Short Stories 225 — Writing Prompt 58

You uncover a time capsule in your backyard that’s a century old.

Time Capsule

Finally, the day had come and surprisingly ended too. You had successfully shifted to a new house, excluding the unpacking, the furniture, and 4doors out of which, 3 aren’t locking.

Sitting on a rusty single bed, with well-worn matters, surrounded by boxes as you stare at the floor, quantumplating, “How are these two years going to pass?” In a new city, surrounded by strangers, calling a roof that is held by 4 walls, your home. It is barely the first day, and you are already in need of consolation. Every passing minute makes you feel uneasy, the stress of living alone mixed with the complete responsibility of taking care of yourself, all in your hands.

Once again your tour of the house, which ends as soon as you start. The city known for its unlimited opportunities has barely any space inside the houses for the dreams to stay in. And renting such a small apartment totally punctures the wallet. The only good thing about this place that brings a smile to your face is the massive backyard, that the house doesn’t deserve, yet there it is.

Heading out of the house felt a lot better, than staying in there. Breathing the fresh, slightly less polluted air, than the one central city has to offer. As you walk on the grass, darting your eyes around, you see a shed. By the looks of it, even a semi-strong wind, might topple it down. Yet, you walked directly towards it.

The number of steps between the shed and you decreased, your curiosity increased. Wondering what kind of weird tools might it be holding. Just when a couple of steps were left between you and the shed door, your phone rang, and the loud ringtone could be heard from a mile away. In an instant, your attention got distracted, from what was hidden in the shed, stayed hidden and the slow hum was overpowered by the blasting ringtone.

The next couple of days, you were occupied with shifting as well as office work. And in an instant a week passed, and then another, and then a month. In a couple of months, you become a local. A few more months passed, and you had settled in. Even after saving and investing, you had a decent amount of spare change to splash on yourself. All this time, more dust gathered on the shed, and you were too busy to notice.

After putting down the phone, you were happy doing the chores, that you hated with your heart. After all, for the first time, a group of friends was coming to your house. There were still a couple of days left, but your excitement was off the roof. After all the hard work, you fell asleep in the living room itself.

A constant hum broke your delicate sleep. As your eyes opened to a flash of light and it took you a second to realize you fell asleep with lights on. As soon as you stood up, the hum stopped. And once again, everything was covered in silence. The pin-drop silence grabbed your attention, and as you walked to your bedroom, you thought, “Wasn’t I hearing something, I remember something annoying, something constant, woke me up, and now it is gone.”

You decided to look around, you come back to the living room and wait for a few seconds to hear it again. After a while, you head back to your room and go back to sleep.

As soon as you fell asleep, you are once again woken up by the irritating humming. You reach out for your phone to see the time. It seemed like you woke up in an instant, but you were knocked out for 4 hours. It was three in the morning and once again, the noise stopped. You were too sleepy to play this game again, so you roll over, grabbed the blanket, and fell asleep.

Finally, the day had come, when your friends were going to arrive. And you haven’t slept properly in the past few nights, due to the humming. It was the game night, you were eager to watch it with your friends, and one by one everyone started showing up.

For the first time, in months, this place felt lively. It felt like home to you. Sitting with the people that you enjoy company off, constant bursts of laughter, and random arguments on random topics are after all the life of the party. Beer bottles opened even before the match could even start. And soon everyone was busy enjoying the match and flaming their team.

Soon a loud thud could be heard, followed by a loud hum. It took all of you guys by surprise. And it continued. The sound pattern only got louder over time. Everyone in the room was shocked and looked at each other's faces, while you stood and looked out of the window, to find the source of the sound. It was the shed. With each hum, a dim light turned on and would go away with the thud.

After looking at each other's faces, everyone unanimously decides to head out and look at what is going on in the shed. You grab a flashlight along the way, while one of your friends picks up a bat, and says out loud, “For safety reasons.”

Everyone is outside in the dark, slowly walking towards the shed, as it breaths. You finally reached the door of the shed. For the first time, you are looking at it so clearly, even though your flashlight, allows limited vision. You put your hand forward, to grab the door handle, and suddenly a louder thud is audible, scaring all of you away. All of you fall back and the shimmering light inside the shed heightens. And it was so bright that the shed couldn’t contain it anymore, as it poured through the nooks and crannies.

The door slammed open as if someone had kicked it from the inside, and this time, there was a person there. One of your friends pointed at the weird, object inside the garage, as it looked like some kind of machine, with a seat on the front, some kind of machinery used for traveling. While they were busy noticing that, you looked at the guy's face and he looked exactly like you, except older.