Dream Theater: Breathing and Not Breathing

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I couldn't breathe.

Or rather, I could breathe, but it wasn't doing me any good. The air had grown too thin, my lungs too small. 

I gulped at the air, like a thirsty man eager to drink, and still couldn't catch my breath. 

Is this what drowning is like? That moment when you finally give up the struggle and take in that first defeated inhalation of water?

Calm down, I thought. Slow and steady, I told myself. Maybe, if you can just stop thinking about it, the feeling will pass. It has to. 

I woke, gasping as though I had surfaced from the bottom of deep, dark lake.