A/N: This is a real short piece, I just felt that that amazing preview really lent itself to dig deeper into. Anyways, I hope I did it justice, and I hope you enjoy! Please let me know what you think, reviews make my day :)
When I felt the sedative wear off I concentrated on keeping calm. I had one hand on my stomach, feeling it rising and sinking regularly as I took deep, calm breaths. I wasn't wearing my watch, but I knew my heart rate was down. I was using every technique May had taught me, trying hard to keep my mind clear and that part of me fettered down. It helped to know that there was no one around me I could hurt; they were all a safe distance away. I concentrated hard. My mind was my enemy, the one I fought with feverish will in order to keep the world safe. I managed pretty well for a while. I kept the enemy distracted, concentrated on my breathing, on the feeling of the soft fabric beneath me. I kept my eyes closed: breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out… But the mind is a treacherous thing. I was just thinking once more that it was easier to keep calm when there wasn't the panic about hurting the people standing worryingly around me, sedative at the ready, when…
The memory struck, like a poisonous snake biting down hard and ruthless at my heart. My eyes flew open and a small gasp escaped my lips. And I felt it quaver inside of me. I turned my head to the side, and could only think "no, no, no, no, NO!" as I saw the water ripple inside the glass. I sat up, trying hard to repress the memory of Tripp crumbling before my eyes - of me making him crumble, trying harder still to repress the enemy rearing its ugly head inside me. I gripped the bed hard as the memories of my friend's death pierced me, and as I felt myself being ripped to pieces by an unfamiliar power trying to break free. The room was shaking around me. And I was absolutely terrified. I stood, and to my horror, cracks appeared in the solid cement ground beneath me. As the terror gripped my heart I leaned against the glass wall in despair, wanting out out OUT of this shaking room, wanting OUT of this body that was no longer my own. And I desperately needed to see that there was a world outside where things still made some semblance of sense, as the turmoil raged inside me and out. But as I looked through the glass and into the vast empty basement, trying to hold on to my sanity, I saw long cracks wind their way out from my personal hell, and into the world.