Ocean eyes landed on the puppy who had seen better days and she hesitated to touch it - weren’t dolls normally cursed or something? Pushing that thought away for the sake of possibly finding out why July had decided to not only keep the thing but lock it away in a bank, River picked it up and carried it with her to her small, dingy twin bed. Curling her legs underneath herself, she looked over the dog, wincing at the sole remaining eye, the other clearly having been torn off somehow. It had certainly been through the wringer ( she couldn’t help but feel some kind of camaraderie toward it at the thought ). “What’s so special about you?” She whispered, a question she had heard plenty of times before, but she made sure to ask it with care. What the hell was she doing? It was a stuffed animal for fucks sake. 

Sighing, she dropped it on her bed half successfully before the weight of the majority of the dog dragged the rest to the floor. Only, when it hit the ground, there was a clattering, a noise famously reserved for Santa on the roof, not stuffed animals hitting the ground. 

Bending down, River picked up the dog, noticing a small hole where something had been hidden. Looking under her bed, she noticed a smaller video recorder, cold to the touch when she reached out to grab it. Her immediate thought was some kind of nanny cam which usually only belonged to pervy dads in unhappy marriages but since July wasn’t that, she held onto her initial reactions to it and pressed the power button. It would be some kind of miracle if it was charged enough to work or hadn’t been broken at some point. Apparently, only miracles that didn’t involve River’s well-being in the world were granted, and she settled back against her bed as the screen began to fill with light.  

There didn’t seem to be a lot of footage captured or someone hadn’t finished watching all of it because when River rewound to the beginning, it hardly took any time at all. Pressing play a room came into focus, River wasn’t entirely sure whose room it was, she had only been in a few of them herself and she knew it wasn’t one of those. There wasn’t any movement in it but she could see a clock ticking so the thing was working. Narrowing her eyes, she tried to find any clues she could, a picture here or there, a familiar coat - Emilio’s. It had to be. 

It seemed strange to have a camera recording in your room but less strange now that she knew who it belonged to. It seemed on brand for Emilio to set up her own security cameras in her room. Unless Emilio hadn’t known about the camera...in which case, why would July be watching her? 

That thought was forgotten when River’s eyes fell onto the date in the bottom corner of the recording. 24.05.19. A date she’d never forget - the day her life began. So to speak.