I have read all your reviews from the last chapter and it makes me so happy to find out that a lot of you loved the last chapter. All of your requests will be written shortly, I promise. The only reason I'm updating this now is because I'm in class with a supply teacher and no work.

I came up with this idea a long time ago in church. Thank you, God!

Note: I know the most basic details of the story of Pandora's Box but got these details from the Internet just to make sure.


Photo #46: America's Box

Eadlyn isn't that big on Greek mythology but the one story she does know is Pandora's Box. She read it one day in The Women's Room and out of all the Greek myths in the compilation of stories, that was one of the myths she remembered. It probably had something to do with the hidden message about man's order versus their willpower that caused that story to stick in her mind al this time.

Pandora's Box was told to have held the world's dangers and nobody was allowed to open it. Nowadays, it was used as an expression for when danger was on the horizon, not literally in relation to a box of some sorts.

One could say that digging into Illéa's secrets was equivalent to opening Pandora's Box.

Eadlyn looks at the next photo and finds her eyes narrowing in a bit of frustration. She has no idea why her father bothered to put it up since it really has nothing to do with her mother except for the fact that her belongings are in it (which is probably why that photo made it on the wall). The photo contained Josie in Eadlyn's parents' room, on her tip-toes with her hands hovering over her mother's jewelry box with excitement in her eyes.

Eadlyn took the photo and tried to use it as evidence for something she saw as a crime but obviously nobody agreed with her.

-o-

Eadlyn, at fifteen-years-old, walks through the halls of the palace. Everything seems the same to her which was something she was very fond of. She loved order and would sometimes consider herself to be a perfectionist. One thing sticks out to her out-of-the-picture though. Usually, the bedroom doors are closed but one is currently opened, her parents' bedroom door.

Eadlyn knows that everyone is currently downstairs. It also can't be a maid because there is no cart in front of the door. Even guards who are on patrol don't check each individual bedroom.

The first thought that comes to Eadlyn's mind is that there's a burglar in there. Eadlyn begins walking on her toes to get a better look at who might be inside. She holds her breath and the moment she nears the door, she peeks her eyes inside to see who's there.

Inside the room, Eadlyn sees a thief; just not the ski-mask type of thief but the Josie Woodwork kind of thief.

Josie, at twelve-years-old, stands on her tiptoes in from of America's dresser either her hands looking through everything. Eadlyn natrows her eyes, wondering when this girl is ever going to learn her lesson after many lectures from everyone about not stealing or as she calls it, 'borrowing' other people's jewelry. She isn't a typical cat burglar since she usually gives what she takes back (just not in the same pristine condition she took it in).

Eadlyn sneaks into the room herself. Josie has yet to see her as she makes her way to her dad's dresser. Eadlyn grabs a hold of her father's camera and focuses it on Josie to take a picture of her current heist.

Finally, Eadlyn can get Josie in serious trouble this time.

The flash on Maxon's camera startles the both of them. Josie jumps in the air and furrows her brows at Eadlyn who only returns the same face.

"What are you doing here?!" The two girls yell at each other. "Me?! No, you!"

Both girls huff and cross their arms, turning their backs to one another. Neither of the two girls getting answers.

"Yeah, well," Josie starts, "I was here first."

That doesn't help her case at all.

"Oh, please," Eadlyn refutes, "I was born first."

That was irrelevant to the case.

"Josie," Eadlyn says, "you can't open that jewelry box."

"Why not?" Josie argues back. "It's not your box either."

Eadlyn wants to slam her own head against the wall. She doesn't understand why Josie's brain can't wrap around a fact as simple as 'don't touch things that don't belong to you without the owner's permission' or to use basic terms, 'no snooping around!'

Eadlyn turns around to face Josie again with a smart trick in her mind as a way to get Josie to disappear from this room.

"Hey, Josie," Eadlyn starts, "have you ever heard the fairytale about Pandora's Jewelry Box?"

Intrugued, Josie turns around and shakes her head. Eadlyn knows that it's not a fairytale nor is it about a jewelry box but if she told the real story as it was written, Josie (who has the mindset of wanting to be a princess) would have stuck up her nose.

"What fairytale is that?" Josie asks, obviously wanting to know.

"Pandora was a princess who came to her castle with a little jewelry box that was locked," Eadlyn says, obviously modifying the original myth. "She was instructed never to open the box because King Zeus warned her that the contents of the box were the world's worst nightmares. Princess Pandora had to be told many times that the box must remain closed but one day, her curiosity got the best of her and she opened the box. Oh my, the worst of the world flew out of this little jewelry box all at once - sickness, hatred, crime, war, and all sorts of other bad things. These things took the form of bugs and vermin and flew everywhere. Princess Pandora tried to get them all back in the box, regretting her choice to open it in the first place, but it was already too late...the world was plagued."

Eadlyn would give herself a round of applause for that wonderful and believable parody of a classic myth. She looks at Josie, expecting an astounded expression and a sprint out of the room but Josie only blinks.

"I just want pretty jewels," Josie says, "not bugs."

"Josie," Eadlyn responds harshly, kind of disappointed that Josie literally blinked away her story. "That's wasn't the point."

"Kinda sounded like it was."

Eadlyn has no response. All she wanted to prove was that by opening her mother's jewelry box would get her in trouble just like Pandora did to the world. If Josie's head couldn't wrap around simple rules then what chance did it have of understanding an allusion to Greek mythology.


Oh, Eadlyn, you tried. If you think about it, Eadlyn and Josie are the closest they both have to sisters which really made me rethink their relationship.

Stay Tuned - someone had a little too much to drink...