The Box Of Memories

"Its a magic box of memories", the man in the charity shop had said to Hannah, a 6 year old girl when she'd pointed to the ornate jeweled box on the shelf and told her mummy, "I'd like that".
"Memories?", Hannah had asked.
"Yes", the man had said, smiling, "You just open the lid and hold it and all the memories come out".
Her mum had just laughed, thinking that the man had been making a joke.
But then, when she'd got home, she'd opened it like the man in the shop had said and the memories had come flooding out; memories of another little girl called Susan.
She'd seen Susans life in a town called Bridgefield, living with her two parents, older sister and dog Kip. She'd seen her going to dance lessons and swimming and painting; going out with her friends and family holidays she'd had in a nearby seaside town called Shoremouth.
Infact she got to know Susan so well that it was almost as if they were best friends and sometimes, rather than watching TV or playing on her computer, she'd lie in the dark holding the box and sharing Susans life.
But then one day, she saw a memory of Susans life that worried her.
She saw Susan in the charity shop with her mum and dad and her buying the box with her pocket money and heard the man in the charity shop say to her, with a smile,
"Its a magic box of memories. Just open the lid and you'll see".
And there was something in the mans voice; something in the way he smiled and looked at her; something she hadn't noticed before but it troubled her.
She closed the box.
"So Susan had the box aswell", she'd thought, "Thats why it has her memories in it but what happened to her?".
She didn't open the box again after that, not for few nights, because it worried her so much.
But then, one night, she felt like she couldn't ignore it any more, she had to know and so she opened it again.
And this time she saw the door of Susans room opening and someone entering slowly.
"Can you hear the children?", she heard them singing quietly, "No no one can hear them because they're in the place where children are forgotten"
But it was not Susan who was entering the room for then she saw Susan lying asleep on her bed and the hands of who ever was looking down on her reach down and take hold of her.
She expected her to wake up and scream, to struggle but she didn't wake up, she just tossed her head from side to side as if she was having a nightmare that she couldn't wake up from and then Hannah saw the box in her room, opening up by itself and Hannah being put inside.
She shouldn't have fitted in the small box but somehow she did, as if she'd grown to the size of a small doll or it to the size of a chasm; then she heard the laughter of the person holding her as they let her go and she fell inside the box, deep into another darker universe from which there was no return.
"Help me", she heard Susan shouting as the lid of the box was slowly closed.
But then the person closing the box looked over at Susans bedroom mirror and, just as she had feared, she saw the face of the shopowner.
"Don't think I've forgotten about you, Hannah", he said, grinning at her.
But then Hannah heard a noise from outside her room and, going numb, she saw her own bedroom door begin to open.
"Can you hear the children?", she heard the shop owner sing as he entered, "No no one can hear them because where the man takes them the children have no voice".