“Kendra!” I squat down in front of her and grab her by the shoulders and shake gently so I don’t bang her head against the wall. “C’mon now. Come back to me.” Her eyes don’t even look at me and slowly blink once in a while. I’ve read of something like this. I rack my brain trying to remember why a person would just suddenly be in a coma but be awake. Catatonic! That’s the word.

I’m afraid to leave her on the bathroom floor but I also feel like I need to get someone. I don’t even know what to do. Should I call an ambulance? Or Viv? If I call the ambulance, Viv would want to know, but if I call Viv, she’ll probably tell me to call an ambulance. Either way, I’m calling both. I pick up my phone and dial the number.

“Effi, this better be good. I’m in a meeting.” If Viv’s face looks like the way her voice sounds, I’d hate to be in that meeting.

“Kendra collapsed.”

“What do you mean ‘collapsed’?”

“Exactly that. We’ve had a rough trip so far, went to a bathroom, she kinda lost her shit and then it was like her whole body shut down and now she’s leaning against a bathroom wall in a catatonic state. I don’t know what to do from here.” I can feel my nerves make every cell in my body start to shake.

Viv sighs. “Did you call an ambulance?!”

I knew it. Damned if I do, damned if I don’t. “No. I called you cause, uh, the reason why she collapsed is because I kinda…killed a guy.”

The phone gets muffled like Viv put her hand over the speaker and I can hear her mumble something about she needs to take this, and she’ll be back in a minute. I can hear a door slam and then silence.

“Viv?”

“Yes, I’m here. You did the right thing to call me. May I ask why and where this incident happened?” Her voice is so calm it makes me even more nervous.

I draw in a deep breath and say, “There were two truck drivers who were trying to rape us. At least we think that was their intention. It might’ve been worse, honestly.”

“Just the facts, Effi. No what if’s.”

“Right. We are in Pennsylvania. They followed us to a restaurant called Hog’s Galore in Phillipsburg and were mad that we got away. It was just us and the one lady running the place. She helped us and told us not to worry about the clean-up.”

Viv interrupts, “Ms. Judy J?”

“What?! How did you know?”

“That’s not important. Continue.”

“So, I killed one of the two truckers and we took off. Ms. Judy J is taking care of the one on the floor in the restaurant for us. We drove for a while, I don’t know how long. We’re still in Pennsylvania but Kendra hasn’t been dealing with all of this very well. She was really freaked out when they basically attacked us at the gas station and then she watched me kill the one…it was gruesome.”

“Taking someone’s life generally is gruesome. Where is she now?” Viv’s tone of voice is so calm and professional. I am almost positive that she’s done this before.

“We’re in a Wendy’s. I can send you a pin if you want?”

“That won’t be necessary. I see where you are. But where is Kendra in the Wendy’s.”

I look around the room for cameras but don’t see any in here. “How do you see where I am?”

She sighs and I know this isn’t important, but I have to know how she knows. “I have tracking devices on both you and Kendra. They’re in your phones. All of my employees have trackers put on their phones. Again, where is she? Can she walk?”

I flip my phone around and look for something stuck on it, but I don’t see anything. How did she put a tracker on my phone? Did she ever have my phone? I reach to grab Kendra’s when I hear Viv’s voice on the speaker again.

“Effi, put the phone back to your ear.”

I hold the phone back up to my ear. “Where’s the tracker? I don’t see it.”

Viv sighs again. “It’s inside. It’s not hard to put them in. I had Frank put it in when you were preoccupied with something else.”

“Frank?!?”

“Effi, back to Kendra. Can she walk?”

I look down at Kendra slumped on the floor. “I-I don’t think so. She’s like a ragdoll.”

“Okay, I need you to get her into your car. I don’t care how you do it. Just get her in the

car. I’ve made a reservation for you and her at a Fairfield Inn in Lewisburg. It’s about twenty minutes from you but it’s a bigger city so you’ll fade in better. I’ll have someone come and pick up Kendra and then you’ll go on to the author in Niantic.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

The finality in her voice sends panic through my veins. “Wait, I’m going on without Kendra?!?”

“You said she can’t walk. She’s catatonic, correct?”

“Um…yeah.”

“Well, she’s not going to be much help then, is she?”

I hate it when she’s right like this. “No. But I don’t even know what this author looks like or anything. She was going to teach me the ropes on this one.”

“Looks like you’re going to get a crash course. I’ll send all the information and a picture to your phone. You’ll do fine, Effi. Now get her to the hotel.”

Viv hangs up the phone before I can even say anything else. My arm drops to my side, and I stare at Kendra, still in the same position on the floor. How am I going to get her to her feet?

I slide my phone into my back pocket and go out the bathroom door into the restaurant. Thankfully, it’s pretty quiet in here seeing that it’s after 8pm. Hmm…that’s kind of weird that Viv was having a meeting so late. I just shrug and figure that there’s probably a lot to Viv I don’t know. Like how she got Frank to put trackers in our phones. I didn’t know Frank was that technologically friendly.

In the back corner of the Wendy’s, I see a teenage boy with poofy hair and acne on his cheeks. He’s mopping the floor, kind of. I’m not even sure the mop head is wet. As I make my way over to him, he looks up at me.

“Excuse me, sir? Could you give me a hand?” I do a fake giggle and roll my eyes. “My friend has had too much to drink and now she’s sitting on the bathroom floor. I just need to get her in my car so I can take her home.”

The boy, who’s a little taller than me but lanky, nods his head, leans the mop against a table, and starts following me to the bathroom. He acts like this is no big deal. I turn so that I can see him over my should and ask, “Have you ever had to do this before?”

He mumbles, “Yeah,” from behind me and that’s all he says.

I push open the door and double check for feet under the stall walls. When I see that no one else has come in, I tell him it’s all clear. He slouchily walks into the bathroom, pushes the door open as far as it will go and somehow locks it so that it’ll stay open.

He reaches over and grabs one of Kendra’s arms. “You get her other arm.”

Just as I do, he begins pulling on her, dragging her away from the wall. The close quarters in the bathroom allow me to smell something foul on him. “You look like you don’t do this job for a full-time thing.”

He continues dragging her until she’s far enough away from the wall that he can grab onto her under her arm and lifts her to her feet. “Nah, I work on a cow farm. We got new people learning so I got bored. My uncle owns this restaurant, so he told me to come and clean.”

Now I understand the smell. Manure.

Just as I’m about to lift her arm around my shoulder, he wraps his right arm around her waist, lifting her up, and drapes her left arm across his shoulders so that he can hold onto her left hand with his left hand. Her toes barely touch the ground. Even though this kid looks like he’s all arms and legs, he’s got some strength to him.

“Where do you want her?”

He’s not much of a talker, but he also doesn’t seem to be struggling to hold her up. He walks her out to the restaurant entrance door and waits for me to open it. I quickly grab Kendra’s purse from the bathroom floor and rush ahead of him. I push open the door and he walks her outside.

I point to my car at the front of the building. “That red one.”

I walk fast enough to get to it before he does and unlock the door. As soon as I open the door, he’s setting her down in the front seat.

“There ya go. Have a nice night.” He walks away before I can say anything else to him or even offer to give him a tip. I hear the restaurant door open and swoosh close and then I’m left standing there, staring at my broken friend.

I reach inside and seatbelt her in. I can still hear her breathing but that’s the only indication that she’s still alive. “I’m so sorry,” I whisper as I back out of the passenger side of the car. I carefully close her door, making sure I don’t accidentally close her in it. Although maybe that would snap her back to this reality.

I look at her through her window and she stays motionless. I had no idea that this would’ve ever happened to someone I know, let alone to Kendra. She seemed like such a strong, resilient woman. How could I have broken her mind like this?

Guilt radiates through me as I make my way around to the driver’s side. My phone vibrates as Viv does exactly as she promised. She sends a pin to the hotel and then there’s an email with attachments. I can only guess that it’s the author information. I plug my phone into my car and use the Google maps app to get us to the Fairfield Inn.

Every turn I make, Kendra’s body flops and slides. I find myself having to push her, or pull her, back into her seat multiple times in our little twenty-minute journey. I try numerous times to get Kendra to talk, but she still sits silently next to me. I don’t think Kendra’s going to be going home.

Up ahead I see the Fairfield Inn sign. I flip on my blinker and wait for traffic to clear and then slowly pull into the parking lot. I back into a spot under a parking lot light. Maybe I should park in a shadow? Who’s going to be meeting me here? This might look weird to some random person.

I change my mind and pull back out, driving toward the back of the building and find a spot that isn’t near a circle of light on the pavement. I never would park like this normally. But then again, this is definitely far from normal.

I put the car into park and wait. “Kendra? I hope you can hear me.” I sigh and shake my head. “I’m so sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen. I was just protecting us. I’m sorry that you saw that, and I’m really sorry that you’re stuck in your head now.” I turn in my seat and face her as best as I can given the seating situation. “You’re my best friend. I know that I work for you, but you’re still my best friend. I don’t want anything to happen to you. So, you gotta wake up. You gotta come back to me. Viv is sending someone to pick you up and is making me go on to find the author. I need you, Kendra! C’mon, you can come back. We’ll get through this together. I promise.”

I stop talking for a moment in the hopes that she’ll say something, but the only thing she does is breathe. Her eyes are closed now. I reach for her hand, hoping that my touch will bring her out of it, but she doesn’t even flinch. Her hand is still warm, but it’s limp and lies wherever I place it. I try to hold her hand, but it doesn’t hold my hand back.

“Kendra, they were bad men. There are a lot of bad men out there. Men who don’t care that we’re human beings with feelings. Men who don’t care that we can be hurt. Men who only treat us as things. Kendra, I’m done being a thing. I’m not going to let anyone else get hurt like this.” I squeeze her hand and it squishes in mine. I feel tears starting to well up in my eyes as a knock on my window scares the shit out of me.

I drop Kendra’s hand and turn to see an older man standing outside of my window, smoking a cigarette, and squinting from the smoke that he’s blowing into the air. I roll down the window enough that I can say, “Uh, can I help you?”

The man draws in one more drag of his cigarette and then flicks it onto the pavement. He blows the smoke out of the side of his mouth before leaning down to the window and placing his crusty lips near the opening. “I was sent here to make a pickup.”