Chapter 1
It all began with an ordinary black shoebox – the type with the lid that lifts right off. The side bared an image of a trainer; it was white with a blue stripe down the side. However the shoes don't really play a part in the story, besides they had been discarded long ago after a geography school trip had resulted in them getting plastered in mud, sand, and various other substances. But if you wanted to be picky the box itself is also unimportant. After all a box is a box until you lift the lid.
Tony was 19, he had brown hair which was spiked upwards with a rather large amount of hair gel, in a way he looked rather like his father (apart from the hair), and at the present time in my story he was annoyed. He wasn't particularly keen on babysitting but he wanted the money which his sister was paying him to look after her children; although in his opinion they were old enough to look after themselves. He was in his current mood because they kept wanting him to assist them with their homework and he was trying to watch his favourite television programme. The door swung open again and his niece entered the room once again, he gave up and switched of the television set that sat in the corner of the room. He turned around with the biggest look of annoyance that he could make on his face. He didn't want to be in a bad mood with his nieces and nephew - as generally he got on with them really well - but he had had a job interview earlier and he had totally mucked it up. He decided he would try and make it up to them by helping them finish their schoolwork quickly so that they could go to the park for a while before their parents came home.
That was how Tony came across this shoebox. It seemed that his youngest niece, Sophia, needed some photographs of her parents when they were younger for a project they were doing at school. These old photographs were kept in the attic, a place where all sorts of old things were kept in Rose's house, and this is where the shoebox was put.
