Our Skyler

Chapter 30

Skyler couldn't believe what he was seeing, but there was no doubt. The smiling young man in the photo that was holding him was indeed his foster father, Neil. There was no mistaking that man with auburn hair, brown eyes, and the freckles on the nose and cheeks. But Neil was young, probably not even twenty years old yet. The date was written below the picture, '2003-09-16', and the words 'Neil with baby Skyler.'

"What the hell is going on?" Kourosh yelled, and he was confused.

He recognized Neil as well, but he couldn't understand how that was possible.

"It appears that Neil had met Skyler years before he moved to them. But I don't understand why he never mentioned it to Skyler," Rajesh said, his voice calm compared to Kourosh's almost hysterical.

"How are you feeling, Skyler?" The older man added, his gaze full of concern.

"Confused," the boy answered without taking his eyes from the screen.

Skyler opened the next picture; '2004-01-26' and a little Skyler was lying on his stomach staring at the camera, with a green pacifier in his mouth. He had never seen pictures of himself as a toddler, and it felt a little strange. It was a little him that he knew almost nothing about, just little things that the spirits had told him.

Skyler continued to open up the photos of him. Pictures he had never seen before, pictures of him with people he didn't recognize. Neil didn't appear in any more photos, and Skyler couldn't understand how Diana could have these in her possession. Skyler didn't bring any pictures with him when he moved in with them. Could the childcare service have given it to them? But why didn't anyone ever mention it to him!

The blond, blue-eyed boy didn't smile in any of the photos, and he was always alone, staring at something the camera couldn't capture. Skyler knew it was the spirits, but for others, it probably seemed like Skyler just avoided the camera.

When he reached the newer photos, Skyler could vaguely remember where and when the pictures had been taken. Still, he couldn't recollect who had taken them. For some reason, Skyler had a little trouble remembering every family he'd been with.

A picture showed Skyler playing at the beach when he was eight years old, another when he was nine, and sleeping on a black couch, and one of him eating ice cream outside when he was ten. Then suddenly, Skyler became eleven, and the photographs multiplied. Before, it had at most been one or two every year, but after he moved in with Neil and Diana, there were at least two every month. And the pictures started to change the older he got.

Skyler looked at the most recent pictures, and in an instant, he was overcome with nausea, and his body became cold. The two older men beside him gasped when they realized what they were looking at. It was pictures from surveillance cameras. It was pictures of Skyler sleeping, him working out in the basement, pictures of Skyler naked in the shower. There where even pictures of him in school talking with Danny or getting harassed by Sam.

Skyler put a trembling hand over his mouth when he opened the last picture, from one month ago. It wasn't a picture from a surveillance camera this time, it was from a handheld camera, and it was taken up close. Skyler was sleeping, but the duvet was pulled off him, and the one that had taken the picture had pulled down his boxers to his tights, showing of Skyler's genitals.

The boy slowly turned his head to Kourosh, tears filling up his eyes, and he whispered with a trembling voice.

"Kourosh, what's this?" Skyler felt he could barely form any words.

Kourosh pulled the boy to his chest, shielding his sight from the screen.

"Everyone, come here now!" The man bellowed and embraced the boy tightly.