Photograph

Photograph

Annie and Luna ran around the yard that afternoon, playing on the swing set in the backyard and the jungle gym which was attached to that swing set. Mila could hear their laughter from the kitchen, where she watched them from the window. A smile crept onto her face as she spread peanut butter on one side of a piece of bread. She grabbed for the jelly next, applying it to the other half of bread resting on the plate. In between the girls’ laughter, Mila listened to the news playing in the background on the kitchen TV. 

Mila cut the crust off the sandwiches, knowing that Luna would have a fit. Lifting her eyes, she peered out the window once again. Annie was a peculiar little girl, she rarely stayed over, and only ever played with Luna in the backyard.

The two little girls came running in, Luna stumbling through the door out of breath, “mommy, are there snacks?” 

Mila grabbed the sandwiches from the counter, placing them on the table. Luna was sitting tall in her chair, while Annie remained close to the door.  “Annie, did you want to stay and have some food, too?” 

Annie smiled, her pink lips stood out against her pale skin. She shook her head, and her red, ringlet curls bounced against her shoulders. “No, thank you,” Mila turned around to grab water for Luna, and when she turned back around, Annie was gone in a flash - almost as if she was never even there at all.

Mila peered out the window, trying to see where the little girl had run off too. Mila never really got the chance to really speak with Annie in the month they had been living in their new home. Yet, Luna and Annie became friends instantly when Annie came looking for the new owners of the house. Mila wasn’t even sure where Annie lived in the neighborhood, or who her parents were. She never questioned it much though, she was just happy Luna had a friend to play with after the move. 

Luna had finished half of her sandwich before she took off running for her room. Mila took the time to clean up the dirty dishes before she decided to get some more unpacking done. John had thrown boxes in the attic, attempting to get them out of the way. They had planned on this being their forever home, they weren’t rushing to unpack. However, Mila remembered she had some things to unpack for her home office. 

Mila took the ladder up to the attic; she had never been up there before now, John had done all the heavy lifting, but Mila had time to kill with Luna entertaining herself in her bedroom with her dolls. Mila started looking through the boxes, trying to find where all of her office items were. She had moved several boxes around, and somehow she had wound up in the back of the attic, confronted with several things that were left from one of the homeowners before. 

There was an old, wooden coat rack hanging in the back with a coat hanging from one of the hooks. The jacket was long like a trench coat, with cheetah print fur on the collar and two buttons just below the neckline. This jacket looked like it was from the 40’s. She pulled the jacket down, coughing from the dust that started flying in the air from being disturbed. Mila reached into the pockets, hoping to find a vintage keepsake. Her fingers closed around a piece of paper. She snatched it from the pocket, letting the coat fall to a puddle of cloth on the floor.

Laying between her fingers wasn’t a piece of paper but a photograph of a little girl with red, ringlet hair and pink lips. Mila’s heart skipped a beat and her breath caught in her throat as she flipped the photograph to the back. Written in beautiful cursive writing were 5 letters and 4 numbers: Annie, 1965. 

Mila descended the ladder, placing herself in the middle of the hallway on the second floor of her home. Heart still beating in her throat, she made her way to Luna’s bedroom. “Hey, Luna, where does your friend Annie live?” she asked her daughter, who was moving dolls around her dollhouse in the center of her pink bedroom. 

“She said she used to live here. She said she had the same room as me. But now she lives at the bottom of the hill,” Luna shrugged it off, like those words meant nothing. To Mila, they meant everything. Mila left Luna to play with her dolls and she took the stairs back down to the main level of the house. 

There was a sudden, eerie chill in the house now. After knowing Annie had come inside so many times, and played with Luna in the backyard almost every day after school. Mila looked around the house, it was silent, and cold. When John had gotten home, instead of greeting him with a soft kiss to his lips, Mila kissed his cheek quickly and told him she’d be back in twenty minutes to start cooking dinner. 

Mila was nearly running through the neighborhood, trying to get to the bottom of the hill where Luna claimed Annie lives. She was staggering down the hill, over one top, and then over another hilltop until she was finally at the bottom. Mila came to an abrupt stop, just short of a small, old cemetery with a fence that was bashed in. 

The hair on Mila’s arms stood up, alert, as the breeze pushed passed her. It was a small, family cemetery, with only six tombstones. Julia Montgomery, Shelley Montgomery… Mila’s eyes scanned over the names until they landed on the name she was looking for. Annie Montgomery 1959-1965. 

Unable to comprehend what she was seeing, Mila fell to the ground, right at Annie’s tombstone, and she clutched the photograph in her hand. This is why Annie never stays over, and she’s always gone so quickly, and why Mila never knew her parents. Because Annie was never really there, and her parents aren’t either. A haunting feeling overcame her, thinking about how this family used to live in their home, and Annie knows Luna has her room. Mila stood back up to her feet, dusting off the grass and dirt on her knees, then she started climbing the hill back to her house. 

Safe inside, she was distraught; It would be one thing for Luna to have been playing with an imaginary friend, but this was no imaginary friend at all. She was a real girl, but one who is no longer here. “Hey babe, why don’t we just get carry out tonight? I don’t feel like cooking,” Mila walked up behind her husband, rubbing his shoulders as he sat, watching the game on TV. 

John’s hands slid over her own and gave them a soft squeeze, “I’ll go pick it up. Chinese?” he asked. 

Mila leaned over the back of the couch and gave him a soft kiss on his lips, “perfect.” John was out the door when Mila raced for her computer in her home office. Standing against the wall, it was just her computer, a chair, and the soft blue light from the screensaver. Mila opened up her google chrome browser and started to do some research. 

What she found was not only haunting, but heart breaking. With eyes glossing over with tears, Mila’s hand was pressed to her mouth, suppressing a gasp. Montgomery Murder was the headline of the article that had given her all of her information. April 23rd, 1965 the Montgomery family was murdered by their own loving father and husband. Bryan Montgomery pulled the trigger on his wife first, point blank, shot straight through the heart. Then he shot the gun at his five children, Shelley, Nancy, Jake, Jackson, and Annie. 

Mila started to scroll further down, continuing to read the article. At the bottom of the screen was a picture of the family. They were smiling, they were happy. Annie was standing in front of her mother, a bright smile on her face, and that pretty red hair. Then Mila’s eyes caught on Annie’s mother, she was wearing a jacket. It was long, like a trench coat, with cheetah print fur on the collar and two buttons just below the neckline. Mila quickly shut down the computer, unable to see Annie’s smiling face, and unable to accept what she had found in her attic. 

The next day, Luna came home from school and ran straight to the backyard. Mila’s heart was beating against her rib cage as she watched Luna run and play in the backyard. She knew Annie would come back, her and Luna were friends after all. Mila just wasn’t sure if she was ready to see Annie after the research she had done last night. Mila didn’t even have it in her to tell John. She didn’t want to freak him out; he knew about Annie, but never had the chance to meet her, because she was always gone before he got home from work. 

Mila had pulled her eyes away from the window in the kitchen for just a moment to click on the TV as she was starting to prepare snacks for Luna. When she looked back up, Annie’s ghostly figure was playing with Luna in the backyard. As a mother, she wondered if she should yell at Luna to come inside - to protect her from this thing she was playing with. But also as a mother, she couldn’t help but feel bad for Annie. Annie was still a child, and she never got to be anything but a child. 

After Mila finished cutting up two apples for the girls, she went back up to the attic to retrieve the jacket she had found the day before. Back in the kitchen, she draped it over the back of a chair before she went back to watching the girls run around the backyard. She let them play for a few more moments before she opened the window, letting a gust of cold air through the window. “Girls! Come inside for some snacks!” she called out, and they both paused. Luna took off running for the door, Annie stayed back. “You too, Annie,” Mila said, giving the little girl a reassuring nod. 

Annie came running to the door now, and Luna collapsed onto the chair in the kitchen. Mila set the plate of apples down in front of Luna, who instantly started eating them. Mila smiled at Annie, trying to keep her beating heart at bay. “That’s okay,” Mila said softly, watching the little girl who looked afraid and hesitant, like a little puppy dog trapped in the corner. “But…” Mila took the jacket from the chair, and she slowly approached Annie, afraid she might run off. “It’s getting really cold outside, so you might want to start wearing a jacket…” Mila dropped to her knees in front of Annie, who was watching her with curious, spectral eyes. 

Mila unbuttoned the coat and draped it over Annie’s shoulders. She used slow, gentle hands to button the coat just below Annie’s neck. Annie looked down at the coat when Mila pulled her hand away. She was smiling, almost a reminiscent smile. “This was mommy’s coat,” Annie said, her brown eyes looking over Mila. 

“And now it’s yours,” Mila stood back up, not once taking her eyes off of Annie and that big smile. “Alright, you girls can keep playing,” she said, seeing as Luna had finished most of her apples, anyway. Luna and Annie laughed and took off running for the backyard again. She watched them through the window once again. She’d watch them, until Annie would disappear again.