Chapter 2: Chapter Two – The Funeral

The box rested by the fire, illuminated by its glow. Harbor and May stared at it. 

    “Now what?” Harbor finally asked.

    “Not gonna lie, I didn’t think I’d get this far.” May replied punctuating their sentence with a yawn.

    “Maybe we can discuss what we want to do with it in the morning. It’s late.”

    May nodded yawning, “YeaaAh, that’s probably a good idea.”

    The duo stumbled off to the tent after letting the fire die out. Slipping past the folds of the tent and onto the coats they prepared the morning before. May slid under the blankets and passed out. Harbor followed close behind, turning the lights off and closing the tent up so bugs wouldn’t make their way inside.

    Harbor woke first the next morning, the sun making its way through the thin fabric of the tent. He yawned before stretching and heading out of the tent. Stopping by the food container he dug through it, picking up the bag of powdered donuts. Opening the bag to munch on a few he continued making his way out the tent, walking to the fire. 

    His eyes were drawn to the rectangular box sitting next to the fireplace. It gleaned in the sunlight, oldly clean for being in the forest for god knows how long. With a donut in hand he walked closer to it. A pit began to form in his stomach, he stopped in his tracks. That box glimmered in the light, and just appeared on the campsite, and is oddly clean, and gives him a bad feeling. 

    Harbor really didn’t like this box.

    Maybe he could just move it? He took a step. It barely brought him anywhere. He tried to move closer only to find his feet frozen to the ground removing to move. His heart pounded in his chest, breathing speeding up. Subconsciously he began to back away. Yeah, he was NOT about to get any closer to that box. Hell he didn’t even want to look at the thing.

    He could do something about that.

    He turned around walking with a purpose. Head held high, making long strides, he reapproached the tent. Opening it and slipping in, placing the bag of donuts on the tub. He continued in grabbing the picnic blanket resting on the bottom of the box the duo had used to hold their bedding. Harbor walked back out with the blanket in his arms.

    He moved with caution to the box stopped a few feet away and chuckled the blanket at it. It managed to cover quite a bit of it when it landed. Harbor held his breath as he got closer. Eye firmly stuck on the creepy box.

    “Nope! No, nuh uh.” Fuck that box.

    He needed a stick. Snapping off a sizable stick off a nearby tree he went to work. 

    “No, ewww, why? God this box is cursed. Call a perista!” Harbor continued to whine as he maneuvered the blanket from afar, with a stick.

    The box rested with a blanket on it, and a stick beside it. Cursed demon box. Booo. Harbor sat far away from it, glaring at it with everything he had. All while munching on the donuts.

    May didn’t get up for another half hour, hiding their head under their blankets to block out the sun. only to encounter more problems and eventually giving up. Glaring at the ceiling they finally slinked out of bed. 

    “Ah fuk the sun.” They cursed covering their eyes.

    “Morning.” Harbor greeted. 

    “Die.” May responded all but falling into their chair.

    Harbor merely chuckled. Lifting their face up to look around, May finally noticed the covered box.

“Why did you cover this?” May asked Harbor.

“I don’t like looking at it, it gives me the creeps.”

“I suppose, it does look rather odd, creeped me out as well honestly.”

“The creepiest thing about it is the fact we found it in the woods.”

“We should put it back where we found it.”

“Easier said than done.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I already tried moving it, but the second I go to pick it up with the intention to get rid of it I freeze up.”

“Freeze up?”

“Yeah, like how when you try to do something but your body just won't move.”

“Well let me try.”

Harbor stepped away from the box cover in a wool blanket. May moved toward it, their hand outstretched. they took a step forward and down as if to touch it, and froze. their hand stopped midair and they simply stared at the covered box before them.

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“The box is cursed.” They conclude.

“Demon box.” Harbor agreed.

“GAH!” May screamed, bending over to hold their head, pain resounded through it, their eyes pounded and head swimmed unable to comprehend anything. They fell to their knees feeling bile climb up their throat. May hurled, gagging. They gasped for breath, feeling their chest compress. They vomited again. Then, once more, it disappeared the same as it had come. May lifted themself back up sitting down on their feet. They whipped the bit of vomit off their lips and the tears that had formed in their eyes.

“AAAAAA!!!” Harbor scream of terror resounded through the woods. Vibrating around May's head. 

May’s ears were muffled barely registering what they were hearing. Their eyes blinked, they squeezed them tight and then opened them again. Their brain felt foggy, out of focus. Finally May lifted their head up gasping slightly looking around. They spotted Harbor to the side hunched over on the chair. Their vision swimmed as their head wobbled upward to the sky. Soft pants left their lips and their eyes drifted about, energy drained from their very being.

“What, pant the hell… pant pant… was that.” They gasped.

Harbor gasped for air eye wide with terror, “We need to get the hell away from that thing.” 

May stumbled onto their feet swaying slightly, legs wobbly. Harbor made his way onto his feet as well hanging on to the back of the lawn chair for stability. 

“Let’s go,” He called out in an out of breath kind of way, jesting for May to follow him. They stumbled across the clearing. finding it hard to place one foot in front of the other. Such a simple task seemed impossible. The duo still reeling from the headaches they had experienced mere moments ago.

"he-hey wait up!" May cried nearly tripping over their own feet to catch up to the fleeing figure of their friend.

"We have to hurry!" Harbor insisted, stopping only for a moment.

May stepped over to his side, becoming more coordinated as time passed. Harbor wasted no time. He grabbed their wrist with a tight grip ensuring they would not be separated.

"Quick, quick, we've wasted too much time!" Harbor urged growing more and more agitated.

"This way!" May called back tugging Harbor's arm to the path they had hiked in on. If they got lost in here god knows when they would find their way out.

The duo picked up the pace, breaking into a near jog.

"What has you so worked up?" May asked as they hurried around the trees and through the path.

"I saw something."

"I'm not playing this game." May gritted their teeth.

"It was wispy and had a top hat of sorts, it was dark. As if it was made up of the night itself. The only thing that gave it any color was the purple outline it seemed to have." Harbor gritted his teeth, “God it was awful what the hell was that thing.”

The light dimmed around the duo, May looked up seeing dark storm clouds swarming the area like a hive of bees. “A storm is on the way.” May acknowledged refocusing their attention on the journey ahead.

“Let's beat the storm then.” Harbro responded. 

May ducked under a low hanging tree limb. They felt something cold hit the crown of their head. “Best hurry, it's already starting to sprinkle.” May yelled as the wind picked up blowing harshly against them, the cold brought with it biting at their face. 

The duo slowed their pace skidding to an almost stop in order to safely navigate around a bundle of tangled tree roots, rocks jutting out of the ground, and the steep cliffside. May’s heart bumped faster as they felt the dread they were beginning to become intimately familiar with doubled. Their hands shock. Thunder clapped overhead, sky lighting up briefly to illuminate the quickly darkening forest.

May yelped as they lost their footing briefly falling through the mess of tree roots. Harbor being tugged back slighting by the hand that still grasped May’s wrist. The rain began to fall harder pelting the duo. As fast a possible May refound their footing and began to carefully navigate the rough terrain. Thunder resounded through the air again. May swore they could hear a voice being covered by it.

Their grip on Harbor’s hand tightened.

“Come on!” Harbor yelled over the sound of the wind whipping around them and the rain pelting the ground.

“I’m going!” May called back, feeling panic begin to seize them. They lift their head up from the ground they were navigating to the best of their ability. Their eyes shifted into the tree line. Their eyes ran across the form of an impossible tall… something hiding in the forest’s dark illuminated briefly by the lighting coming down from the clouds.

They screamed. Feet frozen in their spot. The headache they had been experiencing on and off again returned, forcing them to the ground as they continued to cry out in pain and fear. Mud squished between their fingers. They vaguely registered Harbor’s hand leaving theirs as he too screamed. The stabbing pain behind their eyes resulted in dry heaving, having already emptied the contents of their stomach earlier that day.

Adrenaline rushed through their veins allowing them to momentarily throw off the mind numbing pain to slightly push their body away. The mud beneath them slick. Their fingers dug into it. The pain in their head blurring their surroundings.

KA B O O M

Lighting struck the ground nearby, sounding like a gun shot as May found themself blinded by the light. May jumped, flinging their body backwards. Their hair swirled around their face, the pit in their stomach intensifying.

A terrified scream burst through their lips.

They were falling.

down … down … do--

“GAH!” A breathless scream. A piercing pain in May’s back. The rock beneath them gave way. They fell farther, farther…. fa r  t    h       e       r     .      .               .

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