You can never be too careful in these situations. Even if I’m overthinking it.
 
 I come to a junction and hit the brakes when a car flashes past. Jesus. A BMW. No surprises there.
 
 The suspicious car comes to a halt behind me as someone picks up.
 
 “The Metropolitan Police Emergency Department, how might I help?”
 
 “There’s a weird car without headlights following me,” I say as I hit the accelerator again, pushing the car forward with sudden speed. My body flings backward as the tires screech.
 
 “I need you to remain calm, miss. May I have your name?”
 
 “Ava…Ava Nash.”
 
 “Can I call you Ava?”
 
 “Yeah.”
 
 “Can you tell me where you are, Ava?”
 
 “I don’t know exactly. Near the M25, hold on—” I steal a look at the GPS, and the next thing I hear is the loud, unbearable blaring of a lorry’s horn before its bright lights blind me.
 
 I turn the steering wheel as hard as I can while hitting the brakes. My car swerves as I spin round and round and then a sickening crash resounds in my ears.
 
 The last thing I see are the eyes that follow me everywhere.
 
 Dark. Cold. Destructive.
 
 3
 
 AVA
 
 Abitter taste sticks to the back of my dry throat.
 
 I cough but choke, the sound leaving my lungs in long, torturous heaves.
 
 Darkness materializes around me with depressing finality and I completely lose any sense of my physical body.
 
 I don’t know where I am.
 
 My surroundings dive into pitch-blackness.
 
 My head follows suit as tendrils of shadowy hands grab hold of me.
 
 A strangled sound gets trapped in my belly and the tight noose of a panic attack wraps around my throat.
 
 No…
 
 No…
 
 No.
 
 I blink my eyes open, and slowly, almost like a slow-motion true crime documentary, the grainy colors of reality engulf me.
 
 The light condensation against the oxygen mask strapped to my face comes first, followed by bright-white walls.
 
 Darkness recedes in my peripheral vision with a snake-like motion, and with it, my awareness trickles back in.
 
 A beeping machine.