The rest of the week after that night out went by... well, certainly not in a blur. If anything, Sara was more than a little jumpy and alert, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Or waiting to wake up to reality.
Of course, nothing that dramatic happened, if those could even be called dramatic. Life went on: she woke up each day, went to work, dealt with mundane bullshit, went home, ate, slept, wasted time on miscellaneous activities, not all necessarily in the same order each day.
She did, however, notice that she herself was a lot more jittery, jumping at the slightest of unexpected events. Yet paradoxically none of the people she regularly interacted noticed the change, or if they had they certainly acted no different. Even Kevin, who, admittedly unknowingly, started this chain of events, did not remark upon her changes in behavior at work. Chitchat about random trivia at length during those impromptu breaks.
As the day came and went, Sara began to question herself once again. Were those events on that night really the results of potentially supernatural forces, or merely a series of extremely unlikely coincidences? Did it even happen at all, or was it all just a dream? Wait a minute- the cum stains that she had to clean up the morning after certainly proved that something went down, but nothing exactly specific.
More maddening was the fact that outside of her memories (and the mess on the couch she had cleaned up) there wasn't anything in the way of tangible evidence: Nothing in even the local news, not a single whisper of gossip, not even any new urban legends. She had a few times considered going back to that gas station, but chickened out every time, out of cringe if nothing else.
She was not ready to relive those events, not even for a piece of mind. Or even finding out nothing had happened. It would be so embarrassing no matter what happened or happens, her mind would keep tabs if nothing else. That last part was the most important, even if the most invisible.
And on a Friday night those endless maddening thoughts and speculations chased endlessly in her mind as she laid on her couch, glad that the workweek was over, even if she managed to get even less work done than usual. Not to the point of missing deadlines or anything of course, but noticeable... or would have, under more normal circumstances.
But once again, no one noticed anything out of the ordinary.
She has to do something, something to prove to herself one way or the other. No matter how flimsy this 'proof' might be objectively, it would at least buy herself a peace of mind...
Or was that merely rationalization? The thought sent a shudder down her spine. She's not a pervert right? Not one of those degenerates that society looks down on...
But does that have to be the case? If she really has the power, then that means... Well, it certainly means that she should try... again? For the first time for real? Deja vu?
......​
It was slightly easier this time around to make the first steps, if only because half of her mind refused to believe this isn't the first time. However, the body remembers, and the physical sensations of the elements on her exposed body had a lessened effect. It was a sign alright, but she dismissed the thought quickly, as it felt to be too much gasping for straws.
As before, the few who were around the parking lot paid little heed to the jittery naked woman, once again clad in only a pair of loafers and carrying a handbag, making her way to her car, choosing to see what they wanted to see, or believing that it's all part of something planned, a porn shoot or whatnot. Most simply didn't see much of anything, as the darkness had already made its mark on the still early night. Yet in Sara's mind the eyes of the world were watching her every move even as a loud voice within endlessly repeated the mantra that everything's normal, and there's nothing out of the ordinary to be seen.
Only when she got in her car and shut the door did the nerves settle down, and she reassessed her situation in a manner less influenced by her overworked imagination. With a sigh of relief she sank into the car seat, then started the car and began driving.
The plan was simple. Just doing a little grocery shopping at the supermarket, and as always, simple does not mean easy. Of course there's easier and less risky things to do before trying something this drastic, such as the generic 'greet the delivery person in the nude' dare type of thing. Trouble with that is that, for her, that doesn't really happen: with meal prep a few times a week, there wasn't really the need to eat out or order delivery. It wasn't even a matter of savings, just a matter of taste and comfort. Not to mention that as always it wouldn't prove anything given how common that type of dares are.
On the flip side of course, is the need to make grocery shopping trips. More time consuming, more distance to cover, more public... which really, makes it the ideal excuse to test out.
At least, ideal in her mind, which certainly wasn't thinking too clearly since that fateful conversation at the office all those days ago. Or was it that incident at the gas station that may or may not have happened to awaken something more within her... She shuddered as the thought crossed her mind. It would be the worst of both worlds if it turns out that it was all in her head while developing an addiction that she cannot easily satisfy.
She had little time to dwell on those implications, as all too soon she had pulled into the parking lot of the supermarket. With a final sigh she unbuckled her seatbelt, opened the door, and stepped out, mustering all the fake confidence, because the real ones, as usual, are nowhere in sight.
As she walked into the front entrance of the supermarket the AC felt like a full body slap, especially after the walk through the parking lot went by a blur. Even normally the temperatures of supermarkets were already on the low side of things given their contents, and her state of undress along with her state of mind not making things better. The moment passed quickly, and she pushed forward, determined to do this after coming this far, and also because she does need to buy some groceries. The fig leaf of a reason seems so trivial and absurd, yet her mind clung onto it for dear life, as a chorus of voices in her head chanted ceaselessly, for self reassurance in more than one sense of the term.
Quickly she grabbed a cart and made her way further into the store, taking a right turn as the layout of the supermarket funneled her like any other customer. As a bonus though, it also shielded her somewhat from the checkout section, where any actual employees would be around at that time of the night, simple boredom from the employees themselves did the rest, as she caught glimpses of a lone cashier glued to the screen of his phone.
So off she went, first heading to the produce section. Almost immediately she froze in her tracks, as she saw one of the workers putting some vegetables back on one of the shelves. With a gulp she continued forward, it's time to find out, whatever that happens to be.
The worker quickly noticed the rather pretty naked lady with the shopping cart coming up next to him, and as Sara focused on his face she noticed a flurry of expressions shunted across his face: surprise, shock, the urge to take action, before setting in on mild indifference, a wait and see attitude, along with a hint of enjoyment, all topped off with a thin layer of confusion.
"Mam- you might want to be careful-" The man stammered out the warning, but it was too late: the little automatic mist sprayer activated, and quite a bit of it drifted onto Sara. It was far from the first time that she had been sprayed by those things, but in this case her particular state of undress and her jittery state of mind the effects of the droplets on her bare skin was amplified.
"Oh- that's a bit chilly." She said, faking a surprised tone of voice as she shuffled back a little bit. Yes, it was a different sensation due to the circumstances, but she also wanted- to have a little fun.
