Ruby didn't move.
The old phone felt slick in her palm, but her fingers were cold. On the screen, the woman wearing a house shirt and standing in the doorway of Mikhayla's room was still staring at her. It was the same face. Puffy eyes, hastily tied-up hair, a small oil stain on her sleeve.
Except Ruby wasn't standing in the doorway.
She was still at the dining table.
"No way," she whispered.
The figure in the photo tilted her head.
The movement was so slight that Ruby almost thought her eyes had deceived her. She blinked. The photo was still again. Mikhayla's room looked the same as before: cream-colored walls, a moon-shaped night-light, a stuffed animal beside the pillow, and a blanket slightly pulled away from her child's little feet.
Ruby lowered the phone.
From the bedroom came the steady sound of Mikhayla's breathing.
She stood up.
The chair scraped across the floor with a short squeak. Ruby waited, afraid the sound had woken Jordan. But there was no sound from the master bedroom. Her husband had probably already fallen asleep. He always fell asleep faster after coming home from work, as though his body no longer had the energy to make it through the night.
Ruby carried the phone to Mikhayla's room.
The door was slightly ajar. Light from the hallway formed a thin line across the floor. Ruby pushed it open slowly.
There was no one inside.
Mikhayla slept with one hand clutching the ear of her stuffed rabbit. Her mouth hung slightly open. Her hair clung to her forehead. Ruby moved closer and touched the child's neck to make sure her temperature was normal.
Warm.
Real.
Ruby looked into every corner of the room. Behind the curtains, under the bed, beside the little dresser. There wasn't enough space for someone to hide, much less take a photo from the position shown on the phone.
She looked at the screen again.
The photo had changed.
It wasn't a different picture. There was only one new detail. On the floor, near the feet of the Ruby in the photo, lay a long shadow that didn't come from any light.
The shadow stretched in from outside the frame.
The hair on the back of Ruby's neck rose.
Something creaked behind her.
She spun around too fast.
The bedroom door moved slightly, pushed by a draft from the hallway. Ruby pressed the phone against her chest. For several seconds, she just stood there, trying to steady her suddenly shallow breathing.
"Ruby?"
Jordan's voice came from behind the door of the master bedroom.
Ruby almost dropped the phone.
"Yeah?"
"Where are you?"
"In Mikhayla's room."
Jordan appeared with messy hair and half-open eyes. He looked at Ruby, then at their still-sleeping daughter.
"What's wrong?"
Ruby opened her mouth. She wanted to say that there was a photo that couldn't possibly exist. She wanted to show Jordan the screen and ask him to confirm that she wasn't hallucinating from exhaustion.
But before she could answer, the phone in her hand vibrated.
A new notification appeared.
New photo added.
Ruby stared at it. Jordan hadn't seen it yet.
"Whose phone is that?" he asked.
"An old phone."
"Didn't it stop working?"
"I don't know."
A second vibration followed.
Ruby opened the new photo.
This time, the image showed the room from a closer angle. Mikhayla was still asleep. Ruby appeared to be standing beside the bed. Jordan stood in the doorway.
Exactly as they were now.
The blood drained from Ruby's face.
The timestamp at the bottom of the photo read 9:24 p.m.
The clock on the wall showed 9:23.
"Ruby?" Jordan stepped closer. "What's going on?"
He reached out to see the screen, but Ruby pulled the phone behind her back.
"Don't."
Jordan stopped. "Don't what?"
"Don't touch it."
Her voice sounded sharper than she'd intended. Jordan frowned. Behind them, Mikhayla shifted in her sleep and made a small sound.
Ruby looked at the screen one more time.
The figure of Jordan in the photo had changed too.
His head had turned toward Ruby.
But the real Jordan was still looking at Mikhayla.
Then the figure on the screen raised one hand.
Its finger pointed beneath the bed.
Ruby swallowed.
"What's under there?" Jordan asked.
Ruby didn't answer.
Something beneath Mikhayla's bed made a soft tapping sound.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Mikhayla opened her eyes.
"Mom?"
Ruby scooped her up at once. The child squirmed, still half-asleep, then wrapped both arms around her mother's neck.
"It's okay," Ruby said. "Mom's here."
The tapping came again.
Tap.
Jordan turned on the overhead light. White light filled the room, making everything look too clear. There was no long shadow beneath the bed. No hands, feet, or moving object.
Only an old shoebox wedged far in the back.
Jordan knelt and pulled it out.
Ruby held her breath.
The box didn't belong to them. She recognized its dusty surface and faded blue ribbon. It had belonged to her mother. Ruby had seen it at her parents' house years ago, when they were cleaning out the old room.
"Where did this come from?" Jordan asked.
Ruby didn't know.
Jordan lifted the lid.
Inside were a dozen or so yellowing printed photographs. Photos of Ruby in school. Photos of Mireya. Photos of their old house. Most of them had curled from the damp.
On top was a new photograph.
Ruby picked it up with trembling hands.
The photo showed her carrying Mikhayla in the same room. Jordan stood beside her. They were smiling at the camera.
But behind them, reflected in a small mirror on the wall, stood a girl in a blue dress.
The girl had her back to the camera.
Ruby recognized the dress.
The dress she had worn in the old photo beneath the tree.
On the back of the printed photo was handwriting she had never seen before.
Don't use someone else's memories to forget your own life.
Ruby read the sentence twice.
"Who wrote this?" Jordan asked.
Ruby turned the photo over. "I don't know."
The old phone in her hand lit up again.
It wasn't a photo notification.
A blank message appeared on the screen. There was no sender's name. No number. Just one short sentence.
If you want to see the Ruby from before, touch the next photo.
Beneath the message, the gallery displayed the photo of the blue dress.
Ruby felt the same warmth spread from her palm. The afternoon breeze, the grass, Mireya's laughter. They were all waiting for her behind the screen.
Mikhayla lifted her head from Ruby's shoulder.
"Are you going somewhere, Mom?"
The question was simple. Yet Ruby felt as though her daughter had just pulled her back from the edge of a cliff.
She turned off the phone's screen.
For the first time that night, the photo inside it didn't have time to look back.
Ruby slipped the phone into her pants pocket and hugged Mikhayla tighter.
"No," she said.
She looked at the girl in the blue dress in the printed photo still held in Jordan's hand.
"Mom's not going anywhere."
From her pants pocket, the old phone vibrated once more.
Ruby didn't open it.
But a girl's voice came very softly from inside.
Ruby's voice.
"Then prove it."