“Fuck,” I breathe out.
I need to do something.
Find her.
Panic surges through me as I stand there on the sidewalk in nothing but a shirt and panties.
I stumble back into the door.
My nose and cheeks tingle strangely.
I run back upstairs.
“Amelie, what the hell is going on?” asks Jane when I reappear at the door.
I stand in the middle of the studio.
My chest is heaving up and down.
There is not enough air.
Everything around me is spinning.
Turning upside down.
So far away.
Unreachable.
Jane stands in front of me.
My vision is blurry.
She grasps me by the shoulders.
“Breathe with me,” she says. “In and out.”
I stare at her. Frozen to the spot, while all I want to do is run.
“In through the nose,” she says and breathes in deep through the nose. “And out through the mouth. Follow my guidance.”
She brings her one hand up for me to see.
“In through the nose,” she says, and lifts her hand slowly up. “And out through the mouth.” She brings it slowly down.
I breathe in through the nose.
Out through the mouth.
“Focus on the sound of my voice,” she says. And I do. “Listen to the buzz outside. You can hear the honks, the buzz of Manhattan.”
I listen to what trails inside from the windows. It’s far away, and yet it takes my focus from the inside to the outside.
“You are standing on the ground,” she says. “Feel the ground. It’s holding you. You can’t sink. You can’t fall.”
My chest unclenches, and air flows back into my lungs. I feel less dizzy.
I take a deep breath.
