My instinct to claw more air down my throat jerked my bound hands behind my back. My lungs screamed. Black splotches dotted my vision, blurring out the faces of the congregation in a pulsing rhythm. Too slow. My heart was beating too slow, and in between, alarms rattled inside my skull.

My world faded to a sliver of light cracking from underneath a dropped curtain. From behind that curtain came a voice, far away yet familiar, comforting but at the same time not. My brain waded ...