The Broken

by Sean Michael Frawley

table and hurried to the door before they rang the bell a second time. He didn't want Ayden to wake up and overhear what he needed to tell his friends. Bug had been through enough already.

  Link squinted through the frosted glass in the front door. After seeing the two familiar faces of Panch and Celia, he held up his hand and motioned for them to wait as he fumbled with the lock. Then he swung the door open.

  "Hey, guys, thanks for coming," Link said, welcoming them inside.

  "Hey, Link," Celia said. She turned and waved to her mom, who was parked by the curb out front.

  Her mother honked the horn once and waved back in response. Then she blew Celia a kiss. The car quickly vanished into the thick curtain of mist and rain.

  "What's up, brah? Sweet crib," Panch said. He was dripping wet as a result of his adamant refusal to use an umbrella.

  "Thanks, Panch. Can I get you a towel?"

  "Nah. How 'bout some grub? Got any nibs I can crunch? I've had the serious munchies for over an hour. Somebody," he pointed at Celia, "doesn't believe in snacks."

  "What do you call carrots and salad dressing?" Celia said.

  "I call it rabbit food."

  "It's not my fault you're afraid of anything that doesn't come pre-wrapped and microwavable."

  "Chill out, woman. Deep breaths. Come on, like this." Panch drew a deep breath as an example.

  "Shut up, Panch!" Celia said, jabbing him in the gut. The unexpected blow caused him to exhale, effectively launching his gum past Link's head and into the hallway.

  "What's wrong with you? First you offer me rabbit food. Then you make me spew my gum? Are you bent?"

  "Guys?" Link said before Celia could counter. "Just come inside." With the long line of enemies increasing by the hour, Link could ill afford a rift between his few remaining friends. He also wasn't particularly fond of remaining out in the open now that he had a threat on his life sitting in his inbox.

  "Oh, right. Sorry, Link," Celia said, as if suddenly remembering the reason she was there.

  Celia shook off her umbrella and stowed it beneath the swing on the front porch before following the dripping Panch into the house. Link led them into the kitchen where he poured them each some soda.

  "Chips and salsa okay?" Link said, looking in Panch's direction.

  "Okay? Dude." Panch held up his thumb and pinky and shook them furiously as if his hand had fallen into a seizure.

  Link allowed the silence to linger as he waited for Panch to finish his sentence. Instead of saying anything else, Panch again resorted to body language. He began nodding his head in vigorous approval while simultaneously devouring a fist full of chips.

  "So why'd you call us, Link?" Celia said. "And I warn you, this had better be good. Not that I mind coming over...but in this weather? It took some serious negotiations to convince my mom to drive us here. Now she won't have time to get her nails done before she goes to golf. And trust me when I say that's a bad thing."

  Link pointed skyward as another clap of thunder shook the house. "She's going to play golf in this weather?"

  "Just because it's raining here, doesn't mean it will be there. Besides, they have an indoor driving range and putting green over there. So the weather doesn't really matter."

  Link shrugged. Whether or not Celia's mother played golf wasn't really his concern right now. He withdrew three pictures from his pocket and placed them on the counter. "Look at these," he said. He arranged them in the order in which he had taken them. "Notice anything unusual?"

  "You brought us here to look at pictures of a house? Unbelievable," Celia said.

  "Look at them," Link implored. "Please."

  "Okay, so...what am I looking at?"

  "The tree. Don't you see it?"

  "You mean the one that fell on the house?" Celia said. "What of it? Did someone get hurt? I would hate to get hit by a tree. Especially if it didn't kill me. Can you imagine being stuck under a couple hundred pounds of wood? Your body would be all crushed up inside, but you wouldn't be able to do anything about it."

  "You're missing the point," Link said. "Look again. This time don't focus on the tree. Compare the first and third pictures. Then look at the second one."

  "What is it, some kind of before and after thing? I think you have them out of order," Celia said, still not grasping the connection.

  "Dude, I saw this one show where some chick was dyin' of cancer so they remodeled her house. The new one was sick. I mean totally balls-to-the-wall sweet. It had a waterfall in the kitchen for washing dishes and a three-hole putt-putt in the backyard. A bit over the top. But dude, if you're gonna go, do it in style, right?" Panch looked around the room for confirmation but found only blank stares.

  "You don't understand," Link resumed. "This was the order that I took them in. And I'm talking seconds apart, at most."

  "Wow. What are the chances of that?" Celia asked.

  "I know. A waterfall. Awesome, isn't it?" Still stuck on the renovation show, Panch struggled to transition back to the fallen tree in the picture.

  "Zero," Link said. "It can't happen."

  "It can't be zero. Not if you're saying that it did happen," Celia corrected.

  "Okay, true, but I took the second shot before the tree fell, not after. And look at the third shot. It's like nothing ever happened."

  "The order must have gotten mixed up in the lab. What's the big deal?"

  "Haven't you heard of a digital camera?" Panch added, clearly trailing a few beats behind the conversation.

  Both Celia and Link looked at Panch to gauge whether he was trying to be funny, or if he was lost. Celia continued, "You're reading too much into all this."

  "Dude, Link, where's your bathroom?"

  Link pointed to the doorway, leading to the living room. "Through there," he said, indicating the direction, though never fully removing his gaze from Celia's.

  "I'm not crazy," Link continued. "Ayden and I both watched the tree fall. It happened right in front of us."

  "And that's how you got the picture."

  "No." Link sighed, growing impatient. He did his best to keep in mind that not everyone's life had lapsed into total insanity lately. He would have to take it slow. Everything he said must sound like utter nonsense to someone who hadn't been there to see it happen.

  "I took the pictures yesterday. Then I developed them. It wasn't until after I saw the one with the fallen tree that Ayden and I went back to see the house this afternoon." Link jabbed at the house in the photo. "When we got there, the tree was standing. By the time we left, a lightning strike had knocked it down, and the tree looked like this," he said, now pointing to the second photo.

  "But that's impossible."

  "That's my point," Link said. "It doesn't make any sense to me either. That's why I called you guys. Well, that and all the death threats I've got in my inbox."

  "Link, Fade was mad, but I doubt he ever seriously contemplated killing you. Roughing you up a bit? Yes. Killing you? No. That was just Fade being Fade."

  "I'm not talking about Fade. It's not him. There's no way he knows my e-mail address. I doubt he even knows how to turn on a computer."

  "Did you tell your dad that someone wants to kill you?"

  "Not a chance. He'd flip. Besides, after what happened with... I just can't talk to him. Let's leave it at that."

  "But..." The flash of anger in Link's eyes warned Celia against pushing the subject any further, so she altered her line of inquiry.

  "Pretending I believe any of this," Celia began, "and I'm not saying I do, where does the magical camera come in?"

  "I never said it was magical."

  "No, you didn't. Because that would be crazy. What you said was that you have a camera capable of taking pictures of the future. That's totally different."

  "I'm not saying you're wrong, but the word 'magical' sounds stupid. It makes me think a unicorn is going to poop pixie dust on my front door when what we're really talking about is a bunch of deranged e-mailers who want to kill m
e and take the camera. They said-"

  "They? As in plural? As in more than one? Good Lord, Link, how many people want you dead?"

  "I have no idea. The e-mailer used the pronoun we. Unless the writer has multiple personalities, I assume there's more than one. Anyway, they said they'd kill me unless I gave 'it' to them."

  "If they didn't tell you what 'it' was, how do you know they want the camera?"

  "I guess I assumed they didn't want me to give them the finger. Come on, Celia, it's not like I have anything else that anybody would want. The camera is the only thing even remotely worth stealing."

  "So you think the crazy e-mailer, or e-mailers, want to take your camera?"

  "Yes."

  "The magical one that takes pictures of the future," Celia said, unable to remove the skepticism that littered her words.

  "Well, again, I don't think magi-"

  "Dude?" Panch emerged from the living room, mesmerized by a photo he held in his right hand. His face white as an albino, he stood transfixed in shock. "Dude, I see..." he started again, only to stop midway through the sentence.

  "Panch, what is it? You look as though you've seen a ghost." Celia said, attempting to lighten the intensity of the situation.

  "I think I do."

  "What?" Celia said, concern creeping into her voice.

  "In the picture. This shadow thing... It's looking at me."

  "Where'd you get that?" Celia demanded.

  Either unable or unwilling to comment, Panch didn't answer. Frozen in horror, he stared at the image in front of him. "The eyes move," he said at last. "It's like they're watchin' me."

  Both Celia and Link leaned in closely to see what he was talking about. Link recognized the picture