The thud of his knees shook the floor beneath her, caused her to flinch; if it were possible to fold herself up any more she might have. She breathed and still felt like the air was not reaching her lungs, like her heart would burst out of its cage and run free. Threads of thought continued to weave in and out of the fog, hard to get her fingers around. They slipped away as soon as she touched them, leaving her mind fragmented and on the verge of floating away into the darkness. That did not sound so bad, floating away. From the pain, and from him.
Surprisingly it was his voice that kept her anchored. Violeta wanted to understand this, to see the remorse that strangled his words. But she could not bring herself to look at him or to muster up the energy to even begin making sense of the past few minutes. All she could do was shake her head, a nearly unnoticeable motion beneath the shield she kept placed with her arms, like she could feel the heat of his hands wavering above her. "Please..." she whimpered, a small plea to be given the space and time to process what had transpired here.