hurt. I had a full blown migraine. It wasn't until I'd had breakfast, showered and opened up my laptop that I remembered. My heart sunk. I didn't have money to waste on shit like that, but I did. I clicked the button to message the seller to tell them I changed my mind, but nothing happened. I refreshed the page and as you can guess the listing wasn't found.

Now, I didn't think myself to be an idiot. I wouldn't fall for 411 scams, I know no Nigerian prince wants to send me money. But drunk me... he's a bit of an asshole. I checked my bitcoin account to see it tell me that I was out of untraceable money. I swear I had at least $750 worth in there (if you take the exchange rate of the day - with the way it fluctuates it may have been only worth $300).

I was depressed for the rest of the day, I promised myself I wouldn't do anything like that again. But then drunk me is a real... you-know.

Weeks passed and I completely forgot about it. To be honest, I didn't want to remember how stupid I was. Today though I did remember. I walked downstairs to see a large brown box on the kitchen table - addressed to me.

My dad must have received it from the mailman when he was getting ready for work. I stared at it, shocked to see it had actually arrived. I picked it up, the weight was lopsided, but it was heavy. That was a good sign. At least it wasn't filled with packing chips.

I pulled off the tape and opened it up to reveal a lot of packing chips. I chuckled to myself before plunging my hand in.

I pulled out an anonymous red sweater. I held it to my face, it smelled of perfume - it was used. I was slightly disgusted, but what did I expect from the dark web. I placed it on the table next to me. The next item was a set of keys. I examined them and wondered why on earth that was part of this parcel. It was literally like the guy just shoved some random things into a box and sent it off. I was beginning to feel ripped off.

I placed my hand in again and pulled out a small bag with a note attached. I knew what it was before I read it. I was excited.

A little thing to make the time pass more calmly - written in Sharpie. It was a good amount of weed. I'd never bought drugs off the Internet. I opened the bag to see if it was the real deal and that strong skunky smell rose up. I took a deep breath and sighed. I'd say it was $70 worth give or take. I pushed it into my back pocket, worried that my mom could be up in any minute and catch me with it.

I was intrigued to see what was remaining, maybe I'd make my money back yet.

The next item was a small wooden box. I opened it to see a few pieces of silver jewellery. I checked each one having no idea if it was worth anything. There were two necklaces and two rings. I wondered if these were stolen or bought from a pawn shop. I placed it next to the red top.

The next was another baggie, with another note written in Sharpie.

You'll need these - trust me ;) - I was a little anxious when I read the note and saw a small box of Xanax inside. What the fuck did I need anxiety medication for? I was not one to dabble in prescription drugs. Weed and a little mushrooms was all I needed. I knew some friends who'd pay good money for that. I had no idea how much they were worth, though. I'd look it up later. I assumed $50, so that was $130 so far. And to be fair, for something off the dark web, if I only lost around half my money, I should count myself lucky.