The Air He Breathes Novels & Stories

“Ready?” I nod, and he slams his fist against a large red button on the wall. I startle as cold, dry air bursts from the ceiling, settling like mist around my feet. The mist snakes around us while the button blinks red. Alex is unperturbed. He moves the fabric of his coat away from his wrist to read his watch and then meets my eyes again. “It’s okay to breathe it in. It’s not going to hurt you or your lungs.” “What does it do?” I ask, lifting my arm to watch the mist curl and hang from the fabric of my sleeve before fading.

His chest rose and fell with heavy breaths, his eyes wide with shock. “What…?”

It was morning. Apart from the terror from his nightmare, everything else was normal. His blinds and windows were wide open to allow light and the morning damp organic air from the forest come in. He laid relaxed on his bed and opened wide his nostrils and lungs, savoring the the coldness, smell, and earthly-vegetative taste of the air as it flushed down his wind pipe, into his lungs, and out in slow successive expirations.

I asked him, and Axel turned his head slightly toward me. He had puffy eyes and a red nose, and I frowned. "I think I’m allergic to pollen," he said, his nose caught. I almost laughed at him. "Do you realize you filled the apartment with flowers?" I asked. "I’m out of breath," he said, panting. I stretched and took the airplane from under the bed and then turned it on and placed the mug in front of his face to make him breathe, Axel sighed and rested his head on my chest while breathing deeply.

"Is this real?" He breathed in deeply and could feel the sweet, clean air fill his lungs and inject his blood with life. The sun, which had been blocked out by smog for at least a century, now touched his pale face for the first time in his life. He closed his dark brown eyes as the warmth of the bright orb above him swept over his body and goosebumps sprung up all over. His messy, black hair blew in the fresh breeze that swirled around him and tickled his slightly prominent ears.

One more— Breath.

So, I summoned everything I wanted in this place like the river that runs around it, the flowers, the trees, the house, you name it. After that, I stood with papa and he didn't know what I had in mind. I had to breath in oxygen, close all the tracheoles and veins in my lungs so that no oxygen would be lost and no carbon monoxide would mix with the clean air and then, I would breathe the air into the space I had created and once the air was in, it would suck me in and then close automatically and then the place would be livable. I thought that it would be that easy and I would gloat to the others showing them yet another feat of mine.

The boy is currently busy drawing to relieve his boredom because his grandmother is currently cooking in the kitchen, and he will obviously be ignored by his grandmother when she has been struggling in the kitchen to cultivate the garden produce they have just picked. "Oh, I'm bored." Enzo muttered under his breath as he tossed his drawing book everywhere. He then straightened his legs and began to look up at the clear sky over his head. Sometimes if he misses his mother, he will take the time to reflect and observe the millions of clouds above his head to find the mother's face among the clouds that are moving calmly above. "Mommy.. I miss you." "Hi.." Right after he shouted softly to the s

More than grateful. All this while, it had felt like my lungs were clogged with invisible lumps of dust and I couldn't breathe fully. But with this, I could breathe and not only could I breathe, I could breathe fresh air. Clean fresh air. At first, they were heavy breaths as I inhaled and exhaled but as the seconds ticked by, my breathing normalized, my head clearing. "Are you okay?"

She couldn't breathe, she wanted to but she couldn't. Or was it that she could finally breathe? Had she finally found her breath after two years? Did she even know what breathing was like? She has not breathed properly for so long now. The feeling of cool air through the nose, passing along the throat and into the lungs; yes, this was what she felt, alive.