Legend has it that a spectre, a ghost, or an entity, resides within every single photograph.
The older the photograph, the more obvious the spectre’s presence becomes. Strange marks appearing over a person’s face being one example… or a face that seems to superimpose itself over a cloudy sky is another.
Sir Langholm Newton, an expert in paranormal photography, had a theory that these photographic oddities were caused by the spiritual conditions at the time the photo was taken. He spent twenty years investigating hundreds of these photos between 1951 and 1971. However, he never reached a definitive conclusion before he mysteriously disappeared in 1972.
His handwritten notes filled many leather-bound books, but had been kept, out of sight, in a safe at his home in Sunlawn Lodge, Herefordshire. Newton’s niece was given the deeds to the property in 2015, and she discovered the key to the safe in a secret drawer concealed in his writing desk.
As the niece browsed through the books, a handful of loose photographs fell out, with one in particular grabbing her attention. It was an old photo, dated 1949, according to the elegant handwriting on the back, of the San Lio di Mare Hotel in Lombardy. It was a sepia photograph, which seemed to make it look older than it was, but two items in the photo sent shivers down the niece’s spine.
In the corner, her uncle’s 1970 Vauxhall Viva, and staring out from the centre of the photograph, her uncle himself.

Posted for The Unicorn Challenge. A magical challenge, hosted by Jenne Gray and C E Ayr. They provide a photo and we provide up to 250 words inspired by it.


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