Chapter 21: Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One: One Step Closer to the Truth

Nyla

When I had woken up, Kyle was already out of bed and was nowhere to be found. Sitting up, I could still feel a dull ache between my thighs. Gingerly removing the sheet from around my body, I got out of bed and picked up my clothes from off the floor before quickly putting them. Walking out the door, I turned the corner and almost collided with something hard. Looking up, I saw it was a smiling Kyle with a tray of food.

“I had come to see if you were okay. I’m not going to work today, so we can stay home and do whatever you want to do.” Blushing, I nodded my head before walking back to the bed.

“Why are you blushing Nyla?” he asked amused.

“Oh, nothing. It’s just the way you said home, as your talking in a sense that his house is both yours and mine.”

“Nyla everything I have is yours, this house, my heart, everything it all belongs to you. I love you Nyla.”

“I know you do Kyle and I know I love you too. I can feel it, I get butterflies in my stomach when you’re around and my heart aches when you’re gone so I know.”

Smiling, he kissed me on the head before asking “so what would you like to do today?”

“I was thinking that we could watch some romantic movies like The Notebook, Letters to Juliet and Dear John,” I said while taking the tray from him while scanning the contents. Taking up the fork, I dug into the pancakes that were golden brown and filled with syrup. Taking a bite, it melted in my mouth and I groaned in satisfaction.

Groaning he asked, “not one guy movie, or football or something more manly?”

“Nope, you said we were going to do anything I wanted,” I said teasingly while sticking my tongue out at him. Laughing at my antics, he told me to finish eat then to get freshen up as we will be going into the entertainment room to watch my “chick movies.” Squealing like a little girl, I hurriedly scarf down my food and almost choked on it, because I wanted to go and take a shower, so I could get to watch my top three favorite romantic movies but I had to take my excitement down a notch.

“Kyle where is the bathroom?” I asked in a quiet voice afraid of the answer

“It’s upstairs, the one downstairs needs repairing. You can go right–” stopping in midsentence, he took one look at me and saw the fear that shone brightly like the moon in my eyes. “Oh, I completely forgot you are afraid to go up the steps.” Nodding my head yes, I waited for him to try and figure something out but instead, he took the tray from me and went to put it away in the kitchen. Coming back, he lifted me in the cradle hold before he walked with me outside of the room. I was screaming at him to put me down, while repeatedly hitting him in the back with my right arm.

“Kyle, please put me down,” I said pleadingly.

Reaching the steps, he finally spoke. “Calm down Nyla, just close your eyes and imagine something that makes you happy. I know you want to watch your romantic movies and I will be here holding on to you every step of the way, you won’t be alone. Just trust me please.”

I knew he was right, so I agreed to it by nodding my head. I then realized that he couldn’t see me so I said, “okay I trust you.” Closing my eyes, I found my happy place. A place where my dad, my mom, and I always went. A small meadow that was a mile away from our home, where my parents bring me to play. I was happy, savoring the memory, but that all came to an end when I opened my eyes to peek to see if we were almost at the top of the stairs. That had proven to be a big mistake. I had to quickly and had to shut them back because all I could hear was the monster’s voice in my head and an image of me being pushed down the stairs.

Reaching the top of the stairs, he put me done then asked “was that so bad?” Shaking my head, no, I offered him a smile in which he returned before leading me to the master bedroom. Looking around, I was in awe of the design and the size of it.

“Shower is over there,” he said while pointing to the door at the left that was beside his walking closet. “You can go ahead I will be waiting for you,” he spoke again before walking away. Thanking him, I headed to the bathroom where I stripped out of my clothes and stepped into the bath, and took a long hot shower. Turning off the water, I stepped out of the shower and went to look in the glass. My face looked pale and I could see the coward that was hiding behind the tough image I had built up. After my accident, I had gotten scared of a flight of stairs, any flight of stairs for that matter. This isn’t me, this isn’t what I am like. The Nyla I remember would’ve faced anything head-on, but I can’t I can’t go up or down a flight of stairs because not only did I fear that I may be pushed again or fall, I also fear for the safety of my baby that is growing inside me. If I had fallen down a flight of stairs, and my baby survived meant that it was a miracle that it did.

Drying off with one of Kyle’s towels, I got redressed in my clothes from last night. Exiting the bathroom, I told Kyle I was ready to watch my “chick movies.” Shaking his head, he led the way to the entertainment room which was down the hall. Walking inside, I saw that he had an eighty-inch television that was on the wall that was shaped out to fit the television inside of it. Sitting on the brown couches, that were directly across from the television, I made myself comfortable while Kyle stood and ordered Dear John on Netflix before sitting down.

Leaning onto his shoulders, I snuggled up to him. Wrapping his arm around me, he also got comfortable. I enjoyed watching Dear John, it was a movie that I had enjoyed immensely every time I watched it. It was about a man John, a soldier who met Savannah at the beach after he had fetched her purse from the water. The plot of the movie was great, and I cried my eyes out when John had to leave savannah, and then she ended up getting married to Tim a friend of hers.

The movie ended with John and savannah seeing each other again, and a new set of fresh tears poured out of my eyes. Kyle, on the other hand, was unmoved by all of this. He had rolled his eyes so many times, that I lost count especially when he saw me crying. I wanted to smack him in the head, but I decided against it.

Ordering Letters to Juliet, I screamed at Sophie’s boyfriend whose name I can’t remember because he was annoying as hell. It was all about him and no one else. I guess Kyle was annoyed by my behavior because he had paused the movie and told me if I emitted one more sound out of my mouth, he will turn it off completely and watched something else, something manly. Closing my mouth, I kept quiet throughout the rest of the movie. I did cry though because he didn’t say anything about crying but I had to stifle my sniffles.

Ordering the last movie for the day, The Notebook. Emotions were pouring out far more worst than they did in the last two movies, even Kyle had tears in his eyes. The movie was about a man Noah who was telling an old lady Allie a story about two lovers who met at a carnival. It so turns out that the persons in the story were Noah and Allie. They are a married couple, but Allie has Dementia so she can’t quite remember anything. This movie reminds me so much of me, and my situation it really sucks when you can’t remember anything.

Picking up the remote, I paused the movie and turned to Kyle, and said. “I need you to take me to the place where I had fallen, I need to remember.”

“Nyla are you sure, you sure you want to go there now?”

“Yes I am, just take me there. I don’t remember if I had told you this but I remember stuff, stuff about you and me, they came back in the form of dreams and just being around you. I am starting to remember and taking this step will allow me to remember everything and also solve this mystery.”

“Okay, we will go now.”

Picking me up once again, he lifted me over his shoulders. “Kyle put me down if I am going to remember I need to conquer my fear. I need to descend these steps; I need to fight the voice of the monster. It will be a huge step forward.” Putting me down, he searched my eyes to see if I was sure. He must have seen determination because he smiled at me and told me to go and put on my coat. Smiling at him, I ran out of the room and down to the hall where I put on my coat. Coming out of the room, I saw that he was at the top of the step waiting on me.

Taking the first step, I took the next and kept on going, fighting the voice until I had reached the bottom. Looking up, I saw that Kyle was still at the top of the stairs with a proud smile on his face. Descending, he had reached halfway when a familiar voice halted him asking him where he was headed. Turning in the direction of the voice, I saw an older woman who looked like him. “Nyla I want you to meet my mom Emily Hernandez,” he said. Looking at her I saw that she had a mean scowl on her face. Looking away from her, I heard her repeated her question.

“Kyle, where are you going?”

“I’m taking Nyla back to the restaurant, the one where the incident occurred.”

“Okay I’m coming with you, I want you to drop me off at the supermarket that’s close to there.”

“Can’t you just go to the one that’s close to here?” he asked in an annoyed tone.

“No.”

Sighing, he told her to come for he was leaving now.

“Emma,” I heard his mom called out.

“Yes,” came an indistinct reply. Walking to the stairs, was a young woman who looked like a younger version of her mom and Kyle combined.

“Nyla, this is Emma, my sister.”

“Nice to meet you, Emma,” I said to the girl.

“Nice to meet you too,” her familiar voice floated down the stairs.

“Emma, we are going to the restaurant where Kyle proposed to this young woman. You can get ready and meet us there,” his mom told her. Shaking her head yes, she disappeared out of sight.

Exiting the house, we got inside Kyle’s car and he drove off. Reaching the supermarket, he turned into the parking lot and got out. His mom was taking forever, and it was getting tiresome walking around in circles with her.

“Mom, could you hurry up? Or we are going to leave without you the restaurant will be closing soon and we want to arrive there before it actually closes.” Sighing she went up to the cashier and cashed her items then we were out of the store. Getting back inside the car, we drove off.

Arriving at the restaurant, we got out of the car.

“You guys go on without me; I have something I have to do,” Kyle said. Nodding my head, his mother and I both walked away. Entering, I saw the flight of stairs that haunted me, and beads of sweat had started forming on my forehead. I was getting nervous.

“Nyla you can do this came,” Kyle’s voice. Turning to him, I saw that he just entered. Shaking my head, I suddenly got my confidence back. Taking the first step, nothing happened, taking another nothing, taking the third nothing. No flashbacks, nothing came back.

“Kyle this is obviously not working; she is not remembering anything,” his mom’s voice came out a little joyful.

“Mom, give her time. Nyla, please continue until you trigger the memory.”

Taking the next step, a flashback of that night came rushing back into my memory.

“Kyle what are you doing in here?” we heard his mom asked. “I know you guys are getting married soon, but this is not the place or time to do that. So please stop whatever you guys were doing and come down, we’re leaving now.”

Getting up, I fixed my clothes and walked away leaving him.

Reaching back to where the party was held, I noticed that the area was now dark again and empty, and I was trying to find my way in the darkness.

Feeling my way around, I finally reached the steps and before I could take a step forward I heard a familiar feminine voice in my ear.

“Bye bitch,” before I was pushed down the stairs.

“Kyle let’s go, she is not remembering anything.”

Turning to the sound of the voice I shouted, “It’s you!”