The convenience box

 Outside my apartment building there is a small box that is mounted on the wall near the entrance. I had passed it many times and never really gave it a cursory look as I thought it was a suggestion box. It was during a rainstorm that I actually looked at it for the first time and when I read the title I was confused, it read “Convenience Box” and I thought it might be some sort of valet parking system or whatever the residents had come up with. The apartment wasn’t exactly the high-end type to have its own underground garage but a middle of the century building. The apartment I rented was one half of full apartment that gave me 1 room, bath and a living space. This box confused me and I tried to ask my neighbour but she didn’t either, I tried to ask the landlord but he was just as confused so I forgot it.

One day as I was returning from work I saw this old lady slip a paper into the box and was also entering the building, I tried to speak to her about it but she did not reply. As we entered the building there is a set of elevators across the entrance and stairs on right to the rest of the building, she turned the walked the left to a door that I always saw as a maintenance store. She opened the door and promptly walked in, the darkness within was absolute for some reason and it was like she was just gone. I walked closer to the door and as I just about reached it the door slammed shut, I got annoyed at this rude behaviour and started knocking on the door for an answer. After a mint the door opened to reveal a well lit room that was indeed for the maintenance and security. I looked completely confused by this and the guard who answered the door told me off for shouting at him. I asked him about the old lady and the darkness and he looked at me like I was insane, he warned me again about wasting his time and them closed the door.

I recounted my incident to me neighbour and she was just as confused, she confessed that she had never seen that happen while she was around but now do so and maybe try and take a photo. I agreed with her, and we continued with our days with that in mind. A few weeks later I was awoken by a knocking on my door, it was the guard who was asking around about my neighbour. She hadn’t been seen for more that 4 days now and her parents had the police also look for her. I told him that I haven’t seen her for more that a week as our timings were different, he requested that I keep an eye out for her. I then asked if there was any footage of her last day in the building to which he looked confused as he said she was last seen following an old man into a building and just as they entered there was some electrical fault in the building and the footage stopped for a minute then resumed and she was gone. They tried to look for the old man and even asked around to anyone who might know him but nothing.

I realised that this could be about the incident on the convenience box, I told him everything of what happened that day he told me off on and he looked even more confused. I then decided to try and see what I can find out about that box, no I wish I didn’t bother to begin with. It turns out that the box had been there since the building was constructed and no one knew anything about it at all, I then decided to stake out the box in my free time and see if there another person using it. All the while the investigation on my neighbour’s disappearance turned up nothing and the police had turned her apartment, and mine, upside down looking for anything but turned up nothing.

It was on the 5 time of waiting that I saw an old man walking to the building, the reached the entrance and then looked around to see if there was anyone looking at him. I was in the building sitting at the far corner behind a large vase, saw him take a slip of paper out of his pocket and slip into the box and then turn and enter the building. I then ran out in front of him and began asking him what he slipped into the box and why is he here.

The old man looked like he had seen a ghost, his face was white with fear and his lips were trembling as I confronted him. He did not say anything and tried to turn and walk away, but I relented and kept moving to block his path. He did not say anything and soon his feet gave out and he sat down on the floor. “I was only looking for a quiet way to go, please let me go. I did not hurt anyone, please let me go.”

“Not before you tell me what is going on, I have a friend missing and she might have entered the door without placing anything in the box.”

His eyes shot up and looked at me and I saw that fear in his eyes turn to something even more primal. “She what? No no no no… this is not supposed to happen. She … no this was not supposed to happen.”

“What was not supposed to happen.”

The old man looked at me and got up and it seemed that he had gotten a second wind and grabbed me by my shirt. “That box is all that is keeping everyone in this city safe, there are beings that were here before us and the price for safety is one of us to sacrifice out last few years.”

I asked what beings and what he was talking about but he began dragging me to the door, as we got closer to it I saw the dark whisps of smoke coming out from under the door. Reaching the door he held the handle and pushed the door inwards, inside was dark and I could not see anything. He let go of my shirt and walked in, I was too stunned to see what was happening and he was gone, I shifted and moved to look in. I was sucked in and found my self in a graveyard of old machines, they looked older than anything I had seen before. I saw the old man in front of me and I tried to call out I then began seeing the movement all around us, bodies of things moving closer to him.

One reached him and grasped his leg and in one swift move tore off his calf muscle, the old man did not flinch it was like he was in a trance. More came closer grabbing him and tearing off chunks of him and eating, the blood flew around everywhere and I realised this is what could have happened to the girl and now will happen to me. The writhing bodies that looked less human and more alien stripped the body to bone I stood there transfixed by this gory display unable to move when one of those things stopped and turned to me. I gained some strength from what it had consumed and walked to me, I reached out to me and placed a hand on my chin and then turned my head from right to left examining me like a piece of meat. A voice in my head then speaking, “You did not say your name before coming in. How will we know who is giving us strength like the woman before you?”

I tried to speak but could not and those thoughts it seemed were heard and I heard the voice. “We are old, our time will come again when your kind finish killing each other. You are lucky we are full, this one had long to live like the girl and so we shall return you with a warning. Never come back or try to expose us, this city was built above our home and one day we will have it back.”

I closed my eyes and next thing I knew I woke up in front of the door in the apartment building. No idea how I came here or who brought me. I moved out of the apartment within a week and never looked back, if you live in that apartment in the middle of the open space I urge you to leave that place.

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