Page 70 of The Quiet Witness

The weight lifted. But her mind, it wouldn’t catch up. Her breathing intensified. Warm hands touched her shoulders lightly. A voice reached through. “You’re okay, Kate. You’re okay. It’s just me.” Lucien. He had to see where they were. Had to see the shadow on the wall.

“Yellow.” She croaked out. “Yellow.” Lucien followed her eyes to the wall. Recognition filling his eyes.

“White, sweetheart, the walls are white.”

“A shadow.” Her vision blurred with tears.

“There is no one here.” Her teacher sent her a soft smile. “Just you and me, Kate.”

She grasped for the weight on her throat. “Ice cold.” It was all she could utter. Hoping he would understand. His eyes narrowed in thought. Wanting to understand her.

“On your neck?”

She could only nod, a tear slipping past her cheek. Breath coming in gasps. Slowly he raised his hand, coming to rest gently on her collarbone. Warm, so warm. He trailed higher, ending up at her throat where he laid a hand across it, resting it there. A gap opened up, allowing a hint of air to travel through. Lucien nodded. “That’s it, sweetheart. In and out. In for two, out for four.”

She inhaled, focusing on the gentle weight of his hand erasing the ghost of her past. Exhale. Gradually the air returned to her lungs. The ice leaving her aching throat. Nothing but the warmth of him left there.

Blinking heavily, his silhouette got through. Knees, he was on his knees beside her.

“That’s it. You’re out of it.”

She closed her eyes. Three things. She had to name three things.

The cold mats digging in her back.

The creaking of the boxing bag swaying in the wind. As always.

Him next to her. Drawing her back from that abyss of desperation.

Kate sucked in the cold air slipping from the window, the scent of pine stinging in her nose.

“I told you, but you kept pushing.” Anger, frustration, shame. It all whirled through her. Just waiting to pour out, to be directed at someone.

I’m never doing this again.

“I offered, but I never pushed. Your own mind did. Something else you’ll need to control.”

Control. The word stung, acid burning in her chest. It didn’t matter that he was right.

“And I will continue to do so.”

She shook her head in disbelief. “I… I went into a full-blown panic attack!”

“You did. And don’t forget you got out of it again too. That’s progress.”

“Progress?” The man was delusional. “If you hadn’t listened, I’d be—,”

He cut her off. “But I did listen.”

“What?”

“I did listen.”

Her teeth clamped shut. Off, only one word. She hadn’t even been sure if he’d pick up on it. With her voice akin to the squeak of a rat in her panic.

Lucien continued. “Better yet, I offer to do it again. Right now that is. Because if you don’t now, you never will again.”

Kate couldn’t look away from the intensity in his stare. “Only that way do you chase away the ghosts.”