I dreamt the machines were breathing with me

I was lying in a hospital bed, not as a patient, but as someone who’d forgotten how to leave. The ventilator beside me wasn’t beeping—it was inhaling and exhaling in time with my own breath. Not syncing. Matching. Like we’d been doing this for years. I reached out to touch the tube, and it pulsed warm under my fingers. No alarms. No lights. Just rhythm. And then I woke up, heart still thudding like it had been holding its breath too long.