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through some old articles and came across the one I recognised them from. I knew I had seen them somewhere before. They live nearby, so I contacted them and told them about what you had found. They wanted to meet you, see the photo, but when we came by your house and you weren’t there, well, I figured you had come back here. Hoped, really. You had me scared hon.”
    “Do you have the photo?” Heather said, tears in her eyes.
    Julia looked down to her right hand. She nodded. She unfolded the photo and handed it to Heather. Wiping tears from her eyes, she grabbed the picture and held it up to the light.
    “What’s this?” Sebastian said, his voice more baffled than angry.
    “What do you mean?” Julia said.
    “Is this the picture you found here?”
    Julia nodded.
    “I thought you said it was the one Amanda took of us a few weeks before she…” Heather bowed her head and cried.
    Claire and Julia frowned at each other. “I don’t understand,” Julia said.
    Sebastian handed her the photo.
    Instead of a family smiling in front of a weatherboard house there was a man. A hairy man with evil, lustful eyes.
    “It’s Geoff Campbell.”
    Julia gazed into the wrecked face of Sebastian Waters. “Who?”
    “Geoff Campbell. He’s the janitor at Amanda’s elementary school. Why do you have a picture of him?”
    Julia opened the jacket and looked down at her chest. The growth was gone. Completely and utterly gone – not a hint of the photo remained. Her body was blemish free again.
    Julia handed the photo back to Sebastian. “It’s a gift to you. From Amanda.”
     
     
    NOTES:
     
    Believe it or not, this story came about because of the movie 8 Mile . I was watching the movie one night, and there was a scene set at an abandoned house (or maybe it was a house after it had been gutted by a fire – it’s been a while since I’ve seen it).
    As so often happens with stories, they just pop into your head seemingly out of nowhere. Sometimes it happens while you’re driving, or taking a shower…or watching a movie. Just seeing that one scene sparked something inside my head, and the idea of the ghost of a murdered girl came to me in that moment.
    While I like to think that the story was in me and would’ve come out eventually, I still wonder – if I had never watched that movie at that time, would I have ever written the story? While you’re all dwelling on that little mind-bending idea, I’ll just thank Scott Silver, Curtis Hanson and Eminem for the inspiration behind the story.

 
    STOLEN LIVES
     
    “Who was on the phone?” Jerry said.
    Ray, standing by the entrance to the lounge room didn’t speak. He merely gazed at his friend, who was watching the television, beer in one hand, scratching his crotch with the other.
    After a notable silence, Jerry pried his eyes away from the football game and looked at Ray. “So? Who was it? Kim?”
    Ray shook his head. “Not exactly.”
    Kim, Ray’s wife and his sixteen-year-old daughter Rebecca, hadn’t been home when Ray and Jerry arrived almost an hour ago. Ray had been desperately waiting for his wife to call since then.
    “What the hell’s the matter, man? You okay?” Jerry had a goofy smile on his face. “They’ve been kidnapped,” Ray said.
    Jerry frowned and took a swig of his beer. “Who has?”
    “Kim and Rebecca.”
    Jerry shook his head, his long greasy hair swishing about his gaunt face. “You’re a fucking riot, Ray,” he sniggered. “Kidnapped.”
    “I’m not kidding,” Ray said and started crying. It wasn’t often he cried. He hadn’t cried when his father died. Nor when his brother died. Nor when his first wife died. Not even when…
    But he had to in this instance.
    After a short but forceful bout of crying, Ray finally managed to gain some control. He wiped the tears and snot and looked over at Jerry.
    Jerry looked shocked, probably from seeing his best mate weeping more than hearing the news of the kidnapping. He stood, placed his beer