Amnesia - The Matlock Pack: Book One

Tuesday 1 December

~*Nat’s POV*~

I didn’t know what I was expecting when I opened the door that Cody had pushed me towards, but it certainly wasn’t what I found.

There was another narrow little corridor with three doors. I opened the one immediately to my left and found a decently sized bathroom with an enormous shower. There were two basins and a toilet, all gleaming white, and all the fixtures were a brassy colour. Whilst the floor tiles were a golden brown, the wall tiles were a matte black. The medicine cabinet sat above the toilet and basins nestled in a white marble alcove. There was a thick pane of glass between the toilet and the shower. Even with the multiple towels waiting on the towel rack, the room was immaculate.

I opened the door opposite the one I had walked through from the dining area, and just as Cody had said, it led out to the other side of the waiting room of the lobby. I quickly shut the door again. There was nobody there, but I didn’t want to risk running into anyone. Even though the corridor I was in was narrow, there was still a small, low cupboard next to the door to the lobby. I couldn’t see any reason to go snooping in there, so I ignored it.

The last remaining door was directly opposite the bathroom door. It opened to a reasonably sized and relatively sparse bedroom, with a double bed, a couple of built-in wardrobes and a bedside table, but as Cody had mentioned, there was also a TV on the wall across from the bed. Opposite the door, there were more floor to ceiling windows. The view was incredible. There were more trees, but I could make out a mountain range in the distance. God, what I wouldn’t give to live here permanently.

I headed back to the bathroom. Even though I had glanced around the room a little, barely a couple of minutes ago, this was the first time I had really looked at myself in the mirror.

It felt like a stranger was looking back.

Admittedly, everyone I was meeting at the moment were strangers, but it was decidedly creepy to know that you were looking in a mirror and not recognise the face that looked back.

I stared at the bedraggled woman in the mirror. Short wavy hair that wasn’t quite reaching the tops of her shoulders, filled with twigs and leaves. I started plucking them out of my hair and saw the woman in the mirror doing the same. The blonde hair was so pale it was almost white and it was sticking up everywhere.

I leaned forward and stared at the light blue eyes gazing back. Although covered in scratches, I could tell there were no other blemishes on my face. No scars, moles, or any other markings on my ivory complexion. I had a somewhat thin top lip and a fuller bottom lip, my nose was narrow, and my cheekbones were high. If it wasn’t for my hair, I would have said that my appearance was quite androgynous.

I got out of the borrowed clothes and hopped in the shower. Fiddling with the water tap until I figured out how to turn it on, I yelped when a blast of freezing cold water hit me. I shuffled out of the stream and fidgeted with the tap again until I could feel the water warming up. I looked down to see dirt and dried blood circling the drain. Finding a cloth, I washed myself as best I could, before attacking my feet. I knew that there were cuts to my feet, but I found that underneath the grime, deep cuts also covered my hands.

What the hell had happened to me?

Leaning against the shower wall, I scrubbed away at my stinging hands and feet. Thankfully, it didn’t take long before the sting eased, and they felt much better. I found a shampoo bottle and hoped that whoever owned it would forgive me for stealing some. I kneaded my hair until I could no longer feel any debris stuck in the tangles.

Once the water was running clear in the drain, I rinsed, then stepped out and dried myself with the fluffiest towel known to mankind. I peeked out the door and when I didn’t see anyone, I darted across to the bedroom. True to her word, Cody had left some clothes on the bed for me. I closed the curtains and looked at the clothes.

There were some black leggings that stopped mid-calf, but because they stretched, they perfectly fit width wise; another oversized t-shirt that hung low to around mid-thigh, but instead of being tie-dyed like the last shirt, this one was a plain pale blue; and a large, fluffy black cardigan that draped to just above my knees. Whoever owned the long t-shirt and cardigan must have worn them like a dress and jacket, as there was no way either Cody or Auden would have used these the same way I currently was. There wasn’t any underwear or socks, but at least I was well covered.

I packed the towel and the old clothes together and grasped them in my hands as I ducked my head out into the dining area. Sure enough, Cody was sitting at the dining table, one foot up on her seat, her arms wrapped around her leg and holding a book. She looked up when she heard me open the door.

“I’m not sure what to do with these,” I said, holding the bundle out in front of me.

“Oh! Give them to me. I’ll put them in my hamper to get washed.” She turned her book over to keep her place, before coming over to me to take them out of my hands, then quickly dashed down the hall to her room, re-appearing moments later empty-handed.

“Mum still isn’t back yet. Are you hungry? I can make some sandwiches for us both while we wait.” Cody headed towards the kitchen without waiting for a response. I think my stomach heard her, however, because before I could answer, it gurgled. She laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes, then.”

I watched her as she pulled out salad ingredients from the fridge and bread from the pantry. “Do you want some help?” I asked. It felt weird just watching her prepare a meal, even though she moved around the kitchen easily and confidently. Even though I had offered, I figured I would have been more hindrance than help.

“Nah, I can do it. Just have a wander around. It won’t take me long to get these made.”

Well, if she was sure she didn’t want any help, I’d take her at her word and have a look at the walls surrounding the dining table. There were photos everywhere. “Is it okay if I look at the photos?”

“Sure. They won’t be too interesting, they’re just family snaps.” She shrugged at me, whilst slathering the slices of bread with some sort of condiment. Apparently, she was great at multi-tasking.

I decided to start at one end of the wall of photos and work my way through to the other side. It looked like they had placed everything in chronological order, starting when Cody was a baby. I could see a younger Auden holding a baby Cody; an exhausted smile on her slim face, her messy red hair not much changed to what I was familiar with. Her complexion was much like mine, pale and clear of blemishes.

The next photo that caught my eye looked like it was a Santa and family photo. Santa was holding a screaming Cody, who looked like she was about two years old or so, and reaching for her mother. Auden was standing to the right of Santa, looking frazzled as she tried to smile at the camera, but you could tell that her attention was on Cody. To the left of Santa was a tall, sturdy, dark-haired man. He had short hair and a couple of days’ growth of stubble. He looked serious, but there was a glint in his eyes that made me wonder if he was finding the chaotic situation hilarious. To the right of Auden was another man, but shorter than the first. This one had shaggy ginger hair and had a neat beard. His crystal blue eyes also had that same twinkle as the first man, but there was a slight trepidation to his smile, like he was worried about something.

I took a couple of steps to my right and caught sight of another family photo. Cody was a few years older now, about five or six. Her hair had grown out more than the toddler photo, drifting past her shoulders. She looked like she was sitting on a picnic blanket, leaning back against the ginger-haired man from the last photo. They were both facing towards Auden, who sat to their right, all three laughing at something. The dark-haired man wasn’t in this picture, but I could see the shadow of the photographer falling across the blanket between the adults and deciphered that he very well could have been the one that took the photo.

Another step to the right, another framed photo. Cody was again front and centre of the picture. This time she looked like she was about the same age as in the last photo, but her hair was longer, and she was happily poking her tongue out at the camera operator. She was in front of the dark-haired man, who had his hands on her shoulders. To their left was the ginger-haired man, looking at the camera; again with the twinkle in his eye and a massive grin on his face. The dark-haired man was looking at the other man with a loving smile on his face. Auden wasn’t in this picture, so I could only assume that she was taking the photo.

I looked back at the photos I had skipped past and found that they were all in different configurations of the same four people — Cody, Auden, the dark-haired man, and the ginger-haired man. The adults remained virtually unchanged; the only indicator of time passing was Cody growing up.

I took one more step to my right and focused on another picture. This one differed from the others. It was another Santa family photo, but I could only see Cody, Auden, and the dark-haired man. The other man wasn’t in the photo, and everyone apart from Santa looked utterly miserable.

I frowned. This was so different from the other pictures. I stayed in my spot, but I glanced at the pictures to my right. The ginger-haired man didn’t reappear. I took a slow step to the right again and focused on the adults. The sparkle in their eyes I had noticed in the earlier photos had left them.

Cody got older, her hair longer, and she slowly became the person who I recognised today — textured, layered deep red hair with a natural wave that settled to the middle of her back. A pale complexion and green eyes, just like her mother. The smile on her face began to reappear a couple of years after the disappearance of the ginger-haired man, but there was a sadness in her eyes that remained unmistakable.

I reviewed Auden’s progression over the same timeframe. She got thinner, almost worryingly so for quite a few years. Just like Cody, there was a sorrow in her eyes that never truly went away. There were smiles, but her eyes didn’t crinkle like they had in the previous pictures. It was like she was faking them for the photographer. Her body shape looked like it got back to a healthier size when Cody was around fifteen. About half of the photos featured Cody and Auden.

The dark-haired man appeared with Cody in the remaining half. Very few photos had all three. I assumed whoever was not in the photo was taking the picture, but it was hard to tell for sure. The stubble remained on the man’s face, getting scruffier and longer as time went on. His build got bulkier, but I could tell that it was muscle, not fat. There was a hardness to his eyes that developed over the course of the years, and the smile that was ever-present in the earlier photos had disappeared entirely.

Cody appeared beside me. “Lunch is ready,” she said. I turned to her and saw that even though she had a couple of plates in her hands filled with delicious-looking sandwiches, her attention stayed on the photos. She looked sad, before taking a deep breath and turning her attention back to me. Her demeanour immediately shifted to what I was already used to seeing — a grin on her face and a sparkle in her eye. “Come on, let’s eat!”

She put the plates on the table and waved her hand to a chair. Taking the proffered seat, I picked up the sandwich. “You want to talk about what happened?” I asked, just as she took a bite.

Cody looked up at me, a frown crossing her face. She swallowed, then put her sandwich down while she thought. “What do you mean?”

I motioned to the photos on the wall. “Obviously, something happened when you were about six or seven. Do you want to talk about it, or should I change the subject?”

She looked across at the wall, taking her time to think things over. “We can talk about it, but it’s not a cheerful story,” she warned.

“If you want to explain it to me, then I’m willing to listen.” I took another bite of my sandwich and chewed slowly. Damn, Cody could make a tasty sandwich.

“Okay. So, I know you can see my Mum in all the photos. The guy in the photos all across the wall? The dark-haired man? He’s my Dad. His name is Jackie. You’ll more than likely meet him later.”

I nodded and took another bite.

Cody took a nervous breath in. “The ginger-haired guy in the first half of the wall? He’s my other Dad.”

“Oh, so like a step-father situation?” I asked after I swallowed.

“No…” she began hesitantly. “They were both my Dad at the same time.”

I paused as I took her explanation in, contemplating what she meant. I thought about how cheerful everyone looked in the early photos. “Oh, like a ‘relationship’ relationship, yeah? All three together?” I started chewing another delicious mouthful.

“Yeah.” Cody noticeably relaxed back into her chair. “His name was Caelan.” She took another bite.

I stopped chewing. “Was?” I asked, around my mouthful of food.

She nodded, then swallowed. “I know you don’t have any memory of yourself, but maybe you remember something called ‘Black Saturday’?”

I searched my brain as I resumed my chewing, but shook my head when it came up blank.

Cody sighed. “Back in early 2009, bushfires decimated this entire area. The worst of it happened on the seventh of February. It was a Saturday, and the temperature was almost unbearable. We’d had about a week of stinking hot days and when it got to Saturday, it had climbed to 46 degrees Celsius.” She took a huge deep breath in. I braced myself for whatever news was coming. The way she was acting it would not be pleasant.

“There were fires in multiple parts of our state. We lost over 160 that day, and a few died later from related injuries. Marysville and Kinglake were the two towns’ hardest hit. My dad, Caelan? He was one of the Marysville victims.”

My eyes widened. Whatever thoughts and ideas I had had about what transpired to the man in the photos, it wasn’t this. I placed my sandwich back on the plate, my appetite now forgotten. This poor, poor family. What they must have gone through. No wonder everyone looked so miserable in that first photo.

“This entire community used to live in Marysville, but after we lost so many, we moved here for a fresh start. That’s why all the buildings are still so new,” she explained.

Sympathy filled my eyes as I reached out a hand and grabbed hers. “I’m so sorry, Cody. It must have been devastating for you all.”

Tears filled her eyes, but she wiped them away. “Mum and Dad haven’t been the same since. They were all together for years prior to the bushfires. Losing Daddy tore out a part of their souls that they’ve never been able to repair. They’ve coped in different ways, some better than others…” She trailed off, a faraway look appearing on her face.

I grasped her hand in mine, offering silent support to her. She gripped back.

“He wasn’t the only one we lost. We were lucky compared to some other families. Takeshi lost his wife and daughter in the same fire.” A tear rolled down her cheek before she angrily wiped it away.

I was stunned. So much death. It amazed me that Takeshi had gone through so much, yet was the lovely man I had met only an hour prior. How could someone get over losing their entire family and yet remain sane?