White Eyes

Chapter 23 - Apartment

— Ayra —

I noticed that the sky was starting to darken; I had slept. I didn't like that—closing my eyes and seeing nothing—but my eyes closed without permission. I observed the island through the giant window in my brother's office, where the sofa was placed. It was a beautiful place. A free place.

After a while gazing at the landscape, I saw them: my older brother Reid, the oldest in the family, the one I never thought I'd see again, was here, and he created this place after what Mom did to me. He is amazing. While I'm afraid to even close my eyes, I want to be strong—stronger than anyone in the whole world—to protect this place and Eyder, who was talking to my brother.

He helped me, but I don't want to seem like a fragile girl. Still, I've been trapped in that place for so long that I've lost track of things. I urgently needed to learn everything I could.

I looked at the two of them without moving. I only moved my eyes; I felt my eyes moving in their sockets. It was a sensation I wasn't very accustomed to. I blinked, darkening everything and returning the light. At least one good thing I learned in that place was that I became stronger in many ways, especially my special abilities.

I looked at them once again and began to get up. The conversation seemed serious; that's when they noticed I had awakened.

"Ayra, sorry if we woke you up," Eyder said.

"It wasn't you. You can relax," I had to say when I saw the furrows in my brother's eyebrows; he was worried.

"Did you manage to sleep a bit?" my brother asked. The truth was, I slept more than I intended.

"Well, yes. I like the view from here; you can see a good part of the island."

"The room I prepared for you is also quite large. Would you like to go there?"

"Of course. Does it have a window like this?"

"It does; it's state-of-the-art technology."

We started walking toward my future room. That's when I noticed Eyder had stayed behind. I understood he didn't want to interrupt a moment between siblings, but I liked him. I wanted him to come along.

"Aren't you coming, Eyder?"

"If you want me to."

"I want. I trust you."

The three of us went to the elevator; my brother pressed the button for the top floor, and we went up, listening to the elevator's tune, which I actually liked. I was eager to get there. We got off the elevator and walked down the corridor, turned left, and, to my surprise, inside, there was another elevator. He called it, and it opened almost immediately.

The three of us entered, and my brother inserted a key and swiped a card, then pressed the last of the two buttons.

"Your key and card are upstairs. I was going to set a numeric password, but I thought we might forget it, so I opted for the card and key. You need both to unlock. There's another emergency pair, both to exit the apartment and enter."

"Okay."

I didn't want to mention that, with my ability or Eyder's, having a key didn't make a difference. Oh well.

We arrived there and were faced with a living room. He showed me the kitchen, where his room was located, and everything I loved to see was that you could see everything from there. There were more of those gigantic glass windows.

Then we went to the side, which was my room. It was on the opposite side of my brother's room. When I opened the door, I saw a huge glass that expanded to a little more than half of the ceiling. I kept staring at the ceiling for so long that Reid said,