Page 51 of Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are

Was I?

I didn’t know anymore.

“Max and Lewis,” I breathed out as she pulled me into her arms. I let her cradle me.

Cheek pressed to her small shoulder, I stared at the cross-stitched framed flower on the wall.

Surrounding it were more wooden frames with faded gray family photographs. Women in dresses and hats, and severe men with mustaches.

My head flew up and I moved away from Lily, the floorboards creaking beneath my feet as I walked closer to the wall.

Frowning, I tilted my head and stared unblinkingly at the photographs.

Standing behind an elegant armchair, in which an older woman sat, wearing an extravagant hat, were Max and Lewis.

My gaze fell on the date scrawled in the bottom left corner.

1923.

Appearing beside me, Lily sipped her drink. “Freaky, aren’t they? I can’t stand old photographs. It makes the place feel haunted, don’t you think?” She entered the living room.

Unease twisted my insides when I looked back at the photographs.

What the hell was happening? Was I losing my mind? No… Max and Lewis were my friends. I’d known them my whole life. We went to the same school.

My eyes swept over the photograph of Lewis and Max, who stared back at me from behind the cracked glass. An eerie chill crawled down my spine. I reached up and slowly removed the frame, then turned it over in my hands. Besides the date, there was no other information.

“Can you stop being so fucking weird,” Alice sneered as she appeared in the doorway, causing me to drop the frame. It crashed to the floor, shattering the glass.

She walked past me and disappeared up the stairs, her heels clicking on the wooden steps. I crouched down and carefully picked up the photograph.

Removing the backing, I dropped it to the floor and peeled the picture from the frame. As I went to put it down, I sliced my finger on a broken shard of glass and hissed with pain.

I brought my finger to my lips and the rich taste of iron filled my mouth as I studied Max and Lewis.

A gasp left me as a drop of water fell onto the picture. Then another.

The shards of glass on the floor swam in a pool of blood.

I fell back onto my ass, scrambling away, slicing my palms open on broken pieces.

Panicked, I pushed up to my feet, only to stop short. “What the fuck?”

The empty hallway stared back at me.

The blood was gone.

The glass was gone.

The picture frame was back on the wall.

“Can you stop being so fucking weird,” Alice sneered as she appeared in the doorway.

She walked past me and disappeared up the stairs, her heels clicking on the wooden steps.

Staring after her, I suppressed the scream that slowly built inside me. In the end, I pressed my hands to my ears and let it out.

CHAPTER

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