Season 07 Episode 23: The Box (Pt.2 of 3)

students who are currently away for the holidays. Less than an hour later, the young men are in front of a laptop pouring over a listing titled de Book Box put up by a user called w net Trade. It begins, all of the events that I'm about to set forth in this listing are accurate. It was, of course, the peculiar wine box that Kevin Mannis claimed to have bought from a car boot sale. The young men read through the entire listing that details all the terrifying events Kevin

has supposedly experienced since purchasing the item. He's convinced it's haunted, he says, Joseph thinks they should buy it. Brian doesn't agree. He's not convinced it really is haunted, but why risk it, he thinks. Without Brian's help, Joseph isn't sure he can justify the one hundred dollars asking price, but the more he tries to forget about it, the more he can't seem to let it go. Just what if it really

is haunted? How cool would that be? A few days later, alone in his room, Joseph pulls up the listing again and finds an update from Kevin June fourteenth, at five twenty one. For those of you wanting to know if I'm still experiencing anything out of the ordinary. I thought everything was okay until I got home on Friday, the thirteenth of June and found that the fish in my aquarium, all ten, were dead. For Joseph, it's just too good to resist. He selects the bidding box, types in a number,

and clicks the mouse. It's a week later when Brian returns home to find the apartment reeking of urine. He follows the scent into the living room, where, much to his alarm, he finds the bizarre box. He and Joseph had been looking at online, now sitting for real right in front of him. When Joseph returns home a few hours later, he takes it to his bedroom and jokes with Brian that he should listen out in case anything

strange happens. That first night passes without incident. Brian works a part time job at Truman State University's Museum of Osteopathic Medicine. Every Monday, the department, led by director Jason Haxton, holds a team meeting to set their goals for the week and give the team the chance to catch up after the weekend. Usually, Brian stays silent, preferring just to listen to the contributions of others. But at the first Monday meeting, after Joseph bought the box, he just can't

keep it to himself. With everyone settled in and taking a seat, Jason asks if anyone has anything interesting to share from their weekends. We bought a haunted wine box, says Brian, before anyone else can talk. The words seem to hang there for a moment as the rest of the team try to process what he just said exactly. There are a few raised eyebrows and nervous smiles, but Jason, whose special area of interest is the spiritual context of

ancient art pieces, is genuinely intrigued. Brian fills the team in on the details, well aware how ludicrous it all sounds. Jason offers to examine the box for them to see if he can shed any light on its origins. Brian is unsure, but he says he'll let him know if there's any peculiar activity. He doesn't have long to wait. It starts with the lights, just like Kevin said they had in his shop. Bulbs suddenly pop or blow entirely, even when newly replaced. A urine like smell seems to

emanate from various places throughout the apartment. Then Brian's laptop crashes inexplicably due to a critical failure of the hard drive. Despite attempts to fix it, a source for the failure could not be found. It's then that Joseph decides to do some research into just what exactly it is that he's bought. What he discovers terrifies him. Although spelt with an eye instead of a y by Kevin in his eBay listing ad book as a demon from Jewish folklore

often used in stories to scare little children. Only it isn't just an old bedtime story, as Joseph finds out, but something that some believe to be very real. According to one description, a dibuk is a misplaced spirit that can neither rise to heaven nor descend into Hell, an evil spirit that will attach itself to an unsuspecting victim like a parasite, causing mental illness, rage, and changes of personality. Joseph can feel his pulse quicken as he reads it.

Turning back to the box, he notices some Hebraic text carved into the back of it. It's a Jewish prayer that translates to here o Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. Blessed is the name of his honored kingdom for ever. It's a common and well known prayer, the sort of prayer perhaps that one might say when fearful for their life or just before they die. In August, after six weeks of peculiar events, Joseph and Brian's four

other flatmates return from their summer break. When term time starts up, words soon gets around about the apparently haunted item in their apartment. For a short time, the place becomes a popular hangout for the brave and curious, until events take an even more ominous turn. Two of the flatmates begin to suffer from itchy and irritated eyes, another contracts bronchitis, and Yosef breaks a finger. Most of them feel they've become unusually listless, as if something is draining

them of energy. When one flatmate's car breaks down, a check under the bonnet reveals the bodies of numerous dead mice. This has followed a few day days later by the discovery of a biblical infestation of gnats in the room the box is being kept in. At first, Joseph is determined not to give in to superstition. It's merely coincidental, he says to himself, just a series of completely unexceptional events given an illusory supernatural context through the presence of

the box. But outwardly, the cracks are beginning to show as its behaviour becomes increasingly erratic. Brian and the other flatmates start noticing it, and slowly Joseph's certainty weakens. After Thanksgiving, Joseph's flatmates return to the apartment relieved but a little perplexed to find that Joseph has left, and the box has gone too. Like a turning of the tide, the strange events appear to immediately stop. The smell of urine

clears up. There are no more inexplicable electrical shortages, and the bugs have gone. Since first mentioning the box to his colleagues at the museum, Brian frequently updated them on the strange occurrences. His boss, Jason, had become especially fascinated by it all, hanging on every word until Brian left his job at the end of the summer to concentrate on his studies. It's a few months later when Jason spots him in the audience at a lecture he's presenting.

When it's finished, he approaches Brian, hoping to hear more about the cabinet, but is dismayed to find that Joseph is no longer living with him. As Brian explains he hasn't seen Joseph or the box since, Jason is gripped by an eerie and profound sense of loss, as if the ring from Rivendell has just slipped from his grasp. A month or so later, Jason receives word from Bryan that Joseph has been back in touch, and he's decided

to sell the box. Reluctant to tell his wife Laurie for fear that she won't want anything to do with it, Jason turns to his colleague Michael for some advice. Michael is a friend but also a keen magician in his

spare time. He's intrigued at the thought of building an act around a haunted artifact and offers to go halves if Jason wants to buy it, and so in early February two thousand and five, Jason logs into eBay under his handle age Tron and finds item number three seven zero one three four seven six four eight, otherwise known as the Dibbuk Box. As Jason reads the listing, he

feels a surge of excitement. Everything Brian had described, including Kevin's story from the original listing, is here, but there is more. Joseph writes, around October sixth I started feeling bad with trouble sleeping. This problem has persisted through today. I've started seeing things in my peripheral vision. Most disturbingly, last Tuesday, my hair began to fall out. Now it's about half gone. I'm in my early twenties and I just got a clean blood test back from the doctors.

Maybe it's stress related, I don't know. The description reads more like a distress beacon than an auction listing, and it's clear that the last few months for Joseph, who for unknown reasons, decided to move back in with its parents, have been increasingly dark and bizarre. Jason scrolls back to the top of the page to the text from the original listing. He reads those fateful words again from the original seller to Kevin, you bought it, we don't want it.

Jason hesitates for a moment, then types an opening offer of ninety nine cents. He takes a deep breath, then clicks bid, knowing that whatever happens next, you will forever be a part of the box's mythology. For the next few minutes, Jason sits transfixed, his face lit up by the dim glow of the computer screen as he stealthily ups his bid while the auction clock ticks steadily down to zero. Jason leans back from the screen and puffs

out his cheeks. Approaching footsteps from outside his door are followed by the arrival of a very tense looking Michael. He'd been watching the whole thing unfold on another computer. Please tell me your age, tron, says Jason smiles, I am. They were now the new owners of the box. Joseph originally bought it for one hundred and forty dollars, Jason paid two hundred and eighty. But there's a snag. When

Jason emails Joseph to arrange delivery, Joseph doesn't reply. After several unanswered emails, Jason tries contacting the young man's parents, but neither have any knowledge of their son's association with the box. Jason eventually receives a call from Brian, who's now in charge of completing the sale because Joseph, in a fit of desperation, begged him to take the box away. The following Tuesday, a bleary eyed and distracted looking Brian

arrives at Jason's office with a large cardboard container. Any other day, Jason might have noticed the death inspiration on Bryan's face, or maybe wondered why he was so eager to leave the building immediately after dropping the package off, without even pausing to say goodbye. But today Jason only has eyes for the box. As he peels the cardboard back to reveal the bubble wrapped curio inside, he feels

almost euphoric. It's a piece well suited to its new environment, he thinks, looking round at the various displays in the museum, the gruesome tools for primitive brain surgery, the dissected human nervous systems, and wallets made from human skin. Having agreed not to open the package until Michael is free, Jason has to resist until eight pm before his friend is able to join him. In the eerie silence of his deserted and dimly lit office, they ease the box from

its container. Jason slips on a pair of white examination gloves and runs his hand over the top before taking the drawer handle and pulling it. As the drawer opens, the two front doors follow suit, swinging open to reveal the hidden treasures inside and releasing a pungent scent into the air. Michael lays down a cloth of blue velvet next to the box, which he's brought especially for the occasion, and one by one Jason carefully places the various items

onto it. He takes a black light, the kind you might use to examine a bloody crime scene, and sweeps it over the box, but finds nothing. Unusual. Then Michael notices something interesting, the letter N written on the inside right Edgeson wonders if it has a ritual purpose, an instruction to angle that side of the box to point north perhaps, or maybe it isn't an N at all.

But the Hebrew character Aleph, the very first letter of existence, the first point of the alpha, and the omega its numerical value of one hundred and eleven, symbolizing the divine, spiritual, and physical. They find the same symbol again marked on the gold cup, only it isn't gold, as Kevin Mannis had assumed, but brass with a silver plating that is all but worn away. Going by the box's fairly modern design and the style of the hinges, Jason estimates that

it was built in the fifties or sixties. But looking at the pieces spread out before him on the cloth, the two pennies, the strange candlestick, the two locks of hair, and the strange granite statue, he's unable to say quite what it was used for. None of the items have any traditional, supernatural or occult connections. Whatever this is, thinks Jason, it's not like anything he's ever seen before. While Michael

takes a closer look at the pieces. Jason slowly removes one of the gloves and places his bare hand on top of the box, then hurriedly pulls it back. That's weird, he thinks. He closes his eyes and puts his hand on top of the box again and again he gets the strange, bizarre sensation. It's as though he can feel the wood moving, rippling like water, vibrating, even as if it were alive. Jason recoils suddenly, letting out a stifled cry as a sharp and searing pain grips him from

inside and moves into his stomach. Michael was too distracted to notice, and Jason keeps it to himself. They finish by taking some pictures, then return the items to the box and pack it away. That night, back at home, Jason is in bed, his eyelids flicker and pulsate with

therim twitch of deep sleep. In his subconscious a dark and disturbing set of images are playing out, faces morphing from one into another, hideously disfigured, bleeding and wounded, and through it all the recurring image of a ghoulish, elderly woman with dark, sunken eyes. Jason wakes with a start in the dark, sweating and short of breath. His wife, Lorrie, is sound asleep signed him. He closes his eyes again

and soon drifts back to sleep. Moments later, he finds himself in a small department store, this time with a different benign, elderly woman. She seems to be pleading with him in anguish, pointing toward an empty box about the same size as the dibook box. The following morning, Jason is rinsing his face in the sink when he notices with shock that both of his eyes are red, raw and bloodshot. A few days later, the irritation still hasn't cleared up, and he is now plagued by a dull,

metallic taste in his mouth, dominating everything he eats. He chokes on the smallest SIPs of water, but worst of all, can't fight the continual feeling that something is lodged inside his throat. Jason's doctor suggests he might be suffering from dyscusia, a distortion of taste that can be caused by any number of illnesses, but Jason isn't convinced. It might explain the strange taste in its mouth, but it doesn't account for his irritated eyes or his difficulty swallowing not to

mention the mysterious stomach cramps. The cause of it all seems clear to Jason his body has been poisoned. After testing a variety of substances the methodical, Jason theorizes that it's most likely ammonia. Apart from all the issues he is suffering from. An exposure to ammonia can result in hallucinations as well as sensing the smell of urine. Finally, he thinks all the stories from the previous owners begin

to make sense. Jason runs a series of tests on the box and its contents, but it all comes back completely clean. Meanwhile, strange things have started occurring at the museum. Light bulbs are blowing, popping, and exploding all over the office. Jason's deteriorating health hasn't gone unnoticed either. Brian, now back working at the museum, approaches him first. It's clear to him that whatever had lashed onto Joseph has now focused

its attention on its boss. The other staff, irrevocably spooked, plead with their colleague to take his box home. Jason eventually agrees to take the box. The only problem is his wife, Laurie, having heard all about the cabinet from Michael's partner Erin, she makes it abundantly clear that her husband is not to bring it anywhere near the family. Since Michael is unwilling to take it off his hands, Jason has left with only one option, has to bring

it home in secret. It's a decision he'll soon come to regret. It starts with unusual fluctuations in temperature. Entire parts of the house become so cold that the family can see their own breath even in the height of summer. Jason's nightmares intensify, becoming even more terrifying, and soon it isn't only when he's asleep that he sees things. One evening, he and his thirteen year old son are watching television together in the lounge when they witness a strange, billowing

mass like a black fire, crawling up the wall. The following day, an agitated Jason makes a phone call. It's to Steve Mass, president of the Long Island Paranormal Research Group. When Jason first bought the box, he hadn't accounted for the vast interest it would online tens of thousands of people across the world had watched as he won his bid, and many had contacted him later on, eager to hear

of any strange happenings. Steve had been one of the first enthusiasts to get in touch and had impressed Jason with his sincerity and extensive knowledge of similar artifacts. Steve listens patiently as Jason details what occurred in just the last few weeks before giving his chilling verdict. One way or another, Jason must have unleashed something when he opened the box, and now it's in the house with his family.

Steve's suggestion is that Jason carry out the appeasement ritual from chapter twenty two of a fifteenth century book of spells known as The Key of Solomon. The ritual asks for a sacrifice to be made to the demonic spirit that evening. In secret, Jason, an ordinarily rational, unflappable midwesterner, heads into his garage where he stashed the box. He stands there alone in the pitch dark, holding the two cuttings of hair from the inside drawer, hoping they will

make a sufficient offering. He writes a promise to make better gifts in future on a strip of paper, as per the ritual and ties it all together around a pine twig. He lights a match and holds it underneath until the bundle catches fire. As it burns, he repeats its promise. Better gifts shall come from me. Better gifts shall come from me. Better gifts shall come from me, Better gifts shall come from me. The flames finally die out, Jason steps from the dark of the garage into the

clear night air. It feels like surfacing from underwater. That night, no grotesque old ladies haunt his dreams, and over the next few weeks his ailments all but vanish. With the appeasement ritual appearing to have worked, Jason returns his focus to finding out more about the supposedly haunted artifact. Afraid that it might still be active, He needs to know what exactly he might be dealing with. However, despite consulting a number of experts, from rabbis to historians, Jason discovers

little more than what he already knows. The man he needs is Kevin Manis. Jason manages to trace Kevin to Portland through the original eBay listing. By chance, he is due to travel there for a word trip in the coming months, and so he doubles his efforts. He discovers one mannis listed in the phone book and calls the number. It turns out to be Kevin's sister. However, she is unwilling to give out her brother's details and wants nothing

to do with Jason's quest to find him. Under tret Jason turns to the Internet and through a genealogy site, discovers that Kevin had a grandmother called Ethel, who died some years previously. Then Jason finds a contact for another relative of Ethel's who reveals some intriguing information. Kevin's grandmother was a Russian Jewish immigrant who arrived in the United States sometime at the beginning of the nineteen hundreds and

died around the age of one hundred and three. Similar to the alleged original owner of the box, who Kevin claimed was a Jewish emigray from Europe, Ethel also had a fascination with Jewish mysticism and kisheff a form of Judaic magic. Then the relative drops a bombshell. It's their belief that the wine box never was haunted and that Kevin has made the whole thing up, using Ethel as inspiration.

Jason is stunned. It can't be. He thinks, for a start, if it wasn't true, then what on earth had been happening to him and even Joseph before that neither had ever met Kevin, and yet both had been clearly affected by the Dibbuck Box, and in identical ways to what Kevin himself said he'd suffered. Then something weird happens. Confused by the prospect that nothing about the box is true, Jason asks if the relative can at least email him

a photograph of Ethel. When he recive leaves it and opens it up, staring back at him on his screen, he is absolutely certain is the same elderly woman he's seen in his dreams, the one standing in a department store, pointing with great anguish toward an empty box. Ethel, it turns out, had also owned a department store. When Jason finally travels to Portland in June, he's almost given up

on speaking to Kevin entirely. When he makes one final effort to locate him, looking through local courthouse records, he finds a phone number. Later that night, he makes the call from his hotel room, and a woman answers the phone She assures him that nobody by the name of Kevin lives there, but Jason isn't convinced tell him. He says, I've got one hundred and fifty dollars if he can just call me at the hotel. On the other end, says she'll see what she can do before hanging up.

It's nearly midnight when the phone rings in Jason's hotel room. It's Kevin. Finally, now he can get some answers. You've been listening to Unexplained Season seven, episode twenty three The Box, Part two of three, the third and final part, will be released next Friday, June fourteenth. This episode was written by Richard McClain smith. Unexplained as an AV Club Productions podcast created by Richard McClain Smith. All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced by me

Richard mcclin smith. Unexplained. The book and audiobook, with stories never before featured on the show, is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores. Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts, and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation

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