Panic. You Open Your Mouth. Open It

Khaled Hosseini

Panic. you open your mouth. open it so wide your jaws creak. you order your lungs to draw air, now, you need air, need it now. but your airways ignore you. they collapse, tighten, squeeze, and suddenly you're breaithing through a drinking straw. your mouth closes and your lips purse and all you can manage is a croak. your hands wriggle and shake. somewhere a dam has cracked open and a flood of cold sweat spills, drenches your body. you want to scream. you would if you could. cut you have to breathe to scream. panic.