Otter Creek innocent iii

Her tears were shortlived, always; there and then gone like a hot flash of lightning, like the beginning of a sneeze and nothing more. In their wake Ana felt abruptly cold and removed from herself. She felt —

tilting at the edge of an endless drop, she felt spinning in the wind and far beyond control, she felt a million miles above the earth and gone

and she was still, and her breaths came slow. He was still talking. That man. She'd almost forgotten him, but he was still there and still talking. An anchor now; an insistent drone filling her head. It almost hurt. Would you like to learn how? Ana wasn't sure she did. But she didn't want to be left alone — and he understood her, didn't he?

Yes.