Free & Flightless (Trench)

Chapter 5-Tyler

Tyler

My ears were ringing and everything was blurry. I blinked away the cloud that had fallen over my vision and my eyes slowly but surely focused on Josh, whose face was centimeters from mine and showed pure concern. For me? My ankle was throbbing, and it felt like over double its side. I rolled it, but it hurt so bad I bit down onto my lip to not cry out.
"Now that was a tad dramatic, wasn't it?" Josh joked, but his voice was quivering and his deep brown eyes were teary, and bloodshot around the edges.
"We only just met," I frowned. He shook his head, which tossed his curls. His bandana was still down, as was his hood. Pretty...
"Seriously though, are you okay?" Josh broke through my thoughts and I looked up, dazed.
"I managed to lessen your fall, but you still could've hurt yourself." Josh continued. His voice was soft and soothing, like a soft warm blanket on a freezing cold night, the kind that'd warm anybody up. It sent a shiver down my spine, but a good one, y'know? The ones that just make everything momentarily feel right, even though literally everything is wrong. I sat up slowly, putting my arms up behind me onto the ground to stabilize me. Josh moved out of the way, a fretful expression painted across his face. Nobody had ever given me that kind of look, ever. I'd never felt cared about or safe like I did with Josh, who I'd only just met. I didn't even know his story. Who he was, what he was...his favorite color...these were all very important things to know.
"I am okay..." I said, trailing off. My head still had a heartbeat and my jacket felt heavy on my skinny body. Shakily and with Josh's assistance, I got to my feet.
"D-Do you mind if I, uh, lean on you?" I asked shyly. Josh nodded, a lopsided smile surfacing onto his face.
"Of course," Josh said. He took my arm and laced it over to the back name of his neck so he was putting weight off of my ankle. How did he know it was hurt? When I gave him a questioning look, he shrugged dismissively.
"To take pressure off your ankle I'm almost certain you hurt," Josh explained. I nodded, nerves and uncertainty racking my body. And just like that, we were setting off down the tunnel. I had some strange memory of this tunnel, like I had walked it many rimes before, but I shook it away.
"Why'd you pass out when I said I was a Bandito?" Josh asked abruptly. We had been walking in silence for several minutes, the only sound my occasional whimper from the slightly overwhelming pain currently overtaking me, Josh's little and shy "it's okay,"'s he would say to me when I'd whimper, and our footsteps echoing off the uniquely unfinished dome-like walls around us. I opened my mouth to answer him, but no sound came out. I didn't have an answer, because I didn't have a memory of Josh ever saying this. Maybe I'd bonked my head a little harder than I'd thought....I snapped my mouth shut quickly.
"Y-you're a Bandito?" I managed to stammer our after I had actually found my words and capability to speak. Josh chuckled before nodding.
"That's not possible, they're not real. Just a DEMA urban legend, another myth spread a-around to convey hopeless and helpless hope." I protested. That's what Nico had imprinted into Tyler's brain, but it seemed to not be true or the right words because when Tyler looked at Josh, he looked hurt (and confused). Not physically, but almost emotionally.
"What are you talking about, myth? They, including I, have been around for years. Almost ten years no...I'm real, Tyler." Josh said, his deep brown chocolate-y eyes wide in shock of my words. I shook my head.
"Y-you may be real, but Banditos sure are not. Nico said—" I had begun to say.
"Nico is a hell of a asshole, an idiot and a whole of a liar and you know it," Josh practically growled the words, cheetah teeth loud and proud.
"A-well," I stammered.
"Yeah, he is. I'm not a moron. I know he's the reason you got those." Josh's tone turned...not-aggressive. His eyes turned sympathetic, and the cheetah teeth faded away in the blink of an eye. It was like a void of sympathy helping Tyler walk now.
"What's 'those'?" I repeated. Josh took a single finger and carefully, delicately pointed to my collarbone, which was visible in the stretched out shirt I was wearing. To the bruises lining the collarbone and down my neck like a river of sadness flowing, a collage of colors from sky blue to blue-black, brown, and the purple dots in each "representing each sin," Nico had said.
"W-well, Yes, But-"
"Don't blame yourself, Tyler." Josh's voice was so warm. Soft, even.
"I've told myself that it's my fault m-my whole life. I've always blamed myself." I whispered to Josh, looking into his eyes. Josh awkwardly patted my hair.
"Then start believing it."

Sorry for grammar errors. Thank you for 22 reads already! I hope y'all don't mind the sort of long chapters...*chuckles nervously before hiding in makeshift trench* :) lots of drama gonna surface...I HATE NICOOOOO.
I will relax now 👌