Pandora Box LLC

Make sure your Secret Santa is giving you something harmless

“Pandora Box Limited, this is Lisa, how can I assist you?” A soft young woman’s voice came through the phone.

“Yeah, hi. I’m Dale, Dale Thompson. I've bought one of your boxes for Christmas at the office and… um… something’s a little off. Can you tell me how can I turn it off?” Dale mumbled nervously, watching a giant tentacle drag Janice, the ever-excited about the cake office manager into the abyss of a tiny marble box.

“No one warned me about the tentacles!”

“Sir, I’m connecting you to our crisis manager, Kent. Please, stay on the line,” the voice shifted to a calming jazzy music. After a few moments, another voice came through.

“Crisis, this is Kent, state your emergency.”

“Hi! Yes, right. I’m Dale, Thompson. I bought a Pandora Box, and now it’s a little out of control. Is there a way to stop it?” Dale repeated his issue, watching with horror as a rotten dragon slowly crawled out of the box.

“Alright, Dale. First of all, stay calm. A Pandora Box will not harm its master. Describe the current situation?”

“There’s a zombie dragon. And a minute ago there was sorta…Kraken,” said Dale in a trembling voice, hiding behind his now missing boss’s desk.

“Oh, a big one. A party?” the voice said in a cheerful tone.

“Office Christmas.”

“Ah, yes. Dumb boss, moronic colleagues, let them have it. Nothing to worry about. It’s a little too late to deactivate the box by reading the spell backward. All you can do now is to sacrifice something. A hand, or a foot. Choose the least valuable thing.”

“What?!” Dale exclaimed, panicking.

“I’m afraid that’s all you can do. Otherwise, the Pandora Box will remain open until fulfilling its destiny. So, it’s really up to you, Dale. Have a beautiful evening, and don’t forget to leave a review on Pandorabox dot com,” the line went silent. Dale slowly put his phone down. He watched the zombie dragon chasing two IT guys, desperately trying to hide behind chairs.

Dale saw a large butcher knife, left from one of the terrors out of the box. He let out a heavy breath.

“Next time I’ll just quit.”

---