Nothing made sense anymore.
Every few seconds, a different thought struck him sideways, quick and unrelenting, and his stomach folded tighter and tighter around itself. Nothing felt stable anymore. The air seemed thinner than it should have been. He was still and unable to really decipher the sounds that reached him. The one that was clearest to him was the uneven cadence of his own breathing and heartbeat.
Is this what karma felt like?
He tried not to think directly about it. The moment he did, heat crawled up the back of his neck. His mind kept circling instead, touching the edges, retreating, and returning again. He swallowed hard.
People always talked about consequences like thunder after lightning, but this felt much worse. Everything still looked possible. He could still sit still, he could still answer questions, and still pretend his pulse was not hammering hard enough to bruise him from the inside.
The universe had just dealt him a cruel card.
