a box.

Hidden in between frayed layers of cloth, lies a treasure box. It's skin smelled of sandalwood. Exotic phoenix motifs lay on its musty surface. Amongst the phoenix carvings were patterns of peoni flowers and cranes. Chinese calligraphy cascaded along its sides.
The inside of the box was lined in a rosy silk. Eventhough the silk looked bruised with black stains, it still has some soft sheene to it. Ironically, the contents inside did not seem pretty in any way. They seemed out of place; like coal surrounded by diamonds.
There were dozens of bottles at the bottom of the box. Each one containing such strange things inside. The first one consisted of two serpents. One an ivory white and the other onyx black. The two of them were coiled so tightly that they almost resembled the symbols of yin and yang. They were slightly suspended in a murky liquid as thick as a swamp. Though dead, they looked unsettling. Their bulding eyes looked as if they were about to explode. Their rotten fangs seemed ready to grip and gnaw at any flesh that crossed its path.
The second glass har was contaminated with carnage. Fragments of flesh floated around fluids of red. Fetid fingers pressed against the walls of the jar as if pleading to be freed. The jar reeked of desperation and pain. Next to the jar lay a small box smothered in sharp needles. Purple poison lingering at each of its tips. The needles were sharp enough to pierce through your heart. They were like artificial assasins. Pouches of powders puled over one another, some vermillion, some saffron and others the colour of bile.
Dry salamanders stuck on to the sides. Their now stanch exteriors bedraggled. Bleached in white, they appeared as small ghosts, trapped. Their tails were contorted so cruelly like a little girl's foot bandaged up into tiny shoes.
There was a photograph. In it lay a women dressed in fine embroidery. Strings of pearl and jade enriched her robe. Red rubies and star sapphires sat majestically on her attire. She sat on a golden throne; the colour of an old man's tooth. Surrounding her wore several concubines. Each carrying a look of fear on their faces. The lady sitting down had eyes as cold as a crocodile. Her lips were curled. She evoked evil itself.
Below its photograph, lay pieces of parchment. The colour of a mangy corpse. Written at the back of it were the words " Empress Dowager of China"