Instant Regret of Opening Packages Not Addressed To You

There was no note or warning, just a simple package left on my doorstep wrapped in brown paper and tied with twine. I shouldn’t have opened it, I kick myself every day for giving into the mystery. Now I cannot take it back. My name is Shae and this is my story.

It was a warm, summer morning and as usual I had slept through my alarm and was rushing around getting ready for work and as I opened the door, I almost stepped on it. It was a brown package. No label, no note, nothing.

“Hmm, I didn’t order anything” I tried to recall my online shopping sprees I did during lunch breaks to break the boredom.

Checking my watch, “Ahh crap, I am now officially late” I swooped up the package and threw it on the front passenger seat of my Hyundai Elantra and sped off down the driveway, cursing myself under my breath.

It wasn’t like me to be late, but for some strange reason, my alarm wasn’t enough to wake me up this morning. Arriving at my desk, my boss made a beeline for me.

“Shae, have you decided to rebel the start time have you?” he asked in his usual dull, monotone voice.

“No Robert, sorry I slept through my alarm. It won’t happen again”. I hung my head.

He walked off shaking his head.

Despite the rough start, my day went fast thank goodness and before I knew it, I was travelling home and thinking about dinner. Luckily the traffic was light and I made it home in good time.

Grabbing my bag off the front seat, I paused and remembered the package and grabbed it too to put inside before heading inside. Kicking off my heels and putting my bag down, I took a second and turned the package around to see if there was any indication of ‘who’ or ‘from’ but nothing. I tested the weight, it was slight.

“Hmm, where did you come from?” all of a sudden my stomach gurgled as it indicated it was dinner. Placing the package on the table, I headed to the fridge and grabbed some left over butter chicken with rice and warmed it up in the microwave. I sat down opposite the package. Should I open it? Should I just throw it away?

What harm would it do if I had a little peek, I could always re-tie it up again I thought and no one would know.

Pulling to package closer, my curiosity started to soar and wonder. I had to know what was in there. I started untying the twine, it was itchy and rough, but my long nails made quick work of the double knot and came apart quickly. Then I slowly unwrapped the brown paper until its contents appeared. A long thin vial with what looked like just a folded slip of paper.

“Weird, all that for that??” I sat back and pondered. “Let’s see what the note says”.

Slowly pulling the top off, I shook the bottle upside down and the note slipped out. Grabbing gingerly with my fingers I opened.

“Congratulations you curious human, unfortunately as the saying going ‘Curiosity killed the cat’ or in this case, humans”. I dropped the note, what the???

I glanced at the vial and what was empty, now a slightly grey smoke slunk out and disappeared. I jumped out of my chair, covering my mouth and nose and ran outside. The sky was now tinged the same grey as the vial. Oh my god, what have I unleashed?

To be continued ….