Nick opened his eyes sleepily and checked his alarm clock, half past nine. Yawning, he turned around again and thought of his dream from last night. The doorbell had rang and a package was standing in front of his door in the middle of the night, when he opened it, it had been a simple old wooden box in which the sock foot of a girl appeared as if by magic, who he was in school had bullied, Anna.

After an initial shock and the knowledge that the mirror in the lid was projecting a live image of her, he took revenge in a subtle way, triggered by outrageous messages she had sent him in the dream.

His revenge took the form of tickling, which was not only nice to look at and listen to, it had also been fun for him to torment this defenseless foot in front of him. With the thought he slowly swung himself out of bed and went into the kitchen to make himself a coffee. Again and again his thought returned to the bare, soft foot of Anna, somehow he liked the thought and he felt a certain excitement rise within himself. Grinning, he shook his head, grabbed his now finished coffee and enjoyed it in bed. He reached for his cell phone and unlocked it, when the screen flashes he chokes and chokes on his coffee. In disbelief, he looks at the open chat between Anna and him. He frantically puts his coffee on the dessert and jumped to his desk, there he was, the box next to it was a sock that definitely didn't belong to him. Slowly he backed up and sat down on his bed, his eyes fixed on the box. "That ... that wasn't a dream!" He mumbled softly and looked at the cell phone in his hand. Anna's profile picture was gray, she had blocked it. Frowning, he took a long sip of coffee, how was that possible? Nick got up and went to the box, picked it up, and turned it around. On the underside he found a branding "The Box" and a coat of arms with two crossed swords over a feather. He sat down and switched on his computer, while he took the notes that were at the box and read them, but there were no clues hidden there. When the computer started up, he opened the browser and entered: "Box, coat of arms, feather, swords"

Several hundred suggestions, one of which makes him curious. He clicked on it and a page opened, a cover picture was shown and Nick's eyes widened! It was the box, he looked back and forth between the box and the screen, definitely.

He scrolled down and there was just a short text:


This box was made in 1600 by a carpenter who designed it to punish a noblewoman. This noblewoman had arranged the torture and execution of his daughter by accusing the daughter of witchcraft. This box and another box grew out of anger and grief, but as soon as they were talked about publicly, they disappeared from the possession of whoever owned them. If you are whoever owns it and are reading this, keep it to yourself!


It said nothing more, Nick leans back, brooding. Who should he tell that too? Nobody would believe him anyway. His stomach growled, he got up and went into the kitchen and threw two toast into the toaster and leaned against the counter. Lost in thought he looked at the box and curiosity grabbed him, could he put everyone he thought of into the box? What were the prerequisites? Anna was more of an accidental victim. He had to try it, but with whom? The toast was ready, quickly put cheese on it and he was sitting in front of the box again, chewing and thinking. When he was finished he got up and paced up and down, after a few minutes he went undecided to the desk again. Should he try Anna again? He thought of her and tapped the lid twice, making a sound like a gong. He opened the lid, empty, only two words "No shoes" were in the mirror.

"Interesting, so the person I'm thinking of has to wear shoes." Nick muttered loudly to himself and closed the box again. Thoughtfully he grabbed his cigarettes and went to the balcony, outside he leaned on the parapet and let his gaze wander over the street, lost in thought. Then his gaze caught on Marie, who was just walking past him with bread under her arm and a shopping bag. Marie was his neighbor; she had moved into the apartment next to him almost three months ago. He quickly stubbed out the cigarette and dashed in, knocked on the box before he sat and thought of Marie. The box opened with a plop and a red and white striped sneaker sock stretched out towards him, but he stood in the box differently than Anna's, as if the foot were slightly on tiptoe. Nick frowned and looked into the mirrow, there he saw the solution: boots with heels. He grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down his findings. He looked up when he heard Marie in the hallway and looked in the mirror, he saw how she put down the bag and took her key out of her jacket, unlocked it and went into the apartment. Inside she hung her jacket on the cloakroom, when her cell phone rang: "Hey Jonas! Yes ... Yes, very much, will you be there in twenty minutes?" Nick looked at the clock. "Ok yes have it all together! I'll come down!"

Nick rubbed his hands, twenty minutes was more than enough. He saw Marie plop down on her sofa and pull out her cell phone. Nick considered how to begin and played with the pen. Then an idea occurred to him and he carefully stroked the back under his toes, Marie twitched her toes and her foot in the picture in the mirror twitched briefly. He repeated the movement with a little more pressure and Marie gave a startled cry. He even heard the scream over here in the apartment, Marie's eyebrows drew together and she moved her foot, Nick saw her moving her toes and found the sight gorgeous. He thought Marie was cute when she moved in, but he never dared to speak to her, nothing more than a fleeting hello in the hallway. But now he had an idea, slowly he grabbed the sock waistband and pulled on it, "Wa..wa ... what's going on here!" Marie squeaked in the mirror and got up abruptly, with the other foot she tried to take off the shoe, Nick grinned when she noticed that it didn't work but the socks were being taken off more and more. She let herself fall on the sofa and pulled on her shoe with all her strength, meanwhile the socks were off and Nick took a closer look at the sole of Marie. She had very small feet, he had already seen that, there was a small ring on the middle toe and a small birthmark could be seen in the middle of the delicate foot. He looked up, Marie was still trying to get her shoe off her foot with a red head, she had meanwhile pulled her other foot out of the shoe, apparently to be on the safe side. Nick looks back at the sole and scratched the mole with his fingernail, the reaction was first class. Marie, surprised by the sensation, gave a giggle and almost fell off the sofa, letting go of her foot. Now Nick added a second finger and scratched and crawled on, Marie must be incredibly ticklish, she was hardly sitting on the sofa when she let herself tip over onto the sofa, giggling and laughing. Apparently she was someone who twitched and fidgeted when he was tickled, but couldn't move much, let alone defend himself. Meanwhile Nick let his fingers up and down on the bare sole wonder, Marie meanwhile held her stomach laughing and stepped with the shod foot again and again in the air.

Now he let go of her foot, the whole time he could hear Marie laughing pleasantly through the mirror and through the wall, she was now lying on the sofa, breathing heavily, and giggled again and again. Slowly she straightened up and stood up with shaky legs. Nick saw how she went to the door and reached for the door, as soon as she opened the door he pressed the toothbrush from the previous evening on her big toe, Marie opened her eyes: "Nahahahhaein….!" She laughed when Nick switched on the brush and Marie plopped laughing on her bottom. Now he could even hear her laughing from the hallway, meanwhile Marie was lying on her back and rolling back and forth in the hallway of her apartment, laughing. Now Nick's plan came into play, with one hand he held the toothbrush he was, with the other he fished a rubber band from the desk, which he wrapped around the brush and the box. In the meantime he fixed the toothbrush directly under Marie's twitching toes. He let go of the brush, it held! Now to the final end, he pressed the button on the side of the box, the countdown appeared and he dashed to the door and ran outside into the hallway. Accepted at Marie's door, he pushes it open and yells against the laughing: "What's going on? Marie? Hey, what's wrong?"

"Schuhhhhhaahaha!" The twitching Marie couldn't manage anything more. Nick grabbed the shoe and pulled on it, he only had a few seconds left in his head and in fact he suddenly had the shoe in his hand and landed on his back on the doormat. Marie was puffing and giggling now and then in the hallway of her apartment, "Marie, what was that?" Nick asked with mock astonishment and helped the giggling Marie to her wobbly legs, he led her to her sofa and she plopped down on it. "No ..." she huffed heavily and swallowed, "I don't know, I ... I came from the bakery and ... and sat down, something started to take off my sock!" At the last word she pointed to her bare foot. "Suddenly it started to tickle, like someone was unexpectedly scratching my sole! When it stopped, I wanted in the hallway, get help, but as soon as I had the door open, something tickled my toes so badly that I could no longer think clearly! And ... And then you came! "At the last word she looked gratefully at Nick.

Nick smiled sheepishly and felt a little guilty.

"I ... I'll go again!" Nick said and turned around. "How ... what's your name?" Marie asked when Nick was almost at the door, "Nick!" He said and closed the door behind him. He quickly went to his apartment and to the box, the box was empty and the toothbrush was cleaning the velvet cover. Marie's sock was lying next to the box. Nick grinned, took Anna's sock and Marie's sock in his hand and switched off the toothbrush.

"That was fun, who should I go next?" He thought aloud and threw the socks into a small shoebox.