Chapter Text
It was a beautiful afternoon. The type of day where the clear blue sky, fluffy clouds, and vibrant foliage make everything a little bit better. But for Box, who just parked, a little bit doesn't go far at all.
“What a fucking day,” Box murmurs to himself.
Box wants to slam his used car’s door shut, but with great restraint, just closes it. Not looking at, or for, anything he methodically heads for his apartment. When Box arrives at another object that could be an outlet for pent up frustration, his door, he just shakes his head and opens it. Stepping inside his never immaculate, yet always clean home, he immediately starts rambling about feelings he wishes on no one, but is always drowning in.
“I am useless, forgotten, and sad and oh… so…. fucking….. lonely. What can I do? Nothing, there is nothing. I talk to absolutely no one, while expending all my God damn energy bottling up all my frustration. Uhhh! My life is a disaster. I hate it!”
Box feels more than anger, he feels rage. Rage birthed by a never ending list unraveling in his mind. This incoherent, random list is a life of heartbreak and every form of victimhood imaginable.
In his eternal struggle to bottle-up his rage and depression, he sits down, snatches his remote off his table, and turns on the TV like it did something to him. Looking at his old television as though life’s answers were inside of it, he watches Local 6’s Jim Guy give his weather forecast. As he watches, Box notices the weatherman’s iris and pupil are black. But as with most things, he disregarded it and continued to listen to the report trying to distract himself from his compounding frustrations.
“It will be getting extremely hot and dark very soon,” Box heard the weatherman say. A little surprised by the odd statement, he locked eyes with the now entirely black-eyed Jim Guy. Who with a satisfied grin accompanying his evil black eyes continues, “The darkness arriving now is yours, Box. You have no light in your heart, and neither will your world anymore.”
No longer will your boss undermining your career just produce anger and frustration. The dark emotions will be part of your reality now. Ever present for you to see, just as you have always felt them. So when you look out the window, you won’t just see dark, you’ll see the life-ruining heartbreak of missing the only girl you’ve ever loved.”
Box’s eyes were already pointed out the window before this new demonic Jim Guy was finished speaking, and outside all he saw was sadness. His eyes searched for a light, but there was nothing but the blackness of depression, without a single star in the sky. It was so dark, so dreadful, that the black sky seemed more of a tangible thing than a temporary state.
“It looks cold outside doesn’t it,” asked the now intensely pulsing red-pupiled weatherman?
Aware that he had been directly addressed by the television, Box turned to it. The weatherman’s voice of evil continued.
“Looks can be deceiving. Because this is the forecast for real darkness. And real darkness brings pain. Pain from the flames of hell. You will feel a burning that is impossible to extinguish. Just as inescapable as your mania. This horrendous forecast is yours.”
Box could not break free from the gaze of the demon’s red eyes.
“Your burning darkness is indefinite. You must purge yourself of all your sadness.”
Box’s view was still telekinetically locked to the red eyes of the dark bruised body of the demon Blackheart as he exited his TV screen and stood towering over him. Blackheart began kneeling down towards Box who was writhing in fear and burning in the rapidly rising heat. As Blackheart got closer to Box, the demon’s figure steadily faded. Until barely being a wisp in the air, the demon touched Box’s heart and disappeared.
Still lying in excruciating heat and complete darkness, Box begins to muster the little strength he can.