"Hey, Martha?" Mal asked some time later after we started to search the house for clues. "Can you come here for a sec, please? I think I've found something."
"Ok," I said, putting down the picture frame that I was looking at and walked over to him. Curiosity filled my body because I had no idea what Mal had found. I had no idea if it would be safe or not, but I knew that whatever it was had to be safe because he didn't seem to be afraid nor upset.
He was on the floor near a bookshelf and had a photo album in his lap. He looked through the pictures and had his brows furrowed in confusion as if he had no idea what he was looking at.
"What is it?" I asked, and the older male jumped in fright at the sound of my voice while he turned towards me, the book landing on the floor with a soft thunk! An amused smile appeared on my lips while he placed his hand over his heart.
"Gods, Martha," he said, and I couldn't help but let out a soft bubble of laughter. He scowled, but a small amount of amusement flashed through his eyes, and I had a feeling that he was happy that I had laughed. "Why'd you do that for?"
I grinned and shrugged. "I didn't mean to," I replied, and he scoffed and rolled his eyes teasingly. "What? I didn't. You weren't paying attention, and that is why you had gotten scared."
Mal huffed and folded his arms across his chest, pouting. "You were silent and stealthy. I didn't even know that you would move over here that fast," he replied finally. He cleared his throat and licked his lips while he studied me. "It's not my fault that I had gotten scared."
"Yes, it is," I replied. "You ignored your surroundings, which was something you were supposed to do. You also didn't look up to make sure that I was coming over here. So, yes, it is your fault that you had gotten scared."
Ava snorted. "We should call you Jason since Jason is afraid of everything and everyone."
"Not everything," Mal mumbled. He cleared his throat and handed me the photo album that he had in his hands. "Look at the bottom right picture for me, please," he said. "Do you know when that was taken?"
I looked at the picture and furrowed my brows in confusion. It was a group photo of Master Yin's "special group," as he once called us years ago. The group consisted of seven people, not including myself. Each person was roughly the same age as the other, and these were people that I had grown up with.
However, the thing that was confusing about this photo was that it seemed to have been taken way in the future, for all of us looked older than we should have been.
I studied myself in the photo before closing my eyes and shook my head, trying to make sure that my eyes were not playing tricks on me. I understood why Mal was confused about this photo because it shouldn't have happened yet.
It also didn't help that I wasn't fond of three of the seven people, and the fact that one of them had moved to a different state and didn't live here anymore.
"Well?" Mal asked when I opened my eyes and looked at it again.
I shrugged. "Don't know," I replied. I took the photo from where it was and frowned when I saw that we were younger than what I had seen previously. "Huh," I said, furrowing my brows and handing the picture to Mal. "See anything different?"
Mal took the photo from me and looked at it and then at me, confused. His brows were furrowed, and he cocked his head while he looked at the photo and then at me again. "I could've sworn..."
"Could've sworn what?" Ava asked, coming over to us. She had a journal in her hand, but she didn't care about it and was drawn to the photo that Mal had. "Is that of us?" she asked, holding her hand out for it.
"Ya," Mal said, handing it to Ava. "But Martha and I saw us as older before we saw us like this."
Ava pursed her lips and furrowed her brows. "Well, I am glad it was just of us younger," she said coldly, handing the photo back to Mal. "I mean, I hate Celestine and am not practically fond of neither Mia nor James."
"And Cameron doesn't live here anymore," I added. "What does the date say on the back, Mal? I am sure that Master Yin had put the date on the back at least to remember when it was taken."
Mal nodded and looked at the date to see when the picture was taken. He cleared his throat and read it before he looked at me. "September 30th, 2003," he replied. "So, a day before your eighth birthday."
"It was one of the last photos of us, if I remember correctly," Tygra said, walking over to us, holding another journal. "That's before Cameron's dad decided to move because his mom had been killed."
I pursed my lips and nodded, having a feeling that Dark Forces had killed her. Guilt filled my body, and I couldn't help but feel as if it was my fault, even though I knew that it wasn't. It wasn't my fault that anyone had died, but it was a hard pill to swallow.
"It's not your fault, Martha," Mal consoled, knowing where my head was going. He gave me a sympathetic look, and I couldn't help but purse my lips in annoyance because I hated those sympathetic looks.
"Ok, change of subject," Ava said. "What is wrong with the picture? Why did you want Martha to look at it? I mean, it looks fine like it is. It doesn't have any importance."
"It did..." I trailed off and shook my head before I handed the photo album back to Mal. "Here, stick it back in here. I want to see if it would change back into what we had seen it as."
Mal nodded his head and placed the picture back into its spot. He looked at us as soon as he did, wondering if we saw what he did. He was wondering if we saw us looking older, more mature than our younger selves.
"How is this possible?" Ava asked, and I had a feeling that it confirmed his suspicions of us seeing the photo as well. Her brows were furrowed, and she pressed her lips into a thin line, studying the picture that left us confused.
"Magic," I replied off the bat, even though I had no confirmation that it was the case. "Magic is the reason as to why we see the photo like this and not us being our "actual age" as it had without the cover."