Virtually Identical

14. Aubrey

KAYLA

It was my fault. It was all my fault she was gone. If I have not left her there by herself, she would be right here with us. But now she was gone, we could not find her anywhere. The day when we went sneaking on Rose, I had to leave her to track her sister alone, because my excuse of a mother wanted to spend some time with me and Cam. And then she never came back. I searched with Cam everywhere we could. At first Cam did not believe me, but then I showed him their picture, it was taken when they were five, in the backyard of the orphanage. Aubrey brought it along to show it to Rose,  Cam was surprised.

Aubrey was like a sister to me, she was a part of my family. Sh was not an orphan, she had us and we were more than a family to her. She helped me when I was on my weakest and when everyone turned their backs on me even my own mother. When I went to the police station to file a missing report, at first they did not listen. I was furious and upset at the same time but I convinced them to look for her. They said they could not file a missing report if it has not been 24 hours; but they did nevertheless. After two hours of searching they told me that they found someone but her name was Rose and Aubrey does not exist.

According to them, I made a fake id of Rose under the name of Aubrey and tricked the police. Those people have no sense at all. They dismissed me from the police station without listening to me further. I gave up on the police, they were of no use anyway.

I told Violet and Amanda about the whole thing, starting from when I found Rose. They were looking for her in Stanverse while I was searching Cynthrane. One thing I was really surprised about was my brother, he was restless and not himself lately. He was looking for Aubrey with same effort as I was, leaving his job at stake. Now that I noticed, he really cared about her and all those times when he teased and annoyed her was because he was hiding his feelings for her. I talked to him after a week when Aubrey went missing:

"Cam, What is wrong with you? Why was dad yelling at you again?" I asked, he fought with dad again, and it was the third time this week. He had dark circles under his eyes it was clear he was not sleeping well, neither was i. He had finished his Masters 2 years ago and was doing a descent job as an assistant manager of Martin Enterprises. "Nothing, he just wants me to take my job seriously." He said sitting at the edge of his bed. I went and sat beside him.

"He's right Cam, do you think I haven't noticed how you are being these days? Something is bothering you, you are not yourself, you aren't sleeping ,you aren't eating properly, you're not working either. What's the matter?" I said, resting my hand on his shoulder and turning him towards me, he looked at me and all I saw was pain in his eyes. What's hurting him? Was it Aubrey? He's been like that since she went missing, but I thought he hated her, the way they fought with each other, I don't get it. Then ever so slowly he said, "I need to find her, I just....I have to find her." It was just a whisper but I heard it,

"Cam, what are you..."

"You know what I'm talking about Kay! She's out there somewhere, and we don't even know if she's alive. A week! seven days, God knows in what condition she is. Maybe she's hurt, maybe she can't come to us by herself. What if...what if she was in the same accident as her sister? And nobody saw her? What if she's badly hurt and just lying somewhere...what if..."

"Cameron Stop! Don't assume things like that! We'll find her, and she'll be back safe and sound. And why do you care so much? She was my friend, more like a sister. And I thought you hated her! You should be happy now that she isn't here to bother you anymore!" I paused, I should not have said it but I don't know what came over me, Cam's eyes were red now, and he was breathing heavily it looked like he's about to explode from anger but what I didn't expect was those tears rolling down from his eyes, he quickly looked away from me, but I knew he was crying.