Hollows In Time (✔️) | 'Hollows' Book Ⅱ

Chapter Eighteen

^ Sky at 15–16 (at the top)
vs
Sky at 17 (at the bottom) ^

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H o l l o w s   I n
T    I    M    E
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I gulped. My hands started to shake. I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. Tears streamed down my face and I collapsed. What had I done?

And that's how my panic attack started. I gulped. My hands started to shake. I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. Tears didn't come. I didn't collapse. Because that was a different time.

"Sky, breathe." We had barely reached Saph's dorm before I broke down. Jameson stood practically at the opposite end of the corridor. But he was inching closer.

I hiccuped. My lungs were constricting.

"Let me help you." He outstretched an arm, voice strained. I shook my head.

"Breathe." He told me, his voice soft. He was coming closer. I could feel it. But I had shut my eyes, in hopes of shutting out the pain.

Something skimmed my hand and I flinched.

"Relax. It's me." Jameson. It was Jameson. How should that reassure me? I didn't want him to touch me. I flinched away again, my eyelids shooting open.

"Sky." His palms pressed against either side of my face and I backed into the wall.

"Why are you doing this?" He asked, voice broken. "Why won't you let me help you?" Because you can't help. Because I hate you.

I had to keep on running. I couldn't stop now. I'd be caught. I rose to my feet and sprinted, no matter what aches and pains overwhelmed me.

I had picked myself up then. I can pick myself up now. I just had to breathe. I just had to sort my crap out.

I pulled out my phone. Time was leaving me. It would be dark soon. My battery was also leaving me.

Nothing is hopeless if I got through that, no matter how long it took. Then it happened. Those aches and pains overwhelmed me again and, before I knew it, I had shoved Jameson off me. I didn't sprint away, but I also didn't waste any time. Distance. I needed distance.

I needed distance from the house. I couldn't be caught. I also needed to find civilisation. I continued sprinting, my feet smashing against the woodlands hard floor.

Minutes later, I was about to enter the hall on my own. I didn't need Jameson. I had my own nightmares, my own mistakes. They were mine. He may have done unfixable damage, but I would be the purest representation that unfixable damage struts into a hall with her head held high. And so I did.

Everyone looked at me. Not one eye looked away. They all recognised me—somehow. Keep going. No one is there.

I walked into the kitchen to pick out my breakfast. Someone dropped their tray. I jumped out of my skin.

"Is that Sky Forest?"

"Why is she here?"

"What happened to her?"