Michelle peered at the light above her head. The engineers had told her the power was fully restored, but she was sure something was off still. She narrowed her eyes and waited.

Michelle was in full uniform and she was on her way out. Yesterday had been a clusterfuck of a day and she wanted an early start. She needed to deal with the security breaches related to the power outage.

But while she was getting ready, the light in the bathroom had flickered again. That wasn’t surprising in itself. She hadn’t gotten around to letting maintenance know. She had more pressing things to do.

But then, just as she was about to exit her front door, she had noticed a slight flicker in the light of her hallway as well. This had stopped her dead in her tracks. It couldn’t be a coincidence, right? Two lights malfunctioning at the same time all of a sudden?

And so, Michelle was waiting to see if it would happen again. She quickly glanced at her watch. She’d been standing here for about ten minutes now. She couldn’t do this much longer.

“Just five more minutes,” she told herself.

Michelle chewed on her lower lip. Her eyes hurt from staring at the light, even though she held up a hand to block most of it. She knew she should probably let it go for now, but she just couldn’t.

A loud knock made her jump. She covered her heart and glared at the door. Who on earth had startled her so? She didn’t have neighbors on this floor. No one was supposed to be able to just knock on her door.

“Activate front door camera,” she said softly.

Her home system instantly responded. The screen of her watch lit up with a video stream. A woman was standing in front of the door. Michelle tilted her head. The visitor looked familiar, but she still couldn’t quite place her.

The thirty-something was wearing civilian clothes. Her unruly shoulder-length hair looked black on the monitor but could be dark brown too. It looked like she was carrying a tablet under her arm.

Michelle’s heart skipped a beat when the woman looked up into the camera. Her eyes were beautiful, even on a screen. Long eyelashes accentuated big, light brown eyes. It was like staring at Bambi.

“Hello?” the visitor yelled, knocking on the door again.

This made Michelle snap out of her daze.

“I need to talk to you,” the visitor demanded.

Michelle had had enough of this. Who the hell did this lady think she was? She pulled open the door abruptly, ready to yell. But before she could get a word out of her mouth, recognition finally fully kicked in.