Chapter 44

“Take slow breaths, Sophie. Slow and easy, try to calm your breaths and breathe through the attack. Lean down, head lower for me like a good girl.” Her voice is distant and faint like she’s far away in the darkness. I try to cling to her voice in the haze, but there’s only burning pain and terror that I’m suffocating slowly. Sure I will die as I cannot inflate my lungs at all. Emma’s arms come around me, guiding me down to my knees on a cold surface, and then my forehead is on the cold flat too, and I lose any orientation about my body. For all I know, I could be hanging upside down by my legs. Dizziness and blinding fear have consumed me, so my senses do not see what’s up or down or even where I am anymore.

“Sloooow. In and out… don’t try and fight against yourself. Stop gasping and try to aim for one inhale. Listen to my voice. Just focus on me and not everything going on inside your head.”

Emma’s voice is around me; pure concern crying out in every precise word. Emma