Chapter Text
Lyle often liked sitting on the fire escape outside his apartment window. It was an awesome spot to take photos, and if he just climbed a bit, it provided easy access into a certain someone’s apartment.
Lyle didn’t think he was a stalker. Of course he wasn’t, he never collected any of Sam’s things and he’d never even think of trying to bring him home like a stalker. No, he just took pictures.
And if he really thought about it, they weren’t even that bad! Just maybe a chance encounter they’ve had, he knew he had a photo of Sam waiting at the bus stop. And one of him at their old convenience store job, but Sam was smoking and the light from the cigarette had provided such amazing lighting. And admittedly he had a few photos of Sam sleeping, but he just looked so peaceful, it was almost wrong not to have a few keepsakes of it!
…He wasn’t stalker, was he?
He sighed. He didn’t like thinking about it much, it made him feel… wrong. He always tried to justify those more… illegally obtained photos, but he couldn’t find it in him to believe himself. Wha was he thinking? He stole the man’s house key for goodness sake!
But it’s not like he had any courage to give it back. What could he say, “Sorry I stole your spare key so I could take photos of you when you were sleeping”, no, absolutely not. Sam would hate him, and there’s no way that could happen.
He thought about the key in his darkroom. Maybe it wasn’t the end of the world if he just… kept it. Yeah, what harm could it do? Sam wouldn’t have to know, not now at least. He didn’t ever have to know. And maybe, maybe he could just check in on him! Just from time to time. Really he was keeping Sam safe with his little visits.
He looks out at the city. It looks pretty good. Maybe he’d take a photo. Going inside, he grabbed the key to the darkroom from his pocket and unlocked the door. He checked on the photos that were developing, one was of the park he visited sometimes. It was a quaint little park, had to be one of his favorite spots in the entire city. He grabbed his camera off the table and headed back to the window. But he paused.
Something felt different. Lyle looked back at his window, it almost looked… enticing. Like it wanted him to just… look. To look outside. Like something was out there. Something no one had ever photographed before.
He hesitated, but readied his camera. Slowly, he took a deep breath and looked.
The giant rainbow colored eye seemed to stare back at him. It was like a Rorschach test, something your not ment to understand. Something that has no meaning or purpose, no explanation why it looks the way it does. Something complex to points you can’t understand, but that can be understood enough just by looking.
And as he felt his skin shrivel and stretched on his body, he turned on the camera. And as he felt his blood curdle in his veins, he raised it up to look through. And as his flesh melded to the camera, painfully, like a hot metal ball sinking into styrofoam, he took a picture.