Fort Oakley | Part One

9 | Pictures, Intruders, And Vertigo

14 February 2022 - Monday

When Sheriff Lucien pulls into Claire's driveway, his phone rings, so I climb out of the car, giving him his privacy as I unlocked the house and head inside. 

Claire wasn't one to keep pictures displayed around the house; instead, she stores them in photo albums tucked away in boxes in the attic. The ladder leading up creaked as I pulled it down, revealing the dimly lit space above. Dust particles danced in the air as I switched on the overhead light, casting eerie shadows on the cardboard boxes stacked haphazardly around the attic.

 I moved cautiously mong the boxes, scanning each one briefly in search of the photo albums. Some boxes seemed heavier, suggesting they held items more substantial that just photographs. My curiosity nagged at me, wondering what else Claire might have hidden away up here, but I pushed those thoughts aside, focusing on finding what I needed. 

Not wanting to waste any of the Sheriff's time, I opened each box briefly, only looking for the photo albums. I could always come back and search through the other boxes later if I still wanted to know what was inside them.

When I finally found a box with a couple of photo albums in it, I pulled one out, flipping through the pages. I could clearly remember when all of these were taken since it was after my twelfth birthday, so I quickly scanned each picture, looking for one in which my necklace was visible. The familiar faces of friends and acquaintances smiled back at me, triggering memories long buried under the weight of recent events.

When I found one, I scowled at Elvin who stood next to me in the photo. I took the photo out of the book, and as I was going to put it back in the box, a photo fluttered to the ground. I dropped the album in the box, picking the loose photo up. I frowned in confusion as I desperately tried to remember when this was taken. I guessed I was around five years old in the photo, which is why I couldn't remember it, but that wasn't what was troubling me. 

In the photo, I was standing in between two other kids my age, a girl and a boy. The little girl had blond hair, blue eyes, and she was laughing at whoever was taking the photo. Next to her, was me, smiling at the camera with two missing front teeth. 

The little boy next to me was standing with his arm around my shoulders. He wasn't smiling as big as me or the other girl, but he still looked moderately happy. He had black hair, but it was uneven in some places as if the boy had taken a pair of scissors and tried giving himself a haircut, even if he didn't know what he was doing. 

Even though everything else besides our faces was out of focus in the picture, I could clearly see bruises on the boy's throat. I looked at the boy's forest green eyes, and in them, I could see that same look I had gotten in the school hallway on my first day back.

I didn't know who the girl was, but I knew, without a doubt, that the little boy was Jacey Andino. 

''What the hell?'' I whispered, flipping the picture over. There was a bunch of numbers on the back, with a bunch of dots and little commas separating them, but no names or explanation of who the girl was, where this photo was taken, or how Jacey and I knew each other. If we were really friends when we were younger, why had he never said anything? 

A sudden crash snapped me out of my confusion, and I quickly closed the box, stuffing the two photos into my pocket. ''Kamala?'' I called out, but no answer came. Claire couldn't be back already, so it could only be Kamala in the house since she had her own key for when she needed to clean.