Photograph

"Why don't you clean out the attic James? You've been saying you need to do it ever since we moved, now's your chance." My wife said while leaving to go to work, she had been called in to help close a sale on a house. 

"Yeah fine, your right."

I had been putting off cleaning it. We just moved into a new house, two stories, three beds, two baths, and a attic. She gets the first look at all the good deals since she is a real estate agent. We had been looking to move out of our old suburban house for ages, and this was perfect.

I pulled down the attic stairs and headed up. There was a whole attic full of things for us to have or dispose of. The previous family was murdered and their family had no interest in their "knickknacks", they had said. This kinda creeped us out at first, but what are the chances a murderer will strike twice, right? 

The first thing I went though was a box of Christmas ornaments, it looked like pretty nice stuff, so I put that in the keep pile. Next was just some old cigarette boxes, I figured I could sell them since I don't collect. A bunch of old newspapers, and bills and junk mail, all went in the trash pile. A bunch of old unopened cards, a couple of Halloween decorations, and alot of old kids toys, all of that in the garbage pile as well. 

Lastly were a couple of boxes of old photos, I was interested in what the family before had done before their passing, so I was nosy and went through them. Mostly baby pictures, then some pictures of the toddlers they had. Two girls and one baby boy, they looked like a nice family, it's a shame what happened to them.

They said they were all found stabbed, the mother and oldest daughter, who looked around six years old, in the attic, the father and younger daughter in the hallway just under the attic, and the baby was believed to have starved in the crib. It was four days before anyone knew they were missing, they were supposed to be on vacation I heard, so the killer knew what he was doing. 

Anyways, that's why I had been putting off cleaning the attic, but there is no blood or anything, almost like it never happened. 

I sorted though the last few photos, they were family photos over the years, and I found a blank photo. Solid black, so I assumed the camera malfunctioned, but why keep it? I looked on the back and say written it big black ink "DON'T LOOK AT PHOTO!!!! DON'T BURN! DON'T DESTROY! DON'T BURY! ONCE YOU'VE SEEN IT IT COMES BACK! DON'T LOOK! DON'T REMOVE TAPE!" Ummm okay I thought, creeped out to say the least. I was done with looking at photos, I put it back in the box, shut the lid and took the garbage outside.

I came back to take a photo of the photo boxes so the family could come pick them up if they wanted, and the photo was laying out. 

"Oh real funny Susan! Real funny! You actually had me for a second. Why'd you get back so fast?" 

No response.

"Susan, okay, you got me. Jokes over" 

I was getting irritated at this point. I headed to the attic exit so I could look for her car, and the door was shut. 

"Susan?" 

I screamed again, "It's not funny! Open the door!" 

I heard giggling, then the door opened.

"I really got you, didn't I?" She said laughing. 

"They said they weren't interested any more, who knows! How about we go out for dinner? I heard the pizza place near here was really good!" 

I laughed with her.

"I'm not going to dinner with a monster!" I said, walking to our room.

"Seriously James? Come on I've got the car running." 

"Yeah sounds good, I'll go put on a jacket."

I put on my jacket and went to the car.

"I'll drive" I told her.

"Okay great!" She said, locking the door to our house. 

She cut on GPS and I started the way she told me to.

"So how did you have that much time?" She looked puzzled.

"What do you mean? It took like thirty seconds" and she giggled. 

"Umm...The photo, that had to take longer. How long has it been up there then?" 

She just stared at me. 

"What photo?"

She checked her phone and pointed left.

"Okay seriously Susan, I just wanted to know, but I know you put it there."

As we pulled in she said "I didn't put a photo, why would I put a photo? That's lame."

"Okay."

I said, knowing she did it, and there was really no point in her denying it. We got a table and got seated, a waiter came up to us.

"Are you ready to order or do you need a minute?" He said waiting.

"I think we are ready", she said staring at me.

"Yeah we are ready, I'll have a medium slice of pineapple please."

I laughed "Man, you really are a monster. I'll have a medium supreme." I handed him our menu and thanked him. 

We had some small talk about our jobs and friends, and we had a good night. 

When we got back I immediately went to bed, forgetting about the photo and the warning. 

When I woke up the next morning, Susan was gone, she left a note saying "Hey, they changed their minds again lol, at work, let me know if you need anything. Don't get too scared today ;)" I read it and chuckled. I wished she hasn't got called in on both my off days, but at least she is getting a sale. 

I went to finish my work in the attic, I climbed the ladder and went back to the trash pile. I went to pick up the box of pictures when I noticed the photo, flipped over to back, I could read the words I had before. 

"Haha, really funny Susan."

Did she really move the picture for another kick? I put it back in the box of photos again, and took a box of old bills out to the burn pile. I started the fire and headed back inside. When I got back in the attic I started knocking down cobwebs and vacuuming up dust and old webs. I went to move the boxes to the clean area where I had fixed for them, when I noticed the picture was on top again, but this time face up. I walked over to it, picked it up and looked closer. This time it was not blank, this time it had the outline of a man on half the photo, almost as if it was developing. I put it in the box again, and decided I was going to find Susan, I had seen enough of her games. 

When I turned around the opening for the stairs was gone, there was just board there. 

"Susan!" I yelled. 

I panicked, I went thought all the pictures, I went through all the boxed of papers, nothing, nothing, nothing! Them I found something, a small note with blood splattered on the corner, it read "I'm sorry, I should never have created it. I thought I could control it. There is no controlling it. There is no destroying it, it comes and never leaves. Every attempt to stop it made it worse. It will not kill me, it tortures me, I am it's puppet. I'm sorry. I can not stand this any longer. I am sorry." 

I tore the paper to pieces and put my hands on my neck, I had to find a way out of this. I looked though the punch bowl sized window and saw the Susan was not here. I looked around in the attic and there were no other ways out. I decided I had to try to get someone's attention from the window. 

I grabbed a angel Christmas ornament and slammed it into the window. The window shattered, the glass flew into my stomach, my face, my hand. I had to get out. I walked to the window and something grabbed me by my neck, it pulled me to the floor, it tried to pull me though the floor. It tugged at my neck as a desperately tried to scream. It pulled harder and harder until I felt my head was going to pop off, then it stopped. 

I must have passed out from the blood. When I woke up I saw Susan rushing in the room. "Don't look at the photo" I said as she walked in. 

She ran to me and fell to the floor.

"What? James! What happened?" She took out her phone to call for help.

"Don't look at the photo" I said, blood now puddling around me. 

She grabbed the photo, "What is this? It's blank."