"I don't think it's following anymore," a girl’s voice whispered. She sounded young, maybe seventeen.
I looked at the date stamp in the file info: IMG_0430.MOV
The frame remained still for the final ten seconds. In the distance, the girl’s footsteps stopped abruptly. There was no scream. Just a soft, wet click-click-click sound that grew louder as it approached the lens. A pale, needle-like finger entered the frame, reaching down toward the phone. The video cut to black. "I don't think it's following anymore," a girl’s
The camera spun around, the flashlight beam cutting through the dense woods. For a split second, the light caught something tall and pale standing behind a birch tree. It wasn't a person. It was too thin, its limbs segmented like an insect's, and its eyes—if they were eyes—reflected the light like polished chrome. In the distance, the girl’s footsteps stopped abruptly
After an hour of cleaning the charging port and a frantic jump-start of the battery, the screen flickered to life. There was no passcode. The previous owner hadn't wiped it; the gallery was empty, save for a single file in the "Recents" folder.
The girl gasped, and the running started again. The footage became a blur of dark branches and strobe-like flashes of light. Then, suddenly, the girl tripped. The camera tumbled through the air, landing face-up in the dirt.
I found the phone in the "untested" bin of a dusty thrift store on the edge of town—a cracked iPhone 6s with a faded sticker of a sunflower on the back. For five dollars, I figured if I couldn't fix it, I’d at least have some spare parts.