Breathe The Novel Novels & Stories

The breathing on the other end suddenly stopped. "So don't you dare say another disgusting word about me coming back to you." The words struck like a dagger, piercing what was left of his failing heart. A muffled thud came from the other end of the line, as if something had been knocked over. Then came the sound of ragged, frantic gasping. I heard Lydia's voice shriek in the background. "Somebody get the doctor!" I ended the call. From that moment on, I lived only for myself.

Breathed. She picked up the blue book and lay on the couch and read two pages and put it face-down and looked at the ceiling. Her thumbnail was in her palm. She pressed it in and breathed and she did not text him and she did not call him and she lay there in the dark of the room with the lamp still on and the city outside and the silence between them that she had not put there and was not going to fill. She went to bed.

The vivid green grasses were scattered on the ground, and this place has the freshest air ever. I breathe heavily, letting the oxygen pump inside my lungs. The ground was clean and I sat near the river, leaning my back on the bark of the tree. My back tends to ache when I don’t have something to lean on. That’s why in my life, I tend to lean on my brothers. I pulled the book from my tote bag. Before I open it from where the bookmark was placed, I gulped water to refresh myself. Then I started reading. …

My chest constricted, hindering my ability to breathe. We were the same. Broken. Remnants of a soul inside a fragile, cracked shell. His pacing resumed, and he began mumbling, but I couldn’t make out the words. For a brief moment, I feared for his sanity. His chest expanded in deep, hard breaths. I couldn’t tell what emotion would face me as they were all present, and the anxiety in the room continued to grow. He turned and stopped in front of me. His nostrils flared, his eyes wide, and I took an involuntary small step back, my body bending away from him. His gaze ran up and down my body, taking me in.

The world starts to darken, and everything is shivering… Suddenly, two warm arms wrap around me, and I feel a steady heartbeat next to mine. A gust of hot breath rushes at my ear, “Brooke, breathe. Come on, breathe with me. There's nothing to fear. Just inhale, and exhale. Do it with me, follow my rhythm. You can do this.”

His chest rose and fell painfully as he struggled to breathe. “Tell me… how do I breathe?”

This time, the call is picked, and I finally realize that I can also breathe without needing any life supporting equipment. ___________

Ivy’s POV When the first rush of air fills my lungs, it feels like a lifeline tearing me away from some cold, terrible place. There’s a strange urgency to the feeling–that first breath is almost gentle, a soft gust of wind, the tender brush of a familiar hand against a flushed cheek. But the next breath that comes is a desperate, coughing, almost choking thing as my lungs do their best to remember how to take in air. The breath after that is even more ragged, and I can feel my chest heaving over and over again as I go through the motions of taking in air and expelling it even more rapidly.

Liam stared at her for a while and they moved to sit next to her, he took the book she was reading and saw it was a doctor's course book. "WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR. By Paul Kalanithi ".He smiled after reading the title of the book. "Not bad".He opened the book and started reading, Isadora dozed off on his shoulder. Some moment later, she woke up and noticed she was resting her head on someone's shoulder, she smelled the familiar fragrance and jerked up quickly staring at Liam. "Um".She sputtered nervously. "You are awake".He places the book on the seat.

The Breath of a Dying Moon The night felt unsettling. Luna was the first to notice — a subtle vibration beneath the ground, as if the earth itself was attempting to exhale through fractured lungs. The atmosphere outside the makeshift camp glimmered with a delicate, silver mist that had not been present moments earlier. It coiled around the trees, murmuring, shifting, and tugging. Even the wind had become quiet, as if it were holding its breath in expectation of something hidden.