The Stuff of Dreams

You flip open your fist case file. Detailed inside are a series occurrences of people sleepwalking. One person sleptwalked to her ex-husband's house, and killed him. Another walked around town in the buff. Still another man simply sat on his porch. None of these people could be woken up for a period of exactly 24 hours. When they awoke, they remembered nothing.

"I'm guessing it's some kind of ****," you state matter-of-factly, after going over the dossier. "Something that takes a certain amount of time to get out of the system."

Sculley looks thoughtful. "Maybe. But there were no common symptoms exhibited by the subjects. And the ... ailment, whatever it is, presented itself differently each time. The only common factor is the sleepwalking, and the inability to wake up -- but some people were aggressive, some passive -- if it was a ****, I should think they would have exhibited some behavioral consistencies. That being said, I agree that there is likely some kind of chemical influence."

"Let's not rule out hypnosis, either," you add.

"No, I agree that that is a strong possibility," Scully smiles.

You discuss the matter further, and before hardly any time at all you are on a plane, and then in a car, and then in a small town in the remote stretches of Nebraska. You arrive late at night, and agree to meet Scully early the next morning. You enter your hotel room, next to hers, and slowly fall asleep.