Dr Ziegler rubbed her eyes and yawned loudly. For several nights she had been having bouts of fitful sleep. Plagued by bad dreams and the occasional nightmare; each night they got weirder and weirder. Dreams of being in a strange place or surrounded by unfamiliar people. Visions of dimly lit rooms with stifling atmospheres. Try as she might, she could never fully recall any of the dreams. She stood up and stretched, shaking her head and blinking rapidly to compose herself. Though she desired sleep she had a very important project to work on. Having recently invented a full body shield that rendered her impervious for a few seconds, she was now working on a method to increase the range of her resurrection technique. Perhaps she should have answered Winston's recall request, that way she could've had the old team helping her. However, she feared that they would once again attempt to weaponize her work. She'd rather not have that so she continued to work alone with the occasional assistant.
"Angela..."
She spun around thinking she heard a voice but there was no one. She rubbed her heavy eyes again; maybe she'd drifted off to sleep. With a sigh she continued working until it was time to leave her lab. She went through the normal ebb and flow of returning to her apartment. Once there she prepped dinner and then hopped in the shower. The warm water worked wonders with her mood and she stepped out feeling refreshed. Wiping away the moisture from the mirror she could've sworn she saw something red on her face but once it cleared up a bit there was nothing; just her imagination. Moving on she slipped into her nightgown, ate dinner, and decided to wind down by watching a health documentary. Finally she allowed sleep to take her once she was positive she'd fall into a deep sleep. And fall she did.
Falling, falling, falling through darkness as far as she could see. She looked desperately around for someone to glide to but there was no one. In fact it seemed her valkyrie suit wasn't working at all. She let out a shriek of terror but suddenly found herself laying across a couch. She looked around the cozy little room and spotted a woman holding a clipboard sitting nearby.
"Take as much time as you need to think, Ms Ziegler, there's no rush," the woman spoke.
"I'm sorry what?" Angela responded.
The woman wrote something on a clipboard then answered, "the question, take as long as you need to answer the question."
"What question?" Angela returned.
The woman put down her clipboard and Angela found herself staring at her own face. There was no mistaking it; although the woman had purple eyes, dark hair, and wore red lipstick, her face every bit of Angela Ziegler. "Why do you resist me?" She hissed.
"What?" Angela stammered.
"Don't what me; I'm tired of waiting on you to realize your true desires," she ranted, "You're denying your true self." Angela sat with her mouth hanging open, idly shaking her head back and forth in disbelief. "How many times are we going to go through this," the woman sighed.
"You're me," Angela wondered out loud. The woman nodded; her face though reassuring did absolutely nothing to quell the shock Angela was felt. "No," Angela began, "no this isn't real, this can't be; I'm dreaming again aren't I."
"Don't you start," the woman interjected
"I'M DREAMING," Angela insisted.
"I SAID DON'T," the woman snarled getting out of her seat.
"NO GET AWAY FROM ME," Angela sprung up from the sofa and made a break for the door with the woman in hot pursuit. She slammed into the door, knocking it open into a hallway. Sprinting as fast as she could she frantically tried to think of how to wake up. She shouted in exasperation and heard the woman behind her yelling.
"COME BACK HERE," she screamed, her voice growing ever closer. Try as she might, Angela couldn't run any faster and felt like she was moving in slow motion. Panicking, she glanced back just as she was tackled against a wall. The woman seized her ponytail and pulled her head back. Her other hand wrapped around Angela's throat and allowed her to pin an arm down.
"Release me, Angela," the woman growled, "Release me and discover your true potential." Angela struggled and screamed in retaliation. She screamed until her lungs burned and the heat made her sweat.The dry heat of her room felt suffocating and her many pillows didn't help the matter. Angela sat up in bed, her nightgown soaked with sweat. She was awake. How the hell did she forget to set the AC to a comfortable sleeping temperature. In fact she didn't remember adjusting it at all. She got up to get a cool drink of water and adjust the thermostat. It read 80. Definitely not what it should've been. Before returning to her room she double checked her locks. Once back in her room she very quickly rinsed off and returned to bed but didn't immediately fall asleep. Yet another bad dream had disturbed her but she couldn't really remember it. Someone chasing her...someone, someone...someone wanted her help?