This is a piece of writing I did for an English AS level task. We were given the title "the shower" and had to turn this into a 600-900 word story about a sudden rain fall. Here is mine, based on a panic attack.
I am meant to be sat at home, under my cosy blanket, watching box sets on the telly but instead, I am here. I am here walking through this melodic metropolis. I have errands to walk and bits to obtain. I must tolerate this societal hell in all its dismay. People are skipping, talking, singing. I detest it. The sun is radiant, the floor warming. People all around me are wearing psychedelic clothing. It almost makes me lose consciousness; it is paralysing. It is summertime and Children are imitating imagination on the playgrounds, their Parents shopping for more gadgets to keep them quiet for a just little longer. Buskers with raspy voices are chanting their mildly original pieces to a tone-deaf tune that resembles a skipping record. My senses are tingling. Tingling much like an unwanted spider crawling on my arm.
My thoughts are flustered. Did that man just speak to me? Hey, is that the post office? I need to go there. A whole new sort of panic besieges me. The sun turns off, the wind is hastening, and the skies overcast. It is almost as if time is freezing. Or has it already frozen? As if by magic, the sky releases its avalanche of sleet, imprisoning me in a cage of water. I am moving from one nightmare into another.
Trapped. The satanic atmosphere screeches at me, luring me closer and closer to the ground. My feet are soldered there, I cannot move. Why can’t I move? The vicious skies are taunting me. The birds have turned off. I hear no chirping; I hear no flapping. This slate curtain in front of me is impeding my sight. Suddenly, I miss the psychedelic wear of passers-by. Monochrome. Why is everything black?
Chills. What once was blazing is now bitter and frozen. Is there a ghost behind me? It must be the wind. Please tell me it is the wind. I am frenzied. I know not where to look and know not what I hear. Everything surrounding me is melding into one debilitating blur. I am terrified. This was supposed to be a painless excursion into the centrum of my local city centre but, instead, I ventured into my very own horror movie. Just my luck.
Unanticipatedly, I feel the glacial water dive down my back. Now, concurrently incarcerating and possessing me. I feel it itching in my blood, drowning my organs, and suffocating my breath. Make it stop! I am immobilised. My feet still cemented to the floor, which is now fracturing below me. What lies within? I don’t know, but I feel the heat as if it was a volcano ready to erupt.
Boom. My chest beats faster with every second. Once. Twice. Three times. I enter a stage of panic unseen to me before. I feel cold sweats drip from my forehead and armpits. If I was not drowning then, I certainly am now. Thud. I feel a forceful kick to my stomach, surrendering me to the ground. When will this storm stop?
Restored. The ground rebuilds itself. The volcanic heat has dissipated, and I can now move my feet. What if I fall? Demised. The ghost has gone, warmth is clinging back to my skin and the frosty sweat that claimed my body has departed. Light. A once-black block of colour becomes a gradient as the light is slowly lifting from the floor back to the sky. The sun is reclaiming its position over my head and at last I can see the psychedelic hues wandering the town. I never thought this sight would bring joy, but the curtain has lifted, and I want to see more. Free. No longer submerged in the prison walls from the sky. Clouds white with a cotton candy consistency, no downpour in sight.
No, random merchant, I do not want to upgrade my Wi-Fi.
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The perspective I tried to do this from is that this person was going into town to run some errands. They don't usually like the positivity of their surroundings and gets sensory overload. A guy spoke to this person when they were aiming to go to the post office. This was unexpected and sent them into a panic attack. This included "the shower" and heightening of other senses. An almost hallucination of the world around them. Once the worst is through, they come out of the attack and the world returns to a normal, more manageable, state. Turns out, the guy that spoke to them was a sales merchant for wifi, and them talking to the person lead them into a panic