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Short story

  Caleb Bradley was a normal boy. Ever since he was a child, he would find photography so fascinating. He loved observing the pictures; his parents bought him a Polaroid camera.

  All of his photos were aesthetically pleasing.  As he grew, his pictures got better. His style was a bit weird though.

  It evolved from innocent pictures to disturbing. Caleb would photograph dead animals. He put flowers and colorful papers and toys around the animal's corpse and take one single picture of it.

  Caleb sped home as the picture developed. He grabbed some string, thumbtacks, and the pictures he took and would hang them up in his closet.

  His parents never found them. Once he turned eighteen, he finally moved out to a decent sized house. Caleb was actually able to get a job as a professional photographer.

  As he grew older, his career got better and earned even more money. He wanted a child to love and care for but he didn't want a relationship, he instead adopted a three year old boy named Jacob.

  They had a pretty good life until Caleb's boss wanted more from him, but he didn't have enough time to take care of Jacob himself.

  He was basically forced to hire a babysitter. Caleb had an entire room full of his disturbing pictures and he couldn't risk anyone finding them.

  So he took down his collages, photos, camera equipment, lights, etc. and hid  everything. He carried it all to his room and fit everything into his closet.

  His pictures meant so much to him that he couldn't risk damaging them in the closet. He pulled out a big black box and gently arranged all of the pictures into it. He slid the box under his bed.

  Jacob didn't know about these pictures or about his adoptive father's obsession. Jacob was never allowed to enter the room of pictures, so he obeyed his father and never walked into the room.

  Caleb finally found a babysitter that was able to work on a specific schedule. The babysitter's name was Omera Williams. 

  While Caleb was laying down the rules, he made sure to make it crystal clear how Omera was not allowed to look in his closet, but he forgot to mention the box under the bed.

  After a few months, Caleb thought it was a good idea to have a campfire in his backyard. He invited Omera over to have s'mores, hotdogs, burgers, and more.

  A few hours pass and Omera was playing with Jacob while Caleb was silently freaking out. He couldn't find Jacob's favorite toy. He sent Omera to look for it.

  Omera obviously agreed and went back inside of the house. She remembered how she was playing with Jacob in Caleb's room.  She goes to that room and begins looking around.

  She thought to look under the bed so she got in her hands and knees. She shined her phone's flashlight when she saw the large box. She opened it, thinking nothing of it, but what she found was sickening.

  Caleb's old pictures of the animals, but the recent ones were much worse. There were human corpses covered in blood. Their faces skinned completely. The limbs having deep slashes all over them. There were some bodies without legs, but in their place, were arms.

  Some of the bodies were cut open, the intestines everywhere. One picture had a little girl, her small intestine was removed from her body but was wrapped around her neck and in her hair, making it look like she had pigtails.

  Her fingers were broken, bent back to the point they could touch the back of her wrist. Her elbows were bent back the wrong way. Every joint she had, was broken in the completely wrong direction.

  Caleb kept his aesthetic theme though, he put the same little flowers, papers, and toys around her body and even put makeup on her.

  Omera let out a deafening scream. She screamed so loud, it made her lightheaded. She lost her balance and collapsed. As she fell, her head hit the corner of the bed frame and cracked her skull open. She died on the impact.

  Caleb heard her scream and came running through the door with little Jacob in his arms. He gently set Jacob on the floor and looked disappointingly at Omera's helpless body on the floor.

  Jacod didn't know what was going on so he just ran to his room to play. There was a large puddle of crimson blood pooling around Omera's head but Caleb quickly cleaned it up.

  Caleb knew it was wrong but he had to do it. He took out his best camera, put the flowers, papers, and toys around Omera's body, and snapped a load of pictures. He positioned her in many different poses and snapped a picture for each one.

  After he thought it was enough, he dragged her corpse outside and secretly buried her in the backyard. Jacob didn't care at all so he was fine.

  Caleb, however, needed to make an important phone call.

He needed a new babysitter.