Pandora opened the box—
inside the box there was a great wickedness. inside the box there was an apple. inside the box there was the knowledge of good and evil. inside the box there was a mirror. inside the box there was the contents of her own heart, given form and volition. inside the box there was a darkness that was dispelled the moment it was
opened, leaving her only with an open box and all the world around her and an amorphous sense of
dread.inside the box there was another box. inside the box there was the box itself, unopened. inside the box there was a replica of the world and all its ills, made miniature. inside the box there was an infinite series of progressively smaller boxes, so that her labor might never be complete, nay, not til the end of mankind.
inside the box there was a secret. inside the box there was the bloody remains of all the women who had dared to open the box before her. inside the box there was a great treasure, a revelation that could outweigh all the splendor of the idyllic world around her. inside the box was whatever evil her Creator had placed inside of it to begin with. inside the box was the innermost portion of the soul that must first be known in order to be loved, were she to love Him in His entirety. inside the box was her inheritance. inside the box was evidence of a crime.
inside the box there was a promise. inside the box there was nothing at all, nothing but a moral lesson. inside the box there was a tiny image of Pandora herself, her head bent over a box as if seen from a great height, and when Pandora looked up it was then for the first time she saw the four walls surrounding her.
Inside the box there was a perfect world, just waiting to begin.
fucking stunning