Imagine you're an adult with a family. You wake up in the middle of the night, thirsty. Your husband snoring gently in besides you. You pull yourself up and you walk to the kitchen and drank a glass of water. You can feel the satisfaction of water running down your throat. You head back and you pass your child's door.
You suddenly hear hard breathing, like the kid was in heat. You pause for a moment and listen but it still continues. You thought that your child must be really in heat and you want to be cheeky about it. So you grab for the doorknob and slowly turn it and open the door. You expect your child to be watching or reading some pornography with some ligh laminating his content.
But no.
The only thing you see is a a dark room, with the air-conditioning on and the sound pf your child breathing deeply, like a bull about to charge into a target. You call out your child's name but he doesn't respond.
He only breathes.
You turn on the light. The sudden light difference blinded you. As your eyes adjusted. You see your child laying on the bed.
Still.
Breathing.
He seems be just as asleep. Asleep with his eyes wide open and big grin on his face. His eyes looks at your general direction be he seems not to be seeing anything. All he does is smile, breath and stare. You call out his name, as a loving mother Of course you are scared and terrified. But he does not answer.
He only breathes.
For a second, panic filled into your mind. Fear traveled through your spine. You slowly walk to his bed. Him still looking blankly with eyes wide open, unblinking. Smiling from ear to ear. And noise coming from him can be heard in the room. He only breathes. You slowly reach for him, you are hesitating. You are what will happen next.
But you stopped.
You were not scared anymore. You were now filled with dread as another breathing is heard directly behind you. You feel the warm air from his mouth behind you. Heavily, still. You are now scared to look around to what you expected to see. You close your eyes.
You froze up for a second.
A minute.
Then what it feels to be like an hour.
Just standing, frozen in time. With nothing but the cold of the air-conditioning in your skin and the fear of something might happen keeping you from moving. You swallowed your own saliva. You can feel the anticipation as your saliva running down your throat. Then you slowly turn around. And the only thing you saw was nothing more than your husband. Standing there.
Smiling.
Eyes wide open.
Breathing.