Just a one shot.
I still don't own them... I don't really own much except for one slightly used Hyundai...
It is not a sunny afternoon when one normally would expect to confront pure evil. Everyday, average evil maybe, but not normally the type of evil that is the stuff of nightmares are made of. Or the evil hat came up with nightmares in the first place.
Least of all would one expect to find pure evil, the kind that makes nightmares, sitting in a dusty sunbeam laying on a table brought outside from the safety of a house that still smelled vaguely like the sugar cookies that had been lovingly baked there over many years. As a result when Dean Winchester lifted the evil in his hands, instead of smelling a puff of sulfur he caught the faint whiff of Christmases long past.
While investigating a supposed haunting in a small south Texas town the brothers had stopped at a yard sale. The whole town it seemed had turned out to brows through the unfortunates ex-possessions. All proceeds going back to the local schools of course. The brothers were trying to gather some more information before giving up the ghost, for lack of a better saying. So far, all leads had been false; the hauntings were turning out to be over or made up.
Sam was speaking with a few people, Dean should have been as well, but the little box setting out on the table amongst some other junk had caught his eye faster than the leggy red head running the sale. It jingled faintly when he lifted it, a few notes sounding off from some old children's song as he tipped it to get a better look.
The smooth wood of the box had been stained a dark, cherry red, almost black in places. The lacquer, at least that is what Dean hoped it was, or that that was what he was going to tell himself that is what it was, being broken up by archaic designs traced out in gold filigree. Who knew that evil could be so pretty and innocent?
The only thing marring the surface of the box was a rubber band holding the top closed. It appeared that the ornate, gold latch, it was in the shape of half a bull- possibly a minotaur, all that was left was its head, had been broken and in an attempt to hold the lid closed the band had been substituted.
The runes were familiar; they were what first caught Dean's eye. He had seen them before, mainly on hunts where they had been tracking some creature that had been conjured, sometimes the creatures hadn't been conjured and the rune had shown itself in a marking on the creature itself or near the creature's haunt.
Dean tipped the box over on its top on its top. A jingling thump resounding inside, a few more notes played on that all too familiar song, those few teasing notes making Dean want to hear the rest. Scrawled across the bottom in some type of black ink was a child's careful, but still novice script was the name Dorace. Scrubbing the ball of his thumb lightly across the name, Dean frowned. He had an instinct for detecting evil.
Sam walked up behind him, having given up the idea of the town being haunted. It seemed that a lot of weird stuff had happened lately. The residents Sam talked to, and those he overheard that weren't talking about the death of the towns oldest resident, spoke of the acts starting suddenly a few days ago and then ending just as suddenly. Like someone turning off a light, or snapping closed a door on a windy day. He was ready to move on, continue the search for their father and Jessica's killer. Whatever had haunted this town for those few days was gone now. If it came back, they could always return.
Dean was paying the leggy red head for the red box, for once the flirting was toned down, just a little bit. She knocked the price down a few dollars, for the latch being broken she assured Dean, Sam figured it was because he was smiling in that way towards her. Lowering her voice conspiratorially, she looked around, her large green eyes searching for anyone who might be eavesdropping. She told Dean that her grandmother had been found with the box when she died, that was when the latch had been broken, and it seems that her grandmother had dropped it. She hoped that the morbidity of the story didn't turn Dean off of buying the object and that the rest of the latch was inside the box if he wished to fix it.
Turning with a last lingering look at the girl, Dean headed towards the Impala, Sam following close behind looking at the box over his brother's shoulder. He thought the child's toy was an odd thing for Dean to have bought, but didn't say anything. Dean got to the trunk and opened the lid, not setting the red box down as he rummaged through the trunk, finally resurfacing victorious with a role of duct tape. Now Sam had to ask. "Why did you spend $15 on a broken jack-in-the-box so that you could tape it closed?"
Being unusually cryptic, Dean just looked at Sam. "Keeping the world free of evil is hard enough for the two of us and we're grown-ups, but it would've been impossible for a child whose curiosity to see a clown was tempted."
Dean closed the trunk and carried the box with him to the driver's seat, leaving Sam to stand and ponder what it was that Dean had meant. Making sure Jack was securely locked in his box with the rubber band and several layers of duct tape, some even wrapped in such a way as to make it impossible to turn the key, Dean placed the box in the bottom of his box of tapes. Making room for it underneath Metallica and in between Black Sabbath and AC/DC. His music should drown out the tempting and familiar song sang by Jack.
Sam climbed in as Dean was wedging the tape box in the back seat, he was still pondering about what Dean had said.
"I don't think this town is going to have a problem any more, you ready to head out?" Dean was certain of this. Sam nodded, giving Dean the go ahead to move on.
The Impala's engine roared as it quickly put the sale behind the brothers. The house with the name Pandora on the mat fading into the distance.
I hope ya'll liked it. It's just a little blurb. It would take place not too long after the brothers set out, so I assumed that Sam wouldn't recognize most of the runes on sight, he'd still be a little out of practice. Besides he only got to see Pandora's Box over Dean's shoulder and it was sunny outside or he got to see it covered in duct tape, he probably couldn't see it that well.
Just think...the origion of all things evil smells like cookies!