chapter sixteen: i need you like the air i breathe
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"anxiety feels like being trapped in the moment right before a big wave crashes over you, and you're frozen in time wondering if you'll sink or swim." -haley m.
(TW: panic attack.)
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THE RIDE BACK FROM THE CRIME SCENE TO THE HOUSE WAS SILENT.
Nobody uttered any words whatsoever. Cassie was deep in thought, a distant look in her eye. Sloane didn't even have any statistics to share, she was uncharacteristically quiet. Dean was characteristically quiet, but Vienna couldn't quite read his face, but she was guessing that this had stumped him as well. He couldn't do anything to help anymore, they'd been taken from the crime scene.
It was out of their hands, spiraling out of control, and they hated that.
As for Vienna, she was stressing out. No matter how much comfort she received, she never felt truly secure, not since she received that terrifying letter on a dainty piece of stationary.
The killer was watching, and despite being under the careful watch of several FBI agents, she was still worried.
I mean, how could she not be?
The screeched to a halt at the driveway of their beloved victorian era house, as if the agents almost missed the turn, jolting everyone in the car.
Agent Starman took Cassie and the other two in the house, and Agent Vance, who had been sitting in the front with him, turned back to look at Vienna.
"You alright?" He asks.
She'd only talked to this guy a few times, but she thought he was a very nice man, and a good agent, he had to be in order to work alongside the Tanner Briggs.
"Fine." The girl mumbles.
"Are you sure? You've just seen your first crime scene, and you look a bit....rattled."
"Shouldn't you be guarding the house?" Vienna realized as soon as she uttered those words that they came off as rude, but she couldn't help it. Her anxiety made her rude at times.
"In a moment, yeah." The guy wasn't very old, probably around Briggs's age. "I need to make sure everyone's okay, not just Cassie."
