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HOME By Flora Barber – aged 16 A cough, a wheeze, nothing more, just a normal day. It’ll pass; fade in the absence of concentration. It’s what they always say. “Go out to play, you’ll be home soon.” How many more steps can I bare? I just want to sleep, find comfort and warmth To feel safe, protected from the whirlwind outside. I was drowning on air, screaming but not a whisper leaving my lips. Can they not see me? Could they not hear me? My chest is heaving, every breath choking; Help please, help, I’m being crushed from inside. My muscles seizing, trembling, heavy with no sensation. I’m fighting, slipping away, each second a lifetime. All those people staring, talking, pointing. I just want to go home. How did I end up here? All these cables and tubes, Flashing lights in my eyes. Why wouldn’t they just go away? Let me go home, I’m crying, trying to say. I just wanted to be left alone. Their words, all this noise, like an orchestra in freefall. I just wanted to go home. The whole world fades away, I’m falling. I don’t want this struggle, this pain. Falling down, deeper, Faster, trying, gasping. Their confused calm, panicked patience, These flashes of consciousness, the effect of suffocation. I just wanted to be left alone. Begging then to stop, let in the silent darkness. I just wanted to go home. The stars, like fireflies, they dance through the midnight. Like a phoenix, Igniting, flaming, burning brilliantly. The ashes fade, crinkling, crisply crackling. Fading, burning out, we’ll disappear on a gasp of air. Tossed onto a wayward wind. It‘s pitch black and we’ll never see the sun again. Our voices, just whispering echoes in the back of their minds. All I wanted was just to go home.