Allena
The burst of emotions had become a physical weight, pressing down on my chest until I could barely draw air. My hands were shaking, my mind spinning from the endless thoughts and the suffocating stress that had been building inside me all day.
Overwhelmed, I needed to escape. I pushed through the swinging doors, desperate to step out, take a quiet breath, and somehow control the chaotic spiral of my emotions.
But the moment I hit the dimly lit corridor near the back exit, the air vanished from my lungs for a completely different reason. My feet stopped dead in their tracks.
The hallway was narrow, swallowed by long shadows and smelling of stale kitchen grease, sour mop water, and damp concrete. Under the sickly, flickering yellow glow of a dying lightbulb that hummed with a low
