THE SERPENT'S HEIR

CHAPTER TWO CONTINUATION

Mrs. Chen waved when she saw me. I forced a small smile and walked over.

She asked about my day in her heavily accented English. I gave pleasant answers, work was fine, nothing special, just the usual.

Her grandson showed me a drawing he'd made. I complimented the dinosaur he'd drawn even though it looked more like a blob with teeth.

Marcus looked up from his watering and smiled. He always smiled when he saw me. Had been trying to ask me out for months in the most awkward gentle way possible.

He was nice and cute in a safe, boring way. He worked as an accountant.

Everything about him screamed normal and safe and nothing like my life.

I should have said yes one of the times he asked. Should have tried to be a normal person who went on normal dates with normal men.

But I couldn't. The thought of getting close to anyone made my chest tight.

Then I smelled smoke.

My whole body went rigid, I turned my head frantically looking for the source. In the corner of the building's small front courtyard. One of the residents had set up a tiny grill. Smoke rising in lazy spirals into the air.

Just a small fire, normal, harmless. The kind of thing people did all the time in summer.

But I couldn't breathe.

The smell filled my nose. My lungs, my head. Took me right back to that chamber twelve years ago. Fire everywhere. Smoke choking me. Heat burning my skin.

My hands started shaking. Then my whole body. Tremors I couldn't control.

Marcus was saying something. His voice sounded muffled. Like I was underwater.

The memories crashed over me. Vivid and terrible and impossible to stop.

I tried to speak. Tried to say I was fine. Tried to make some excuse and leave with dignity.

But no words came out. Just a choked sound that might have been a whimper.

Mrs. Chen's face creased with concern. She stood up and reached toward me.

I jerked back, away from her hand. Away from everyone.

I couldn't be here, couldn't be around people while I was falling apart. Couldn't let them see me like this.

I turned and rushed toward the building entrance. My vision tunneled.

I fumbled with my keys. They fell to the ground, i managed to pick them up with shaking hands that barely worked.

Marcus was behind me. Asking if I was okay. Asking what was wrong. His voice gentle and concerned and making everything worse.

The stairwell was cooler. Darker. No smoke smell. But I still couldn't breathe properly.

My chest felt like someone was sitting on it and crushing my ribs. My heart pounded so hard I thought it might break through my chest.

I made it up three steps before my legs gave out.

I sank down, sat on the stairs. Pressed my back against the wall.

My breathing was too fast. Shallow gasps that didn't bring in enough air. The kind of breathing that made you dizzy and sick.

I knew what this was. It was panic attack. I'd had them before. I knew the symptoms.

The smell of smoke still filled my nose even though I was inside now. I pressed my hands over my ears, squeezed my eyes shut and tried to block out everything.

Tried to block out the memories flooding through me. The chanting, the fire, the screaming.