"I appropriate your concern, Jasper. I know you have helped me alot and how you care and always want the best for me, but I'd appreciate it if you stopped asking me foolish questions," Nathan finally replied, sounding calm and a smile spreading across his face not to act rude.
"Ooh, okay... I was just trying to be the good guy here. Ooh.. Gosh," Jasper narrowed his eyes, exhaling heavily.
Nathan shook his head and turned back to his computer, resuming work. But suddenly, the screen of his computer began to flickered, then went black as if a power interruption had occurred. Nathan furrowed his brows, wondering if the power cable had been disconnected, and it would be bad if it was, because he would have no choice than to start the data recording from the start.
Nathan then shifted his gaze to Jasper who was focused on his computer, but noticed his own screen light was intact.
"What could possibly go wrong? Could it be the power switch?" Nathan muttered in complaint, leaning down to check beneath the desk if he could find the problem. But to his surprise, the cable was firmly in place, and the power indicator on the surge protector still glowed.
"Or could it be some technical issue with the motherboard?" Nathan wondered in thoughts. And just then, the computer booted back up, landing on the same page Nathan had been working on.
"Oh, the computer had booted back, and it didn't delete my previous work, thank goodness," Nathan gasped in relief, a bit excited. Jasper glanced over, curious about Nathan's reaction, but seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he turned away and refocused on his own tasks.
As Jordan continued inputting data, the computer flickered twice again—then went completely dark. This left Nathan stunned, at this point he was certain that the issue would be from the motherboard of the computer, because it was from the same cable connected both computers with jasper and yet Jasper computer screen was still awake, and Nathan computer was blank.
"What the hell? There's no doubt it's a fault from the control panel," Nathan thought to himself, frustration creeping in. A few seconds later, the system restarted, just as before. But this time, it didn't return to Jordan's work page. All the data had been wiped.
"Shit. Damn it," Nathan growled through gritted teeth, fists clenched as he glared at the screen. He felt the urge to punch the monitor so hard, but it was to his loss, he would still be the one that would feel the pain, and apart from that, Nathan could be charged for disrupting company facilities.
Then something unexpected appeared on the display screen.
Nathan's eyes widened as he locked onto the screen. A strange symbol had popped up—a crescent moon and an eagle. His pulse quickened, and his eyes widened even more with disbelief, he definitely knew this wasn't a coincidence.
"This exact symbol..." Nathan thought, getting stunned.
It was the same image he had seen on the photograph he carried everywhere with him. He hurriedly dug into his pocket and pulled out the photograph, flipping it to the back. His heart skipped—just as he'd suspected, the symbol on the back matched exactly with the one now glowing on the screen.
Then, a new folder appeared on the computer screen.
The label read: Nathan's Saved Files.
"But… that's just a name. I don't recall saving any files recently," Nathan muttered. Intrigued by what he was seeing, he moved the cursor and double-clicked the folder.
Inside was a series of images—photos that made Nathan freeze.
They weren't random images but one that picture the identity of the photograph he had with him. They were of the woman from the very same photograph he'd been carrying. His pulse pounded in his ears, and his heartbeat quickened.
One picture showed her standing before a luxurious mansion, surrounded by wealth and possessions. The setting was grand, opulent—yet eerily unfamiliar.
Nathan stared at the screen. "Who is she?" He mumbled, squinting his brow with a steady gaze fixed on the screen. "And why are these images labeled with my name, or could the name simply mean something else, probably someone else's?"
The woman appeared to be in her fifties, elegant and beautiful. As Nathan scrolled through the picture and saw different images of the woman on different luxurious possessions, he came to the final image—and his entire body stiffened.
"No... This can't be real."
It was him, his younger self. He was in the picture, sitting beside the woman in what looked like the same luxurious home. He wore a suit. The woman sat gracefully at his side. And at his right hand side, stood another man, also in formal wear, holding a stack of documents.
"What is actually happening," Nathan wondered.
His heart raced as the weight of it all settled in. He wasn't just a homeless man who had grown up scavenging the streets. He had a perfect past—one that had been completely erased from his memory. The photos were proof, proof and answers to his questions about who he actually was and how his forgotten past looks like.
That evening, after a long day at work, Nathan collapsed onto his couch. In his hand, he held the picture of the woman, staring at it for hours, desperately trying to recall anything that could link to the picture he had seen on the folder in the computer. But his mind remained a blank slate.
"Why can't I remember? Why can't my brain connect the dots?" Nathan whispered in frustration. "Those images, that folder, the symbol—it wasn't just some coincidence. And why did the symbol appear right before the files did?" Nathan got more suspicious and curious about everything entirely.
His thoughts spiraled until exhaustion overcame him. "Tomorrow, I'll check the computer again. Maybe there's something else I haven't found out, something that could click a dot to my confused self," Nathan murmured before drifting into sleep.
The next morning, as usual, Nathan waited by the road and caught a ride on a passing truck. Once at the office, he settled into his chair. But when he looked around, he noticed Jasper wasn't in seat. And this was a perfect moment for him to research on what is actually going on.
Nathan immediately turned on the computer, eager to revisit the mysterious folder. But something felt off.
The folder was gone, and the symbol was gone as well, the screen appeared to be normal just as usual. Nathan was left dumbfounded.
"Where is it? I'm sure I saved it somewhere safe, I duplicated the images and put it in a different folder, can't find it either," Nathan muttered, panic rising within his thoughts.
Then he paused, narrowing his eyes as it set to the side of the computer frame.
"This isn't the same computer."
Nathan pulse quickened. He examined the computer frame and noticed it was completely different. Sleeker, newer than his previous one.
"Someone had swapped the computer, this isn't the one I had been using," Nathan wondered in confusion. "Or could the management be doing some maintenance in all.the previous decision," he added in thought.
And why Nathan was still in his confused thoughts, the office door swung open. Nathan swiftly shifted his gaze only to see Laura storming in, flanked by two police officers.
"I can't believe you've done this to me, you stupid ungrateful bastard," she spat angrily, her brow knitting and her fist clenched. "I sheltered you. I picked you up from the gutters when no one else wanted you—and this is how you repay me?"
Nathan stood frozen, completely caught off guard by Laura words. He had no idea what she was talking about. Or perhaps what he had done.