The Music Box

I don’t recall ever seeing an actual music box. I mean sure I’d seen them on television but have never actually held one. Why is this relevant you may ask? Well, what I have to say about some things I’ve experienced recently involve sounds that can only come from a music box.

It was earlier this very day, a couple of hours ago that I first noticed that something… out of the ordinary was occurring. I was in the middle of sweeping and mopping my kitchen floor, playing music from my Ipod while I worked. As I was dragging the bleach drenched mop over my kitchen floor, towards the wooden gate that led to the living room when the notes first reached out to me; above the loud outro of Metallica’s Fade to Black.

The notes sounded eerily similar to the music you’d hear from an old music box. The music sounded like it was coming from our second story, a place we use mainly for storage. At first I thought it sounded awfully similar to Happy Appy’s theme song from the creepypasta. Then, all of a sudden, the music stopped and everything went silent. I shrugged it off as my imagination and continued with my chore. I heard nothing more for a while until I showered after doing some yard work. I still had my Ipod playing, this time Within Temptation’s Shot In the Dark, when I started to hear a thumping sound, like a hammer pounding a nail into the wall. This sound persisted for a full minute or more. I simply shut it out and went about my business.

The sound then came back, a combination of both noises this time. Curious I peeked above the stairs, the power didn’t work up there so everything was bathed in darkness. Slowly I ascended the stairs and heard the music and thumping growing louder. Then I heard soft sobbing coming from everywhere it seemed, begging for the thumps to stop. I reached the top of the stairs and turned left then right to investigate both rooms of the second story. When I spun back around, looking into the older room to the left of the stairway, I saw what I perceived to be a white glow proceeding towards me. Feeling my anxiety grow and my heart beat and breathing pick up I began to go down the carpeted stairs.

Keeping my gaze on the landing I grasped for the wooden handrail and descended faster. Then I saw a sight that almost stopped my heart. The glow that I thought I saw presented itself as a crawling corpse. I saw the severed body from the slight illumination that came from the lights downstairs. It was of a woman, about thirty, whose being had been cut in half from her waist down. She crawled down the stairs towards me with a slow zombie like persistence. I heard faint whispering coming from her, inaudible murmurs. As we approached the start of the stairway, a bloody trail dragging behind her, her voice became clear.

“You didn’t help me. Why did you allow me to suffer?” I couldn’t believe it. “Listen, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” My heart began to break for the woman. In a voice that grew more demonic she stated, “You heard me screaming. You heard the saw hitting my flesh. Why didn’t you save me?” This was becoming too much. I burst into tears then. “I’m so sorry! I wish I could’ve done something!”
My Ipod was no longer playing, instead the audio was replaced by a chilling voice. “You had the choice to save her and you ignored her cries. How can you live with yourself knowing that you could’ve prevented the end of this human life?” I noticed that the voice was mine. What the fuck? My mind was racing a million miles an hour. I found myself backed into a wall, into a corner unable to move. The corpse crept closer and closer as I began to sob heavily. “You deserve the same fate.” I was afraid that my flesh was going to be ripped apart. Instead the woman’s body reached me, her hands grasped my legs. I felt a tingle all over my body. I screamed at the top of my lungs.

All of a sudden I was in that same corner, completely intact. What had just happened? I decided against my better judgement and investigated. Upstairs I found an old hacksaw, bloody and a note that simply read, “Welcome to the frayed ends of sanity.” I went back downstairs and proceeded to cry and rock back and forth in the fetal position. I heard the woman’s voice in my head, “Welcome home. You’re going to like it here.”

For the rest of my days I’ll be hopelessly cringing at every noise. I have nothing to say except… if you hear a music box, run. Run for your life, or risk insanity.