Savannah Watson

“Owen.” Olivia stormed into his bedroom without knocking.

Owen jumped and yanked his earbuds out, spinning around to face her. “What!? Can’t you knock?”

Olivia ignored him. “Have you seen this?”

Olivia shoved her cell phone in his face, and he pulled back. Annoyed, he snatched the phone out of his sister’s hand and looked at what she was trying to show him.

On the screen was a digitally rendered photo of a boy that looked like him. Like eerily similar to him.

“Liv, what is that?”

“My friend just sent me this link. That looks like you.”

Owen scrolled up. The photo was on a forum dedicated to the Jason Ray case. Attached to the picture was a sentence explaining it: I put the picture of the missing kid into a program and aged him up; this is what he would look like today.

“Owen, that picture looks like you,” Olivia repeated.

Owen didn’t answer.

“Owen!”

“I heard you; shut up!” Owen shushed her.

Olivia scowled at him. “Well?”

Owen didn’t know what to say, to his sister or to himself. Why did he look like the missing child of a serial killer?

“It’s just a stupid prank,” Owen finally said.

Olivia shook her head at him. “No way. I saw the baby picture in that news article. It looks just like the one you were looking at in the hallway! Not a prank and not a coincidence.”

Owen glared at her. He had always hated how observant she was; nothing ever got past her.

“Go away. You’re bothering me.”

Olivia huffed and stormed out of the room.

After a while, Owen finally ventured downstairs to find Olivia. As he descended, the smell of pizza reached him. When he entered the living room, a large pepperoni pizza sat on the coffee table like a peace offering.

“Want to watch a true crime documentary with me?”

Owen vaulted over the back of the sofa and threw himself down beside her. They started the documentary and downed the entire pizza.

What they missed was a breaking news report of an escaped convict and an alert of motion detected in the backyard.

THE END

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Thank you for reading this short mystery/spooky story for Halloween! I had such a blast writing this!

My book Salem Winters: Paranormal Problem Solver Volume One was supposed to be released today, but has been postponed. I’m very sorry! Thank you for the continued readership, engagement, patience, and support!

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