One picture

                                                    "Please, just one picture."

                                                                    "No."

                                                               "Why not?"

                                                               "Because."

                                                                 "Please."

                                                                   "No."

                                             "Pretty please with a cherry on top?"

                                                    "I don't even like cherries."

                                                   "What about olives on top?"

                                                       "The answer's still no."

                                                                  "But..."

                                                               "I said no!"

   He calmly set his camera down with a sigh. He was almost to the point of giving up. They had the    

                    same tiring conversation every day. Always the same tiring answer. No.

                   "Just let me take one picture of you. I promise, after that I'll never ask again."

               She bit lower lip nervously. He had noticed that she had been acting strangely lately.  

                   "What if I lost you, and didn't have anything to for me to remember you by?"

                                         "Remember me in your brain, camera face."

She turned away from him and began walking quickly down the hall. He couldn't keep it in any longer. 

                                                        "What if you ran away?"

She stopped walking and stood there with her back facing him like he had frozen her solid. The only  

                                       thing to be heard was the beating of her heart.

                                                        "Wh-why would I do that?"

                                                     Her voice was shaking terribly.

                                  "I've known you forever. You've always wanted to escape."

                                                                "That's not true."

                                                                      "Yes it is."

                                                                    "No it's not!"

                                                               "You know it's true."

                                                              "I wouldn't run away."

                                     She wasn't fooling him. He could see right throughout her.

                                                         "What if you got the chance?"

                                                      "What's that supposed to mean?"

                                                              "It means stop lying."

                                                                       "I'm not..."

"Yes, you are. It means that any day now the perfect chance to escape will come. And you'll be ready. I've been in your room. You've packed your backpack. As soon as the chance comes you'll take it and be gone. What if that chance came tomorrow? You would leave. Your ready. But the thing is..."

                                                             He took a deep breath.

                                                                 "I'm not ready."

                                 She still stood there, still frozen. She was trembling slightly.

                                                         "Just one picture. Please."

                                              She nodded and turned around to face him.

                                        A click of the lens and a flash of light and it was over.

                                                                             +++

                              The next day he woke up to find a sticky note in his hand. It read:

                                                                 The chance came

                                                       One picture covered the world. 

                                                       On the picture were four words.

                                               HAVE YOU SEEN HER?

                                                                    One picture.

                                                     The one he had taken from her.

                                                                   She was gone.

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Thanks for reading! :)

-celia-