"Josh? You're doing the breathing thing, calm down." Tyler always knew when I had an anxiety attack coming on. I took a deep breath.
"Okay, please help me i don't know what to do."
Just then, as Tyler hung up I heard a knock at my door. Tyler stood with a drowsy Jenna hanging on his arm. Although tired, she was still wide-eyed and as worried as me.
"Do you know anything else?" Tyler asked, walking in.
"No I-" my phone started to ring.
"Hello??" I said quickly.
"Josh..." She sounded like as was caught between a weary state and a panic attack.
"Kyndall! Are you okay? Where are you?!" I said frantically.
"I-I'm... I'm in an ally and..." She trailed off.
"Stay on the phone with me. Is it walking distance?" I grabbed my coat and headed for the door. Jenna and Tyler followed close behind as we rushed to the elevators.
"I'm so scared." I could hear the tears in her voice.
"Hang on baby, I'm coming. You're going to be alright." It was so hard to stay calm.
"Josh? Are you coming?" She kept asking me that over and over. Finally, her directions started to make sense and we came across the green light she kept talking about. There she was, lying on the ground.
"Kyndall!" I sprinted for her, scooping her up in my arms. She reached up and got a loose grip on my shirt.
"Do you need to go to the hospital?" Tyler asked, rushing to my side.
"No. Please just take me back." She sounded so tired.
"Are you sure? What happened?" Jenna asked.
"My head hurts."
"You scared me..." Felt tears burning my eyes as I pulled her to me, our foreheads touching. Her hand gently wiped away a tear that had escaped.
I lifted her, and we hurried back to the hotel, ignoring the strange looks from strangers in the lobby.
We ran for our room, the lied I her on the bed.
"How do you feel?" Jenna asked.
"I'm okay. I still have a headache," She breathed, blinking with heavy eyes.
"Can you tell us what happened?" I asked, tucking a strand of bright red hair behind her ear. She just furrowed her eyebrows and closed her eyes. Tyler shook his head at me.
"Do you want us to stay here and watch her with you?" Jenna asked. I shook my head.
"I'll call you if I need anything."
They nodded and left.
"Kyndall... Please tell me what happened." She just shook her head and closed her eyes tight in resistance. I sighed.
I lifted up the blankets and started tucking her in. She breathed heavily,blinking slowly and watching me through tired eyes. I leaned down to her and brushed her hair out of her face as she lied there still looking at me. Our eyes met.
"Josh... I love you." She said quietly. She caught me by surprise. I planted a light kiss on her forehead.
"I love you too, Kyndall." I kept my tone quiet.
She closed her eyes, and faded into sleep.
||KYNDALL POV||
The first thing I noticed when I woke up was the throbbing pain in my head. When I reached back and instinctively felt my scalp, the area was sore. My ribs on my left side were achy and stiff.
I remembered.
"Kyndall, how do you feel?" Josh had been sitting on the living room chair in the hotel room. He got up when he noticed I was awake.
"I'm okay." I pushed my tangled hair back out of my face as I sat up a little bit. Josh crawled onto the bed and sat in front of me.
"Will you tell me what happened? Do you remember what happened?" He asked, sitting cross-crossing front of me. I sighed.
"The desk guy told me to try the drug store down the street and I got lost." I lied. I felt so bad when I lied to him.
"Kyndall, you didn't have your wallet on you." Josh looked me in the eyes.
I felt my heart drop, and tears burn my eyes.
"I did something sort of uncalled for." Josh said.
"Hm?" The shift in conversation startled me. I thought I was going to have to come clean.
"I feel really bad about it now, but I looked at the messages from that number and I saw-"
"You went through my phone?" I cut him off mid-sentence. He had this sad puppy-dog look going on. He sighed.
"Yeah... I did."
"Josh..." I couldn't decide if I was hurt or not, "don't you trust me?"
"Kyndall, you lied to me." He looked up at me with sad eyes.
I did. I did lie.
"I... I didn't want you to get involved," I shook my head and broke the eye contact.
"Kyndall, you're in danger. This is a big deal," our tones were getting progressively louder as we went back and forth.
"Josh! I couldn't tell you they threatened me!"
"If you would have told me when this first started, maybe we wouldn't even be in this mess!" He looked strangely intimidating yet vulnerable when he was angry.
"You wouldn't done the same thing if you were me!" I yelled back.
"No Kyndall, I would've asked for help!"
"I can't believe I said I loved you!"
Dead silence followed, with an unreadable look in Josh's eyes. I had never felt more terrible in my life than in that moment.
He stood up, turned away, and left the hotel room. I balled up my fists in the sheets and slammed my face into a pillow, screaming in anger at myself and Josh.
I didn't ask for any of this.
UNKNOWN: part 21
Start from the beginning
