Opening The Box



Pandora and Jemma are sitting in the club watching the party. Jemma is dressed more conservatively then Pandora.

Jemma is playing with her bracelet as she speaks, "I can't believe your parents let you throw a party here."

Pandora looks up to the rafters where her parents are overlooking the party from above. Her mother sees Pandora looking and smiles, "My parents have always been big fans of parties. They used to have a lot of them."

"It must be in the genes then, because it looks like your first official party is a smash success." jokes Jemma.

"I figured it would be. It's like I said, I know a thing or two about how high school works. I had you pegged the moment I met you." teases Pandora.

"You did not."

Pandora smiles at her companion, "Really? I haven't seen you busting a move out on the dance floor tonight."

"Neither have you."

"I'm the host."

"So you're not allowed to have any fun?" asks Jemma with a teasing tone.

"Less than you, who should be tearing it up."

"I will later." insists Pandora.

"Right."

Pandora's bag on the table starts glowing a black light and Jemma notices, "Is that your phone?"

Pandora fumbles to cover it up, "No, don't worry about it."

Her parents notice what's going on.

"You have a tablet or something? That's pretty bright."

"Something like that."

Pandora loses her grip on her bag and The Box falls out and rolls on the floor. It ends up at the feet of Sarah and David.

Sarah picks it up and the glow changes color, "Damn, that's pretty cool."

Jove and Uni are already making their way down towards their daughter.

David gets curious, "How does it work?"

Pandora isn't sure what to do, looking up at her parents before focusing back on her friends, "It doesn't."

Sarah seems confused, "What do you mean it doesn't? It's obviously glowing."

Sarah hands it to David and again it changes color, "Now that's even cooler. How does it know who's holding it?"

"Is it some kind of mood box or something?" asks Jemma.

David tries to open The Box and Pandora rushes over, "No, don't."

Pandora rips The Box from David's hands and tries to keep it closed. The Box clicks and opens up fully, releasing different colored spirits into the club. The spirits start flying around the club.

"No, no, no, no, no..." Pandora says panicking as she closes The Box and the spirits stop leaving The Box.

The spirits fly into Pandora's classmates, but not Pandora herself or her parents. Pandora's classmates stop in place for a beat before shaking it off.

"Are you?" Pandora starts to ask as she rushes over to Jemma, "Are you all right?"

Jemma smiles at her, "Sure, why?"

Pandora checks on Sarah and David, "What about you guys?"

"Fine." says David after a moment.

"Peachy." Sarah says with a smile.

Pandora looks at her partying classmates. "I don't understand. Didn't you see it?" asks a confused Pandora.

Jemma doesn't seem to know what she's talking about, "See what? Come on Pandora, you're right. It's time to have a little fun."

"What?"

"We've got to loosen up, it's a party." Jemma closes her eyes and starts swaying to the music.

"Totally." agrees Sarah, beginning to move as well.

"Yeah, let's party." says David, joining in on the fun.

Jemma, Sarah and David eventually start dancing together to the music.

"You're okay?" wonders a confused Pandora.

"Why wouldn't we be?"

"Because of... you really didn't see it?"

Jemma grabs Pandora by the hand and tries to pull her out on the dance floor, "Are you still talking about that? Come on, have some fun with us." Pandora looks down at The Box, grabbing her bag and stuffing it back in. Her parents are standing nearby.

Pandora heads toward her parents, "In a minute, I need to..."

Jemma seems to have taken interest in something else when Pandora walks up to her parents, "Mom? Dad? Something went wrong."

"I saw."

"We told you this would happen if you weren't careful." scolds her father.

Pandora tries to explain, "I didn't mean to. I was actually trying to stop someone else from opening it, but I did. And then... I mean, you saw... all these lights and stuff? What was that?"

"Those were the spirits that have been kept in The Box. They've attached themselves to your friends." explains her father.

"Oh god, are they going to be all right?" 

"It depends on the person." Uni says trying to reassure her daughter, "You're not the first of us to make this mistake, although it usually doesn't happen this early, if at all. The lights were spirits from The Box. The good thing is that you were able to get to it very quickly."

"Why?" asks a still uncertain Pandora.

Jove begins to explain, "Our family has been collecting the spirits that were released for thousands of years. The longer they've been trapped, the weaker they are and the longer it would take for them to escape."

"That weakness comes at a cost though. It means if they get out, they need more energy to manifest and the more destructive their hosts can become." continues Uni.

"You got to it quickly though, so it's more likely that the spirits were more mischievous than aggressive." reassures Jove.

"But that's not a guarantee. Who would you say made the most sudden change after it happened?" asks Uni.

"Jemma started partying, but, you know, it's a party."

"But she wasn't partying before?" again her mother asks.

"No."

"You're going to have to watch her. She's probably been possessed."

"Because she partied? Then the whole place was probably possessed." insists a worried Pandora.

"They were, but not all of them will manifest at the same time. Stay focused on where you can do the most good. Jemma is the most likely candidate with her change in behavior. Right now, just focus on your friend." her mother tries to reassure her.

"Isn't there something we can do now?"

"We don't know for sure at this point that she's going to manifest the spirit, we need to wait and be sure. Different spirits affect people at different times and in different ways, but they all follow the three stages. Right now The Box wouldn't be able to distinguish her from anyone else because at best she's in stage one. You'll need to wait until the spirit tries to manifest before she can be helped." explains Uni.

"Like what?"

"Depends on which spirit was drawn to her. Hold out The Box for a second." her mother says.

Pandora takes The Box out of her bag and holds it, the glow begins again. "Is there something we can do?"

"Sort of, wave your hand over The Box back and forth." Pandora waves her hand over The Box several times. The glow changes color multiple times as her mother speaks, "The glow of The Box will change color depending on what got into someone. These changes will also manifest in the person themselves during changes. Neutral colors like white or blue mean that a person isn't in any danger. More dynamic colors like yellow and red mean something is going wrong. Green or purple means they need help. And then you have black..."

"What happens if it's black? When it first started glowing, I think it was a dark color. It might've been black."

"It couldn't have been." insists Uni.

"Why not?"

Jove jumps in at this point, "Your namesake died capturing the last of the black spirits. She spent her life capturing them so that future generations wouldn't have to."

Pandora stops waving her hand over The Box and it stops glowing, "Why?"

"Because the black spirits are the most dangerous of all. They're a sign of a truly corrupt soul. But there hasn't been one that escaped since the first time The Box was opened." explains Uni.

"You're sure? Because it looked like..."

Her mother interrupts, "Trust me sweetheart, I used to do this job remember? I never met one and no one in our family has, like I said. Just keep an eye on your friend, make sure she doesn't make any strange decisions. They tend to speed up the process."

"Okay."

"It's going to be all right." reassures her mother.

"Thanks Mom."

"We'll keep an eye out in case any of the others show any signs." reassures her father.

"Okay." Pandora eventually goes back to sets her bag down and looks for Jemma. Jemma is dancing and grinding up against a Party Guy, which makes Pandora uncertain of what to do next.

"Hey!" Party Girl shoves Jemma. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Dancing?" says Jemma amused.

"With my boyfriend?"

"Calm down babe." her boyfriend tries to insist.

"Yeah, calm down. It was just dancing." Jemma says somewhat disingenuously.

"More like dry humping."

Jemma faces the girl in anger, "What are you trying to say?"

Jemma shoves Party Girl back. Pandora rushes in.

"Hey, this is my party, and I'll have fighting only if I want to."

Jemma reaches out and touches both of them. A magical light moves from Jemma to them.

"I'm great." says the Party Girl.

"Yeah, me too." agrees her boyfriend, "Sorry about that."

"I don't know why I was so uptight about it."

After a few moments, they both go back into the dance floor, leaving Pandora and Jemma together.

"What got into you?" asks a worried Pandora.

Jemma touches Pandora but nothing happens.

"I don't know," she says with concern before her voice gets more upbeat when she continues, "But I think I liked it."

A Party Goer walks by Jemma and Pandora. Jemma grabs one of the shots the Party Goer is carrying and downs it in seconds.

"What the hell?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know what got into me." says Jemma partly with concern but also curiosity. She touches Party Goer and the same magical light transfers.

"Let me buy you another."

The first Party Goer sees a second one walk by with a drink and he grabs it out of their hands before drinking it like a shot.

"What the hell man?" says the second Party Goer as he grabs the first one by the arm and the same light transfers between them.

"Dude, chill out."

"Screw that." the second Party Goer says in anger as he shoves the first one.

They start shoving each other, pushing them into other people who have the same type of light transferring from them to the people they're shoved into. Those people either spill a drink on someone else or bump into someone as a result, causing an argument to break out between them. Whenever they get physical in any way, a light transfers between them as well. The more the light transfers the more arguments break out.

Before any serious blows of retaliation can happen between the first two party goers, Pandora intervenes, "Whoa, okay. There's plenty of drinks to go around. We'll get you some more."

"Yeah, let's do that." says Jemma as Pandora and both of the Party Goers agree and walk towards the bar.


* * *

Later on, Jemma and Pandora are dancing together. Jemma keeps getting closer to Pandora, rubbing up against her. Pandora backs off every time. Jemma turns to face Pandora and puts her arms around Pandora's neck, pulling them closer.

Pandora leans into Jemma's ear over the music, "I'm going to get a drink."

Pandora removes Jemma's arms from around her neck and walks to the bar. She flags down the Bartender, "Can I get another?"

"Sure. How's the party going?" asks the Bartender.

"Ask me in the morning."

"Really? Seems like everyone's having fun. Your friend is having a great time." says the Bartender as he points to Jemma.

Jemma is dancing in between David and Sarah. They are grinding up against each other. As Jemma touches David and Sarah, the light transfers from Jemma to both of them.

"Yeah, a little too much fun."

"Is there such a thing?" wonders the Bartender with a smile.

Sarah and David begin whispering to Jemma. They stop dancing suddenly and Sarah whispers something to Jemma.

Pandora downs her drink before answering, "Apparently."

Pandora walks away. The Bartender walks out from behind the bar and his eyes shine a black light before he shape shifts into Hermes.

A random party goer notices the shift, "Whoa man, I must be really wasted or something. How did you do that?"

Hermes waves his hand in the guy's face, his hand glowing with a black light, "Do what?"

"What?"

Hermes smiles, "Exactly." Hermes walks towards the exit.

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