Rima woke up with a start, her hand flying up to her lips to wipe off the drool. Eyes protesting the bring blue lights, she looked around the empty library. Cursing herself, she pushed her chair back, the whole body expecting the harsh scratching noise to rankle the quiet. Bit it didn’t, and it made her body tense up even more. She turned back to stare at the chair, the same one that had caused every single person in the library too look up from their books every time she sat dow or got up, for the whole of last week. Confused, she pushed the chair with her feet again, and….nothing. Rima looked around herself, head flipping from side to side to make sure she doesn’t miss anything. But everything seemed the same, not a book out of place.
“Hello”, she called into the empty hall.
Her voice had that same echo-y quality, coming back to her after hitting the high ceilings. It took her a split second to realise that she actually did not hear anything. She thought she heard it because she was expecting it, that’s how it supposed to happen. So it Tok a moment to realise that she really did not hear herself call out.
Unsure now, Rima uttered a single syllable, throwing more effort into her voice, louder. And still nothing. Tendrils of panic started to creep up, streams of heat rising up the side of her neck and face. She forced her eyes wide open and smacked her face with her hands, attempting to wake herself up from this weird dream. She felt the slaps on her cheek but didn’t hear it. Completely freaked out now, she turned around started banging the table top. Her hand hurt, but still nothing. She stomped her feet, pressed the chair handles and pushed it some more, screamed from belly, and still nothing. Had she gone deaf all of a sudden?
Her hand dived into her pocket to pull up her phone. Google would have something on sudden onset deafness, right? Hands sweating, the device almost slipped from her hands before she steadied and brought it up in front of her. And she kept looking at fit for the next few seconds. It was her phone, yes, but felt different. She kept looking at it to figure out why, and then it hit her. It was light, light as paper, like it contained nothing. She saw the glass, the plastic body, the buttons on the side, and still no weight.
“Fuck! What his happening!”, Rima screamed. Or she thought she screamed but nobody can be sure.
Pushing away the thoughts of her weightless phone, she swiped the screen and her thumbs typed in the passcode. At this point, it was almost expected that her phone wouldn’t open. Rima was almost ready fr it. But it did open and she relaxed a little. Her eyes flicked to the top of the screen, full bars, good. Pulling up her browser, she started typing her question but soon realised that she was typing gibberish. The keys she was pressing were not appearing on screen.
Thinking that her jittery hands were typing wrong, she took a breath to steady herself and typed again. More gibberish appeared. Backspace. Type again. Fuck. Backspace. Nonsense again. Back. Gibberish. Rima hurled he phone across the hall in frustration, craving at least the satisfaction of watching it break into pieces. But it halted mid air and then fluttered softly down, feather light.
Dread clutching at her heart, Rima’s feet turned around and she ran towards the exit. Looking over her shoulders, she didn’t see anyone follow her, but she was dead sure that someone or something as indeed following her. Her whole body was focussed on outrunning whatever it was. Reaching the door, she pushed it hard, fiddling with the knob in panic. And then she realised she had to pull.
The door opened and Rima rushed out. And caught herself just in time, one foot out the door and suspended in mid air above a vast black expanse.
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