Submerged

VII. Chemical imbalance.

SOME SCENES IN THIS CHAPTER MAY BE DISTURBING.
Read: "Music and content warning."

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Paris, France. March 2036.

   Nadine was sitting in one of the upper rows of the opera house, her feet resting on the railing as she read a thick handwritten book with different fonts and multiple authors. Greta had sent it to her through Rosadella, one of the most important volunteers in Pangea, where she could read all the information collected from the crisis. They were observations and theories, nothing confirmed. The sound of the pages turning was overshadowed by the joyful shouts of children playing.

   Every time she finished two pages, she would sit up to watch Wilfred, who was playing happily.

   The observation that interested her the most was the one about the children; some had been found wandering alone with just a few scratches, others being protected by drowned individuals. This observation was linked to the theory that the disease "activated" due to the total loss of endorphins and serotonin, but they didn't know why it occurred. One thing was clear: they were humans lost within the traps of their oldest instincts and a constant aggressive state. They were not monsters, but people who had lost a war against despair.
   Different scenarios were recounted by those fortunate enough to witness the transition from thinking and feeling human to a drowned one. They all spoke of situations where individuals lost something very significant to them, or they lost everything outright.

   The innocence of children prevented them from losing hope. They always found light in the worst situations, and if there was no light, they created it.

   No one in the book could explain why the drowned ones didn't harm them.

   At the end of this theory, in cursive handwriting, the signature read: "Rosadella".

   "It's just a theory, but once you start seeing the signs, you can't stop noticing them," Rosadella said, placing her hand on Nadine's shoulder.

   Nadine turned, smiling at her as she pointed to the seat beside her, inviting her to sit.

   She was a tall young woman, with dark skin and brown hair braided in different twists. Her delicate lips and thick eyebrows made her quite beautiful. She wore beige pants with many pockets, which were too big for her, and had on a thick black belt. She wore an old purple sweatshirt. Underneath, she had on a white sleeveless shirt.

   "When Greta gave me the book to write down everything I knew, I started writing, and the words just flowed. All that information was right here," Rosadella continued, tapping her index finger on her temple. "This writing helped a lot of people understand things they had witnessed. They said that reading my words made them feel like my theory made sense of their experiences."

   In response, Nadine told her about what she had witnessed in Burgundy, the mother who had lost her child, losing everything that characterized her as human the very next second.

   "Write it down," Rosadella replied, with a slight sideways smile.

   "What?"