Fragile Anthology by Michael Allen Rose

Author:Michael Allen Rose [Rose, Michael Allen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC015000
Publisher: Michael Rose
Published: 2024-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

11

New

Chris Meekings

Legs eleven stared up from the die’s face. That had to mean something; it was my lucky number, after all. Fuck it, one in twenty meant I HAD to open the box, right? That was what I was telling myself. It was fate, karma; I was commanded to do it by a higher force.

I was stalling because, well, it was illegal… I think? Hell, I don’t know; I’m not a lawyer. Opening someone’s moving box? Was that breaking and entering… or something? It was undoubtedly rude—crossing the sacred line between mover and move-ee. Once that brown packing tape was broken and that Rubicon was crossed—next stop, petty theft, the odd dollar here, and spoon there, and then next thing you knew, you were out on your ear, never to be a mover again. Black listed. Persona non-mover.

The person whose stuff this was had trusted me and that should not be lightly thrown aside.

Thunder cracked outside, and rain lashed the apartment windows. Big, thick rivulets of water washed away the outside until there was only me, the box, and my curiosity.

There was more scratching coming from the box. A scrit-scrit-scrit, like nails on the cardboard.

It had to be an animal, right? And that was… well, cruel. Definitely cruel. And cruel overrides rude, I think. I’m pretty sure that was a law… somewhere. Probably not, but it should be.

No one could begrudge trying to save a loving pet trapped in a box. Perhaps the move-ee was looking for them, desperately searching their bare apartment for the lost kitten or guinea pig? I could be a hero, the one who saved Barney the pet hamster, or Atilla the budgie… or something. I don’t know; it could be anything in there, and I definitely wasn’t gonna take it, whatever it was. No sir-ee. Just a peek, check it wasn’t something alive, and then tape back on, box stacked and away we go.

At least, that was the plan then.

I started to peel the brown packing tape from the box, removing it at an agonizingly slow rate. I was still weighing up the illegality of what I was doing. I mean, it was wrong, I knew it was wrong, but it was also sort of justified, right? If you squint at it from just the right angle, in very poor lighting?

A soft moaning sound came from the box. A definite human noise. And definitely a human moan of pleasure?

So, not a dog, cat, rabbit, hamster, budgie, tortoise, marmoset, very-very small elephant, or whatever else my criminal mind was cooking up to get me to look in the box.

Ok, now it was getting a bit weird. What in the hell was in there? A porn DVD that had somehow been turned on? A battery-operated TV and DVD player that had a porn DVD in it that was miraculously playing? That was pretty desperate as explanations went, and a very weird miracle.

Fuck it.

I ripped the brown tape from the box’s lid and pushed the cardboard flaps aside to reveal…

Nothing… nada… zip… bupkis.

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