Red Eye

A bright flash of light and the sound of the shutter. “God I hope that is the last one”

“Douglas!” My mom snaps back sharply. “You’re not usually one to complain.” “But mom, It’s so boring here! And why does the light have to be so bright?!” I say with a sigh as I look around the room at the many dark drapes and bright lights. “If you spend the whole time complaining instead of being your pleasant self it’ll take twice as long.” Mom says scolding me. I take a deep breath and smell the musty room and the slight smell of cigarettes. I rub my eyes slightly, stand up straight, look into the camera, and put the biggest fake smile on my face as I say “Cheese!” Another flash of light and I sigh again. 

I begin to feel tired. This process has been taking its sweet time and I am getting frustrated and feeling foggy. “And we're done!” The photographer shouts. I shake my head “Really?” I say in disbelief. “I thought that would’ve taken so much longer.” “Any longer and I would’ve had your parents falling asleep too.” The photographer says as she steps out from behind the camera. “Here are just a few of them.” She says to my mom and dad. Revealing the camera’s digital display to them and showing them a few. As they go through the photos they begin to look rather perplexed “I have the red eye filter on though.” The photographer says as she takes a closer look at the pictures. “Maybe Douglas is just in the wrong light.” She says, shrugging. “I’ll take a few days to edit them in photoshop so he looks natural.” “Waste of my time.” I say under my breath, perturbed and looking down at the ground.  I look up and meet the eyes of the photographer. Who looks at me first with some laughter behind her eyes. However, as soon as my eyes meet hers she startles taking a few steps back before turning her attention back to my parents who didn’t seem to notice. “Sorry for holding you all up I’ll get right to work.” She hurries to the door, opening it for everyone to leave.  

Dad dropped mom and me off at home a few minutes later. I hurried up to the front door. My mom, taking a second to talk with dad as he got ready to head back to work for the day. I begin to grow impatient and reach up to the mailbox feeling around for the spare key. “There you are” I say, pulling it out and shoving it in the lock. I begin to head inside after reaching up to put the key back into the mailbox. As I close the door behind me and turn the lock, I take in the front hall, the stairs to my left, the hallway leading to the kitchen and back door, and the entryway table with a large mirror hanging above it. As I take a step inside and am about to check my hair in the mirror Lucky our chocolate lab runs up to me and sniffs my hand. “Who's a good boy!?” I say as I get ready to wrestle with my dog. Lucky begins to back away down the hallway, the hair on its back standing up and showing his teeth before turning around and running out the dog door on the back of the house. I stand back upright and scratch my head a sec. I sniff my clothes and notice it smells a bit like the studio. “Damn, I knew that place was weird. Even Lucky doesn’t like it.” After a sigh and a shrug I head upstairs to take a shower and change.

Afterwards I come out of the bathroom feeling fresh. I look down the stairs in the front hall mirror at the door and notice a shadow on the porch through the window. “MOM!” I shout “Are you expecting anything today?” I say as I head down the stairs, looking for a package or familiar features. No response. “That’s not her on the porch is it?” I ask myself. As I approach the window and peer out my confusion grows. “Yep, that’s her.” I say. Slightly confused, I go to open the latch. But the doors locked. I shrug and undo the lock. “Mom, why did you lock yourself out here?” I ask as the door swings open. My mom startled, stands up and turns toward me fuming, hands on her hips, and sweaty from the heat of summer.

“Now why would I have locked myself out here in the godforsaken heat?” She asks bewildered. “I know you don’t like going to pictures but you didn’t need to lock me out here!” “HUH!” I retorted, shocked by the accusation. “What do you mean I put the spare key right back here!” I say as I shove my hand in the mailbox feeling around for the key.  After a moment I stand up on my tippy toes and peer down into the mailbox but I don’t see any key. Bewildered, I looked around on the ground not able to see the key anywhere. I look at my mom dumbfounded and speechless. “Let’s just go inside.” My mom says looking a little faint and dehydrated.

As we step inside I look at the entryway table and see the spare key sitting openly on it. Shocked and a little embarrassed . I look to see if mom noticed at all. She hadn’t. I grab the key and toss it in the bushes before shutting and locking the door behind me. 

My mom and I remained silent the rest of the day as she read her book and I sat on the couch swiping through the feed on my phone. 

As day turned to dusk the sun began to cast shadows on the back of the house turning it dark and dreary inside. My mom taking a peek out the back window says “Why is Lucky still outside?” I take a peek over my shoulder and out the window. “I don’t know. He ran out there after we got back. He seemed to smell the photography studio on me.” I say as I turn off my phone. My mom and I both get up and head outside to see Lucky. “Hey good boy!” I say “You okay?” I reach my hand towards him and he gives it a pensive sniff before retreating further into his dog house. My mom and I exchange puzzled looks and my mom goes to see if he’s feeling okay. As I retreat back towards the house I hear a crash, as a pot falls off the bench right beside me and shatters on the ground sending pottery shards, dirt, and flowers cascading over the lawn. I jump back both hands in the air as mom peeks over her shoulder at me. “Are you okay?” She asked. “I’m fine! The pot just fell, I swear!” My mom coming to her feet and looking between the pot and myself gives a gentle smile saying “ As opposed to what? It’s not like you’d throw my daisies on the ground yourself.” Giving a little chuckle and then a sigh “Go get a bucket so we can clean this up.” She tells me as she stoops down to pick up the pieces. After returning with a bucket I see my mom has already put the daisies in a small pot and has collected the shards of pottery in a neat pile on the bench. I begin to put the shards into the bucket. While doing so I notice the shadows around me fade. I look up and see the sky begin to turn purple.  After cleaning up the mess my mom and I return inside to see my dad. “What’s got you so perturbed?” Mom asks. As she asks I look dad in the eyes and notice the furious expression on his face. “Somehow a bunch of nails fell off one of the shelves in the garage and when I pulled in I blew out both of my front tires!” He shouts, crossing his arms and looking between me and my mom.  “Neither of you happened to go out in the garage and see anything would you.” He says. A little more aggressively than necessary. “Are you accusing one of us?” Mom retorts, crossing her own arms and bearing down on dad.  Beginning to back down a bit and hearing the slight tremor in his voice “No! No. I’m just wondering if either of you happened to be out in the garage this afternoon?” “We’ve both been here together.” Mom says with the slightly perplexed look on her face as she sees me, and then the bucket in my hands. “Actually, Where did you get that bucket, Douglas?” “The broom closet.” I quickly respond. However I had gotten it from the garage and there definitely weren’t nails when I went in there. “Don’t you keep the nails in your tool chest dad?” I ask. “ I do. Why does that matter?” “I’m just saying…” I give a shrug “...you might’ve just left them out on your work table.” I don’t know why I’m targeting my dad for it, but at that he uncrosses his arms and scratches his beard. Looking at the ceiling and sighing. “I suppose I’ll have to call a tow truck tomorrow. Thank goodness it’s the weekend."

The evening continued with little to no incident. Lucky still wouldn’t come inside and dinner was subpar and we all went to bed feeling more tired than usual. As I got in bed I plugged in my phone and began scrolling through my feed. I decided to follow the photographer to see if she was actually any good. Chey seemed to take a lot of studio photos specializing in headshots and family portraits. As I scrolled through her work I grew even more tired before finally relaxing my head into the pillow closing my phone and dozing off. 

The next morning I woke up feeling like I hadn’t slept a wink. I went downstairs grabbing cereal from the pantry and eating a few handfuls from the box before pouring myself a bowl. I go ahead and set up on the island. “Knowing my parents, They’ll probably sleep in today.” I say as I shrug and begin to shovel a few spoonfuls of cereal into my mouth. After I finish eating I stand up, stretch and look outside. “I wonder how Lucky is doing today.” I say to myself stepping out onto the back porch and looking towards the doghouse as I go and peer into the den I don’t see him. “That’s weird.” I say as I peek my head up. “LUCKY!” I shout as I scan the area. No sight of him as I look around and the fenced in yard I can’t help but feel uneasy about everything. I return inside and immediately hear the sound of the television “Oh good, they’re up.” I walk into the living room and see both of my parents standing in front of the television looking as though they’d seen a ghost. “Have either of you seen Lucky today?..” I trail off as I catch their expressions and move to stand in front of the television with them. The news is on and the newscaster is talking about a fire in the city on the street where the photography studio is. “If any of you have seen this man please contact your local authorities immediately.” I see a CCTV image pop up on the screen and I see as clear as day a photo of me. “Wait…” I say starting to laugh and also beginning to sweat. “... this has to be a prank right?” I look at both my parents as I finish my sentence. Their faces answer my question. Not even a second passes and I hear a knock on the door. “That’ll be the tow truck.” My dad says scurrying out of the room faster than I think I’ve ever seen him move in his life. “That can’t be me! I’ve been here! I must have a doppelganger, a twin…” “How about a split personality?” I hear an unfamiliar voice say from behind me. I whip around and a police officer walks into the room. “We have you on video, kid. That photographer had more than just picture cameras in that studio.” He says as he reaches for his handcuffs and begins to tell me my rights. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say…” “MOM, DAD, You have to tell them it wasn’t me I swear! You have to believe me!” As tears begin to roll down my cheeks and the officer begins to pull me out the front door, I see a small mound of brown fur in the bushes. I look back up into the front door. in the front hall mirror I see my moms face a finger over her mouth shushing me and staring at me with red eyes.