Eye See You

Nobody warned me how boring adulthood could be. As a kid, I was never bored. They do say curiosity is the cure for boredom, and boy, was I curious kid. My eyes were filled with wonder, that’s what my mom always said at least. I remember spending my days in the “forest” behind my house, exploring, playing pretend, and collecting random objects I deemed worthy. One day, I even mapped out all of my favorite spots. I would spend hours playing with literal dirt and sticks. Now, I always feel as if something is missing, my sense of purpose. After recently graduating from college, I feel like all I do is work, come home, occasionally hang with a friend, and then do more work. As I’m getting older, I can feel the unfulfillment in my life withering me away. Sad thought, since I’m only 23, but at least I’m catching it early instead of having a midlife crisis 30 years from now. The sense of loneliness and lack of creativity finally has caught up to me. One afternoon, after work, I sat at my desk, went to Google, and typed in “hobbies”. Time to start a hobby. That should fix all my problems, right?

I scrolled through websites riddled with glitchy ads, looking for the activity that “spoke” to me. You may think I’m strange for this, but I do believe in destiny. And somehow my destiny seemed to be reading an article titled, “100+ Hobby Ideas for the Chronically Bored.” I felt so stupid for my lack of creativity and that I had to even look this up. But, as I scrolled through the list, lucky number 12 caught my eye, photography. I have never considered myself an “artsy person".” So when I was forced to take an art credit for my associates, I chose photography 101. We would just walk around campus, and take pictures of random objects and scenery to whatever fit the assignment description. But, after long school days filled with math and science, that class was a nice break. Ok, photography shall be my hobby. Boom, destiny. Now what? 

I click to open another tab, type in Craigslist, and then I search “camera.” Hundreds of results pop up, and once I filter the search to fit my location and budget, only 8 results pop up. I change the location to be broader, it only adds one more. Huh. I then largely change the maximum cost, and then most of the results come up again. Dang, cameras must be a lot more expensive than I was expecting. I put the maximum cost back down, but with an extra $50 than I had originally put. I decide if I should start a hobby, might as well splurge a little. This small change gives me a good selection to choose from. I scroll through the results, I know how to work the camera, but I have no idea how to differentiate the models, they all look the same to me. Near the bottom of the page, there is an ad for a basic cannon camera. I click for more details, but that seems to be the only description. Only 3 pictures show off the medium-sized camera, with a black neck strap attached. I analyze the photos to the best of my abilities. I guess it looks like it’s in good condition? But the best part, the seller is only asking for $75. Going back to the destiny thing, that spark in me lights up, and I decide this is the one for me. I message the seller asking if it’s still available, and I’m a bit startled when they message back right away. 

“Yes, it is. You want it? Let’s meet up tonight and I’ll give it to you.”

“I am interested. Is it in pretty good condition?”

“Yes, very good condition. I get it to you tonight, I can drop it off.”

“Ok I’ll take it, but no need to drop it off I think we’re pretty close to each other.”

“No, I drop off, what’s your address.”

Jeez, this guy is kinda pushy. I give him my address and he agrees to drop it off by tonight. He tells me he doesn’t have a specific time, so to just put the cash in my mailbox. It all sounds pretty suspicious so, with nothing else to do, I decided to sit and wait for him to show, then I’ll go outside and give him the money myself. I also purposefully leave out the fact that I live in an apartment, so there’s no way he can even get to my mailbox. I’m only on the second floor, and my window looks out to the front of the building, so it’s easy to spot if anyone comes.

I expect this watch party to take at least a couple of hours, but only 42 minutes after our initial conversation, I hear a car drive near my building. I look out and see an old musty green car pull up near the entrance of the apartment complex. A bald, large, white man holding a cardboard box steps out, and I can see him looking around for something. Must be him. I hurry and get the cash, throw on slippers, and scurry down the steps to catch him. As I throw open the front doors of the building towards the parking lot, I can see him walking back towards his car. 

“Hey! Are you the person with the camera?”

I wave to him, and as he’s opening the driver's door he looks up at me with an irritated expression. I try not to take it personally, he kinda looks like someone who has a permanent scowl. He slams his door and walks over to me, looking obviously antsy, and pissed.

“Hi, sorry I just wanted to give you this…in person.” 

I hand the cash to him, and he aggressively throws the box to my chest. I hear the poor camera inside jumble, hope he didn’t just damage it.

“Yo, sorry. Didn’t realize how inconveniencing this was.” I say to myself and scoff. 

He just glares at me, and I realize just how scary-looking this dude is.

“Yeah, whatever. Enjoy your camera.” He says, sarcastically, gets in his car, then speeds off.

Not the strangest interaction I’ve ever had, but it’s up there. Again, with nothing to do, I decide to take this baby for a spin. I go to my apartment, change into real shoes, grab the necessities, and then I’m off. I just walk around my complex, spending the evening taking pictures of random things I find interesting, mostly just practicing using the camera. After I get home, I sit back at my desk and hook up the camera to my laptop. I know they won’t be good, but nevertheless, I’m excited to see all the pictures I’ve just taken. As I plug in the camera, I get a notification asking to confirm the deletion of pictures. That’s strange. I click no. Mr. Grumpy must have tried to delete the photos he took but didn’t complete the process. He seems to be as smart as he looks. I open up the file and see all the random pictures of trees and cars I’d taken. Not too shabby, I think too myself. I continue to scroll up and admire my work. I get to the first picture I remember taking, a blurry picture of my shoes that I accidentally took setting it up. But, strangely, there is more room to scroll up on the file, a lot more. I remember it must be the pictures that the guy didn’t finish deleting. Oh boy, this should be a treat. I briefly imagine that big scary bald man taking pictures outside of birds and trees, and laugh to myself. But what I see is quite the opposite. I scroll up. My face instantly goes slack. My heart sinks. Oh my god. 

There seem to be hundreds of pictures of a woman and not cute portraits of someone he knows, but a story of pictures, ending in the most grotesque awful thing I’ve seen in my life. The first bunch of pictures is the most stalker stereotype photos you can think of. Her far away walking down the street, her sitting inside of a restaurant, even ones I’m presuming are her home. My body chills as I continue to look through the photos. Things go bad when a picture starts with her sitting at a bench near a park, eating some type of baked good. He seems to of gotten brave, this one is taken much closer than the others. Hundreds of pictures show me the moment like it’s a stop-motion film. She takes a bite and looks up to the sky, then she turns her head straight to the lens, suddenly making eye contact. She then is seen shouting, then gets up and approaches the camera. The last shot of this interaction is her her leg, just in front of the camera, he must have been crouched taking these. I had to force myself to scroll down to the next set of pictures, the date saying they were only taken 6 days ago. Her body lies stiff, in some musty-looking room, the sheets underneath are soaked in blood, and so are her clothes. Her hair is matted red, and her hands and feet are duct-taped together. This is her final photo. Things just got much more interesting.