Origins
From the flight recorder, built to survive the crash it was inside of, sealed in orange steel and pulled from the wreckage long after everyone has gone home. It holds the sound of the moment for whoever is finally able to listen to it.
Meaning
Fear that could not be felt at the time arrives years later, fully formed. We remember a drive we should not have made, a stairwell, a room we do not remember agreeing to be in, and the terror lands now, on an ordinary afternoon, long after the danger has passed.
Blackbox is the recording that survived the crash. Numbness kept us from feeling it then, so it was stored instead, waiting for a version of us with room to hear it.
We are not frightened of the past. We are frightened for the person we were, who could not afford to be.
Usage
A Blackbox thing happened on the drive home, I remembered that night and my hands were shaking about something that was over years ago.