Treasure Box

The Treasure Box is a creepy story about a boy who finds a strange box while searching through a pile of junk. It is based on a weird story from Japan.

I’m afraid of boxes. Big ones or small ones, it doesn’t matter. They all scare me. If the lid is open and I can see the contents, it’s OK, but if the lid is closed, it makes me cringe in fear. It’s all because of an experience I had when I was a child.

During the Summer, my parents would often take my brother and I to visit our grandmother. She lived in a small country town. Behind her cottage, there was a large barn that was used as a storehouse.

The barn was stuffed with all sorts of odds and ends. There were broken antiques, old toys, dusty furniture, piles of junk and even a suit of armor. It was a treasure trove for children. However, my grandmother was very strict and never allowed us to explore the barn. She said she didn’t want us messing around with the stuff in the barn and warned us to keep out of there.

One day, my parents and my grandmother went out shopping. They took my brother with them and I was left home alone. I decided to sneak into the barn and have a treasure hunt.

Sifting through the piles of old junk, I found some interesting items. There was a slab of wood in the shape of a person and a leather pouch filled with brightly-colored marbles. I continued searching through the rubbish to see if I could find anything else.

At the back of the barn, there was an old chest of drawers. It was decorated with a shiny black lacquer and there were candles arranged on the top. It looked sort of like an altar.

When I pulled out one of the drawers, I found a large box. It was about 15 cm x 15 cm. While everything else in the barn was covered in a layer of dust, the box was unusually clean.

I picked it up and examined it. The sides of the box had an ornate design on them and there was a latch on the top where it could be opened. It looked like a miniature treasure chest.

With shaking fingers, I pulled back the latch and opened the lid. Inside, there was another box. It was exactly the same, but slightly smaller. When I opened that box, there was yet another box inside. It was a box inside a box inside a box…

Just then, I noticed something disturbing. On the bottom of each box, there was a small inscription.

“Nose”, “Teeth”, “Ears”…

I was puzzled and a chill ran down my spine, but curiosity got the better of me and I kept opening the boxes.

“Kidneys”, “Lungs”, “Pancreas”, “Liver”, “Spleen”…

Every box was inscribed with the name of a part of the body.

“Arms”, “Legs”, “Feet”, “Nails”, “Hair”…

Finally, I came to the last box. It was only 1 cm x 1 cm. The inscription on the bottom read, “Skull”.

My heart was pounding. I cautiously opened the box.

Inside, there was a small, folded piece of paper. I spread it out. There were just two words written on it in a scrawled hand: “The End.”

That evening, my parents and my grandmother didn’t arrive home until very late. They were crying. My parents sat me down and told me they had some bad news. While they were at the mall, my brother had disappeared. While they were distracted, he had wandered off and they couldn’t find him.

The police searched the entire shopping mall from top to bottom, but they didn’t find my brother. They did find something else, though. Something chilling. A human brain.

After performing DNA tests, the polce confirmed that it was indeed the brain of my younger brother. They never found the rest of him.

When I found out, I was more scared than I had ever been in my life. I remembered the strange boxes I had found. Each one had the name of a body part inscribed on it, but there was one missing… “Brain”.