The Deadly Mystery

The marketplace was swarming with people, buying up their fresh produce for the week, when an unfamiliar noise rises above the hundreds of conversations taking place, throughout the market aisles.

It’s coming from above and gradually all the conversations fall silent, eyes turned to the sky, as a small drone flies into view. Silence entails as everyone watches the drone move into the middle of the marketplace, and very gently hovers low, to place a mysterious box on the ground. The drone then returns to the sky and gracefully disappears.

The silence of such a large crowd is unheard of, but the crowd is standing in shock, eyeing that mysterious box that had been delivered to the town's doorstep.

Eventually, after a minute or two, a pair of teenagers begin to move towards the box. This gets others moving until the entire crowd is edging closer. Those standing at the front can see there’s no writing on the box, therefore there’s no way to tell who the box is for.

The teenagers bent down together and hefted the box to waist height, turning it every which way but there’s definitely no address or marking, to ensure everyone knows who the intended receiver of this box should be.

They lower it back to the ground and attempt to open the package, but they have no joy. It’s impossible to tear open.

A young gentleman steps forward, removes a switchblade from his pocket and hands it to one of the teenagers. It doesn’t help though, the package is sealed well and even the switchblade cannot cut through the seal.

Some of the bystanders lose interest and wander back to the market stalls, others however, try their hand at opening the box. Though try as they might, no one managed to unseal the box, that was left sitting in the middle of the marketplace.

Most people forgot about the strange occurrence, whereby others were randomly trying to unsuccessfully open the box, throughout the rest of the day.

On the closure of the marketplace that evening, the crowds dissipated and that lonely box sat unopened in triumph. Nobody had any idea of what it could contain.

After the sun rose the next morning and people began to rise from their slumber, chaos ensued.

It all started with those original two teenagers. The first to attempt to open that strange box. When their parents went to wake them, it was quickly ascertained that both young boys were dead in their beds. Screams from their mothers echoed through the town, followed by more screams that ran from house to house, as each household discovered their dead.

It seems half the town had died overnight!

It was quickly rumoured from voice to voice, that the strange mysterious box from yesterday, was the cause of all these deaths. Those that had been closest to the box had silently passed away throughout the night.

Nobody wanted to go near that box that day, for fear they too would die. So the box sat in a large clearing, skirted by townsfolk as they walked past. A wide birth was given to the box they all feared.

Two days later, the largest funeral possession the town had ever held witness to, travelled through the marketplace, skirted wide that feared box, and out to the countryside, where the dead would be buried.

Funeral after funeral was held that day and it took from sun up to sun down to say goodbye and bury the town’s dead.

Just as they were finishing up the last of the funeral rites, a large droning noise was heard once more.

All eyes looked to the sky, as a similar drone flew into view, swooped low above their heads, and continued on to the town centre, where the markets were generally held.

The townspeople ignored the drone once it was out of sight and returned to the finale of sending their dead to the otherworld.

At sunset, after the last grave had been filled in, the townspeople headed back to town, only to discover, as the town centre come into view, that the mysterious box had totally vanished. It was no longer sitting, temptingly in the middle of the marketplace.

It seems to have disappeared from sight, along with the town’s dead, leaving the townspeople in an in-depth puddle of grief and confusion.

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