How could it hurt to take just one peek?
When Uncle Marco goes on one of his mysterious trips. he leaves Annie
in charge of two exotic, sealed boxes on one condition: she must not
open either one while he is away. But of course she is tempted...and
soon she has unleashed the unthinkable. The creatures inside are
crablike and grotesque. And they possess a power Annie could never have
imagined...
Inside, almost filling it, was what
looked more than anything else like a kind of propeller. It had four
oddly shaped, curving blades, one pointing directly at each corner of
the box. The blades were a couple of inches below the top of the box. In
the center of the blades was a kind of dial, like a round combination
lock. But instead of numbers, around the dial were funny-looking
symbols, sort of like hieroglyphics.
Things that looked like thorns or roots,
gnarled and twisting and branching, clung to the inside surfaces of the
metal box.
I didn't like it. I didn't like it all. I
especially didn't like it that I couldn't close it.
Pages 197 RL 4.8
ages 8-12
The Boxes
by William Sleator
