HAZEL
The scream tore out of me and then there was nothing left. Just the walls. Just the ceiling. Just the particular quality of silence that came after a locked door and a key pulled from the outside.
I stood in the middle of the room and breathed. Or tried to. The air felt wrong, like it had been sitting in here too long before I arrived, like it was secondhand and used up and there was not quite enough of it. I breathed again and got less than I wanted. I did it again and got even less.
My knees hit the floor before I decided to let them.
