Water.
That was the first thing Ingrid felt when she opened her eyes, and for several seconds, her brain refused to understand what was happening because there was nothing around her except cold, filthy water pressing against her face. She tried to inhale out of pure instinct and immediately swallowed a mouthful of something that tasted like rotten eggs, dead fish, and several other things she did not want to identify.
Her eyes flew wider as she kicked her legs beneath her, but instead of moving easily through the water like she normally could, her body sank with the grace of a fucking brick. She flailed both arms, desperately trying to push herself upward, while bubbles escaped her mouth as she attempted to scream for help.
Her lungs burned so badly that panic slammed through her chest, and she wondered how she had gone from dying in an explosion of energy to drowning in what smelled suspiciously like a sewer.
"Help!" she screamed the moment her head broke through the surface, although the effort only made her cough violently as more disgusting water splashed into her mouth.
She wiped her face with both hands and looked around wildly, searching for anyone who could explain why she was apparently still alive.
Instead of finding rescuers, she heard laughter coming from somewhere nearby, followed by another round of loud snickering that seemed to surround her from every direction. Ingrid stared at the shadowy figures standing around the edge of the pool, completely baffled because none of them appeared even slightly concerned about the fact that she was drowning.
"What the hell are you laughing at?" she shouted, coughing as she desperately tried to keep herself afloat. The laughter only became louder, and Ingrid’s confusion quickly turned into fury because she had apparently died, been resurrected, and somehow landed in a comedy show run by psychopaths.
She tried to swim toward the edge, but her arms felt like they belonged to somebody twice her size, and every movement took an absurd amount of effort. Ingrid had always been a decent swimmer, so there was no reason she should be struggling like this unless something was seriously wrong with her body. Her legs kicked wildly, sending water splashing everywhere, but she barely moved before her stomach dragged her back down.
"Why am I so fucking heavy?" she demanded, although nobody answered her because the people surrounding the water seemed far more interested in watching her struggle. She sucked in another breath when her chin slipped beneath the surface and began sinking again, and the last thing she saw was a blurry collection of strange silhouettes laughing at her misfortune. Just before she completely disappeared beneath the water, a large hand suddenly plunged into the pool and grabbed the back of her clothes.
The hand yanked her upward so violently that Ingrid’s head snapped back, and before she could even process what had happened, she was hauled out of the filthy water like a fish caught by an impatient fisherman. She landed hard on the ground with an enormous thud, her butt taking most of the impact, and a sharp pain shot straight up her spine.
"Ow!" Ingrid groaned as she immediately rolled onto her knees and reached behind herself to rub her butt, completely forgetting that she had just been drowning moments ago. Her wet clothes clung heavily to her body, making her feel even heavier than before, and she was breathing so hard that she could barely catch enough air to complain properly.
"Who the hell pulls someone out of the water just to throw them onto the ground?" she demanded while rubbing her aching butt, because apparently being murdered had not taught the universe to treat her with basic courtesy. A deep male voice answered from somewhere above her, and the words immediately made Ingrid freeze.
"Ingrid, what is wrong with you?" the man demanded, sounding more irritated than concerned, and Ingrid slowly raised her head to look at him. "Why do you keep doing pathetic things like this?" he continued, folding his arms as though she had personally inconvenienced him by nearly drowning herself.
He glanced toward the filthy pool behind her before looking back at her with obvious disgust, and his expression made Ingrid wonder whether she had somehow fallen into another nightmare.
"You will do anything for attention, won’t you?" he said, his lips curling into a mocking smile, "You would even jump into water filled with the remains of Zombies just because you want me to notice you?! Is that how attention starved you are?! I already told you multiple times, I’m not interested in you!"
Ingrid’s eyebrows slowly pulled together as his words finally reached her brain, because there was one particular detail that bothered her far more than being called pathetic.
Zombie remains?
"What did you just say?" Ingrid asked, her voice becoming strangely quiet as she looked at him.
The man rolled his eyes before pointing at something behind her, "I mean, why don’t you just take a look at yourself, Ingrid. Who would want someone like you? Not only are you so fat that you can barely move, you’re also ugly and smelly. Even the lowest insect wouldn’t dare take you in as you are!"
Ingrid stared at him in stunned silence because nothing about the conversation made sense, and she could not understand why he was speaking as if they had been having an argument for the past hour.
But she slowly turned her head toward the large mirror mounted against a nearby wall, and the moment she saw her reflection, every thought inside her head came to a complete stop. The woman staring back at her was enormous compared to the Ingrid she remembered, with a round and pudgy face, thick arms that were also short, a large stomach, and wet dark hair sticking messily against her cheeks.
"What the fuck?" Ingrid whispered, staring at herself as though the mirror had personally betrayed her.