Yes (Starting Over/Barbara's Path)

"Ye--"

"Good," Barbara grabbed my face. "Do you believe in higher powers?"

"Okay," I dribbled out.

"They all exist somewhere, out there. The devils, the Charles's, the Infinity Stones, the deus ex machina's in the visage of little demon girls, the nanomachines, the subliminal towers, the Invisibles, the men in black," she stopped short, releasing me. "Real, fake, fictional, fact. They're all the same. But all different. My conclusion: fuck relativity." She pulled a finger as if scratching an invisible rope. "You with me?"

"Okay," at a loss, I repeated.

Not really. All I wanted was space to think. And maybe the toilet. What was this about invisible black nano-girls?

"Good," She set her feet onto the floor. "Contract secured. Now you and I get to have some fun. Starting... with you."

Her grin returned, aimed at me like Butch stationed 3 o'clock across the Japs. Meanwhile, my brain registered what she said and drew exclamation marks on its grey walls.

"What?" I pushed backward on my chair. "You agreed! I said I'd accompany you and you agreed!"

"You are accompanying me. But you're also on your probation period." The room flashed. She stepped forward. I shivered, but it might've just been incontinence.

"So --"

"It's like building an immunity system. You suffer. You resist. You grow stronger. This is just your first test." As if to say anyway, she moved on with a shrug of a hand. "Look, Daniel. You'll thank me later."

Shaking my head, I just blared out a large 'No!', my sister still entertaining herself with her proportions when the room was drowned in white again and my vision faded to black.

Rustling bed sheets. Chirping robins. As my eyes came alive, I realized it was morning -- I was in my bed again. My hands dove to my torso, my legs, my face, everything rising to attention like it was a day of drills.

After a final second of rigid silence, I relaxed.

"It..." My throat chortled a crackling breath. "...it was all a dream."

I shook my head, climbing out of the mattress.

But what kind of dream was that? It wasn't all clear, fuzzed in a still fresh, misty post-sleep vector, but the intensity rupturing through my now conscious body was still giving me shakes. Apparently I'd broken into a sweat. Calories, begone.

Removing the blanket from over me, I let my feet hit the room-temperature carpet. Yep, I thought automatically, still slightly cagey. Same room, same blankets, same walls, same chairs, same mostly-clean-but-left-slightly-lived-in-looking state as it's always been in. And even the same...

A voice resounded behind me. If I was holding a stack of books or something I would've dropped it, but luckily, I only flinched like a jumpy pipsqueak.

"Hey bro, want some breakfast?"

Turning, I managed an eschew smile at the limber figure that appeared at the door, probably horrendously. She was as early and about as ever, and I feigned no surprise. "Yeah," I relented, just hoping she didn't sense my disarray, else oh, the remarking to follow. "Sure, Barbara, that sounds good."

And unfortunately for me, there stood Barb, the same snide, unscrupulous sister.

Same 'ol, same 'ol. Right?