The first photo Angelica opened was the most recent one he took when he returned from 1990. It was the picture he took when he was chasing the fairy orb and landed on the sea.
“So beautiful…”
Then, she swiped through the photos and saw a picture of Rudy with Elena.
“Hmm? Who is that? A new girl? No… he rarely takes photos with anyone. And this photo… the background feels… familiar. It’s… a school hallway? There are little girls wearing the same clothes, which is most likely a uniform, so this has got to be a school.
And he is smiling happily, so this photo is not taken against his will. But when did he take this? I am always with him unless it’s during the time when I am sleeping. Let me check the date… that would help me remember… maybe.”
Angelica tapped on the ‘i’ icon and checked the details.
“Huh…? This is… 1990? What? Wait… is this what he was talking about? He did mention that he went into the past or something, but I assumed he simply saw it from here. I didn’t know he physically went there. Wasn’t he gone for like five minutes only?
Hmm…” Angelica zoomed on the girl’s face and muttered, “So this is a new girl he met there? And this is a selfie…”
Angelica bit her lips while staring at Elena’s face. He felt somewhat jealous as she could never take a picture of herself with Rudy as she wouldn’t be visible in the photos.
She swiped through other photos of Rudy with Elena and thought, “Wow… there are so many pics.”
She kept glancing at the pictures while scrolling, but she swiped back to a certain photo of Rudy with a little girl. It was a candid photo taken by Elena when Rudy and Jessica were arguing about spending weekends at home or going out for a picnic.
Angelica stared at Jessica and sharpened her gaze, and raised her brow.
“Who the fuck is that? I feel angry when I look at her.”
She scrolled through a few more pictures of Rudy with Jessica.
“Who is the other girl?”
She furrowed her brows when she saw pictures of Jessica and Rebecca together.
“Since when did he start hanging out with little girls? I am pretty sure he told me he finds the kids annoying in general. He doesn’t hate them, though.”
Most of the pictures were of when they went to the picnic every weekend.
“He seems to be enjoying his time with them.”
Some pictures were with Elena, while some were with Jessica and Rebecca.
“It’s a beach. Hmm… this one is… isn’t this Reina’s waterpark?”
After swiping through a dozen more pictures, she stumbled upon the pictures taken in their house with Jessica and Rebecca.
“Yeah, it’s definitely the same house they live in. Wait…” Angelica zoomed on Rebecca’s face and exclaimed, “Does that mean this is Rebecca?!”
Angelica covered her mouth as she accidentally exclaimed aloud. She shot a quick glance at Niti and Vriti’s bed and sighed in relief.
‘This has to be Rebecca, right? But maybe…’ She looked at Jessica’s face and muttered, ‘Maybe this is Rebecca? They actually look similar. Are they sisters?’
Angelica looked at Rebecca and Jessica closely and muttered, “One of them could be Rebecca, and the other one is her sister. Where is she now? Rudy has never mentioned her. Well, I will ask him when he returns. I will see the rest of the photos now.”
“What the—! There is one more little girl now!”
Angelica said as she saw Lilim. I don’t even want to know who she is. She doesn’t look the same as Rebecca and the other girl, but they seem close to each other.
Angelica saw all the photos from the past on Rudy’s phone.
SIGH!
“I opened the gallery to see Rudy, but I found something else instead. Although I am happy to see Rudy happy in those pictures. But now… I miss him even more.”
Out of a sudden, Angelica witnessed a video appear in the gallery.
“Hmm? This wasn’t here before… right? Or did I swipe through it thinking it was a picture? But why is there no thumbnail? An accidental video, maybe?”
Angelica became curious and played the video. However, a prompt appeared on the screen instead.
‘The file is corrupted.’
“Yeah, it must be a random video. That also explains why the video has no thumbnail because it’s corrupted. I should delete it.”
Angelica selected the video and clicked on the ‘delete’ icon. But another prompt appeared on the screen.
‘The file could not be deleted.’
Angelica’s face turned pale after seeing that.
‘Is this a virus?! What should I do?! His phone will be hacked, and he will lose all the data! All these pictures are important to him! I have to do something; otherwise, he would think it’s my fault!’
Angelica repeatedly tried to delete the video, but the same prompt kept appearing. She then closed the gallery app and opened the files app to delete it from there. However, she couldn’t find the file anywhere.
‘Where is the file?!’
She opened the gallery again and clicked on the ‘i’ icon to check the file’s location. When she checked the date of the file, she was left puzzled.
“1999? Wait… it’s the same date, month, and time as today, just the year is different. The rest of the photos have a date from 1989 to 1990. Why is a video of 1999 here? That was 9 years ago. Did he go to 1999 too?”
Angelica was panicked and confused. She couldn’t delete the video, nor could she play it. She was worried that Rudy’s precious data might get corrupted too, but there was nothing she could do.
She once again tried to play the video, and much to her surprise, it loaded. Please visit ƒ???????????. ?o?
“…!”
The video was taken at night, and the background was of Rudy’s house, which showed an empty couch in the living room.
The room was dark, and the only light came from a lamp on the table, which illuminated the couch.
[See?! It worked?! I told you it would work!] a feminine voice said.
[Calm down, don’t get too excited.] a child’s voice followed. [This was just a first step.]
‘What’s… going on?’
