Aeron Rhys-Jones was an average eight year old boy in Galway, a very small town in upstate New York. His mother was Mrs. John Rhys-Johns, a respectable war widow who worked at the Capital Waverley Bros. textile mill. She made one hundred twenty-five dollars a month as Mr. Waverley's secretary assistant.

Aeron attended the Herbert H. Lehmen Elementary School near the veterans park, where there was a Revolutionary War cannon. The kids would play at the park after school, where Aeron had many friends who called him "Mugsy" because he had a crooked nose like a gangster.

The kids still treated him with respect because his father went down with his damaged B-17 after making sure his team bailed out. He kept his fathers Silver Star on top of his dresser with his father's picture. He could barely remember him but than it had been three years after the war had ended.

Aeron liked to go to the park after Mrs. Kilpatrick let them out for the day. Mason was always at the park, Mason was the coolest kid in town. He had long hair that he combed back with brell cream, if enough kids asked him, he would tell them THE story.

Aeron listened in awe, as Mason told how he and Tommy Wannamaker went to the Murder house on Dillon Drive. How they snuck through the window with the broken hinges to the basement looking for the Jewelry Box that was supposed to be inside. Actually Mason said Tommy went in alone while he waited outside, Tommy Wannamaker never came out. He was never seen again.

One day after hearing the story, he came home to hear his mom talking on the phone with Mr. Ford about the mortgage and his mother was upset.

"What's wrong?" Aeron asked.

"Don't worry, it'll be all right." his mother replied.

"Don't we have enough money?" Aeron was worried.

"I'll figure something out." she told him.

"There is supposed to be a Jewelry Box in the Murder house, that should be able to pay for everything."

"Don't you dare go near that house!" his mother shook her finger at him.

"Besides, that would be stealing." she finishes.

~~*~~

Aeron was confused whether he should go or just stay home just as his mother had ordered. Later that evening he decided that he was going to sneak out, but when? There was no school on Saturday, so he decided he'd sneak out on Friday night.

Two nights went by slowly, at one in the morning he went out the window, wondering if his mother was asleep. Now he was outside, walking in the cold, silent night. The Murder house was on Dillon Drive and there was a small hut right next to it. The hut was the home of Mr. Greely, the caretaker of the Murder house.

Aeron snuck through the hut undetected and has reached the house but the front door was locked. So he tried the windows, but they wouldn't budge. Then it clicked to him, the entrance to the basement that Mason knew about. Aeron looked carefully and found the broken hinges, pulled them open and went in the house.

He pulled out a flashlight from his pocket because it was dark. The basement had lots of old furniture, junk and cobwebs. He found the stairs and went up. He was now in the kitchen, the house was very quiet and very creepy.

The house was clean, and the furniture where in order. It didn't seem empty for over ten years. He located the stairs to the second floor and went up. He checked three bedrooms and in the last one he saw a Jewelry Box sitting on a nightstand.

Walking over, he lifted the lid to discover a fortune in rings and necklaces. He was thrilled, this would pay for everything. He picked up the Jewelry Box and turned to leave.

Two eyes and two hands floated in the air between him and the bedroom door, they were covered on blood and tendons and veins hung from their severed hands.

Before he could think, the thing came at him. Aeron dove to the floor and rolled beneath the thing, he nearly dropped the Jewelry Box. He fled in terror down the stairs with the thing in hot pursuit. He headed for the front door, fumbling with it before getting it open.

He felt something brush against the back of his shirt as he raced out the house. He knew the thing was behind him and was too afraid to scream. He ran for home, never looking back. He went through his bedroom window that he left open, jumps under the covers and waited, in terror, for the thing to strike.

~~*~~

Suddenly he woke up and it was morning. Was it a dream? Then he saw the window open, he pulled out the covers, and saw the Jewelry Box next to him. He leapt out of bed, and ran downstairs with the Jewelry Box shouting, "Mom! Mom! Look what I've got!"

His mother stood at the sink with her back to him. As she turned around, he realized, she had no eyes or hands.