Daily story, August 11, 2025

I felt like my chest was bursting. I felt like something was clawing its way up my throat to escape. I felt like getting it out would kill me and keeping it in would kill me faster. I stopped, and looked around for what I could see, hear, feel, smell, taste. I breathed deep and slow. Then it dragged itself a little further up, and I coughed it out onto the pavement. A strange, sad little thing, twitching under the streetlights. Having fought its way out, it could not live outside me.