Redeeming Pandora's Curse
an excerpt

I picked up the key from where I had placed it on the table and slipped it into the lock. The key turned easily, unlocking the lid with a faint click that somehow seemed very loud in the otherwise silent room. Crossing my fingers, I tentatively pushed the lid up, half expected it to stop three quarters of the way open. But it didn't. The lid swung open, pushing backwards until it rested against the surface of the table. The inside of the box yawned up at me, a deep, dark, seemingly empty pit that gave no explanations for why Grampa had wanted it opened so badly.

A frown crossed my face, but then from the depths of a box a barely noticeable grayish smoke appeared. Tendrils wafted up before my terrified eyes. I wanted to scream, but no sound came out of my open lips. The escaping smoke formed into the silhouette of a woman; I couldn't make out any features. The key appeared in my hands and instinctively, I closed my trembling fingers around it. A sigh echoed around the room, words barely forming before they disappeared, and the smoke dissipated, leaving nothing but an empty box and my ragged breathing.

I was able to scream then, and scream I did, at the top of my voice like a banshee itself had leapt out of the box and was howling. Over top of me, I heard several thumps followed by loud exclamations and running footsteps. I knew I had only a few seconds to myself and pressed my shaking fingers to my chest, remembering the words that the smoke had echoed distantly into my ears.

"Good luck..."

"Cassandra!" Grampa burst into the room, dressed only in a pair of striped pjamas. Every single one of my sisters was right behind him, in varying states of undress. Grampa stared from me to the open box and back again. His mouth dropped open, but no words escaped.

"Cassis, what did you do?" Peri whispered, looking a little afraid.

I closed my mouth and shivered. "I don't know," I said honestly. Megan was staring at me. Her eyes were accusing, pinning me with lies. Hot shame flooded through me so violently that I nearly dropped the key on the ground. But I also felt somehow in the right, as if what I had done wasn't wrong at all, even if no one liked the results.

"You opened it..." Grampa whispered, hesitantly walking closer to me. He reached out and not quite touched the box, then looked at me with an awed expression. "My dear girl, do you know what this means?"

The key was digging into my skin, but it was a good kind of pain. I didn't like the way Grampa was staring at me - like the way he looks at Julie or Erika or Ally or Peri when they bring home really stellar grades, but a little bit different. This wasn't pride - this was out and out shock and awe and amazement and it made me feel uncomfortable. I wanted him to stop. "No."

He reached out, and his hand came to rest heavily on my shoulder. "You are... Pandora..."