Amnesia - The Matlock Pack: Book One

Tuesday 1 December

~*Nat’s POV*~

Cody and I both looked up when I heard a door click open.

The door to her parent’s room had opened, and the tall, muscular, dark-haired middle-aged man I had seen in the photos strolled out in nothing more than a dark pair of tracksuit pants. His upper body was extremely chiselled, his muscles rippling with every step he took. His beard was longer than the stubble I had seen in any of the pictures on the wall, and rather than the short, but scruffy hairstyle from the photos, intricate braids now lined his skull. He had tattoos that trailed up both of his arms and across his upper torso.

He exuded menace, and I was terrified.

I heard Cody gulp. I looked back at her, wondering what had caused her to suddenly get agitated. She avoided my gaze, looking down at the half-eaten sandwich still in her hands.

The footsteps slowed, then stopped. “Who’s this, Cody?” His voice was a deep, slow drawl. If I thought his body exuded menace, it had nothing on his voice. Although I tried to sit completely still, I couldn’t help but shiver at his tone.

Cody coughed, trying to clear her throat. “This is Nat. She’s a friend. She’s going through a spot of bother at the moment and Mum said she could stay with us for a few days,” she explained quietly. Her head remained lowered; her eyes focused on the table.

Well, she wasn’t entirely wrong, but she had made me seem like I was an old friend of hers. Considering we had only met each other a few hours ago, I felt like she was stretching the truth just a little.

I watched her with curious eyes, before turning my head to look at her Dad.

I gulped, much like she had only moments ago.

He glared at me like I had killed one of his closest friends. The anger he radiated was incredible, and even though he was a fair distance away from where we were sitting, I found that I really didn’t want him to get any closer to me.

I quickly took my gaze back to Cody. She was a much safer person to focus on.

“She did, did she?” he asked rhetorically. “We’ll see about that.” He huffed before turning around and storming back into his bedroom, slamming the door on his way.

Cody jumped a little in her seat when the door slammed. She slumped in her chair as she visibly relaxed. “Well, that went well,” she said.

My eyes widened. How on earth had that gone well?

She looked up at me with a wry grin on her face. “I had hoped Mum would have been back before now,” she explained. “She’s always been better at paving the way for any changes the apartment sees.”

My mouth dropped open. “Cody, if there’s an issue, I can leave. Takeshi seemed like a lovely guy. I’ll go talk to him, and see if he’s got someplace else I can stay.” I began to rise from my seat.

She grabbed my arm and pulled me back to the chair. “No. Stay. Mum said you were staying here, so you’re staying here,” she said, clenching her jaw. “Mum will sort him out when she gets back.”

I was hesitant to follow her advice, but she knew her family better than I did. Plus, I still had half of her delicious sandwich to eat. I sat back down and took another bite. This was heavenly.

As soon as Cody saw I was following her orders, she relaxed fully. Following my lead, she went back to her sandwich, but the calm conversation that we had been having was now gone, replaced by a tension in the air so thick you could cut it with a knife.

We were taking the dishes back to the sink when Auden finally returned. She stopped just inside the large room that housed the lounge, kitchen, and dining areas and looked around.

“Over here, Mum,” Cody called. “We’ve just had lunch. Did you want me to make you something?”

Auden walked across the room and sat at the kitchen island bench. “Nah, I’ll grab something later. Nat, if you’ve finished eating, would it be okay if we headed over to the medical centre and ran some tests?”

“Sure,” I answered, before looking at Cody with concern. “Will you be okay here on your own?”

Auden stiffened before shifting her eyes quickly to Cody. Cody sighed before turning to her mother. “He’s not in the best mood. You might have a hard time convincing him to let Nat stay.”

Auden pursed her lips and nodded; her eyes determined. She slapped her hands on the dark marble bench-top, pushing herself up off the stool she had been sitting on. “I’ll deal with him later. First things first; we need to get Nat some clothes of her own. Cody, whilst I’m running some tests on her, can you go to the shops and grab her enough clothes to get her through the next couple of days? If she hasn’t got her memory back by Thursday morning, you can take her shopping for more.”

Auden reached into her back pocket and removed an old leather wallet that looked weathered and very masculine. She opened it, grabbed a credit card from a slot and handed it to Cody.

Cody’s eyes lit up with glee when she took the credit card and held it like it was a cherished item. “My precious…” She stroked the card, much like she was petting a cat.

Auden grimaced. “Hey now, no going crazy with the card, okay? Basics and essentials only.” She eyed Cody with suspicion. “I mean it Cody. If you end up spending more than you need to, I’ll ground you till you’re thirty.”

Cody laughed diabolically, holding the card in both of her hands and kissing the front of it. “Anything you say, Mum!” Grinning like a loon, she stuffed the card into her own back pocket.

Auden rolled her eyes, turned to me, and muttered, “I’m so going to regret that.” I couldn’t stop the grin that appeared on my face. The banter between the two of them was adorable. Even though they had such different temperaments — Cody was bubbly and outgoing, Auden was gruffer and more sarcastic — I could feel the tremendous love they had for each other outshining everything else. Cody could very much end up buying out the entire store and Auden would forgive her, regardless of what she said now.

“Before you head off, give me a couple of minutes to change,” Auden said. “I’m assuming you put her in the normal guest quarters?” Cody nodded. “Good. Have you shown her how to use the TV in there? You know how tricky it can be the first time you use it.”

Cody narrowed her eyes at her Mum but answered suspiciously cheerfully. “Sure. Come on Nat, let’s teach you some electronics!” She grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the room they’d decided was mine, nearly dislocating my shoulder with the force she exerted.

As I was being yanked along, I dared to glance back at Auden. Her hands were on her hips, her head down, and it looked like she was taking a couple of deep breaths to work up some courage. She bobbed her head a couple of times before she turned around and stormed across to the door to her bedroom, disappearing after making sure it latched securely.

When we reached the spare room, Cody ordered me to sit on the bed. She grabbed the TV remote, before plonking herself down alongside me. She talked me through what seemed like pretty straightforward instructions — turning the TV on, finding a channel, playing with the volume. Nothing that would have caused me any trouble to figure out on my own.

She started to pump the volume on the TV when the first sounds of an argument reached us through the walls. Cody babbled nervously about the remote, telling me things that I really didn’t need to know, but I went along with the conversation.

Every time the voices got louder, she would increase the volume, until the sound became almost unbearable in the closed room.

That’s when the sound of things being thrown began to filter through the walls.

I rose from the bed, but Cody pulled me back. She shook her head at me, her wide eyes calm, but pleading. “Mum will be okay. She’ll come and get you soon. Let’s just stay here for the time being.”

I flinched as another thud shook the walls. My eyes shifted back and forth between Cody, the door, and the TV. Cody’s eyes remained fixed on the TV, purposely ignoring my stares, her jaw clenching more with every sound.

Slowly, the sounds eased. Cody lowered the sound on the TV in line with the softening noises. “It won’t be long now. You’ll see. She’ll be here and everything will be fine.” I couldn’t tell if she was reassuring herself or simply informing me of the change of circumstances.

I honestly couldn’t believe what she was saying. The sounds that I had heard were brutal. I knew that with the bracelet access to the apartment, there were only four people with access to the apartment, and two of them were in this room. Recalling the enormous bulk of Jackie, not to mention the menace he exuded, I was in no doubt that Auden would come off second best.

I desperately wanted to defend the woman who had helped me in what I assumed to be my hour of greatest need. To help her in some small way, if only to show my gratitude for an incredibly kind act.

But I’m ashamed to admit that I followed Cody’s lead and remained in the room with the door shut.

Five minutes later, there was a soft knock on the door. “Are you ready to go?” Auden’s soft voice rung out, as clear as it had sounded the half hour prior when she had just come home.

Cody closed her eyes and let out a sigh of relief. “Yup,” she responded, then looked at me for the first time since the noise started. “Come on Nat. Let’s get you checked out.” She rose from the bed, then pulled me up and towards the door, opening it to find Auden none the worse for wear on the other side.

Auden was now dressed in a different pair of jeans and a black long-sleeved t-shirt, leaning against the wall next to the bathroom door, her arms folded in front of her. She tilted her head towards the door to the medical centre. “Let’s use that door. It’ll be quicker.”

I stopped and blinked, staring at Auden. This was not the sight I had expected to see, but sure enough, she looked fine. I glanced towards the closed door back into their apartment, but Cody tugged on my arm, pulling me in the opposite direction.

“Nat and I should only be about an hour,” Auden told Cody, as she led the way through to the medical centre, before stopping in the waiting room. “Grab the essentials, then come back. Once I’m done with Nat, you can take her to do a quick tour of the facilities downstairs. Let her know where everything is.”

“Sure thing, Mum.” Cody gave me a quick hug around the middle, then scurried quickly through the still empty waiting room before disappearing down the stairs.

Auden turned to me. “Come along then,” she said to me, as she led the way down the corridor into the medical centre proper. Lights turned on as we walked until she stopped in front of one of the many doors. “This is just going to be a basic check-up to see if you’ve suffered from any concussion, as well as establishing a base to compare back with down the track. It’s nothing to be worried about.”

I swallowed nervously as she opened the door to a sterile room that lit up in terribly bright lights as soon as the door opened, making me squint until my eyes adjusted to the sudden glare. There was a desk in the middle of the room, a couple of minimally cushioned chairs opposite it, and a plush executive office chair behind the desk. To the left of the room was a very narrow medical table that held a cushioned top covered by a white sheet. There were two bookcases filled with medical-looking books, one bookcase on either side of the desk.

Auden motioned at the medical table. “Hop on. Let’s look at your feet before anything else. I know that when we picked you up, they were ripped to shreds.”

I hopped up as directed, and even with my height, my feet swung clear of the floor. She pulled the office chair in front of me, lifted my left foot and peered at the sole with a frown on her face.

“Good, good. You cleaned them well.” Her hands were as steady as a rock as they held my foot. There was absolutely no evidence of any adrenaline coursing through her system after what surely must have been a traumatic experience for her.

I couldn’t help but feel the need to broach what I had heard in the apartment, whilst she was doing her exam. “If there’s a problem with me staying with you all, it’s okay. I can talk to Takeshi, see if he knows of anyone else I can stay with.”

Auden looked up at me, frowning as she took my words in. “No. I offered you a place to stay, so I could make sure that you were safe and looked after. I’m the best person to ensure that you’re as healthy as you can be. You’re staying with us.” She returned her focus to my foot, poking and prodding at some of the larger cuts, making me wince.

“I don’t want you to get hurt because of me,” I whispered, still feeling somewhat ashamed of what I had heard in the apartment. Realising that I had caused it all made me supremely uncomfortable.

Her hands stilled. “I won’t,” she said before slowly raising her eyes to meet mine. There was a steely determination there that I hadn’t seen before. “He has no power over me or Cody. Not anymore. You’ll be safe with us.” She nodded once, then returned to her ministrations, now focused on my right foot.

This didn’t convince me. The noises I had heard didn’t make it sound like anyone was safe in that apartment. I decided to approach Takeshi when I could get a spare minute away from Cody and Auden. Surely, he should know about what was going on? Or at least be made aware of it? If he was a sheriff, like Auden said, then he would be able to help.

“Your feet are in better shape than I thought they’d be,” Auden said. “I’ll bandage both of them just to keep some cushioning in the worst areas, but there’s no need for any stitches. You did a great job of cleaning them when you had your shower. They’ll be tender over the next couple of days, but they’ll heal quickly.”

She stood up and started prodding my head. “This is what I’m most worried about. Let’s see if you’ve hit your head. If you have, that’s probably why you’ve got amnesia.”

She poked and prodded everywhere on my skull, but there was no discomfort whatsoever. She monitored my face closely as she worked, looking for any wince or sign of pain. “Huh,” she said. She stepped back and put her hands on her hips. “It doesn’t look like you’ve hit your head at all. That’s not what I was expecting.”

She walked over to the desk and pulled out a metallic tool of some description and a slim torch. “I’m going to use this to look into your eyes,” she told me. “Try to relax. This won’t take long.”

She told me to look to my right, then my left, as she flashed a light in my eyes, looking through the medical instrument the entire time.

Once again, Auden stood back and placed her hands on her hips. She frowned slightly and shook her head. “Do you have any dizziness?” she asked, as she placed the instruments on the desk. “Any confusion or nausea?”

I thought for a moment. “No, no dizziness or nausea. And the only confusion I have is from not knowing who I am. Otherwise, I feel completely fine.” I shrugged.

Auden chewed her bottom lip, lost in thought. “Seeing as you don’t appear to have a concussion, I’m going to assume the amnesia is being caused by some sort of mental block, not something physical. Your memory should return relatively quickly. Most people that suffer memory loss get their memories back within a few hours.”

I nodded as I took in what she said. “So, I should be back to normal by tonight then,” I stated with some relief.

“That’s the hope. But I must prepare you… In rare cases, it can be days, weeks, or months before memories return. It’s very rare, but it can happen.”

I gulped. “Okay…”

Auden sat in the office chair and leaned back. “You don’t need to worry, just concentrate on getting better. We’ll look after you until you get your memories back, then you can tell us what you want to happen. If it takes a little while, that’s completely fine. Takeshi and I discussed what would happen to you if it took some time for you to get your memories back.”

She paused as she noticed the scratches on my hands, then rolled the office chair closer to me again.

“Every year, Takeshi and his colleagues run a camp for the graduating class of that year. Not everyone attends because of family commitments or jobs that some have, but it’s open to them all.” She picked one of my hands up, then the other, poking and prodding them just as she had done to my feet. “Cody graduated a couple of weeks ago, and she’ll be going to this year’s camp, which starts on Monday. Around twenty of her classmates will be joining her. Takeshi thought that if you didn’t have your memory back by then, it might be good for you to be a part of it.”

I was stunned. It hadn’t even been a single day, and it looked like Auden and Takeshi had thought every possible scenario through for me. Then reality hit me in the face. “How am I going to pay for something like that? I’ve got no money…”

Getting up from her chair, Auden waved her hand, dismissing my concern. She grabbed some bandages from a tub on the bookshelf and began wrapping my hands and feet in them.

“It’s all good. There’s a scholarship program that will cover it. Remember, this is the worst-case scenario. I’m sure you’ll get your memory back before then.”