My phone buzzed once. Then again. Then it wouldn’t stop.
I didn’t want to look. But I did.
It wasn’t notifications this time. It was a live video.
The thumbnail was pitch black, but the title wasn’t: “Look Behind You.”
My chest tightened. My thumb hovered over the screen.
I shouldn’t open it. I knew that. But my hand moved anyway.
The video flickered to life. It wasn’t black anymore. It was my room — live, right now. The same room I was standing in. Same walls. Same lamp. Same me.
But I wasn’t alone.
There was a shape in the corner. A shadow that didn’t belong to anything. It shifted, slow and deliberate.
Then it moved forward.
It wasn’t walking. It wasn’t crawling. It slid, like smoke trying to be human.
The feed glitched. My screen flickered, but the shape stayed clear.
It got closer.
And closer.
Then it stopped, right behind me.
In the video, I saw my own head tilt — but I wasn’t moving.
And then I heard it.
Not from my phone. From the corner of my room. Right behind me.
A whisper. Ragged. Familiar.
“Smile for me.”
My screen froze. The last frame stared back at me: me, smiling too wide… and the shadow, leaning over my shoulder.
The Stranger In My Photos 55 🤔🤔