The Grandfather Box

Family heirlooms can come in many forms

"No, it's up here in the attic."

"But all his stuff is down here in this trunk; he showed us, remember?"

"Yeah, but this is something special."

"I don't know, Dion. Grandpa doesn't even like us looking at his stuff in the trunk. If it's hidden in the attic..."

"Claire, trust me. You gotta see this."

Dion's smile looked a little off to Claire. Manic, almost. He really wanted to show her whatever he had found in the attic. "Fine," she conceded. "I'll take a look. But if Mom and Dad come home and catch us up there, we'll get skinned alive!"

Dion thought for a moment, his smile broadening. "Oh, I don't think we have to worry about that. They'll be gone for...quite some time."

"What— "

Suddenly he ran up the stairs. She followed in his wake. Before she could blink, it felt like, they were in the well-lit, well-kept attic. The room was eventually going to be Dion's, but or now it was a mostly empty room with a few cartons along one wall and an ornately carved wooden cigar box in the center of the floor. It seemed to carved in some exotic language. "What does it say?" she whispered.

Dino cackled, and Claire began to be a little frightened. "It says it's a 'grandfather box,' but that part's not important. You'll never believe what I found in it." Dion smiled a wicked, frightening smile and opened the box. He turned it slowly so she could see inside. His voice was soft and cunning, filled with a malice she would not have believed possible in him. She tried to resist, but her eyes were drawn down, down into the box and its ungodly contents,

But by then, there was no one left to hear her scream.

NOTES: ▶︎

Word Count: 300
Submitted for "Daily Flash Fiction Challenge" 
Prompt: Use the phrase "You'll never believe what I found"