The blood pounded in her ears. Her heart thudded in her chest. Her hands shook. Her feet tingled. Her vision was disfigured as if she were looking through a fish-eye lens. She had to get away from her mind.

Woken up with monstrous voices screaming and dominating her in sleep, Lorraine was freaking out.

She couldn’t process what and why this was happening to her. You see Lorraine Acker was crazy, quite factually so. She couldn’t hear it anymore, even after waking up the voices haven't stopped.

We love you, Lorraine. You'll keep your mouth shut, wouldn't you?

No one's listening girl! They've been fed hush money! Shut your damn mouth or your life will be a living hell.

It was. It was a living hell. 

She clutched her hair, so tightly that her nails dug into her palms. Her breathing was hard. Really hard. As if she’d just run the London Marathon.

She cried harder, her chest growing tight as bile rose in her throat, an overwhelming sense of dread filled in her as she clutched at the bedsheets.

Her wild hair was everywhere, tears sticking to her honey skin.

It was Jimin who had done this. He had pushed the right buttons. Hell, even his fucking voice was a trigger and now Lorraine was suffering.

Shut it.

Don't think.

Then again, Lorraine was toxic.

And toxic Lorraine needed her pain to feel pleasure. She needed the person who fucked her up so effortlessly to soothe her. She was the epitome of self-destruction.

So she picked up the phone and called Jimin with her still shaking hands.

*

A sudden buzzing in Jimin's ear made him wake up from his deep slumber. He groaned sleepily, shifting comfortably on the bed, eyes pinched shut because of the neon lights of the phone.

He opened his eyes to peek at the caller ID, frowning a little when he saw it was Lorraine calling.

Why would she call this late?

Then he assumed that maybe she fucked up the time. Nonetheless, he picked up the call with a grunt, hugging his pillow closer.

"Lorraine, you know what time is it? It's 3:30 AM. Were you that desperate to talk to me–" his teasing halted when he heard her sobbing on the other line.

She was...crying?

He immediately sat up on the bed, scurrying off from the bedsheets with abrupt panic.

"Lorraine? Lorraine are you– are you crying? What happened?"

Yet the only thing he could hear was her sobs, making him worry even more.

"Raine, answer me! You're worrying me, Lorraine. What happened?"

"Shut up I'm not crying, I'm freaking out."

"Huh?"

There was a maddening shriek from the other call, making Jimin wince as he moved the phone away from his phone.

"What's happening, Lorraine?"

"It's sc-scary, Jimin."

"What is?"

"It's scary– the way they can spin my head. It's very scary..."

"I..." Jimin faltered. "You're not making any sense Lorraine, please drink some water."

She was weeping so badly, and Jimin didn't understand what was she saying.

It was a surprise that Lorraine actually obliged to drink water when Jimin told her. Then she smacked her head.

"Shit." She cursed on the phone. "You didn't ask for it, yet I'm loading you with shit. Sorry, I'll just–"

"Lorraine, just– just cut the crap!" It surprised Jimin himself how demanding he sounded, that too with Lorraine. Maybe Lorraine saying that sentence fuelled him. "Will you tell me what's happening?"

"Pan– panicking, I'm panicking."

"Why?"

At that, the line went silent again, there were some sniffles for a good minute where Jimin contemplated saying something before he heard a watery chuckle.

"Because I'm... Fucked up, Jimin. I'd tell you the reason but you're the r-reason, yet I find myself as-sking you this, c-can you come to me right now?"

"What?" Jimin breathed out shakily.

"Fuck–" she coughed after that. "Fuck, Park Jimin, you really wa–want me to say it. I need you here, c-could you come?"

Jimin certainly couldn't fly all the way to London right now, and he clearly didn't understand what the fuck was happening. All he could assume was that Lorraine had been like this before, she had run away from him. Now she wants him near.

Is she crazy?

She was. She really, really was.

"I'll come there, Lorraine. But you'll have to do a thing for me. Go back to LA, take some rest, I'll come there."

"You'll come?"

"Yeah, I promise."

"Bye."

Jimin couldn't help but notice the way she said these last words. They were kind of maniacal as if she had enjoyed having a panic attack.

Jimin rubbed his face in frustration.

"This woman will be the death of me."

He decided to call Lorraine's assistant to check up on her because he really didn't trust Lorraine with her own self. The last time she had freaked out, there were scratch marks on her cheeks.

Jimin knew she was twisted. He knew it from the fucking first time he stomped his lips on hers and she smirked as if she had gotten exactly what she wanted.

And now she was under her skin. He had started caring.

After telling her assistant to go check up on her, he started looking for aeroplane tickets for LA because he was already addicted to her prison.

*****

"Lorraine, open the door!" Antoinette banged the door of Lorraine's hotel room thrice again, freaking out by the passing second.

Lorraine opened the door, making Antoinette almost jump forward.

"Lorraine, what's happening?!" She asked, breathless.

"I was... throwing up."

"Are you okay?! You were having a panic attack– Lorraine you–"

"I know what I was having."

"Yeah but why?! After all these years?"

Lorraine looked down silently, rubbing her temples. 

"It's him. He triggered it."

"I think you should start taking your meds again, Raine–"

"No!" Lorraine shouted, her eyes suddenly darker than usual. "I won't take them. I won't take those meds. They- they block away from my emotions, I need to feel them."

Antoinette looked at Lorraine with a look of disbelief for a good minute.

"Come on, Lorraine. For a man you met twice?!"

"No, Antoinette. For a woman I've known my whole life. Myself."