By Victoria Qiu (9) | STAFF REPORTER
Taylor flipped through her family’s albums at her desk. Pages and pages of photos depicting different parts of their lives chronologically ordered. She turned to the beginning of the book once again, eyes resting on her very first photos. Taylor’s first steps, First words! First time at the zoo. So many other pictures stared back at her unblinking, the ghost of her baby smile forever etched in time. So many memories captured on paper, so many capsules into the past. She wiped a stray tear away before turning the pages, watching her entire life unfold in front of her eyes. Photos of her as a toddler, the birth of her baby brother, and soon everything in her life fell into place. Every moment was documented in this album, every event, every smile.
On the very back, a family photo taken last year was displayed. There were her parents, her grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Her six-year-old brother Hugo was at the very front, his mouth posed in a very wide and toothy grin. Right behind him was Taylor herself, trying to smile without showing her braces. The gaggle of cousins and hair-pulling mingled at the right and her older sister stood alone on the left, face scrunched in a grimace. Taylor laughed, imagining what Michelle was probably thinking. Ugh, I can’t wait to be left alone after this, she mocked. She traced her hand among the trees in the background before suddenly noticing a figure at the back of the photo.
The person was very tall if the proportions of the photo were accurate. They wore a hat and a black coat, even as the photo was taken on one of the hottest days of the year. Looking at the timestamp at the bottom, Taylor mentally confirmed that June 29th, 2022 was way too hot for someone to be wearing what looked like a fur coat. They wore boots and held an umbrella in their hand, back turned to the photo. The way they were positioned, it could be suspected they turned their head. Nothing was exposed except for their eyes. Their vivid, green eyes.
Taylor gaped in shock, looking at the person. Even the effects of time haven’t changed the paper enough to distort it. If one looked closely, two bright green eyes could be seen hidden under the hat, camouflaged amongst the shrubbery. Taylor grabbed her phone and swiped to the camera app, flipping the camera until her face was visible. Her parents often teased Taylor of being “the chosen one”, her beautiful green eyes in stark contrast to her family’s telltale hazel eyes. No one in her family ever had green eyes, and she always assumed it was from a genetic mutation of some sort. Yet, looking at the photo and back at her face, Taylor swore their eyes looked identical.
Trying to shake off the weird feeling her gut developed, Taylor flipped back to her baby photos. She found comfort in seeing baby Taylor giggle and crawl around, exploring the world one bubble at a time. Taking a glimpse of the First time at the zoo, she suddenly noticed the same figure in the background. Beyond baby Taylor’s messy devouring of an ice cream cone, a tall figure with a black fur coat stood, head turned towards their direction. This photo was much clearer, and in addition to the green eyes, Taylor could also make out brown curls beneath the hat. Her hand instinctively moved across her own, feeling the rough knots against her fingers.
As fast as she could, she flipped through all the photos from her birth onwards. This figure was in every family photo and every photo with her outside. No photo with her brother or sister alone had the figure in the background — only her.
Yea, this is weird. This is so weird. Some rando is literally stalking my family and potentially me, and they actually look kinda like me from what I can see.
Taylor rushed out of her room and ran downstairs, photo album in her hands. She quickly ran into the dining room, where her parents were helping Hugo with his science homework. “Hey, slow down. What’s the rush?” her mom asked, face scrunched up like it always did when she was worried. “Uh.. mom, dad? Do you know who this figure is?” Her dad leaned forward from his seat while Taylor set the album in front of her mom. They looked at each other, dread clouding their eyes. After a long silence, broken only by Hugo’s pencil squeaking as it wrote, her dad finally looked up at her.
“Sweetie… there’s no one in the background. There isn’t anyone behind us at all.”
But Taylor still felt as if they were lying.
