A couple of days ago, I dropped my phone in the toilet. Next thing I knew, I was buying a used phone from an electronics store in my neighborhood. It was around 9 p.m., and it was the last one they had. I couldn’t wait much longer for a new phone, so I had to make it work. 

I get back home, and I’m already excited to use it. I’m about to unbox my phone until my mom stops me, 

“No, Elowen. You can use it tomorrow before school. Right now, you should be in bed, so run along.” 

I roll my eyes and head towards bed. I am pretty exhausted, so I might as well.

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The next morning, I wake up and run to start up my phone. I put in a password, save it, download all my apps, and close my phone.

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I make it to school, and it's lunch time. I explain to my friends what happened to my last phone, and this is my new one.

“Oh my gosh, we should totally take a photo all together on your new phone!” My friend Calia shrieks.

“Why not!” I agree as I pull out my phone camera to take a picture. All my friends gather around to take the photo.

“Say cheese!” I announce.

“Cheese!” We all say in unison. 

“Make sure to send me that!” Molly says.

“Same!” Patty adds.

I didn’t even have time to answer back; it was like my eyes were glued to the screen. As I click my screen to see the photo, I stumble upon multiple pictures of my school that I had never taken before. Lockers, halls, stairs, bathrooms, they all have one thing in common: they all have a blurry figure standing in the background, staring intensely into the camera. I scroll endlessly through each photo on my phone, and each time the figure gets closer, yet remains unclear.  I brush it off and delete all of them, hoping that the store forgot to delete the old pictures from the person's phone before me.

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The next day, I wake up and grab my phone. Curiously, I decide to open up my gallery, and a new set of photos was taken on my phone. One is of someone falling down the stairs, the other is a locker broken. Pictures of events that didn’t happen yesterday.

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“What is going on?” I whisper.

“Elowen, hurry up or else you will be late!” My mom shouts.

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I walk into my school and head over to my locker. I spin my lock, open it up, and grab my books. I look over my shoulder and see that the locker next to mine is completely broken, dented just like in the photo on my phone. I jump back and slam my locker in fear. I look around and see people giving me awkward stares, but I can't think. I walk away and head to my class like normal. 

I walk up the flights of stairs until I'm stopped by the terrorizing screams of a young boy rolling down the stairs. He lands right in front of my feet, his body twisted up like a ball. He looks up at me, almost like he’s afraid of me.

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“Help! Somebody help me!” He screams, and everyone turns around.

He mumbles, trying to fix his position on the floor, “You. It was you.” 

I give him a confused look, but then I remember. The picture on my phone. I quickly run up the stairs, looking guilty for something I didn't do. The picture on my phone of the person falling down the stairs was him. 

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I get home from school, and I throw myself onto my bed, trying to reason with my common sense along with the pictures on my phone.

“This doesn’t make any sense! How did the picture on my phone see that before I did!?” I ask myself, pacing back and forth in my room. 

“I don’t have time for this. I have tests to study for,” I mumble, clearing my head of everything that has happened.

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A couple of hours pass, and I'm laying in my bed, scrolling through videos on my phone. Suddenly, I receive a notification from my phone saying, “Final.jpg”

I click it and find a photo of me laying down in my bed, like it was taken from my ceiling. I spring up from my bed and look around my room. Nothing is there. I quickly open up my camera app and switch it to the front-facing view.  My heart sinks, my chest is pounding. I’m not in the frame. Just my room behind me.

Empty.

Waiting. 

 The TV in my room flickers, and the news anchor’s voice fills the silence.

“Good evening, everyone. This is Fredrick with breaking news. A fifteen-year-old girl, Elowen Grace, was reported missing earlier this evening. Police say that she could have ran away, but we’re still waiting for more information. Here is her mother, Stova Grace, with a statement.”

The TV clicks off, no thoughts, no words, just emptiness in my head. 

I look down at the photo taken of me earlier. I notice the blurry figure clinging to the ceiling above me staring straight into my camera.

Just like before.

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