I am the kind of person who don't like being photographed. This became a blessing for me.

It's said that when someone takes a photograph of you, a part of your soul is also captured, which can be used to harm you.
I don't believe this crap and neither should you.
But that doesn't mean that a photograph can do you no harm.
*
Last year, about a week before Easter, I and my friends decided to do something special for the upcoming holiday. We planned to make Easter eggs of different sizes and with different features. We also decided that the chocolate in the eggs should be accompanied by different flavors too.
We were six in total, and each of us began brainstorming for ideas. In fact, we really came up with some brilliant ideas (and some pretty lame ideas too). We finished making half the number of targeted eggs within two days.
Almost all of my friends liked doing things like this, so it didn't take long to complete making the eggs. Very soon the egg-making was complete and the eggs were ready to be hidden. My friend Robert's father took it upon himself to hide the eggs in his farmhouse, so we could search for them on Easter day.
Before the eggs were hidden, however, my friends decided to take some pictures of themselves with the DIY eggs. You see, nearly all of my friends are social media lovers, especially of Instagram, and they do not miss any chance to capture photos and post them online. As for me, I can be termed exactly the opposite. I neither like taking photos myself, nor I like others taking photos of me. I don't know why but it makes me pretty uncomfortable. Maybe I am just a super shy guy. Well, therefore when I realized my friends are about to click photographs, I silently crept out of the room.
I didn't return for quite a while, and when I did, I saw that my friends were busy playing CS:GO, and the eggs had been taken by Robert's father to be hidden. None of my friends asked about my absence as they were used to my reluctance of taking photographs. We hanged out a bit after that and then I left for home.
*
Two days later, the disappearances began. First it was Robert, who didn't come back home from his piano classes. Then it was Bill, who went missing while on his way to a neighbourhood drugstore. Each of my five friends mysteriously disappeared without leaving any evidence within the next twenty-four hours. Lena, the last to disappear, was watering the flowers in her backyard, when it happened. Her mom had been chatting with her just a while earlier, before she had to go to the kitchen for something. When she came back, Lena was gone.
The next few days were a cycle of dreadful concern. The parents of most of my classmates, including mine, decided not to send their kids to school and elsewhere. I myself had to stay at home all day, to make sure I was safe. At some point, it became totally unbearable, and the whereabouts of my friends were still unknown.
Rumours were spreading that some supernatural entity was behind the disappearances. Some people believed that these were acts of terrorists, while many others considered these as cases of simple kidnapping. Whatever the reason might have been, the disappearances stopped as suddenly as they started, and no more kids had gone missing after Lena.
*
It was Easter Day, and I was still not allowed to leave the house. Considering my state of mind at that time, it was a perfectly appropriate decision. The disappearance of my closest friends had taken a toll on my sanity. I was still trying unsuccessfully to move on. So, what happened that afternoon, greatly shocked and disturbed me.
The families of my missing friends received a letter each, on which was written in big letters, "Happy Easter". Also attached to each letter was a small packet, which contained something no one had expected: memory cards with photos of my friends in them.
My parents were not willing to show me the photos at first, but after I created quite a bit of commotion, they agreed to show me. What I saw chilled me to the bones. The condition of my friends in the photos was very poor. It seemed they were kept unfed for quite a long time. They looked nothing like their earlier selves, and one of them was literally a skeleton. Were they alive or not couldn't be said, but death would have been a boon compared to what their state was, in the photographs.
The photos were sent to the police, who were till that moment unable to get any evidence regarding the disappearances. In fact, these photographs would have been of no use too, if not for a certain miracle. It happened that one of the cops, Mr. Knox recognized the surroundings of my friends in the photographs. He said that my friends were in a storeroom in the hostel where he had stayed in during his college days, and that he was sure of it.
The cops immediately rushed to the location, and sure enough, they found not only my missing friends but also the culprit behind the disappearances.
*
The man's name was Gunther Woods, a professional photographer from a town nearby mine. It turned out that he had planned a crazy photography project which consisted of taking photos of people in various stages of malnourishment. Finding no volunteer for the project, the psychopath decided to kidnap some teenagers. He once came across George's Instagram account, and finding photos of him with his friends, decided to stalk George on Instagram. This went on for a long time and Wood was able to gather information about each of my friends. He had come across my Instagram account too, but when he saw that there were no photographs, he just neglected it.
Wood meticulously planned the kidnappings and committed them without leaving behind any clue. He even had a hand in spreading various rumours about my friends' disappearance. He then proceeded to starve my friends and take various photographs of them every day. This went on until Easter day arrived, and he wanted to take things to the next level. He decided to send some of the photos he had captured, to the families of the kidnapped teens. He had never imagined that someone would be able to able to figure out his whereabouts, and when the police showed up, he had to surrender.
As for my friends, all five of them were found alive, but not in a good condition. It took a lot of counselling and emotional support to help them overcome the trauma, and presently four of them are doing quite well. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about Lena, who is currently kept under special care, and it doesn't seem like she is going to come around anytime soon.
This frightening experience had shaken everyone, including me, and had left a long lasting scar in our minds. But still, I really am glad that I have the habit of running away from being photographed.
After all, it saved me.


Source.