Joel looked to Scott for help, but found none in his friend's eyes. "Danny's right. We are the first ones in who knows how long to find this. If we leave whoever was here before might come back and get it before we do, and then this whole thing was pointless. We'll take what's in the box and then we can go."
Daniel straightened his posture and poked out his chest. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver dollar. "Tell you what. We'll flip the coin. Heads, we open the box. Tails, we grab some wine and go home."
Joel glared at Daniel, then sighed with an answer of surrender. "Okay. Best 2 out of 3 though." All three boys nodded as Daniel fingered the coin in his hand, a dull silver glint reflecting off its surface.

"We each get one flip. Then we open it." Daniel surely stated. He handed the coin to Scott first. "Heads we open it, tails we leave." Scott nodded. He made a fist and fingered the coin into the crook of his index finger, his thumb poised beneath it. With a swift, practiced pop of his thumb he sent the silver dollar spinning end over end, flipping in the air until it reached the apex of its ascent and fell back down into his open palm, his fingers instantly clutching around it and slapping it onto the top of his left arm. He brought it closer to his face and lifted his right hand ever so slightly, then pulled it back to reveal the result to the others.

Tails

Joel let a quiet sigh go.

Daniel came next, turning the coin over a few times in his fingers before adopting the same technique as his friend. Over and over it turned in the air, landing with and audible plap in his bandaged right palm and swiftly slapped on his opposing forearm. He revealed it with a smirk.

Heads.

He handed it to Joel with a sneering grin. "For all the marbles in the box, buddy..." The last syllable drug out in what seemed like an eternity. Joel set his flashlight down, looking at the light dangling from the heavy oaken rafters, then down at the box sitting all alone in that dank cellar room, then at the words scrawled on the wall, their ochre warning menacing.

DON'T LOOK IN THE BOX.

DON'T LOOK IN THE BOX.

DON'T LOOK IN THE BOX.

The letters seared into his brain, taunting him. His escape was so close he could taste it. One flip of the coin and he could go, away from this accursed room and that damnable box and whatever horrid thing that lurked inside it. He was sweating bullets now despite the cold dampness of the room. His heart palpitating with a terrible "ka-thump ka-thump ka-thump ka-thump", blood coursing through his ears. Why did he come here? He could just bowl over Danny and make a mad dash out the basement and this awful house now. Screw the box!
"Do it!" Danny growled, "hurry the hell up, pussy!"

His hands were trembling. He placed the coin with one hand into his fist, then weakly popped his thumb, the silver circle of his fate warbling in the air.
Headstailsheadstailsheadstailsheadstails. Over and over and over and it was coming down now oh god oh god oh god oh god.

Plap. Into his shaky, sweaty palm, his fingers clinching immediately with no delay around the damned coin and then furiously against the flat of his arm. He held it there, trying to divine the feel of what it would reveal, terror filling his senses to the brim at what it would be.

Daniel yanked his palm away, and for an instant he saw glorious tails before it shook loose and tumbled to the dirt floor in a heavy thump.
"It's tails" Joel screamed, "tails!"
They all looked at the floor, the coin laying there bathed in that cold illumination of the solitary false sun.

Heads.

"It was tails!" Joel cried, his voice taking on a tremulous timbre of sheer and abject desperation. He turned towards the door to run but Daniel grabbed him and they tumbled to the floor in a struggling heap, Joel kicking and screaming "Tails! Tails! He grabbed my hand! It was tails!" They landed in front of the box, striking it with a thud. The top was knocked askew, almost off. They stopped moving and all three stared at it.

Joel struggled to turn away from it but found he couldn't. All three felt compelled to look closer, inch by agonizing inch.
In silence Daniel moved the top off the rest of the way.
Inside was a faded Polaroid picture. He picked it up out of the box and held it up in the dim yellow light. At first they couldn't tell what it was a picture of, like it hadn't fully developed yet. They looked closer, and it became clearer, second by second. It was a picture of them.

In a flash the light gave an audible pop and hiss, then went black. In the darkness they heard the creak of the hinges and a heavy thunk as the door swung shut.

And in the blackness, they screamed.