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here4theheartbreak · 2 years ago

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Of Magic & Social Media (2Min) - Ch.1 - The Box

Relationships: Choi Minho x Lee Taemin Genre: fluff, spooky, smut | strangers to lovers, fae & fairies, influencer au Rating: Explicit Chapter Word Count: ~2100 Tags: (more will be added as chapters progress) Fluff, Spooky, Smut, Fae & Fairies, Social Media Influencer Choi Minho, Alternate Universe - Magic, Mystery

Summary: Minho is a decently successful influencer. He amuses his followers with vlogs of random GPS coordinate exploring. One such adventure leads him deep into the woods, where he stumbles upon a box, locked and buried. Upon opening it, a series of strange, and inexplicable things begin to happen to him. Is it just bad luck? Or did he release something ancient and powerful when he lifted the lid?

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When he started filming videos, chronicling his adventures using the random location app, he didn’t expect anyone to pay attention. Not only did they, one innocuous commenter gave him a brilliant idea.

How scary would it be if you found something like a demon portal or something at one of those locations?

Though Minho immediately loved the idea, he had no real idea how to start a story like this. So, he set it aside and continued his random coordinate adventures, showing his quickly growing follower count all the things he found, when he did.

The generated coordinates had taken Minho further outside of his normal travel range by quite a bit. Not that he minded; the point of this app was to explore new areas he may never have noticed otherwise.

The ones today led him into a thick, wooded area, off the dirt path he’d been following. As he trekked deeper, toward the spot the coordinates pointed to, he talked freely to the camera he was holding. He noted the scenery, showing it off. He’d have to edit the footage he filed down to a few minutes, but in his experience more raw footage never hurt.

The trees seemed to grow closer around him, choking out the sun’s rays and casting a diffused glow over the world. “It’s cold,” Minho said aloud as he stepped over a fallen log. “Feels like it’s way later in the day than it is.”

To his right, a branch snapped, echoing far louder than he thought possible in the tight trees. He jumped, the phone shaking as he laughed.

“Don’t know why I’m so jumpy,” he said, taking a moment to gather his bearings. “This is deep out here. I’m actually losing a bit of phone service.” A knot of worry began to tighten in Minho’s belly. He laughed regardless. “I guess this is what they mean when they say off the beaten path.”

He turned the camera to face the gold hued woods. “Forward, it says, a few hundred or so paces, probably.”

Keeping the camera turned away from himself and to the path he was walking, he began to head forward again.

The coordinate point was directly in the center of a small ring of trees. Though, according to his phone, it was only nearing five in the afternoon, the thick foliage blocked nearly all of the sunlight, making it look closer to evening.

Minho looked around in silence for a moment, allowing the camera to pan over the area. “It was about an hour to walk out here,” he began, stepping toward the center of the tiny clearing. “Doesn’t seem to be much, but so weird how it led to this perfect little circular clearing, right?”

He turned in a slow circle. He took another step forward as he did, and the ground under his foot sank a few inches.

“Wh—” H angled the phone down, letting the camera focus on the needle covered ground. He moved his foot and crouched, brushing at the divot it had created. As he did, the top of a small wooden box was revealed.

Dark dirt was caked into the cracks in the wood. The edges were covered in a rusted metal. Minho remained silent, barely remembering that he was filming as he reached out and grasped it. He gave it a firm yank, surprised when it came free easily.

The box was only about four inches by thee, and had a small clasp at the front with a keyhole, filled with dirt.

“This was directly at that pinpoint of the coordinate,” Minho commented. He let himself sink down further, hitting the ground with a soft ‘oof’.

He examined the box through the camera for a moment, trying to push the release button, but it was stuck tight.

“There’s a keyhole.” He set the box aside and began to paw through the loosened dirt with his free hand, hoping to find a key. When nothing else popped up, he sighed. “It’s getting darker really fast, and I don’t want to be out here, animals and that sort of thing. My service has been spotty too, and I didn’t bring any real gear since I didn’t realize just how far into the woods this was.” He grabbed the box and rose, doing one last slow pan around the clearing before pointing the camera down and pulling up his GPS once more.

For a long moment it loaded, and Minho was afraid it wasn’t going to connect. He’d left no path markers, and being lost this far from a trail or actual civilization was a terrifying prospect. Moments before a panic set in, the map screen finally loaded, providing him with a path out of the woods and to his waiting car. He sighed in relief and began to walk, pulling the camera back up as he did.

“So, I couldn’t get this box thing open. I’ll take it home with me, try to get it open there. It’s dark, so I want to get back at least to the trail fast so I don’t wind up lost.” He stopped recording and wet back to the map, using it to guide him out of the woods.

When Minho reached his car, he started a new recording, taking a moment to fix his hair, plastered to his forehead with sweat. He grinned then, pausing for a moment to make editing easier.

“Made it. Was out way longer than I thought.” He flipped the camera to show the time on his car’s clock. “I’m going to drive home and shower,” he said as he turned it back to himself. “Then I’ll edit this and get it out, then try to follow up with the opening of the box.” He ended the recording with a long shot of the box, sitting on his passenger seat, and began to drive home.

Freshly showered, Minho spent an hour editing down the footage into bite sized chunks. Though it was dull, Minho often found himself catching little things he’d missed when he was walking in real time, noises or sights he’d not seen, etcetera. While editing, he was strangely, keenly aware of the box sitting a few feet away. His attention kept drifting, eyes wandering to it. What was in it? Why was it buried in that spot? Minho didn’t believe in fate or ghosts, or really anything supernatural or metaphysical, and he was sure whatever was in the box would be entirely anti-climactic. But there was just something… Off about the feeling he was getting.

After finishing the videos and uploading them, he brought his phone over to the kitchen table. He set it up and waited a few moments, having let his followers know he’d follow up with a live video about opening it shortly. When enough time had passed, he began recording. He waited longer, watching the number of viewers go up in number. There were immediately comments about how he shouldn’t open it, asking if he’d already tried, asking specifics about the box, etcetera. Instead of answering, he jumped right into speaking.

“Hey guys. Didn’t want to leave you all in suspense all night, so I figured I’ll get to this now. I’m sure it won’t be anything, so you guys won’t need to worry, but it’s a cool little find anyway, right? So here’s the box up close, now that we’re in better lighting.”

He brought the box closer to the camera and turned it slowly. It was solid wood from what he could feel, and now that he was looking closer, he could see the true age – everything worn down smooth and dull.

“There was no key that I could find, but honestly with how old this thing is, it’s probably too eroded to open anyways,” he said, looking at the rusted clasp and tiny keyhole through the camera. He pulled the box back and grabbed a paperclip that he’d set off to the side of the camera. He straightened it and jammed the end into the keyhole, wiggling it gently. As he did, he glanced over the comments that were coming in, and grinned.

“Hey, I have no idea how to do this, don’t come at me,” he joked. He continued to wiggle the clip, forcing dirt from the hole but not getting him any closer to opening the box. Various commenters were trying to offer advice, which he did try to take, but all to no avail.

Frustrated, Minho swore under his breath and tossed the paperclip aside. He glared at the box, turning it carefully in his hands.

“I’m gonna get into this stupid thing, I swear.” He mumbled. There was a seam around the lid, though the hinges seemed to be on the inside. He ran his thumbnail along it, scraping dirt out as he did.

“I wonder…” He set the box down and rose, pulling a butter knife from his drawer before returning. He glanced at the comments, chuckling a little at the ones still warning him away from it, or suggesting elaborate ways of getting the lock open. He waved the butter knife.

“Honestly, there’d better be something in here after all this work,” he said as he slid it into the seam. He began to wedge the blade in, twisting up every few centimeters as he scraped more of the dirt out.

The wood began to creak under his ministrations, allowing the knife to twist a bit more each time. He focused his effort near the clasp, trying to wedge the blade behind the old metal.

The knife slipped all the way in suddenly, startling Minho. He jerked and twisted the handle in response, and a satisfying crack of wood filled his ears. He cried out joyously, raising his arms in a surprised cheer. “Got it!”

He laughed as he spoke. He picked up the phone then and turned it to show the top of the box. The metal that had been holding it shut was askew and the lid sat a few millimeters crooked.

“Time for the big reveal,” he joked. He opened the box with his free hand.

As he did, a cool chill ran down his spine, raising the hair on the back of his neck and arms. He shuddered, glancing at the nearby window to make sure it was closed.

Inside the box were only a few items. He reached in and withdrew a long, rusted nail. It was thick at the top, tapering to a blunted end, and was heavier than most nails he’d seen. He set it aside and pulled out a small bundle of dried flowers. Each movement more seemed to crumble, turning almost to dust with their age. He chuckled. “I can’t believe these are together at all, these things look ancient,” he said.

He set them aside as gently as he could and reached back in. The bottom of the box was covered in a layer of dirt – though it wasn’t clear if it was dirt that crept in over the years of being buried, or had been put in their when the box was originally open. Inside the dirt he found a thin chain that looked, at one point, to be silver, though age had tarnished all shine from it. He was nearly ready to close to box when he spotted one last item, a small round thing in the corner. He plucked it up and rubbed his thumb over it, examining it for a moment.

“It looks gold,” he commented, though he wasn’t entirely sure. “Old too – an old piece of money maybe? Looks like there might be something pressed on it, a design or something, but I can’t tell what it is.” He held it closer to the camera, showing each side for a few seconds. “Any of you know what this is? Or when it’s from?” He asked.

Minho set the items carefully back into the box and shut it. He set the phone back down. “So, that was my adventure today. Certainly more exciting than most, right?” He grinned. “I’ll try to check more comments and follow up tomorrow if anyone’s got any ideas. I’ll also post a little clip of this live, the contents of the box, for folks to theorize and share. Thanks for stopping by.”

He waved and shut off the livestream, then sat for a moment, clipping down the recording of the livestream to just the opening of the box and the items. Afterward, he grabbed the box and stood up, only to have another chill run up his spine. It was followed by an eerie feeling, like someone was watching him. he looked to the window again. It was dark, though the outside was illuminated by the city lights. Despite the creepy sensation, nothing was visible in the window. He shrugged it off and went back to his desk, setting the box down on the coffee table as he passed. Though the remainder of his night passed without incident, Minho couldn’t shake the feeling of not being entirely alone, even as he drifted to sleep.

Next Chapter | Masterlist

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