It was a breezy, summer evening. Elizabeth and her elder sister Victoria were going to the antique shop, which recently opened in the market, and people were talking about it.

Elizabeth was a five years old girl. She had reddish-blonde hair and had beautiful pearl blue eyes. She was extremely curious and a valiant adventurer. Both the girls were very excited to go and see the antique things in the shop.

So after walking for quite a few minutes, they reached the antique shop in the middle of the market. Victoria was awestruck because there were so many unique, ancient and fragile things there, while Elizabeth roamed around the shop looking at everything closely. Suddenly, her eyes stuck on a peculiar looking box. It was a wooden box painted brown and was covered with jewels.

Victoria didn’t notice what Elizabeth was doing as she was talking with the shopkeeper, Henry, an old man. Suddenly, Henry got a glimpse of what Elizabeth was doing and quickly said, “Please stay away from the box, dear child.”

She said, “Okay.” However, she wondered what made old Henry so worried about the old box. She turned her back to Henry and her sister, again looked closely at the box. Just then she heard a little whisper in her ear.

“Elizabeth, please listen to me,” she heard. Elizabeth was flabbergasted and thought that she must have been dreaming. Then the voice came again and this time Elizabeth was sure that the voice was coming from the peculiar box.

She tried to open the box, without being seen by Henry. Fortunately, Henry was too busy talking with Victoria. Elizabeth took the box and as quick as a flash, she went and hid in a corner. She looked around to see if Victoria and Henry had caught up to her, but no one was in sight. She felt real scared.

The whispering sound came again. “Open me dear child, you won’t regret it. Just open me once. I have been trapped for a long time now. Please help me out,” it said.

Elizabeth took a deep breath. She put her hand on the lid of the box to lift it. It was hard. She opened the box slowly. When the lid opened, a spirit came out. It was a girl. She was a beautiful girl, no more than her own age.

Elizabeth was shocked but was not scared anymore as the spirit now changed into a beautiful little girl. Then Elizabeth asked her, “How could you be in there?”

“I belonged to a rich family, this old man you see there is my greedy uncle. All he wanted was the riches of our family so a week ago, he kidnapped me and blackmailed my father. My father gave him everything he possessed, but the uncle was still craving for more so with the help of a wicked witch he changed me into a spirit and locked me in this box. The wicked witch wanted her share in the money as well but this greedy uncle of mine refused and the witch got enraged, she took all the money, left him only with this antique shop and cursed him by changing him into an old man. She also told him that he is alive until the peculiar box is closed. Once the box is opened, he will perish forever.”

Just then, Elizabeth heard her sister’s footsteps as she was calling out her name.

“I am here, Victoria!” Elizabeth replied.

Victoria came gasping, and said “We need to go now, this place is eerie! Old Henry vanished in front of me ... and who is she?” she looked at the girl who was smiling now.

“Time for me to go, my parents will be waiting for me,” she said and hugged Elizabeth tight. Then ran towards the door.

“Come I’ll tell you everything.” Elizabeth said to her sister who was still in shock and looked at her flabbergasted.

Published in Dawn, Young World, June 2nd, 2018