Ashes of the Future

Chapter 10

Braidn adjusted his thick rimmed glasses, perched on the edge of his chair as he thinks. That's all he's been doing for the past hour, sitting and thinking. Creating theories, ideas, anything that would help him solve this problem. But nothing came to mind. Three dead, an older man and two teens. And now the mystery with Cody's twin. It almost felt like an impossible case, none of the pieces fitting together, none of their theories making any sense.

And then it clicked. Braidn scrambled to his screen, searching the insane files for the name 'Freya Siddos', and sure enough her name appeared. Chocolate coloured hair, just like Cody. Her skin fair, her eyes brown. He now understood why the boys noticed straight away that the girl wasn't truly Freya, because the real Freya looked incredibly similar to Cody.

They would've tested Freya when she came through, just like they'd have tested anyone else. But the results weren't what they wanted. This mysterious girl, this time travelling child had caused a fuss, she was known by everyone. When the results came through that she wasn't fit to live in society, they covered it up. Braidn wasn't sure where or how they got that other girl, but he knew that girl had been living a lie her whole life.

He rushed to tell them, quickly dismissing Damiron and Britni as they questioned where he was going.

"Nah Braidn mate, you've got it wrong." Charlie replied as Braidn finished telling them what he knew was right, even if they didn't want to believe it. He was just relieved Cody was still asleep, so he didn't have to explain to him that his reunion with his sister might not be so sweet.

"Yeah don't tell him that, he'll go bonkers if he thinks his sister is insane." Dan sat throwing nuts into his mouth from the pouch cupped in his hand, Matt nipping his hand in every so often to catch and eat one. Braidn was alarmed by Matt's disinterest, his attention only on what Dan was doing. Maybe it was because Matt thought he was smarter, Braidn had noticed his tendency to put people down who aren't quite on his intellectual level. But Braidn wasn't stupid, and what he was saying was certainly more interesting that some air born nuts.

"I promise you, she is," he continued explaining, "I looked up her records on the system and surprise surprise, guess who's on there?"

"Freya Siddos." There on the stairs stood Cody, sloppily dressed and his hair messy. Dan gleamed a big grin across his face at sight of him, nudging Matt to do the same, but he just shook his head. Braidn attempted to ask him how long he had been stood their, but all he did was stroll past all of them and fall into a chair at Nathly's breakfast bar.

"Don't worry your tits young Braidn, there always was something a little off with her." He finally spoke up, his words slurred.

"Fucking hell what drugs has he taken?" Dan shot Charlie and Matt an aggressive look, before jumping up and heading towards Cody, who sat with his hands in his head.

Meanwhile, Matt stared at Charlie in confusion, knowing he didn't give Cody anything, or even have anything on him for that matter.

"Okay nah I didn't give him anything that'd make him sound like that, that's just because he's tired." Charlie protested, causing Matt to chuckle and look round at Dan's unimpressed expression. "It was just a splif."

"And you didn't think to offer us any? You wanker."

Braidn stood, mildly amused but also confused by the situation unfolding in front of him. He didn't know how it was possible for people to not take anything serious, not even something like this. Loudly clapping his hands, he caught the attention of all four of them, ordering Charlie to take Cody to someone else's, planning on going to the insane centre with Matt and Dan. Nathly, coming out the living room a long with Lela and Avry, requests to come with them.