Fear doesn’t knock.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSenzUn673F
It seeps.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmOjUbJie0o
Through cracks in walls,36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDDWW4eNfqr
through the silence between your heartbeat and your breath.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzXffXTj9fM
Mine wore the name claustrophobia,36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWv9GJuDMJK
but what I felt was older than labels.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa7lRKW13Lj
It was a memory carved into bone.
It began when I was eight.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV3yk9gSc6b
My brother had gone down into the cellar to find a flashlight.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0VSziS1uLE
He joked as he went,36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpIp6OqUnNl
grinning over his shoulder,36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC6vAYbefjI
“Don’t let the dark eat you, little ghost.”36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHuMnHMJv3a
The door shut.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVuGqWjc6bx
And the dark did not eat me.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDP6iv0ZGFP
It devoured something else—my trust in space, in air, in doors that opened back up.
He came back. I didn’t.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPyTMkxEUNF
Not really.
From that day, every closed space whispered betrayal.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPUlYGhFbTm
Walls pulsed like veins around me.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiBcS1RqKx2
Rooms became traps.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYkJOsPiChZ
Time slowed.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWKbOD1I7ET
Air thinned.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP5nuRZomVF
And the world narrowed to wherever I could run without turning a doorknob.
I learned to live wide.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHCvAzcwBYs
Open skies. Cafés with exit signs visible from every table.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Lfi4iH0ci
No subways. No tunnels.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc7aWfvM0d5
No dreams that came with office buildings,36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVVcUrTzCps
elevators, or long interviews behind glass walls.
Then came that day—36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP4iJSf0KkY
the job that could change my life.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNS4ZlL79Zf
Floor 32.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡods7CGNPAE
No stairs permitted for visitors.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwbyBYxXrT4
Only a small, chrome box waiting to close its jaw around me.
I stood there—36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDXEmNyizwI
between the life I had and the one I wanted.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdy3kZxFqin
Between memory and motion.
My fingers trembled on the elevator button.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcKdPgsoSHb
The receptionist smiled politely.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl0bavaYp4a
“Everything alright?”36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkITs6Ou7Ab
I nodded.
And I stepped in.
The doors closed.
The panic rose fast,36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡApGlKozCbU
like floodwater in my throat.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMgaHg5am0q
My lungs rebelled.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGt86lp5GDV
I was eight again, trapped under the weight of something unseen.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTBu8Z8ggic
I wanted to scream, claw, hit stop.
But this time,36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNgLrHkzR6Q
I did not run.
I let the fear rise.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0tPsrpMaAw
And fall.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtcd2vXANqv
And rise again.
I spoke to it—not with defiance, but recognition.
“I know you.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFb0MtPanay
You kept me safe once.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGJ3k2HWZW4
But I don’t need you anymore.”
The elevator breathed—36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYVzgYUZZYQ
or maybe I did.
When the doors opened, I walked out—not just onto the 32nd floor,36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ66WsMgGDQz
but into the rest of my life.
That night, I closed myself in the bathroom.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfcA8Dl5moe
Lights off.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUbmeXEHr74
No window.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGuAPfORaoL
And I stayed.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlXlbfM2dU9
Hands steady.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUm8iVOXHGZ
Breath soft.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZRCsfLgVl7
Alone.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGcUMFLhVIL
Free.
Because fear may return.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJN75JQXQzu
But now, I know the way out—36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrNOWUcYL3A
and more importantly,36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3tLxzQ1AJ9
I know the way through.
