1 I'm scared

*TW Anxiety Attack*

Heavy breathing. All Olivia can hear is the sound of her heavy breathing in the cubical that she's in. She can hear herself gasping for air yet still feels the urgent need for oxygen. Olivia knew that this was not the right time nor place to have an attack but she couldn't help it.

She tries to slow her breathing by curling up into herself, making herself feel as small as possible. It's hard to do on top of a toilet but she manages. It seems to work because she's no longer gasping for air and Olivia could feel the tension slowly leaving her body. Feeling slightly relieved she makes her way out of the cubical. She decided to splash some water on her face because she still felt lightheaded. Looking at her reflection in the mirror Olivia saw him. The figure that's always hunting her.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Suddenly all she could hear was the water dripping from the faucet. As if in a trance Olivia stared at the water dripping from the faucet. It seemed to move in slow motion, as she focused her sight on it. She could almost her image on it as it fell in the sink.

Fisting her hands Olivia felt a frantic energy well up inside her. Trying to suppress it she looked up at the bathroom lights. For a moment she thought she succeeded, but it was all her wishful thinking. The lights started flickering, slowly at first like someone was messing with the switch.

"...no," Olivia muttered as it trying to beg for something. But the flickering of the lights continued in fact it did so a bit faster. "No. No, stop, please. Please stop." Olivia was begging now as if her words would do something. But the lights kept on switching from on to off even faster. Feeling out of control she screamed, and it was quite an agonizing sound to hear. Then the lights shut off like in the horror movies.

But Olivia knew that this was nothing like the movies in fact it was worse. And everything shattered.

~~~~~~~~

When Olivia woke up she cried. Big fat tears ran down her face as she sat up in her bed. Her parents rushed into her room and turned on the lights. They did all they could to soothe her but she wouldn't stop crying. Her mother and father shared a look wondering how they could help their precious angel.

An hour later, Olivia was sleeping in her father's arms as her mother stroked her head softly. That was when she had her first nightmare.

The next day Olivia's mother asked her about her dreams. With a frown, she could only speak what sounded like gibberish to her parent's ears. "Mama, Liv saw the man in the moon. He was trying to take Liv with him to do something bad." Olivia truly tried her best to explain what she saw the night before but alas she was only five and wasn't very articulate.

Her parents brushed it off but made it a routine to tuck her into bed every night. And since then she has had another nightmare, at least that's what her parents assumed.

Years later her parents got divorced. According to her mother, Olivia was depressed and couldn't deal with the change. Her mother divorced her father while pregnant with her younger sister. Used to spending the past nine years as her parent's little gem Olivia felt forgotten. That was when the nightmares started up again.

She woke up drenched in cold sweat. It was the same dream of a man in the moon who wanted to harm her. With her tears welling up in her eyes Olivia felt afraid, she wanted nothing more than to curl into her father's arms and feel safe. But she remembered that he's no longer an active part of her life. Not to disturb her sleeping mother, for they shared a bed. Olivia crept to the bathroom and sat in the tub. Pulling her knees to her chest she tried to rock the fear of the dream away. She felt as if she made herself small enough the man in the moon wouldn't take her.

Since then the dream would reoccur annually for about a month up till her seventeenth birthday.

That was today, and everything shattered.