LUCIFER » SIMON MINTER

Chapter 35

As soon as school opened again on the 6th of January, 6 days after I had heard from Will or anybody else at that party, I drove over to work on some projects. Bringing all my photography equipment with me in a small backpack, I headed down the halls, past the eerily quiet classrooms where the scent of exam stress still clung to the walls, and straight to the university's dark room.

Recently, I had practiced taking some photos with my oldest camera – one that you wouldn't easily find anywhere else. It was antique to say the least, even older than Josh. I had taken a couple pictures with it over the last 6 days that I needed for a new photography project, which I then needed to develop in the dark room.

It was usually quiet in there anyway, but I wanted to go before school actually started to avoid running into anyone. Walking into the dark room, I placed my bag on a chair and pulled out a small speaker that I had brought with me. I loved listening to music here; the sound of the water and the dark of the room was incredibly peaceful and therapeutic, and with some music in the background, it seemed like heaven on Earth.

I took out the films, which were currently just white, and started setting up the little trays full of water, each next to the other. Tongs ready in hand, and a stack of white films standing on a table behind me, I carefully picked up the first one and placed it in the tray.

This was one of my favourite parts of photography. Developing your own film was so exciting. Once you've taken a picture, you have an idea of what it looks like, but you never truly know. And you never truly know what picture you've placed in the tray until it's completely processed. It's like a surprise, over and over again.

I wiggled the film around in the water with the tong, and tilted my head as something started appearing. It might've been that picture of Sarah's setup that I took before she was sitting in it, with papers flying in the wind. But I furrowed my brows as it continued developing. It was indeed a picture of someone's desk area, with different computer monitors set up, a bit similar to Sarah's but a lot more high tech. Eventually, when I put it in the next tray to prove, I found it was a picture of three monitors, papers scattered around them and pictures of a couple pulled up on all three screens.

I frowned, knowing it was definitely not my picture, but left it to prove and then hung it up to dry afterwards. I guessed it was someone else's picture that somehow got lost in my stack of films. Oh well, now they had one less picture to develop. Not that I minded doing it for them, anyway.

I walked back to my table, swaying my hips to the music lightly and picked up another film, feeling just as excited to find out what this one was. I definitely recognised it as my own when I went to hang it up this time. It was a picture of Josh asleep, resting his head on Freya's lap, who was sitting on the couch. I smiled as I remembered walking into our living room, seeing Freya watching a TV show as she ran her fingers through Josh's hair.

I sighed in disappointment as the next picture to develop was again not  mine. Instead, it was a picture of a cinema, with all seats threadbare and torn except for two, which were next to each other in the back row. I again, hung it up with the others.

I was beginning to think someone was pulling a prank on me when the next picture wasn't mine either. But surely nobody would be as crazy as me to come to school to work before school even started? I even had to get permission from the receptionists, so surely they would've told me if someone else was to be in the building as well?

This time it was a picture of a calendar; one of those fat ones you'd place on your night stand, and there'd be a new picture for every day. It was turned to February the 14th, 2016. The idea behind the collection of photos was cute though: I could see how they were all related to each other. Each one had something to do with a couple or a relationship or something along those lines.