Almost With You

We took our class photo last month. Nothing weird. But yesterday, our teacher showed

us the printed version… and there was a girl standing at the end of the row. None of us knew

her. She wasn’t there on the day of the photo. The teacher thought

it was an editing glitch and zoomed in. The girl’s eyes were looking straight

at me. Only me. When I went home, I checked the older class photos.

She was in those too. Standing a little closer each year. Tonight,

I woke up to the sound of my photo frame falling. The glass cracked across my face.

Behind it… someone had scribbled a message: “Smile. I’m almost with