The Eldritch Envelope

Beep Beep Beep

Quinn smacked the top of his alarm. He swung out of bed feet first, and walked towards his bathroom. He showered and brushed his teeth, and combed and slicked his hair back with gel.

He walked over to his closet, picking out one of his many solid color black or navy blue ties, and tightened it onto a crisp white shirt. Quinn let his shirt hang as he pulled on his dress pants, a belt to match, and his dress shoes. Other people went for more casual wear at the office, but Quinn wouldn’t be caught dead in some of the track suits and patterned sweater vests that his coworkers flaunted.

Quinn left his bedroom and went to his kitchen. He poured himself a bowl of Wheat Honey Flakes with skim milk, and plated two pieces of toast with butter.

Some people thought that Quinn should have a family by now, or some significant other. Some of his coworkers had suggested a pet, but Quinn waved away their suggestions. He wasn’t a recluse, he simply preferred to live alone.

He sat down at the table, and swallowed a mouthful of cereal.The silence was bliss.

Quinn smiled and finished his breakfast, taking his dishes to the sink. He could leave them until after dinner. There was no point in having to wash dishes at two separate times, it made things convoluted, and Quinn hated to make things convoluted.

Quinn strolled past the kitchen table and grabbed his jacket from where it hung on the hook adjacent to the front door. He checked the side table next to his door and found his silver watch, a gift from his parents upon graduating college. He should call them soon, maybe go down and visit them next weekend, they’d be happy to see him.

He strapped on the watch, slid on his coat, and checked the mirror that hung from the door. He smiled wide, not because he was happy, but because he feared he might have something in his teeth from breakfast. The toast could be tricky. Fortunately, he found no trace of imperfection, his teeth were a pearly white.

Quinn reached for the door handle, and as he opened the door, he caught a glimpse of something in the door’s mirror.

Impossible, Quinn thought, his heart skipping a beat, I must be imagining things. What Quinn thought that he had seen was someone standing on the fire escape. Though of course, that was impossible. Sure it was theoretically possible to get to Quinn’s escape from the ground level or a different floor, but why would someone want to?

To be sure, even though it upset his routine, and he would more than likely be late to work, Quinn let the door hang open and walked beyond his kitchen to the fire escape.

He shivered as he went outside. It was cold for a November day, much colder than it should have been.

Climate change and all of that, probably, thought Quinn as he looked around at the other apartment complexes and skyscrapers that dotted the skyline.

Quinn shook his head, what an idiot he was. How could he have been so stupid as to think there was someone standing on the fire-

Quinn nearly jumped out of his skin. A man in an emerald green suit and top hat, holding a cardboard box, was being held aloft by a similarly emerald green painted drone a few feet above his head.

“Hello Quinn.” said the green suited man, a smile that seemed both genuine and fake plastered on his face.

Quinn was too shocked to speak. What did you say to someone who hovered over your fire escape and looked like a cucumber?

“H-hello?” Quinn stammered out. Despite the cold, he’d started sweating.

“Hello indeed my good friend. I have a package for you. They send their regards.” said the man, tipping his hat.

The man dropped from the drone, perfectly still as if he were an animation, and put the package in Quinn’s hands.

“Who are they?” said Quinn.

“Who’s who now?” said the man, the smile still on his face.

“Who are these people? The people who sent me the package.” said Quinn, his fear still omnipresent.

“Oh, my friend, you still indeed have so much to learn. They want as many as possible, but do not look into the envelope yourself, you were chosen for a reason.”

Quinn’s confusion started to take hold over his fear.

“I don’t understand, who wants me, and for what? Why did you show up here? Why did you give me this box? And what envelope? There’s only a box. ”

“Oh my dear friend, they need you to take as many as you can. However, remember the rule, don’t open the envelope yourself. You are the keeper. Don’t let your curiosity control you. You must control your curiosity. I must be off, there are more deliveries to be made, but remember your role keeper. You will become great someday, if you obey.”

Don’t let his curiosity control him… what was that supposed to mean?

The man and his drone disappeared in a flash of multicolored light, leaving Quinn slack jawed and shivering on the fire escape. He must have been dreaming, that wasn’t real.

There was a logical, simple explanation for everything. It was probably some kids playing a trick with a drone and powder packets that exploded. Yeah. Yeah that was probably it.

The package probably had a piece of paper inside that had a nasty message or something inside of it. Quinn walked back inside, setting the package on his kitchen table. He moved towards the door, but the mystery of the package was gnawing at him. Even if it was just a piece of paper, no one could resist the call of a mystery. Besides, the sooner that he discovered the mystery of the package, the sooner he could go back to simplicity.

Quinn grabbed a pair of scissors off the counter, slicing into the box. His heart was racing, his breathing quickened, a mystery, even for a man as simple as Quinn was always exciting. He dug through the sea of packing peanuts, and finally at long last, Quinn saw the contents of the package.

It was, as the emerald suited man had stated, an envelope with his name and address printed on the front side. As for the return address label, it read “They, Those who Take”.

Quinn felt a shiver crawl along his back. Who was that man in the green suit? Did Quinn unknowingly get involved in a gang feud, or was some sort of Mafia after him?

Holding up the plain white envelope, Quinn saw his next door neighbor, Elanor Fintellinis walk straight through his wide open front door.

“Dearie? Do you have to make so much noise early in the morning? Us old people like to get our beauty rest, ” she said with a chuckle.

Quinn gave a nervous laugh back to her.

“You seemed like you were having quite the commotion down here, tramping around on the fire escape and all. I wanted to come over to make sure that you weren’t planning on something rash.” she said.

Quinn pulled himself back together, “Oh no Elanor, I- just thought I saw someone on the fire escape is all. I about scared myself to death.”

“I give myself quite the scare on occasion,” said Elanor, pausing and looking at the envelope in Quinn’s hands, “A letter from someone?”

“I guess so,” said Quinn in a quiet voice.

“Odd that they would send it in a package, mailing is much cheaper, I hope they know that much.” said Elanor, hands on her hips.

“I- I don’t think they’re very concerned, it’s just some kids playing a prank I think,” said Quinn.

“Can I see the letter?” asked Elanor.

Quinn paused, the room going quiet.

“Dear, can I see the letter?” she asked again.

“Why?” he asked.

“I’d like to give those prankster children of yours a good talking to, tell them to stop messing around with my favorite neighbor. I’m very good at recognizing handwriting, they’re probably in this building, we can trace it back to them and give them a piece of our minds.” she said with a sly grin.

“I don’t know Elanor I thi-”

“Oh nonsense dearie, hand me the envelope.”

Elanor held out her hand in waiting. It reminded him of the portrait by Michelangelo, the one where God creates Adam. God’s unlimited power and Adam a mere speck upon the canvas of infinity.

The only difference being that it was not Elanor who played the role of God, but the envelope. Quinn shivered once more, but handed the envelope to Elanor.

He was letting his mind get the better of him, it was just an envelope, wasn’t it?

“Let’s see,” said Elanor, breaking the seal on the envelope, “What these kids have to say about y- AGHHHHHH!” shouted Elanor.

A loud sound, like his apartment complex crashing down around him, emanated from the envelope. Quinn could only sit helpless from the sideline. He watched as what looked like Elanor’s sense of being, her soul, her essence, whatever one could call the part of a human that was distinguishable from the body, was sucked into the envelope. Her bones and muscle, a sack of flesh without form dropped to the floor of Quinn’s apartment before being sucked up moments later.

Quinn dove for the envelope where Elanor had once been, snapping it shut with an equally loud noise. Dogs barked, car alarms went off, and people were yelling. It seemed like it had woken the entire building.

He sat on the floor for a few minutes, processing what he’d witnessed, and then Quinn did the only thing he could think of, he dialed the police.

The police arrived in minutes, likely not just from Quinn’s call, but from others making complaints about the noise. The door still wide open, Quinn had a mob forming outside his home screaming obscenities and insults for the noise of the envelope.

Quinn saw the blue uniforms pushing past those in bathrobes and pajamas, and felt a sense of relief. The police could deal with this, and he could go back to his life. His simple, unproblematic life.

“Out of the way people!” shouted one of the officers.

“Yeah move it back, part like the Red Sea come on!” shouted another.

People began to make room in the hallway, and no less than a dozen cops were piled up at the foot of the door.

“Son, I don’t know what kind of explanation you have, but it better be good to get all of these people off your back, because if we don’t end up doing something about you, they will.” said the lead officer, a special insignia on his cap.

“I- I know that I sound crazy, I know I do, but you have to believe me,” said Quinn, his voice trembling and his hands shaking as he held the envelope closed, “This envelope kills people, and takes their souls. ”

The officers looked at Quinn, exchanging looks, then a few of the cops started laughing.

“Yeah kid! And I’m going to Hollywood to act and make big bucks! An envelope that kills people and sucks their souls! Maybe you should go to Hollywood and write a movie!” said the lead officer, still laughing with the others.

The lead officer then walked over to Quinn, snatching the envelope from his hands. Quinn flung himself at the man, trying to take it back, but it was no use, the lead officer was much stronger than he was.

“Hey guys, be careful, if you open this envelope you get your whole being sucked away, like this!” said the lead officer, opening the envelope, “Look, my face is gonna melt off and I’m gonna die! Ahhhhh oooooohhhhh ahhhh, AGHHHHHHH!” shouted the man as his screams coated the apartment.

The lead officer’s soul and body were sucked into the envelope, along with the other officers and bystanders near the door of Quinn’s apartment.

Quinn could only look on in terror as each soul was plucked from its sack of meat, and subsequently thrust into the envelope. Officers screamed and ran from the scene, bystanders trampled one another to get out of the way of the envelope’s range. Victim after victim claimed by the envelope.

Quinn crawled across the floor of his apartment, trying to reach the envelope. He could still stop this. The words from the green suited man echoed in his mind.

You are the keeper.

Maybe Quinn could break the pattern in his life, strive to do more, to be something more than what he was. Maybe his purpose was to destroy this envelope, to keep others from harm.

He crawled faster. His nails dug into the hardwood. The envelope, though its fury was in the opposite direction, attempted to throw him off balance, and attempted to absorb him in its wake of destruction.

He reached the envelope on the floor, and gripped it, pulling it closer to himself. Reaching with his other hand, he gripped the flap, feeling as if he were closing the gates of hell. Not a soul more would be given to them. They who take. They had taken enough.

He stood up, straining against the envelope. He felt his hands were like pincers closing the mouth of a gargantuan beast. However, this beast was not to be quelled, because as Quinn made the final push, his curiosity got the better of him.

The desire to see what all of those who had been swallowed had seen, the hunger for more than he was destined for. The morbid curiosity of a man who lived a simple life. The unyielding craving for answers.

He peered between the flaps of the envelope.

Quinn felt himself pulled out of his body, his soul, his very being, existing with all things simultaneously. He felt as if he had lived a hundred billion lifetimes, each different, yet all the same. He saw birth, death, rebirth, death again, the cycle repeated a thousand billion trillion times over. There was no beginning or end, it simply was.

Don’t open the envelope yourself. Don’t let your curiosity control you.

He saw all questions that could be asked, every answer that could be given, all in a fraction of a second. He felt his building crashing down around him. The city, the planet, the galaxy, the universe, all being absorbed into an infinitely small space. The envelope will contain it all.

And within a fraction of a second, Quinn was absorbed into the envelope. Lost to a sea of knowledge too vast for one mortal mind to try to comprehend.

Despite the fullness of his mind, Quinn’s last thoughts were of God and Adam. He, a speck on the canvas of infinity, the envelope as God.

Quinn spoke no more, for there was nothing left to say, nothing that could be said, and he faded completely into the envelope.

The envelope fluttered to a halt in the middle of the black void, the universe in which it had emptied of its contents. Peaking through the emptiness, through the abyss, walked a green suited man, a drone making him hover in the emptiness.

He swiped the envelope from its resting place, contemplating the address.

“They will be pleased with this. Another so bold as to try and look beyond their veil of what they were meant to see.” said the green suited man, as he shook his head and took off his hat, holding it over his chest.

“Next time you see me, I might deliver you a package. Would you be willing to accept? Could you be the one who finally resists, the one who can protect their reality? Or will you fall victim to time and suffering, as all mortals do?” asked the green suited man, putting his hat back on his head, a smile that was both genuine and fake, carving its way onto his lips.

He laughed, staring at you. Yes you, for there is no one else to see. The green suited man, still smiling, escaped the void in a flash of multicolored light.

Check outside your door, there should be a man waiting for you there. He’s wearing a green suit, and he has a package for you.