Chapter 1 ~ Normal for One.
Bella couldn’t remember a time when she felt like a complete human being. She drifted through life in a haze, unable to connect to anything the way others around her could. She felt disconnected from everything. Although she’d never known anything else, she could see that she was different. Everyone else reacted and interacted with each other with emotion. Feeling.
They argued. They laughed. They kissed. And she didn’t. She didn’t even know if she could laugh. Because Bella hadn’t felt anything in her life.
Not love, nor fear. Not happiness, nor sadness. She was drifting like a hollow shell through her life, letting each day tick by achieving nothing. She had no desire to achieve, or strive to meet a goal, so she stayed as she was.
And each day she could see that she was the odd one out. She could see it on the bus when a mother laughed with her daughter over a joke they two only shared. She could hear it in her apartment building when her neighbour greeted his dog after being gone all day. She could feel that emptiness.
She wondered if the fact that she could feel the emptiness in her meant that she had once felt something. Even if she couldn’t feel it now.
On her thirteenth birthday, she had even wished to be normal when blowing out the candles on her cake. It was a silly ritual that her mother had insisted on, but she had never seen the point of. Not that she cared enough to argue either. But when nothing happened, she wasn’t disappointed, but not undisappointed either. She’d continued to feel empty.
She’d considered the whys before. At first, she’d thought it might be a genetic condition. Neither of her parents seemed particularly afflicted, so she’d researched her family history. To no avail. Nothing mentioning anything of the sort.
Sometime afterwards she’d looked into environmental factors. Considering that it was some strange kind of mould growing on her bedroom wall. But there had been no mould. No bacteria that wouldn’t have affected her parents the same way.
She had considered asking them if they had felt this way, but she had no real curiosity. Time always seemed to drift by, month by month and year by year. And the only time she even looked into it was when someone had an adverse reaction to her. The catalyst had been when a girl at school had called her a freak. It hadn’t hurt her feelings, but when she had told her father he had seemed upset. So she thought to try and fix it.
But when no answers had come of it, she let it go. Until the next time. And then the time after that. It was easier to forget about now that she was no longer living at home.
As a semi-successful twenty-something year old, she managed to get by. She had a small apartment of her own, with one bedroom, one bathroom and living space. She even had a job, answering calls as a customer service representative. It didn’t pay much, but as she had no desire for anything and no need for more than the essentials for life, it was enough. It was a good job for her, as most of her responses were straight off of a script. She didn’t have to think, and she didn’t have to interact with anyone face to face. Many people mistook her for one of those automated responses.
Her other co-workers all seemed to dress to the nines, with new haircuts or new shoes and suits. But Bella’s brown hair was dull and slung back in a ponytail. Her clothes consisted of an apathetic grey sweater and black trousers with a pair of plain shoes. They had been black ones, but the colour had faded from repeated use. They were a murky grey now, but Bella didn’t even notice.
Her skin wasn’t tanned like her co-workers either. She’d not been on expensive holidays nor cared to spend hours tanning herself. And she didn’t wear any make-up. She didn’t even own a mirror.
Normal things often didn't even occur to her. She didn't know how to behave like everyone else, so many people found her behaviour to be odd. They avoided close personal relationships with her because of it. And though she didn’t feel lonely... because she didn’t feel anything.
She kept to a routine. Doing the same thing day after day, with little variation, and no consideration of changing her ways. Not that she knew how to, but that itself was about to change.
It was a midsummers evening, late July, and the sun was still peeking over the horizon. The sky was brilliant shades of orange and pink, rippling over the city skyline. But, as usual, Bella didn’t notice this. She was walking home, through her usual route, at a brisk but unhurried pace. In order to stay on schedule, she would need to be home to prepare dinner within the next ten minutes or so. She was a little behind schedule, as her usual bus service was running five minutes behind, but it didn’t concern her. Well... simply because she didn’t feel concerned. She knew she should. But she didn’t.
Her day had been thus far uneventful, and yet it was about to get much more interesting.
You see, between where she was at that moment and the block of flats she called home, she had to pass by two alleyways. The first was well lit and had two cats fighting over a territory about halfway down it. But the second... that was another matter entirely. It was dark and dingy, too narrow to function with a mesh gate at the end to prevent trespassers.
And even though she shouldn’t have been anyway near there, as she passed she paused. Bella couldn’t tell why, but something about the alley felt wrong. It felt empty. And that emptiness was all too familiar because it felt like her.
She’d noticed this about the alley before, but she’d never spared it more than a glance as she passed by on her way home. But today was different. Today it felt stronger like something was pulling her in, and she found herself wandering inside.
It was about eight or so steps into the mouth of the alley that the world went black. Quite literally, all at once in a great flash. But she was still quite conscious. There was just nothing around her. No light, no dark, no up, no down, no floor or sky. No sound, no sight, no touch or taste.
And then, in the darkness, there was a voice. It was loud and intruding, but she couldn’t hear it. It was more like she felt it, pressing into her mind.
“Hello Sybella,” the voice said, sounding neither male nor female.
Bella opened her mouth to reply but no sound came out. The voice seemed to find this amusing because a chuckle echoed through her head.
“Speech does not work in this realm, Sybella, a pity for I’m sure you have a few questions for me. But before all that, do you have any objections to being brought here?” the voice asked, but Bella did not know what to say to that even if she could have.
Bella shook her head from side to side, knowing she should have been wary of this person. This person who knew her name without being told. This person who had brought her to a strange place without her consent. This person who wouldn't even show themselves.
"Wonderful," the voice said, as the world around her began to form. "Because we have a lot to cover before you can go back, but I will warn you now. You will not be the same."
