My mother insisted the stranger appearing in every childhood photograph was just a developing defect.
At her funeral I finally met him, and he asked why I had taken so long to grow up.
A photograph is supposed to freeze the past. These stories become frightening when the image knows more than the person looking at it.
It follows the house rule: exactly two sentences, with the turn doing more than adding a monster. It changes the reader’s interpretation of the setup.
Polaroid
The old Polaroid camera printed a picture before I pressed the shutter.
AirDrop
A stranger on the train kept sending me photographs of myself through AirDrop.
Motion Alert
The motion alert showed a woman standing motionless in my backyard at 2:11 a.m.
Face ID
My phone unlocked with Face ID while I was asleep alone in the apartment.
Sleep App
My sleep app congratulated me for finally getting eight uninterrupted hours.