Thinking Brighter Though

That Crackle Voice.

My nickname is Topsy,. That is what everyone calls me. You will as well...

My real name does not matter, but my story does...

I am confined to my room mostly, I am an embarrassment to my family...it's sad I like to entertain people and make them smile...

It's 1871, the summer, it's so hot...I live in a big home across from Franklin Park, in Bloomington, Illinois...

I watch people in the park, they are happy, and enjoying themselves...

My only friend in the world is Minerva...she told her secret once...would you like to know her secret???

Maybe another time...one thing I can tell you is, she is not among the living...

We don't talk about such things though, we play games and have fun...we are best friends forever...

Minerva lives in my closet...she likes it in there...

One day, an Aunt of mine that travels the world stopped in town for a visit...she had brought me a wooden chest. My Aunt instructed me not to open the chest...

Otherwise, its secret will be revealed...before it's time...

The first night, I did as I was told, but my curiosity was getting the best of me...

Minerva didn't like the wooden chest, her eyes would tear up each time she looked at it...

I was gonna open it when someone or something inside of the chest spoke to me...with a crackle in its voice...

The language it spoke was a very ancient form of Bulgarian, very very old...

It described ancient places and times...it was fascinating. I studied ancient languages, reading and writing them. Sometimes I would speak a ancient language too, Minerva. Most of the time she would just stare at the wall in a dreamlike state...but on a few occasions, I could see a flutter of recollection in her face...

I found this perplexing...

The thing inside the wooden box asked me every day to let it out, but I refused each time...

Mainly I was keeping it closed, because it scared me to my core... Another reason was more greedy of me. Each day, the thing taught me new knowledge. I didn't want that to end...the thing in the wooden chest was getting anxious, I could tell...

The wooden chest would move around at night, always in a different spot in my room, when I would awake in the morning...

I got used to this, it didn't scare me anymore, well at least not that part...

Minerva would not look at the wooden chest, she was avoiding me too...

One day, the young Irish maid that was taking care of me was found strangled in the park, across the street. This was depressing for me...

The thing in the wooden chest said Minerva did it...

I'm not sure who did it...my name is Topsy...

It's 1978, Jericka. She had just moved into her first apartment, she was sooo excited...

Her apartment was in a very large, very old house across the street from a very beautiful, old park...

The day she moved in, she noticed a very old wooden chest in her bedroom. It had not been there when she first saw the apartment...

She called her landlord, but he acted like he didn't know anything about the wooden chest...

It was odd, the old chest had a brand new lock on it, a very expensive lock...

Jericka moved the chest into a corner of her bedroom, and forgot about it...

That night, it was very quiet in her apartment...she could hear the old wooden chest slightly moving...then she sensed movement next to her, slowly she turned her head...what she saw that night...next to her...changed Jericka...into what...

We Shall See...