Micro-Fiction: Tethered

The room started to swirl around her as it had done so many times before. She knew what was to come and resented it. Her breathing became quick and shallow as the world started to morph. Green, yellow, blue and purple light engulfed her vision. The world around her felt like a whirlpool of ghosts whispering of impending doom that wound itself around her tighter and tighter with every passing second. Through this portal, she was transported into some kind of hyperspace, where saturated light, so intense it hurt, was everywhere, where time had slowed to a crawl, and her surroundings seemed strange and alien. She grasped her head and curled into a ball on the floor. When would this torment end? Why did it catch her so easily, even though she knew it so well? Why? Why.....

Until, seemingly out of nowhere, a pair of soft hands rested on her shoulders. Cutting through the hyperdimension in which she was lost, the hands grasped her ever so gently from behind. Yet, however, light the touch, she could feel them anchor her, a tether to her homeworld. Through the miasma of fear and distress, she grasped at the hand, which gave her a gentle squeeze as they found each other. Faint as though from far away, a voice told her, "I'm here, it's okay". While the miasma remained and swirled, she knew that that single point of contact was her lifeline. A lifeline she held onto with all of her being, as ever so slowly, the whirlpool of dread started to unwind around her.