Nick Randall, a war photographer, returns home and begins the quiet work of editing and making decisions.

Alone in a darkroom, he reviews contact sheets from an assignment at the front lines ? thirty-six frames at a time. Roads, faces, waiting bodies. Choices made under pressure. Moments he recorded, and moments he didn't.

As the images unfold in sequence, professional instinct collides with memory, ethics, and the lingering weight of what it means to witness suffering through a lens. The story moves not through battles or headlines, but through the intimate aftermath: the act of selecting what deserves to be seen.

Contact Sheets is a restrained, literary short story about photography, war, and the cost of observation ? told in the quiet language of images, silence, and what remains after the camera is lowered.

Approximate length: 2600 words.