Overexposure

By C. M. Rosens

A dark, twisted, tragic romance for horror fans - complete short story

When Charlie, an affluent, award-winning photographer, catches sight of a glamorous man at a party and immediately forgets what he looks like, she has to see him again. And again. And again. When he realises the extent of her obsession, is it already too late?

CW: self-mutilation, gore, mental health deterioration

• Language: English
• Publisher: C. M. Rosens
• Release date: Mar 31, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005569198

C. M. Rosens

C. M. Rosens is an author and fairy godmother of two based in England and Wales, but is lucky enough to have family and friends all over the world. She is a lover of the Gothic, the Paranormal and the just plain Weird. She wanted to go into acting once but was persuaded to “get a real job”. As a result, she has a PhD in Medieval Welsh History, an academic alter-ego, and works part-time at a gym for job security.Summon her with chocolate, ghost stories and central heating.Her corn snake, Jörmungandr, doubles as an artist’s model in his spare time when not studying for his starring role in Ragnarök. He has several felt-pen-on-A4 pictures appearing in such auspicious locations as CMR’s fridge.Her husband is neither serpentine nor plotting the end of the world, which is exactly how she likes him.

Book preview

1.

The first time she saw him was through the lens of her camera, the way she saw most of the world. Her mother joked the lens was her third eye, since she was hardly ever without it. Charlie had long ago embraced the fact she saw things the way others did not. So, when she took his picture for the first time then immediately forgot what he looked like, she had to take his picture again. And again.

He was a guest in the whirl of disco lights and ice sculptures, but as soon as the shutter clicked he was a shadow-presence, there, but intangible. A disembodied silk shirt covered in a pattern of stylised peacocks and interwoven with gold thread. Designer jeans of indeterminate length or shape. A faceless, glamorous ghost. 

He was exactly what she had been trying to capture for years but didn’t have the words to explain. 

Charlie had won her first photography prize aged seven, when her father’s camera was too heavy for her and she’d had to rest it on the garden wall at their holiday home in Devon that she was almost too short to see over. Her work had tried to capture that ever since: something on the edge of vision, something beyond her limited perspective. Taking promo photos for launch events wasn’t really what she wanted to do, but it boosted her profile and meant she could keep the business going without parental help. Charlie knew she was lucky to have her parents and their backing, and a nice house in Chelsea, and that she could afford to pursue her passion full-time. Her grandfather had made the family money, but Charlie had never needed to