Secrets Discovered

Sera

Memories of a friend I once knew as a child rushed back.

“That’s Paige Bruno,” I gasped, swiping the photo before Tommaso could hide it.

Or what was left of her, I thought with a devastated heart. In the Polaroid, she was sitting on the ground, covered in dirt, and even with the flash on, it was hard to tell what color her hair was. Her pretty red hair, always in some sort of braid, gleaming in the sun as we chased each other through the yard. She was hardly recognizable.

My fear sharpened into anger. I glared at Tommaso. “What the hell is going on? Why do you have this? Where is she? Who took this picture and when?”

For such a broad-shouldered, confident, often cheery guy, Tommaso had a sudden knack for shrinking. He was eyeing the photo in my hand, and I knew he was calculating his chances of swiping it back. He had balls, thinking it would be easy to steal from someone who couldn’t move their right arm.

“I’ve already seen it,” I snapped before he could get any words out, clutc