In front of the movie theatre, I stood alone, checking myself over. My brown hair fell in short, soft waves that I could see in the reflection of myself on the tinted car window of a red mustang parked sideways in front of me. Tucked into my casual, blue jeans was a white shirt I had just bought the other day, and a simple, black blazer hugged me tightly. At the sight of how I looked in that lighting, a smile grew onto my lips. Behind me, dull light bulbs blinked around the list of movies playing. Constantly, I would look up at the pitch black, cloudy sky or the empty street to check if the angry clouds stopped sprinkling rain upon our city yet. I snuck a peek at my silver pocket watch. She was late. The movie had supposedly started ten minutes ago… But everybody knows that there are ten minutes of previews before the movie actually starts, so I decided to wait a little while longer. My body tensed and my back straightened as I expected to see her arriving soon; nervousness spread throughout me. Half an hour later I allowed disappointment to arrive and relax me with the realization that my girlfriend wasn’t joining me tonight.
Mother Nature showed empathy and halted the cold rain for my long, lonely walk home. After only trudging five blocks, it was time to smoke a cigarette for release. Temporarily ceasing my steps on the wet sidewalk, I let my body fall with a sigh until my shoulder blades and lower back both touched the dry brick wall near a tall, orange street light. I faced away from the light and stared into the distance, which was partly cloudy from the smoke seeping out of my mouth.
A sudden flash of light I spotted out of the corner of my eye broke me out of my trance. My entire body froze. Only thoughts moved. Fear spread. Once panic drifted away enough, my head snapped in the direction the flash had come from. There I saw the only other human in the area. In his hands, a Polaroid camera spat out an image—of me, of course. The photographer carefully slid his newest masterpiece from the camera’s grip, beaming a smile full of crooked yellow teeth towards me. I knew he meant well, but that didn’t stop me from viewing him and his smile as evil. Well aware of the myth, I tried to avoid having it come true my entire life; I was afraid of what would happen to me next, since I had clearly failed at avoiding this man’s camera.
I stared at the man like a deer in headlights. I don’t think he could see it, but I could feel my young soul being torn from my stunned body. A single tear made its way down my pale face as a tingling sensation crawled across my every limb, my torso, and my head. My body was fading away, weakly following my soul into an unknown world.
When I dared myself to open my eyes, nothing seemed different; I was in the same spot on the empty street I was before. Shrugging the photo incident off, I began the rest of my walk home. It took ten minutes of walking before I realized that I wasn’t going anywhere. I was walking straight, but it was like I was walking in circles. Confused by this, I went back to my earlier position against the brick, closed my eyes, and replayed what had happened. I replayed it and replayed it and replayed it, but it made no sense.
Eventually, I found the spot on the sidewalk which I was never able to walk past; when I tried I simply found myself walking towards it again. Once I found this spot, it didn’t take long to realize that my soul and body had been transferred away from reality and into the man’s photograph. That was exactly what the myth had said would happen if my picture ever got taken, but I never thought it would happen to me. There was no way out of this dreary place, it seemed. To pass the time, I visualized the reaction my girlfriend had when the information was passed on to her that I had gone missing the night we were supposed to watch a movie.
***
The moment Karlee placed the plate of pancakes in front of her five-year-old daughter, Lylia, who she received as a result from her last relationship, the phone sang for her attention from the living room. She quickly shuffled out of the kitchen with her tiny, vein-y feet to answer it, wondering who would be calling at this time. “Hello?” she shot at the caller, annoyed.
“Hello? Ms. Smith? Ms. Karlee Smith? It’s Cody’s father, Joseph. You’re the girl he has been dating lately, are you not? The brunette with the child, right? When was the last time you saw Cody? Do you recall where you two last went and what you did?” he questioned Karlee as if she were a teenager again, not the 25-year-old woman she was.
“Uhm, yes, Cody and I are dating. I was supposed to go to a movie with him last night, but I was late, and he was no longer there when I arrived. If you’re just calling me to give me a lecture about how to be a better girlfriend or something, then I don’t want to he—”
“That’s not the problem, Ms. Smith. You see… well… according to Cody’s roommate, he never arrived back at his apartment last night, there has been no answer on his cell phone, and none of his friends know where he is, so we reported him as missing this morning. I was just wondering if you would join us in a search we’ve scheduled for the weekend.” Joseph rambled on.
Karlee had stopped listening when she heard the word “missing.” The phone dropped out of her delicate hands and crashed to the ground, leaving a slightly noticeable dent in her brand new parquet flooring. She stood there, shocked, with her bruised knees threatening to give out on her and with Joseph constantly shouting “hello?” into the phone.
Lylia bounded into the living room at that moment, her blonde ringlets bouncing all over the place. She stopped instantly when she saw the grief on her mother’s face, and then took the last few steps to embrace her thin body with a hug. Karlee burst out crying.
***
Cody found himself crying as well, imagining this event taking place. He couldn’t stand being trapped any longer. There were no guns around; only a road, sidewalk, streetlight, and brick wall. Taking the only choice he felt he had, he stood up, faced the wall, took a final, deep breath and begun smashing his head into the brick with full force until he no longer could. Finally, after many blows to the head, he fell to the ground. He situated his mouth over the growing puddle of dark red blood and gave up.
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