A short, sharp intake of breath. This time when Besca spoke, Quinn's whole body [i]jerked,[/i] wound up tight as a spring.

[color=skyblue][i]And I’m talking to this person, or they’re talking to me, and at first I don’t recognize them, but the longer we talk, the more it starts to sound like my own voice. The more I’m sure I’m talking to myself.[/i][/color]

She felt her blood rushing in her ears. And past that, she thought she heard the [i]voice.[/i] Or a faint echo of it. Maybe it was just a trick her frazzled mind was playing on her. When she spoke, she stuttered again like she had yesterday. 

“[color=FFE63D]Th—the voice. On the phone. Your—your own voice. Is...is that—normal?[/color]”

She knew immediately by the look on Besca's face that it wasn't.

All at once, the [i]running running running oh god it's HUNTING YOU QUINNLASH[/i] seared itself back into her mind. Her face crumpled, and she dropped it into her hands, elbows resting on the table. She wasn't crying this time. Her voice wasn't thickened the same way it had been yesterday. What it was, was afraid. [i]Terrified.[/i] Deathly so. She was back there again, running through the darkness, breaths scraping her ragged and acid-burnt throat. And all the while, the voice—indistinct, the space between heartbeats, screaming in her ears. Telling her to—

"[color=FFE63D][i]It told me to run,[/i][/color]" she wheezed out all at once, face still in her hands, barely able to control her voice as it steadily grew louder. "[color=FFE63D]It just told me to r—run and run and run and—and it was so dark and—and it said [i]my name. It kept saying my NAME—[/i][/color]"

She cut herself off, throwing the room into sudden silence.

She didn't move. She couldn't. 

She was still back there.