Breathless Novels & Stories

Chapter 26 Casper Collapsing on the bed, I tugged at my chest, clutching it through the fabric of my cloth as my breath failed me. A wheezing sound escaped my parted lips as I struggled hard to breathe. My eyes were tightly shut, and my mouth was now wide open. Still, no air entered through my lungs. It felt like an invisible force had their hands clasped tightly around my airways, blocking the supply of oxygen. I felt like I would pass out any minute.

The world did not return all at once. It came back slowly, like something fragile being pieced together after breaking too completely. At first, there was only silence, thick and endless, pressing against me from every side. Then came the faint awareness of sharp breath. My lungs burned as though I had been holding air for too long, and when I finally gasped, it felt like I was pulling life back into myself by force. I opened my eyes and saw darkness.

𝐏𝐎𝐕 𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐀 I couldn’t breathe. The air came in too short. Too fast. My hands were braced against the bathroom sink as I tried to pull air into my lungs, but it felt like something was tightening around my chest from the inside. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. I repeated the word in my head, but my body wouldn’t obey.

My breath comes in frantic bursts, everything narrowing as I desperately struggle for air. A faint sound registers somewhere in my addled mind. Shortly, I start to hear footsteps approaching, but I can't tear myself from the desperate need for air. My hand flies to my chest, pounding against my burning chest as if it will force air in. Then, a touch settles in my lower back before a deep and soothing familiar voice cuts through my haze. "Breath, Heiress."

I felt like my chest was getting tight, my breathing was becoming erratic as I felt like I could pass out suddenly when my door opened, hands pulling me up out of the car, steadying me next to it as his voice began breaking through the muffled barrier that seemed to have been up. "..lax, just relax, try to breath Liv, count with me okay. 1... 2.... 3.... 4.... 5.... Breath in, 1... 2... 3.... 4.... 5.... breath out. That's it Liv, there you go."

He turned to find her, breath rapid, struggling for air. "What's wrong? Are you alright?" he asked, concern evident in his voice. Her breathing quickened further until she couldn't draw a breath. "What's happening?" he queried, worry deepening. "I don't know. I think I can't breathe properly," she managed to say. "Shortness of breath? Alright. I'm sorry. Maybe I pushed you too hard, especially with the stairs. Let's take a moment to rest, alright? Breathe in and out, slowly," Ian advised.

"You need to calm down, Saskia." "Can you just fuck off? Leave me alone! What more do you want from me?" I scream, on the brink of hyperventilation. Wade holds me close, but his arms are like the bars of a prison. I want out. It's overwhelming, this breathlessness. It closes on me, wrathful and oppressive like my rage. My eyes flood with tears as my body violently rejects every ounce of air I draw in, upsetting every nerve and sense in a tumultuous turmoil. I wheeze as terror lashes at me when my muscles lock up and my breath eddies farther from my reach. My heart hammers against my ribs hard; I fear they will break. It hurts so damn bad.

Almost like he’s panicked. My hearing cuts out and I hear nothing. All sounds are gone. I see the man mouthing something but I don’t comprehend sounds. I narrow my eyesight but I’m not hearing anything. Why? Leo turns my face towards his, “baby, breathe… breathe”. Am I not breathing?

“Won’t…be in…” “Lila? Lila, are you okay?” My anxiety was skyrocketing faster than my heart rate. Her pain came out in whimpers and gasps. She was having a difficult time breathing. “So…ung…so much b-blood,” she whispered more to herself than to me. “I d-don’t know where…w-where it’s com-coming from.” Her voice grew in pitch near the end. My stomach dropped, and the blood fled from my face.

I can barely breathe, panting and gasping hard, choking on my tears in my furious rigidity as I strain my limbs to keep him at bay “Please stop, look at me…. We’re not back in Illinois. Sophie, were in Manhattan, you’re in my apartment, baby. You’re safe…. Breathe, slow and steady, breathe with me; listen to me. Focus on my voice and breathe…” His soothing tone comes through the panic once more, connecting to me on some level and I lose all resolve. Fight in me dying as fatigue overtakes me and I realize I am held tight in his arms. His muscles, his strength as he holds me taut, so my body is immobile. Gasping and shoving with all my might and strangling myself with the inability to catch my