Breathless Novelas e Histórias

My vision blurs with motion, and the pressure in my chest tightens like a fist. I step to the edge of the sidewalk, clutching the straps of my bag as if they’re the only thing holding me to earth. My lungs seize violently, refusing to expand. A thin, high ringing builds behind my ears, drowning out the city. I try to inhale, but the air hits a wall halfway in, and panic ricochets through my body. I stumble back, trying desperately to steady myself. The ground feels uneven under my feet. I suck in another breath, then another, but each one is thin, insufficient, like breathing through a pinhole.

My breathing started to get harsher and rougher as incessant flow of tears gushed out of my eyes in wild fury while my nose constricted any air supply while I sat gaping through my open, frightened mouth. My body started to tremble uncontrollably while I just stared right back at him with a horrified expression on my face. “Zara ! Shshhhhhh honey. Breathe. It’s ok, babe. I will be alrigh- ,” he gently cooed while wincing but I just stayed in my place in numb shock with my tears not agreeing to stop even for a second. Breathlessness soon became an issue and only worsened when hiccups and sobs clubbed with it.

I can’t. My breathing is fast and untamed. My breathing is loud and uncontrollable, more than I can hold, more than I can stand, more than I can take. More than I am. It breaks against the walls, against the wood, against the surface of my resolve. It breaks against me. It breaks against him. It breaks against the silence and fills the silence with something other than air, with something other than breath, with something other than fear. My breathing fills the silence and leaves no room for anything else, anything else, anything.

I can’t breathe… What the fuck is wrong with me?!?!? One sharp intake of breath into my body feels like a hundred knives stabbing me in my chest… And then everything goes dark..

A familiar Voice. My breath left my lungs.

I stayed there frozen on my seat, unable to move an inch. “Breather in and breathe out. Breathe in and then breathe out….” I kept chanting those continuously until I could finally calm my nerves. “You can do this, Aiv! You’re a strong girl.” I mentally prepared myself and slowly turned my head to see the “person” staring right through the window at me with its dark ashy green eyes. I felt a chill run down my spine. It was like someone had poured icy cold water on my naked body in winter. Our eyes locked for a second,but before I could come back to my consciousness, he disappeared.

I can barely breathe, panting and gasping hard, choking on my tears in my furious rigidity as I strain my limbs to keep him at bay “Please stop, look at me…. We’re not back in Illinois. Sophie, were in Manhattan, you’re in my apartment, baby. You’re safe…. Breathe, slow and steady, breathe with me; listen to me. Focus on my voice and breathe…” His soothing tone comes through the panic once more, connecting to me on some level and I lose all resolve. Fight in me dying as fatigue overtakes me and I realize I am held tight in his arms. His muscles, his strength as he holds me taut, so my body is immobile. Gasping and shoving with all my might and strangling myself with the inability to catch my

His breathing grew faster, shallow, and almost desperate. “This can’t be true.”

A ghost I never wanted to meet again. My breath catches. Not from exhaustion—no. This is different. This is asthma. I try to keep going. One step. Another. But every inhale burns. Every exhale stutters. Air won’t go in. Won’t go deep. My chest locks up. My knees shake. I slow. Then stumble. Then collapse. My mouth gapes open, begging for air that won’t come. My vision grays at the edges. My fingers tremble. The world doesn’t slow down.