Akina's Reflection

XIV

The inn Antonio got us was small, but the rooms were comfy, so I did not have much to complain about. There was a little bathroom, then a bigger room with a bed. Only one bed.

"Antonio, you knew there is only one bed, right?"

Antonio shrugged. "Saving money, okay? It's not like we're going to sleep together. I'll sleep... In that arm chair over there."

He pointed out an armchair in the corner, near the window overlooking the parking lot.

"So where are we going, again?" Antonio asked.

I pulled out Aubrey's computer, typed in the password, and showed him the location again. "We're going over here," I explained to him.

"In that doctor's office."

Antonio sat down in his armchair.

"I'm wondering if there will even be a door there. Where would they put it? Those doors are pretty big, huge!"

I looked at the little doctor's office. Antonio was right, the doors we saw last time were pretty big, where would they fit there, without anyone else's notice? If only Aubrey happened to have a map of that one building, then we might have a better search.

"I don't know." I told Antonio. "I guess we just check everywhere, I guess?"

"Can work."

Antonio yawned. "Long day, lot of driving. Let me sleep a little bit, okay, Sayoki?"

He did not wait for my response before he closed his eyes, and dozed off on the chair.

I wasn't as tired as Antonio. I tried staring out the window, trying to fall asleep, but it did not help much. I was bored, but still not tired.

Without much thought, I opened up Aubrey's laptop, and looked around through his maze of files. Aubrey had a lot of file folders, filled with either pictures or text files. I opened a folder, which was filled with text folders, and mindlessly began to read.

"When I was young, nothing seemed to be wrong. Mom was there, still, and Charles was nice. I never really stopped to ask myself, why Cody had his bandaged hands, or why he never looked really happy.

Charles favored me over Cody, strongly. He would spoil me, coddle me, and take good care of me.

But for Cody, Charles yelled at him often as he got older, saying he did things wrong, even if it was clearly my own fault. Charles wouldn't yell at me for his life. He used to not yell at Cody either, but over time...

But I never understood why Charles hated Cody. I only felt thankful for Mom, who would take him under her wing, and love him as equally as she loves me, if not more. It never bothered me when I decided she loved Cody more, She might have been the only caring adult towards him."

The text files were about Charles, and Cody as well. Can this text file, and the others here, be Aubrey's back story?

I read the file again. I didn't understand, he was nice to me, and Aubrey too, but Aubrey describes him to not be that nice to Cody. Why?

I thought back to the pictures of Aubrey and Cody together. Cody always stood out in pictures.

I think Charles didn't like Cody because he was different. He did not have the same looks as the rest of the family, or he looked different, or something, and Charles did not like him because of that.

I remembered Cody mentioning his eye colour, in his letter to Aubrey. Maybe Charles didn't like his purple eyes. I remembered the picture of him again, actually, Cody looked like he had blue eyes, but how is his eye colour different?