Breathe In, Breathe Out

The four walls of the room push towards me. The roof closes down onto me. 

Breathe in, breathe out.

The echo of my yells bounce around this tiny room and soak back into my body. My eardrum trembles. My hands shake. Closed, forgotten. My mind slips into darkness, nightmares conjure right in front of my eyes which are now soaked in sweat dripping down from my forehead.

Breathe faster.

Look left, right, backwards, up, down, nowhere to go. I look into myself and I see sanity far away in the distance. I run towards it but it flees, faster and faster into darkness, away from me. My knees tremble and I collapse down into a corner, my lips still uttering shouts of desperation.

Breathe in faster.

I hear voices through the fear shadowing my mind. They come closer. Slowly, the day breaks somewhere over the horizon and it casts light onto a large open field. And I sit here still, surrounded by four walls, that are now made of glass. 

I run through the grass trying to find myself, carrying along the glass walls with me. I run and run but I cannot find that which has destroyed me. Sanity has long gone now. 

Breathe in deeply.

My name is called from the distance so I run towards it. Yet, roots tangle round my feet and I stumble. I hear my voice again, so I stand up, slowly, and start walking again. My hands shiver, cold drifts around my body.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Sound bursts from afar and bounces of the glass walls around me. Again, my name is called. It knocks on the walls. Repeatedly, it knocks and slowly a crack develops in the glass.

Breathe slower.

My name breaks through one of the walls and bounces inside my prison. It shudders me for a second, then I feel warm again. The other walls vibrate, and I shout out my name in unison. The glass shatters and I collapse.

Breathe in slowly.

On the field of grass I lay. There, somewhere in my mind, I lay down and from the side I see in the distance, that which I had lost. Sanity creeps in slowly over the horizon and it makes way towards me. As it arrives, it floats and blankets me.

I fall asleep.

Breathe in.
Breathe out.