interacting with: @bandcrsnatch @Ejected @Okonuki
Ylva was only vaguely aware of the new arrivals to their little group. She noticed Ziggy's aversion of one of them, and the other guy's blow up doll. She wanted to say something, but something was tugging away at her and she was quite incapable of ignoring it. This pulling was like nothing she'd ever felt before. Her usual pulls were soft, gentle, like someone was gently tapping her shoulder for attention before taking her by the hand and asking if they could show her something. She'd even managed to pull herself out of it once or twice by asking the something to come back in an hour or so because she was in the middle of an exam. It was also nothing like what had happened earlier today. There had been no pull, that had been more like stepping into a hole, or missing a step. A sudden shock, unexpected. This was clearly a pull and it was aggressive and very uncomfortable.
Looking down on her arms, Ylva became aware of two things. Both were equally disturbing. First of all there was her physical response to the pull. It was obvious that all the hairs on her arms, and the rest of her body now that she thought of it, were standing on end. She felt sick, feverish, and had goosebumps all over. The only thing that had ever made Ylva this physically uncomfortable was when a teacher had pulled her artificial nails across a chalkboard during a particularly exciting after school club meeting. The sensation had only lasted a few seconds, but this felt similar but so much stronger. A hundred nails pulled across a hundred chalkboards.
And then there was Ylva's emotional and mental response to it all. She suddenly felt hyper aware of all that was going on around her, as if she was watching the same images through a hundred pairs of eyes at the same time. The people around her seemed more vivid, more present than before, and she was painfully aware of every movement, every sound, every speck of dust in the air. She realised there were fewer people than before. Lilly? She watched people move, heard them talk, almost saw the words as they left their mouths. She was hyper aware of movement, expression, sound. And yet she was almost not a part of it all.
Simultaneously Ylva was overwhelmed by the knowledge of how pointless everything was. It so did not matter who liked who, who ate or drank what, who said what and least of all who did what. Nothing you do here matters. In the end, none of it has any bearing on anything. None of it matters. None of you matter. Why are you here anyway? Many voices, all talking at the same time, all conveying similar messages. Some sounded almost familiar, some were completely foreign to her, and since none of the others were responding to them, Ylva assumed they were all in her mind. It is done. It will be done. Nothing can stop it. Nothing can change it. You cannot change it. You may as well not be here. Why are you still here? In harmony now. The voices kept repeating the same messages. The voices got louder and louder, the sensation of nails across a chalkboard got stronger and stronger ... then, as suddenly as it had started, it all stopped and Ylva was thrown back into her own perception of reality. The whole thing had only taken a few seconds, but Ylva felt shaken to her core.
Moving slowly, as if she feared movement would bring the sensation back, Ylva reached for her beer and gulped the remaining half down. Then she looked around at the others, panic and fear still shining brightly in her eyes. What The Fuck?! She blurted out.
Not knowing what else to say or do, Ylva slumped back down in her seat and tried to make sense of it all. What will be done? What can't we change? What is going on here? And what the hell is this place doing to me? Am I the only one? Where are Lilly and the others? The questions tumbled over each other in her mind, and she could not answer a single one of them. It left her feeling small and confused. Slowly, the hairs on her arms settled down, the goosebumps faded. But the experience would stay with her for a long time.