Right Before Your Eyes

Right Before Your Eyes

By David F Eastman

The advertisement read: “Young female models wanted. Local photographer seeks models for a new line of stylish women’s Paris fashions. Please reply to Jonathan Davis, Fashion Photographer at: 503-607-7895”

Jennie was still tired from her night out. She rubbed her eyes, jumped out of bed, and slow walked into the bathroom to shower. She had gone to a fraternity party with her girlfriends the night before, met a cute guy named Gavin, who she ended up flirting with and necking in an upstairs bedroom, drank a little too much wine and then passed out. She awoke about 2 AM and then headed home by herself.

When she got to the bathroom, she looked in the mirror and saw two bite marks on her neck. “Oh, no!” she exclaimed, “Gavin gave me a hickey! Now I will have to wear a blouse with a high neckline!” Jennie exclaimed, knowing that she hated blouses with high necklines. Shrugging it off, she realized that she needed to cover up the hickey and her red blouse would do the trick.

After dressing and walking out of her apartment, Jennie walked across the street to the Uptown Coffee Café, ordered a caffe latte, pulled a newspaper from the rack next to the condiment shelf, and began reading the Want ads.

Jennie had been seeking a new job, as a secretary, or an administrative assistant—and looking over at the baristas making coffee for customers—thought about even applying for a job as a barista. After all the Uptown Coffee Café as just across the street from her apartment so she did not need a car to get to work if she got the job.

Jennie thought she would make a great barista and with her beautiful blonde hair, her deep blue eyes, and her vivacious figure, she would attract all the male customers who would order extra coffee just to talk with her.

As Jennie sipped her coffee and read the want ads, she came upon an ad for female models. It said, “Young female models wanted. Local photographer seeks models for a new line of stylish Paris fashions. $50 an hour. Please reply to Jonathan Davis, Fashion Photographer at: 503-607-7895”

Jennie said to herself. “Wow! $50.00 an hour. I certainly could use that money and with my looks and body, I will make those Paris fashions sing!”

Jennie contacted Jonathan and asked if she could come in and talk with him about modeling job. Jonathan said, “Absolutely, I can’t wait to meet you, Jennie!” Jonathan gave Jennie his address and Jennie hailed an Uber driver and was at Jonathan’s photography studio in less than an hour.   

On the short ride over, Jennie pulled down her blouse around her neck and rubbed the itchy area where Gavin had given her the hickey. Ever since she had left her apartment and even at the coffee café, the hickey had itched and when she looked at it with the cosmetic mirror in her purse, she saw how red and inflamed it was.

“Nothing I can do about it now,” Jennie thought. “After I see Jonathan, I will get some itch crème at the drug store and treat it.”

When Jennie got to the address Jonathan gave her, she walked up the stairs to a large studio where Jonathan was setting up photography equipment. There were lights, tripods, cameras, a large table with photographs on it, a white paper backdrop with three mirrors, and the studio was mostly dark with a little bit of lighting coming in slightly covered windows.

When Jonathan saw Jennie, he was immediately taken aback at how young and beautiful she was. Her blonde hair was nicely coiffed, her cheeks were rosy with make-up, her blue eyes sparkled, and her outfit, a bright red blouse, a dark grey skirt, and red high heels, showed off her divine figure.

“You must be Jennie!” Jonathan said as he walked toward Jennie with his hand extended. “I am Jonathan. Welcome to my studio.”

“I am,” Jennie said enthusiastically, “I am so excited about trying out to be one of your fashion models for the Paris clothes.”

“What I am doing to prepare for the whole photography shoot, is interviewing potential models and seeing how you might look in the Paris fashions I was commissioned to photograph. So, let us get started, Jennie. If you will go into the dressing room over there, Jennie,” and Jonathan pointed to a small room entrance, “you will find several Parisian evening dresses hanging in a closet. Just pick one out that you like and that fits, and we will shoot some sample photographs of you.”

Jennie walked over to the dressing room, saw the fashionable clothes hanging in a closet, then shut the door so that she could dress. As Jennie undressed, taking her red blouse off first, she looked in the mirror and saw how red her hickey bite was and she scratched it with her long fingernails until it was bleeding a little. She saw a box of Kleenex on the mirrored dressing table, pulled a couple out and wiped the blood from her neck. She looked at all the clothes and chose a stunning, silver-colored sequined evening gown that she knew would show off her figure and impress Jonathan.

Jennie walked out of the dressing room, saw Jonathan prepping his camera and lights and when Jonathan saw Jennie in the silver, sequined dress it took his breath away. “What a stunningly beautiful young woman,” he thought to himself. “She is going to make these Paris fashions come alive.”

Besides the white paper backdrop, Jonathan had positioned three tall mirrors behind where he wanted Jennie to stand. His idea was to shoot the front of Jennie while she stood in front of the mirrors and capture her side and back reflections in the mirrors; a 3-Dimensional effect he thought might be interesting.

Jonathan instructed Jennie to walk onto the white background paper and stand tall with her right hand on her right hip and her left hand behind her head. This position pushed out Jennie’s breasts and made the dress look quite voluptuous.

Jonathan stood behind his camera, saw the front of Jennie and, at the angle he had the camera at, could see her back and both sides of her in the mirrors.

Jennie stood tall, squinting her eyes a little bit from the lights. Jonathan looked into his camera, positioning his lens, and focusing on Jennie to get the best shot.

 Jonathan continued to look at Jennie through the camera lens and then something amazing, almost unbelievable began to happen. Although Jennie’s face, her arms, her legs, and her silver sequined dress were perfectly clear in the lens, her image, her likeness, began to fade away in the mirrors, like Jennie did not exist but he knew she did; she was after all standing right in front of him.

Jonathan stood up, moving his face away from looking through the camera lens and stared at the fading image of Jennie in the mirrors behind her. Fading away like a shimmering desert mirage.

Seeing Jonathan alarmed and confused, Jennie raised her hand off her hip and looking into the bright lights waved at Jonathan standing behind the camera with his face partially lit up and said, “Is everything all right Jonathan? You seem scared.”

“Jennie, look in the mirrors behind you. You are disappearing!” Jonathan said with growing alarm and fear.

Jennie looked into the mirrors. Jonathan was right, she was disappearing right before her eyes. She saw her hand fading and raised it up to touch her face. Even though she was fading in the mirror, she could still touch her face, her eyes and eyelashes, the softness of her cheeks, the edges of her mouth, the roundness of her ears, and her long blonde hair hanging down on her shoulders. Then she stooped over a little to touch the other parts of her body but still watching her image fading away in the mirror, and she realized, that although her body was disappearing, her silver sequined dress was not, and it looked disembodied standing up by itself.

Now touching her neck and arms and legs, despite her fading image convinced Jennie that she was still alive and had not turned into a ghost or other apparition. She also realized in that moment that the reddish, crusty bite mark she had on her neck she thought was just a hickey Gavin gave her was the evil bite of some otherworldly creature like a vampire. Jennie, to her horror, was turning from a human into a vampire.      

Jennie stood before Jonathan, now terrified herself, as her image faded away in the mirrors. She simply was too petrified to move or even to think what to do next.

Fearing the worse from this evil creature, Jonathan turned and ran, down the stairs, out the door, down the street, trying to scream but somehow unable to.  

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