[deflation]

I noticed it first when I was walking in the halls of my college campus. Right there on the back of Cindy Grainger’s neck was a nozzle. A rubber valve nozzle that looked the kind you’d see on a beach ball. It was just sticking out of the back of her neck. Erect. I only noticed it because she had her hair up in a ponytail today.

I was distracted by it all day. I sat behind her in physics. I saw it out of the corner of my eyes while we at lunch. It was weird. Nobody seemed to notice it, least of all her. Was I just seeing things?

Later that night in the dorms the two of us were alone and I finally worked up the courage to talk to her about it. She smiled as I approached her and I felt my heart skip a beat as I stumbled and awkwardly asked her why she had a nozzle sticking out of her neck.

She looked at me funnily, as if she didn’t believe it. I pointed to it and she raised her hand to feel her neck but it didn’t seem to register with her. Then I did something unexpectedly. I reach up my own hand and popped the valve open myself.

Cindy stared at me with a confused expression as the sound of rushing air came from the valve. Her eyes lost focus and her head began to droop. I watched in horror and amazement as her head actually lost its shape and fell flat on her chest as the air continued to gush from the valve. What has I done!?!

I stepped back and watched in surprise as her body began to sag, her legs turn to rubber, and she flopped over onto the couch with a pathetic plop. As the air rushed out of her body she became thin and flat. It was as if her entire body was one big inflatable doll that was now quickly becoming empty and hollow. And yet I think I heard the sound of a satisfied moan as the air stopped gushing and she lay limp and lifeless on the couch before me.

I was stunned. I didn’t move. I just stared at what had been a fellow student only a minute ago, now reduced to an empty husk by my careless hands! I gulped.

But the weirdest thing happened. Several other girls came into the dorm room, and none of them seemed to notice the deflated Cindy on the couch. One of the girls even picked up her crumbled body and tossed it into the corner carelessly. As if this was a common occurrence and no big deal.

And that’s when I noticed it. They all had nozzles too. In the same location on the back of their necks.

With trembling fingers I lifted my arms up and felt my own neck. A twinge of surprise rocked through my body as I felt the telltale features of a rubbery nozzle sticking straight out of the back of my neck too.

“Oh let me help you with that!” Said a girl to my right. To my shock and dismay I felt her delicate fingers pop open my valve. As the air rushed out of my body I felt myself becoming tired and sleepy. I fell over into her help staring up at her with a blank expression on my face as I drifted off. The last thing I saw was the sweet gentle face of Jamie Brunswick staring down at me as my eyelids closed.