Chapter Seven

Carissa woke to madness all around her. She tried to sit up, but the lower half of her body felt consumed by fire. A doctor standing by her bed casually touched her leg as he examined her. She heard a scream and realized it came from her own throat as she watched the doctor's hand begin melting off the bones.

A nurse rushed to help. She grabbed gauze and sterile water then tried to wash and wrap the doctor's dissolving digits. The woman jerked back and stared down at her own fingers as the flesh began to leave the bones. "Oh no! No... What's happening?" The nurse fled, screaming in panic.

"Pandora's Box...it was opened. I'm so sorry—so sorry..." Carissa whispered aloud, but no one heard. She looked at the chaos and confusion all around her. Other followers with burned or missing flesh had also made their way to the emergency room. As doctors, nurses, and hospital personnel tried to render aid, the horrors released on the world by the opening of Pandora's Box attacked them.

Laying her head back against the pillow, Carissa swallowed her screams. They would do no good. The burning agony reached her mid-section now. She knew it would be over for her soon. Death would not be a bad price to pay for what she had helped bring into the world this night.

While still in her right mind and with her last conscious thoughts, Carissa made a final request, "Mother Earth, Father Time, Sisters Wind, Water, and Fire, hear my plea. Forgive me for being part of opening the box. Please, spare all their souls and somehow lift the curse. May the box be sealed forever on the next night of the blue moon. Blessed be."

As Carissa sank into the agony of her dying pangs, she again wondered what could have been in the box, invisible, yet so deadly.

Suddenly, she heard the fierce cackling of the demon which had opened Pandora's Box.

Then a voice, Anne, whispered near her ear, "I know you are curious. You fought so hard not to open the box, even when I urged you to. The box held the combined energy of the evils and hatred of the world. Now loosed, it is turned back upon those who deserve to be punished. Is there enough love and belief left in the world to stop it? I think not...and if not, I win...I win!"

More cackling until, at last, Carissa found blessed oblivion.

The End