#2

The fields smell weird, but You's always thought something along those lines about them. Maybe it's part of being different, but You just thinks that You's imagining another life. One that will never exist, in a world where You doesn't have to worry about the fields, because in that world the fields aren't real.

You hears a shout as the mower gets closer, making a horrible roar that You's gotten used to. The crops are being sucked into the metal mouth of the beast, with a small percentage being immediately turned into that which fuels the device to begin with. The shouting is friendly, just because the driver can stop the mower at any time. There will never be any sort of serious danger on the behalf of a mower.

The shouter is Susie. You remembers her, right? Of course You does. There's really not much to say about her, because You remembers her so well...

...except in this instance, she does seem rather faint, for some reason. You blinks Your eyes at this “distancing effect” as You sits up, but quickly shrug it off. She's turned off the mower and is coming towards You.

“Hey!” she says. “You needs to stop falling asleep out here all the time, dude. You's going to get Yourself killed!” Susie is a master of combining a harsh tone with serious words and a genuine smile. Some would view as irritating and sarcastic, perhaps even malevolent, but You knows that she means well. The two of you have been best friends since you were kids. You knows her inside and out, and she's a relatively plain person. But, as the only friend You has, she is, of course, much more to You.

“Sorry. Just got this headache.”

“I have one too, You knows. This thing is so goddamn loud. You'd think that they'd start coming up with something else, but...”

You laughs. “Talking against the fuel is heresy, pretty much. Don't let your dad hear you.”

Then You frowns. Something feels wrong to You. There's a tenseness in the air, a grammatical one. Thanks to the APPLE, You's been able to sense grammar since birth, which oftentimes is more of a curse than a blessing, to be honest. There's just something upsetting about the way that You and Susie are talking—as if this has happened before, but it was all spoken differently. Like this is being...remembered wrong. Like the memory is being fabricated. And the tense—that too was wrong. Is wrong. But...

You realizes that You's been staring been staring at the tubules on the mower for some time. You's still frowning, because this has happened before. Exactly like this. Except...

One of you shouts something—in the sudden adrenalin rush, You can't tell if it's You or Susie. You can't remember. There is a sudden flash of a clawed hand, and everything slips back into darkness.