Shining among Darkness

By
WingzemonX

Chapter 27
Night without nightmares

The night before his little adventure in Oregon, Cody Hobson was at Lisa Mathews' house. They had a light dinner cooked by her and drank only half a glass of wine because the next day they had to work. Soon after that, they went to the room and made love slowly and delicately, without any pressure or rush.

As a lover, Cody considered himself average. He hoped that his lack of initiative or assertive behavior was compensated for by his dedication and attention to detail. Most of the time, it was difficult for him to be sure about this since Lisa tended to be somewhat silent during the act. However, when he felt her slender legs tightly around his hip, and her fingers gripping his hair violently, then he could be sure he was doing a good job, and that gave him much more confidence and freedom. That night, Lisa just did that, a couple of minutes before they reached a quiet, pleasant climax together.

They had met a little less than a year ago, at a dinner in honor of a veteran professor of Biological Sciences who taught at the University of Washington, and with whom Cody had begun to build a friendship almost since he first came to Seattle. Lisa was a biochemist and worked in the research laboratory of a very important pharmaceutical company. She was also studying for her Ph.D., where she took a class with that professor, so she was therefore invited to the same dinner. The professor, whose last name was Carman, had introduced them to each other without any particular reason except that "I had the feeling that the two of you would get along very well ." Some time later, and looking back on how things had ended after that moment, Cody would wonder if something of shining had to do with that feeling. But, in the end, he concluded that it had been merely good luck.

Or at least, it was initially good luck without a doubt.

Lisa was modest in appearance, with a slim body, curly black hair, and flirty freckles on her face. Anyone would say that she was not precisely gorgeous and, in fact, she could easily pass for the classic girl who spent her college years nailed solely to her studies, with her thick-framed glasses, her teenage acne scars, or his somewhat withdrawn attitude. At least during a first approach. But for Cody, she almost immediately became the real example of how beautiful, attractive, and sensual a woman could be, inside and out.

In the beginning, everything was perfect. Light dinners, comedy and romance movies, talk about biology, biochemistry, or any other random subject that had little or nothing to do with their works... And sex; sex was definitely something special, despite those moments when the young high school teacher pressed himself to play a proper role.

Cody had never consciously considered the possibility of being in love. In fact, they had never used the words boyfriend and girlfriend, at least not between them. Still, he was sure there was something special between the two of them, and he knew it was the same for Lisa. But Cody also knew that it wouldn't last forever, and sooner or later, something would come up that would end up causing trouble. That something began to emerge a month ago. Since then, those small moments that previously were so comforting and pleasant for him ended up becoming almost like Russian roulette, in which this subject could or could not come to the surface. And Lisa still hadn't reacted explosively to it; it was usually more like a cold silence.

At the moment, Cody was sitting on the edge of the bed, buttoning his shirt. Lisa meanwhile rested reclining and wrapped in her bed cover with her head resting on the bulky pillow.

"You're leaving now?" She had asked him as soon as he stood up, putting him on alert.

"I have classes tomorrow," he replied, although perhaps more cutting than he really wanted.

After that, Lisa remained in reflective silence. And for a moment, Cody thought he might be well off that time. He would finish dressing, take his wallet and cell phone, give her a sweet kiss on the forehead, and let her rest peacefully until the next day.

But it was not like that.

"Why don't you stay tonight?" Lisa asked slowly, pulling her head away from the pillow just enough to see his back. Cody froze. "The school is closer to here than to your house on the outskirts."

Cody remained silent, his fingers paralyzed in the previous position to button his last buttons. He breathed slowly and gradually tried to continue his work.

"It would be rather strange if I go with the same clothes I wore today," he commented in a tone that was trying to be funny, but he was sure it hadn't sounded quite like that.

"Children don't notice what clothes their teachers wear," Lisa replied, sitting up completely, exposing her slim torso and small pink breasts. "And even if it were, it is not as if you were some adulterer cheating on his wife."

"I suppose not. But I don't have my toothbrush here, and I have to get up earlier than you. I'd hate to have to force you to lose that couple of hours of sleep because of me."

"How considerate," she muttered in a sarcastic, almost aggressive tone, just before she rested her head back on the pillow.

Cody was silent for a few moments as he perceived that feeling of rejection spring from her words for the first time. Perhaps it was indeed the first time he had heard it, but he was sure that it had not arisen spontaneously at that moment. For some time ago, he had been able to feel it germinate and grow little by little, with each moment similar to that which had arisen.

He could, as on past occasions, withdraw and leave things like that, hoping that by tomorrow she would have forgotten everything, and it usually happened. But sooner or later, that would no longer be so; denying that would be stubbornness from his part.

The teacher sighed heavily and stood up from the bed. His shirt was buttoned but stripped, and he was still missing his socks and shoes that rested on the rug to one side.

"Hey... listen," he started to say in a somewhat uncertain tone, "it's not what you think..."

"What do I think?" Lisa murmured with blunt coldness, turning her head back to look at him as best she could. "That you are treating me like I'm your prostitute?"

"It isn't like that..."

"The first time I asked you, I thought maybe I had crossed a line too soon. But we have been together for almost a year now, and you have no qualms about sex, but it seems like I am pointing a gun at you every time I ask you to stay here, or me at your house. You even made up I don't know how many excuses for not joining me at Thanksgiving."

"Lisa..."

"If I hadn't already been to your house, I would think you were married."

"I'm not married."

"I know. No matter..."

She settled her head back on the pillow, in an apparently comfortable way, and closed her eyes as she wanted to fall asleep. It was not as such what she wanted, Cody was sure. It was more a way to give a point to her angry speech, in case it was not clear.

Seeing this situation from the outside must have seemed even somewhat comical. Of all the different problems a couple could have, was not sleeping together really that serious? Perhaps in the short term, no one would think so. But at a point, at a point when one of them wanted to go a step further, to go deeper into what intimacy with the other could offer, little by little, it could create small friction that could end up creating a significant crack.

Cody did not know if the crack had already formed, or were only the first signs of its arrival.

He took a step toward her, but he really wasn't able to move any further. What could he say to justify himself? The secret reasons that led him to have that attitude were so hard to explain, and even more to understand. How could he subject her to something like this when he sometimes envied her ignorance?

Timely or not, considering the moment, his phone, laying on the bureau on the side of the bed, began to ring incessantly accompanied by the sound of vibrating against the flat wooden surface. He looked for a moment at Lisa, whose only action was to turn to his other side to turn her back to the cell phone, and perhaps, therefore, to him. Then Cody slowly approached the phone and checked its screen. It was an unknown number, although not really. It was because he had not yet saved it in his contacts, but not because he had received some calls from the same number several days before. However, he had not answered any at the time.

Cody answered immediately and held the phone close to his right ear.

"Hello?" He murmured slowly, almost as if he really feared to wake Lisa if he raised his voice too much.

"Cody, hello," Matilda Honey's voice sounded on the other end of the line, confirming his initial suspicion when he saw the phone on the screen. "Sorry to call you so suddenly, are you busy?"

"Matilda?" No, I was just..." He stopped for a moment and looked at Lisa. She hadn't moved an inch; she was still lying down, half of her bareback peeking out from under the cover. He did not think a bit that she was really asleep, but still hurried out of the room quietly. "What happens? You sound altered."

Cody could hear the psychiatrist take a deep breath, perhaps trying to calm nerves that overwhelmed her.

"Listen, I know this is very sudden and without warning, but I need to ask you a favor. Could you accompany me to Portland early tomorrow?"

"To Portland?" Cody exclaimed, a little confused. He was already standing in the living room, a few meters from the door of the room. "I thought the girl you were treating was near Salem."

"It's about something else," Matilda declared in a severe tone. "It's long to explain, I'll tell you better when we meet. But there is another girl who was being treated by a colleague of mine, and he is now dead. He thought the girl could have an Antisocial Personality Disorder."

"So, she is a psycho girl?"

"Something like that... But I think it could be something else."

Cody thought a little about that last clarification. If she called him in that rush to ask for help, he didn't have to speculate so much to make a solid theory of what she meant.

"Something else like our specialty?" He murmured slowly, almost as if he were an accomplice to some mischief that caused him guilt inside.

"Exactly. Maybe it's nothing, but if it's something and I don't know what, I could need some support. I know it's too much to ask, and you should miss your classes. If you can't..."

"No, no, don't worry," he went on to answer immediately, without the slightest doubt about it. "I'll be there. Where do we meet?"

Matilda sighed in relief.

"Thanks, Cody."

After searching Google Maps for a while, Matilda suggested seeing a Starbucks near the building where the Family Affairs offices were located. Once they hung up, just as Cody turned around, he found Lisa's slim figure wrapped in a pink nightgown, standing at the entrance to the bedroom. She looked at him blankly, almost as if she really wasn't aware that he was still standing there.

"Who's Matilda?" She asked in a sober voice.

"She's an old friend from many years ago."

"From Alabama?" Her voice sounded somewhat incredulous. "What's she doing in Portland?"

"She's a psychologist... I mean, a psychiatrist. She's dealing with a case in Salem and, apparently, another one came up in Portland, and she wants my help."

Lisa narrowed her eyes a little as if silently accusing him of some wrongdoing.

"Help with what? You are a biology teacher, not a psychiatrist."

Cody opened his mouth a few inches, but no word came out of it. He stayed like that for a moment, before closing his lips again. His gaze had taken on a guilty and self-conscious feeling.

Lisa held her hands up to him as a "stop."

"Enough, I don't want you to make any more excuses for me," she declared so bluntly that it was almost like a slap to Cody, and perhaps he would have preferred one instead. "Just leave it like that. I'll take a bath. Lock up when you leave, will you?"

If Cody intended to say something else, he still didn't have a chance. Lisa went back into the room, then went straight to the bathroom and locked herself in it. Cody thought fleetingly that he hadn't slammed the door behind her simply because his personality wouldn't allow it. For his part, he stood for perhaps several minutes in the room, feeling like the worst trash in the universe for making a person as good and pure as Lisa Mathews feel so bad. Only the distant sound of the shower opening made him react at last.

He entered the room again, grabbed her remaining possessions, finished dressing quickly in the living room, and then retired before Lisa came out of the shower. Being halfway to his house, the idea that perhaps she hoped he was still there when she finished bathing and they could talk about the subject more calmly, would fall like a rock. He felt foolish by not have done that, but it was too late to just back down.

And even if he stayed, he still wouldn't have anything to say to her when she left that bathroom, so it might as well have been all the same.

He didn't know exactly what would happen with Lisa from that embarrassing moment, nor did he even know what would happen in Portland with that mysterious case. At the moment, it was best that he tries to focus on that last one, and try to sleep as well as possible... without nightmares.

— — — —

A peaceful night's sleep passed, despite the situation. The next day, however, would turn out to be anything but peaceful. He met with Matilda at the agreed Starbucks, and there she would show him the small file she had put together about the girl they were going to see: Lily Sullivan. Cody understood at the time why his help was so required. There was a possibility that the girl would be an illusionist, a telepath, and also a bit of a tracker, at least over short distances. They had met people who had those abilities, and even both at the same time. However, if the papers Matilda found were right, it might be something even more complicated than that.

In the end, however, they wouldn't even meet the girl in person. A car accident had happened very early in the morning, and Lily Sullivan had been taken to Providence Medical Center. After an eventful talk to try to convince them to let them see her, Matilda and Cody would end up caught in the middle of a kidnapping and a shooting, and almost as suspects of being complicit in it, in some way. The victim of all that, depending on which perspective they saw it from, would be Lily Sullivan, who would disappear under the nose of the police, and theirs as well.

The most troubling thing for Cody, however, was that Matilda had been attacked in some way. When he found her in the empty Emergency Room, she looked really bad. And soon afterward, the police came and pulled them apart, preventing him from even asking her directly what had happened. After that, they guided him to a small waiting room, where they forced him to take a seat and wait, under the strict watchful eye of an officer prostrate at the door like the guard of a palace.

During that time, no one came to take his statement or tell him if he was supposed to be under arrest. They had him almost isolated, but not entirely since he still had his phone with him. He considered calling Matilda to ask where she was, or perhaps Eleven directly to report the situation. However, the way that officer looked at him from time to time kept him too alert. Cody wasn't sure what he would say or what he would do if he even saw the intention of taking the phone out of his pocket. Little by little, the hospital was filling up with police officers, and they all looked quite nervous and upset by the death of one of their colleagues. So, Cody preferred to do nothing to make the situation worse.

Matilda appeared after a while at the door of the room, escorted by another officer. Cody was relieved to see her, although this was somewhat diluted by seeing her limp slightly.

"Have a seat," said the officer escorting her. Matilda gave him a sidelong glance, then walked over to where Cody was sitting. The more she walked, the more she seemed to get used to the pain in her ankle and begin to walk normally.

The brunette sat down right on the seat next to him and crossed her arms. She looked askance at the officer at the door, and the officer looked at her back with the same grumpy attitude that had been in all that time Cody had been there.

"Are we under arrest, or what?" Matilda murmured sarcastically to her partner.

"They would like that for sure," Cody replied calmly, but not for that reason very animated. "How much longer will they have us here without even questioning us?"

Matilda was silent for a while after that, as if she was pondering something, or perhaps many things. Cody was deciding whether or not it would be appropriate to ask her about what had happened when the typical sound of a received message was made quite clear in the silence of the room. She noted that Matilda had been a little startled by it, almost as if it had woken her up from a small dream. Cody knew it had been his phone, as he had also felt it vibrate in his leg. He reached into his pocket and slowly pulled it out without taking his eyes off the officer at the door, hoping he didn't misinterpret their movement.

Cody completely took the device out of his pocket, unlocked it, and in its notifications he could clearly see a single message received, with the name of its sender and a single phrase accompanying it:

Lisa: We need to talk

Cody froze after reading such written words on the screen. There were very few cases in which that phrase was accompanied by a positive or happy connotation. Almost always, it was followed by problems.

He stared at the screen for a few moments, not carefully analyzing the message received but rather waiting if he received any more. Lisa seemed to have no intention of doing such a thing, at least not at the time. If he allowed himself to guess, that first message probably had cost her quite a lot to write and send, and she didn't have the strength to repeat the feat unless Cody opened the door for her.

He did not want to open that door, at least not at that time and place.

His finger approached the power button by itself, and turned off the screen again, only to put it back in his pocket, not so carefully compared to how he had take it out.

"What happens?" He heard Matilda ask beside him, making him turn to see her out of mere reflection; she looked at him curiously.

"No, nothing ..." he murmured slowly and muffled. "It's just a small matter that I left pending in Seattle.

"I thought you had asked for permission."

Cody denied.

"It's not about work, it's..." He was silent for a few moments, wondering a bit about what to say. "It doesn't matter, I don't have the head for that right now."

And it was not a lie. Everything that had happened that morning, and much of it still unknown to him, was already dense enough for him to be distracted in an insignificant couple fight ... Or, at least that was what Cody was saying to himself to convince himself of not attending to that matter in those moments; to convince himself to not focus his mind on trying to guess what was behind that simple "We need to talk."

— — — —

The rest of the day was not at all quieter. Detective Vazquez of the police accused them into his paranoia of everything that happened. Cole Sear of the Foundation, whom neither Matilda nor he knew, came to help them. They sneaked their way to the scene of a murder, while the fresh bloodstains were on the floor and wall. And apparently his new friend Cole could talk to ghosts. That last, they would know until shortly after, but apparently, thanks to this, he was able to find out the identity of the kidnapper of Lily Sullivan and the murderer of the police officer. And it did not turn out to be a straightforward story to tell at all (although Cole did not have much problem in telling Vázquez anyway).

Anyway, Cole managed to get them out of that hospital in one piece, so they couldn't complain. He turned out to be a fascinating person, even by the standards of people who already Cody knew from the Foundation. He was a nice person, or at least Cody had liked him quite a bit. However, Matilda had a very different opinion.

Even after saving themselves from being arrested, they did not have a calm afternoon. Cody and Cole accompanied Matilda to solve a problem that had occurred with the girl she was dealing with in Eola. It led them to learn first-hand what she could be capable of.

Cody was really shocked and very confused after this first meeting with Samara Morgan, and the explanation Cole gave them after that didn't help much to calm things down either. It also didn't help to see Matilda lose control and throw Cole against a table right in front of him, or receive a few scolding from Eleven over the phone. However, hear the voice of her former mentor, as well as her directions on how to proceed, did give him some reassurance. It was a little pathetic that an adult man still felt reassured that someone else was telling him what to do and that everything would be fine if he did. But apparently, that had been the case. Matilda also seemed calmer after speaking with Eleven, but he wasn't sure how much or if it was for the same reasons.

After all that little adventure, all that remained was to go home and rest. Cole would stay the night in the same hotel as Matilda. However, Matilda would spend the night in Eola's Psychiatric Hospital to monitor Samara. So, the detective from Philadelphia and Cody shared a car that would leave the detective first in Salem, and then follow the entire route towards Seattle. Luckily it wasn't that late yet, but the distance was enough to warrant a significant tip to the driver. Would the Foundation reimburse it if he requested it?

His car would arrive in a few minutes, so they both went to the main doors of the hospital to wait for it. Cody was monitoring the current location of the vehicle he had requested in the application, and Cole meanwhile took the opportunity to smoke a cigarette with much more ease. Cody wasn't a fan of tobacco at all, but he also didn't mind that people smoked next to him.

"Well, she's a special person, isn't she?" Cole muttered as he looked up at the sky, just after releasing a thick puff of smoke. Cody turned to see something confused.

"What did you say?"

"Matilda... well, Dr. Honey, I mean." He laughed mockingly, a little forced. "It seems difficult to deal with her."

Cody thought about that observation a bit. Was Matilda difficult to deal with? Not really. In fact, it was the first time he had seen her behave that way with someone. She usually got along well with everyone, as far as he knew. The circumstances under which she had met Cole Sear, however, seemed to have been less than optimal.

"That will change," Cody pointed out neutrally. "I think she already started to like you."

"Really? I don't think I realized that" Cole pointed out wryly. He gave yet another taste of his cigarette. The vehicle was already about to arrive according to the application. "Are you and she very close?"

Cody raised an eyebrow, puzzled by the question.

"Close? Well, we became friends years ago, but we hadn't been in contact for a long time."

"Ah, so you two don't...?" He didn't finish his sentence, and instead just looked at him with an expression he didn't quite know how to interpret. "You know, are you nothing else?"

Cody blinked, intrigued.

"Matilda and me? Not at all. In fact, I..." His voice caught in that instant, when the idea he had tried to ignore since receiving that message, abruptly entered his head. "I... date someone... or at least I used to..."

Cole's eyes widened in surprise.

"Oh, it sounds serious," he commented slowly, as if afraid to say something wrong.

"Let's say there are things about me that I can't tell anyone, as you well know. And that has brought us some problems lately."

"I understand," the detective replied simply because, at that moment, their vehicle approached them through the parking lot, until he was just ahead.

Cole's luggage was carried in the trunk, and both men climbed to the rear. Their driver was a short man with white skin, very short red hair, and green eyes. He didn't talk much, and in fact, that was good at the moment, although Cody had a long solo trip with him in Seattle, so it could get a little boring if he kept doing it.

Once the car started and was already on the road to Salem, Cole spoke again.

"That would be solved if you are sincere, you know?" He said suddenly, taking Cody awkwardly. "I mean the problems with your girl... Ah, sorry, is your couple a girl?"

Cody rolled his eyes a little. He wasn't the first to ask him that question, or the like. But he understood that there was no malicious intent in that, but rather a desire to not guess things in advance.

"Yes, it's a girl. And about be sincere with her... You make it sound easy."

"Because it is. You can't hope to have a long-lasting and stable relationship if you are not totally honest with the other person."

In addition to being a policeman and a demon hunter, was Cole also a loving counselor? What a surprise box turned out to be Cole Sear.

"Have you always been honest with...?" He was silent for a moment, realizing what he was about to say. He glanced sideways at the driver, who seemed quite focused on the road and was apparently not paying attention to their talk. In the same way, he decided to lower his voice and take care of his words. "Are you always honest with what you can do, with all the women you date?"

"Of course not," Cole snorted in an amused tone. "But it's not like I go out on many dates, actually. What the Doctor said a while ago is not very far from reality. I am not really comfortable with many people."

"Seriously? You seemed quite comfortable this whole day."

"A mask, I think she called it."

Cody was not so surprised by what he said, but by how he did it with a big carefree smile on his face.

"But I'm not the most practical example," the detective continued. "Look at Eleven and her husband, for example. A lovely family, a beautiful house, and all because there are no secrets."

Cody looked out the window thoughtfully.

It would be difficult for me to believe that Eleven does not keep any secrets to her family, was the thought that crossed his mind, but he was not able to say it out loud.

He would love to be honest with Lisa, he would love to be able to adapt his life to hers and make the two of them totally fond. But he couldn't, because of the shining, because of that ability that allowed him to materialize his thoughts, including his dreams, in a way lived in the real world more than any other illusionist, but more unstable. Lisa wondered why she never wanted to sleep with her but didn't know if she might be able to understand it. It could be days, weeks, or even months without anything happening, or at least nothing terrible. But it would only need a bad night, an uneasy dream, a dark figure that slipped from his subconscious to emerge, and then that would be the end of everything.

It had happened before, and several times. When his nightmares took over him and changed his entire environment for the worse. He lived alone in a house on the outskirts, with no very close neighbors, for that reason. So he always had in his pocket a bottle with small white pills, a unique drug that in an emergency could help him sleep, without any dream involved. It had horrible havoc on him, making him wake up more tired than when he had gone to sleep, making him irritable and paranoid, until he managed to go back to sleep on his own. For that reason, he had opted better for near isolation, and for always take care of the places where he spent the night.

How could Lisa digest something like that? How could she understand that her partner did not want to sleep next to her for fear... of killing her unintentionally?

"It's different with me," he said thoughtfully. "I ... really can't have a conventional relationship like others. When I sleep, things can become dangerous. I couldn't forgive myself if Lisa got hurt, or worse, because of me. I couldn't forgive myself for losing another loved one for... this I can do."

Cole looked at him silently, apparently somewhat surprised by his words. Throughout that day, he had only been able to tell him lightly about the nature of his abilities, and especially what they could do. He hoped, however, that it was enough to give him an idea without having to say it in the presence of his driver.

"Then, will you finish her?" Cole questioned skeptically.

Cody hesitated.

"I don't know... I haven't decided, but maybe it's for the best." He crossed his arms and leaned back against his seat. "I shouldn't be thinking about my disastrous love life after everything that happened today."

"It's never a bad time to think about that," Cole added, more serious than expected.

The rest of the way to the Salem Grand Hotel after that was relatively short. The vehicle was parked just in front of the building. Cole opened the door on his side, but before going down, he turned to his partner.

"Well, I'm going down here," he chirped and held out his right hand in greeting. "A pleasure, Cody."

"Likewise, Cole," the professor replied, not entirely sharing his enthusiasm, but still squeezing his hand firmly.

"I'll see you on Saturday if everything goes well."

"Yes."

Cole put his feet out the door and stood upright on the sidewalk in front of the hotel. The chauffeur had gotten out to open the trunk and put his suitcase down, and Cody took advantage of that short time to ask one last question.

"Hey, wait," he murmured a little loudly, leaning out of Cole's still open door a little. "Why were you asking about Matilda? Did you like her... in a romantic way?"

Cole shuddered a little, but immediately forced himself to smile again carelessly and calmly, his hands on his waist and his chest out. For the first time that day, Cody seemed to see a bit of that "mask" that Matilda had mentioned.

"Me? No, I don't even know her," he replied wryly. "But... it wouldn't be so crazy, would it?"

Despite his carefree demeanor, it seemed to Cody that he really wanted to know his answer. It was not an easy thing for him to reply, as he didn't really know Matilda as much as it might seem.

"As far as I know, she doesn't date anyone," he commented neutrally, "and I'm not sure if she ever has. At least I think you gave her a strong first impression."

"It's what I do best," Cole said mockingly. The driver placed the suitcase right next to him, and he grabbed it by the handle immediately. "Rest well."

"Same."

Cole pulled his suitcase toward the hotel, and Cody was out of sight behind the automatic doors. The driver returned shortly after to his place, and without saying a word, he started again, now to Seattle.

Cody took advantage of that time of travel and silence to reflect. Inevitably, his attention ended up refocusing on that message he had received that afternoon. He had an eye on him again; everything looked the same:

Lisa: We need to talk

Just those words, and nothing else. Lisa hadn't written anything else, and neither had he. He considered for a few moments if it was appropriate to answer her being so late, but there was not an inch of him who wanted that idea. He just wanted to rest and forget about that long day. Ignoring not only his problem with Lisa, but Lily Sullivan, Samara Morgan, Leena Klammer, and whoever Matilda's mysterious attacker was. Try to have another night without nightmares.

There would be plenty of time to worry about it later...

END OF CHAPTER 27

Author's Notes:

—Lisa Mathews is an original character of my creation who is not based directly or indirectly on some other well-known character from a novel, movie, or series.

—This was a chapter mainly to tell this piece of backstory for Cody that I wanted to put in for a few chapters ago, but that I decided to leave for later since he didn't find much room in other chapters. However, I thought it was better to put it here before moving on to another topic.