“NO!” I wanted to scream, but nothing came out. “PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME!” I tried my best to yell, but I couldn’t. I don’t talk. Usually, I'm fine with that. I have grown used to not being able to talk, but I never wanted to scream more than right now. 

Now, you might be wondering, what is going on? Well, I'm a Polaroid camera and I live with a five-year-old girl named Lilly Johnson and her mom, Mary Johnson. It used to be just me and Mary, traveling the world together like Tokyo, Paris, you name it. Mary would take pictures using me. Things changed though, Mary had a kid named Lilly and they stayed in Orlando Florida ever since. At first, I hated it. I wanted to see the world, but slowly, Lilly had grown on me. Mary would take pictures of Lilly and with each picture that she took, I would love her more and more. Those pictures were engraved in my memory and they would be until I'm gone. That's just how I was made. Every time someone takes a picture, those images would shine in my head until the day I die. 

Just a few hours ago, Mary had announced that we were going to Disney World for Lilly’s birthday. We have been to Disney World many times, but even still, it was awesome. The smile on Lilly’s face makes it worth it. 

We were just walking around a road, looking at all the interesting buildings, until I slipped from Lilly’s little backpack and she did not even notice. I crash onto the harsh concrete. “NO!” I wanted to scream, but nothing came out. “PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME!” I tried my best to yell, but I couldn’t. Is this what they call ‘your life flashes before your eyes? I don’t want to be forgotten. The next thing I know, I'm being picked up by strong hands. Am I being returned to my beloved Lilly? Wait, no, this man is going in the opposite direction. Where is he taking me? I'm so confused. I just want to go back to Lilly and Mary. What is so difficult about that? It's obvious that this man saw me drop out of the backpack, because how else could he pick me up so fast? He knows I'm not his.

 Soon enough, I'm now in the front seat of a big white truck. The kind you see in horror movies where they kidnap kids. The rusty ones. Fear shoots through me. This is all happening too fast. I have not had this much movement for a very long time, and its all happening too fast.

I think hours have passed. I've been on this truck seat for hours, fearing what's coming next. Soon enough, the truck comes to a sharp stop and the man gets out and grabs me harshly to come with him. As he goes into a house, which I assume is his, I take a quick look around. The living room is small with a medium-sized TV in the middle that's standing on some cardboard boxes. The couch looks disgusting. There are many stains and rips, the same with the chair next to it. Not to mention there is dirt and dust everywhere. The kitchen is awful as well. The countertops seem to have spilled soda all over them, making them look sticky and disgusting. None of the dishes are cleaned, they’re all just piled up in the sink, forgotten. There are also Chinese Takeout boxes littered across the floor. Ants also crawl everywhere. I don’t want this to be my new home. I feel sick just bathing in the air. 

The man then brings me into a bedroom which I assume is his, and plops me down on a nightstand. He then lays down on his crusty-looking bed and scrolls through social media. From looking at his phone, I figured out that his name was Peter Smith. At some point, I got bored from looking at his phone and zoned out. What did I do wrong? Is the universe mad at me? Why did I get separated from my precious Lilly and Mary? Pictures that they took flashed through my mind and eyes. Lilly’s first smile, her first time at Disney World. Everything. I get snapped back to reality when Peter picks me up and brings me back to the white truck. I get aggressively thrown into the front seat. Oh no. As he starts his truck up, I have a strange feeling that this car ride will be different. 

Only thirty minutes go by before he slows down his truck, but not a complete stop until twenty seconds later. Odd. Once he comes to a complete stop, he quickly gets out of his side. Why is he going so fast? But I soon realize why when I hear a bloodcurdling scream right outside the truck. I then hear muffled screams, like someone is putting a cloth over their mouth. What is going on!? I then hear the back of the truck open and I hear a heavy object get thrown in. 

A few seconds later Peter gets in the car again and races off. Sweat drips down his face. Did he just kidnap someone? 

Soon enough, we arrived back at the house. I watch as Peter steps out of his vehicle and opens the back. I can’t see anything yet, but I can hear it. He is dragging something inside the house. Now it is just silent. I wait patiently for him to take me out of the car. 

Around fifteen minutes later, I heard him come back outside and open my side of the door. He picks me up and stares at me with a chilling smile. Fear shoots through me as he brings me inside and down a creepy set of stairs which I assume leads to a basement. Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see. 

There sat a girl, around twenty years old, tied up in an old wooden chair in the middle of the room. There was a thick rope around her mouth, wrists, ankles, legs, and waist. Her arms were tied to the back of the chair and her ankles were tied to the legs of the chair. She was breathing heavily and had tears falling down her face like a waterfall. If I had a heart, it would be beating so hard that I might have a heart attack, but I don’t have one, so I'm forced to see this scene in fear. 

Peter sets me down on a table close to him and picks up a knife instead. As soon as I see him pick that up, I look away instantly, not wanting to see what's about to happen. I can never avoid it though. The screams filled the room, echoing through me. If I were human, I would be baling my eyes out. 

Soon enough, the screams went quiet. I looked back at the girl and there was blood everywhere. The girl was dead. Fear shot through me as Peter walked over to me and picked me up. What is he going to do with me? He aims me towards the body and takes a picture. I’ve never felt so disgusting in my life. That picture is now going to be with me forever. It’s going to be stuck in my mind until the day I die. 

Peter then throws me on the table after collecting the picture I produced. He stares at it for a while, but then a smile slowly creeps on his face. This man is a psychopath. 

I watch as Peter shoves the body into a trash bag and takes it upstairs, never to be seen again. Now it's just me in this stone basement. I stare at the bloodied floor in shock. I can’t believe that just happened. Why me? What did I do to deserve to be here? Did the universe punish me for having too perfect of a life? 

Four painful weeks go by, and Peter brought down in total of ten more people in the basement. seven were women and three were men. They all seemed to be around the same age. Peter slaughtered all of them, taking pictures afterward and hanging them on a pinboard. I don’t know how much longer I can keep myself sane. 

I perk up when I hear Peter come down the stairs. I look and see he has a new person this time. A girl who looks like she is around seventeen years old. She’s the youngest one yet. As soon as Peter is done tying her to the chair she wakes up and starts screaming, or at least trying to. 

“You're a screamer, aren't you?” Said Peter. The girl just stared at him with anger in her eyes. I'm shocked by that. Usually, the victims have fear in their eyes, but this girl has anger. She looks at him like she is about to kill him. Peter seems surprised by that too.  he walks over to my table but he stops in his tracks. His knife is missing. 

Peter sighs and runs upstairs, my guess is to find the knife. Now it's just me and the girl. When I look at her, I can tell she is in deep thought. Then suddenly, she starts to do something with her hands. I can’t see what she's doing but I can see she is moving. Around 20 seconds later, her hands break free. Is she going to get out in time? She immediately takes the rope out of her mouth and takes a big gasp of air. She unties her waist and legs. The next thing she did surprised me. She took out a knife. The one Peter uses. Dang, this girl is smart! 

My guess is that Peter forgot the knife on the ground from the last victim. For the first time in a month, I feel hope. Hope for her. But that feeling gets pushed away when I hear loud footsteps coming down the stairs.

“WHERE IS MY KNIFE?” yelled Peter. This scared the girl and she froze, still holding the knife. Oh no. Please tell me the girl will be fine. Peter looks over at the girl and he freezes himself too. The girl then lunges at Peter, stabbing him in the leg and arm. Hope fills me once again as I see her run upstairs and hear the front door swing open. Peter tries to run after her, but he can't because of the stab wound in his leg. 

“GET BACK HERE!” Peter yells, but she is already long gone. “NO” Peter yells and bangs his fist into the ground from anger, making his hand bleed. 

Not even ten minutes later, I heard police sirens getting closer and closer. Peter hears them too and starts freaking out. “No, No, NO” He mumbles to himself. A few seconds later, police officers came running down the stairs and arrested Peter. During that, Peter did not say a word. I look at the name of the police officer who put Peter in handcuffs, Officer John. I’ll remember that name. 

Another officer sees me and picks me up. He probably questions why a grown man who murders people has a camera that has My Little Pony stickers on them. He picks me up gently and takes me upstairs and outside. I smell the freedom. I take in the fresh air, savoring it. The police officer takes me to a police car, shoves me in a plastic bag, then throws me in the backseat of the police car. He walks away without shutting the door, so now I'm forced to stare at the house I was in for 4 weeks. Will I ever be loved again? Will I ever see Lilly again? Why did all of this happen to me? Suddenly, a little old lady walks by. She has white hair, is arching her back, and has a cane. No one notices her except me. She then looks in my direction and stares me down. Confusion takes over my mind when she starts to walk towards me. Now, she is standing right in front of the police car. She looks around before she quickly snatches me and tries to run but fails because of how old she is. Instead, she just waddles away. 

two weeks go by and now I'm at a garage sale at that old lady’s house. She quickly found no use for me. I hate garage sales with a dying passion. Before Mary bought me, I was owned by 5 other people, and each time within a week or two, they would forget about me and they would sell me at a garage sale. Now the cycle is happening all over again.

All of a sudden, happiness fills me when I see two familiar faces. Mary and Lilly. They see me too. Lilly runs over to me and picks me up, hugging me instantly. Mary talked to the old lady and gave her $5, and then left with me. Surprisingly, this whole adventure has taught me something. Even when something bad happens in life, there is always a bright side. You will always find a way out. Even if it takes a while. If I could have a human mouth, I would be smiling from one ear to the other.