The lab assistant

Back on earth, Anna was surrounded by large piles of books and scientific journals. After procrastinating for more than a week she had to get herself back on track and recuperate the time lost or she won't be able to present her new scientific discovery to the meeting tomorrow. However here she was, drooling on her own laptop while dreaming of a vacation she so much deserved. A phone call disturbed the silence of the room. Lazily Anna opened her eyes and wiped her mouth while passing a glance at her mobile phone. It was her boss.

"Fucking great...my laptops dead." she picked up the phone and answered.

"Good morning An!" a stern woman's voice could be heard at the end of the line, obviously not happy. "I am still waiting for your email. I didn't even have a chance to look at the paper. How are we supposed to discuss the proposition you have when none of the people attending know what you wrote inside!" she started yelling as she lost the last string of control.

"I'm sorry Mag. My laptop died so I lost all progress. Can't we just cancel this meeting? You know I don't do well in front of people." Anna quickly made excuses for herself while she was plugging her laptop and smashing its keyboard.

"Don't you dare give me that excuse again. We cancelled the other 2 because you're a lazy ass. Scientists from all corners of the world came here for this meeting. Do you think I can just cancel this? What should I say!? That there's a moron who can't get her life together?! And I gave you enough time and excuses. Friends, friends yes but you can't keep doing this."

"Ok ok sorry! I'll get it done by tonight."

"No-" Anna hung up on Mag and tossed the phone on a green satin couch.

"Bitch! I need sleep too!" exasperated she started typing on the laptop while her mind wandered off somewhere else.

"Yes, this font! Comic Sans to annoy everyone. Perfect." satisfied she looked at the clock.

The mohogany Tambour clock stood proudly on top of a rustic fireplace who never even entertained a fire. Besides her passion for science, Anna had always enjoyed being surrounded by aesthetic pieces especially ones dated before the French Revolution.

Living in Marseille has probably had a big impact on her tastes for old pieces. She wasn't a cat lady but she was definitely a collector of old books, which is why her study looked more like a royal library than a place to work.

"Sometimes I really wish that I lived in a fantasy world." she never wished to become a princess waiting for her Prince Charming, because after living for 35 years and also being a divorcee she learned that no man could stand her for that long. Her husband left her more than 6 years ago, when he got fed up with the lack of interest she put on him. Anne was a dedicated scientist and would have rather spend time in her lab or library than on a dinner with her husband.

"I can't really blame him." She remembered the last photo he posted with his wife who recently gave birth to their second child. 'What an ugly child.' she thought at that time, but she couldn't really comment on the post in that way so she just unfriended Carl.

"Oh well let's get this over with. I'll have to treat myself with a nice cake after this." happy that she found her motivation, Anna looked at her presentation deciding what colour background to use. Suddenly her head felt dizzy, and she started losing her senses. Panicking she started looking around for her medicine thinking that it is just one of her usual panic attacks, but could not see as everything around her turned white. She finally lost the battle and closed her eyes slowly.

This time, the generic phone tune wasn't going to wake her up nor the urgent knocking at the door. Sadly what used to be one of the most renounced scientists on earth, has died under suspicious circumstances that would probably never be known.

~

After what felt like forever, Anna woke up in a room full of books, but it didn't make her happy as this wasn't her lovely study but an eery looking library. There were thousands of old and new looking books all in hardcover with gold-threaded runes that were indecipherable. The books were packed together on bookshelves that didn't seem to end no matter what direction you were looking. They formed never-ending columns hidden in a bleu marine mist. There she sat in the middle of it all, on a sofa in front of a desk with no-one attending. The mosaic floor reminded her of Greek stone flooring, and it looked like a battle between Gods, different looking creatures of all shapes and sizes fought in a chaotic manner that didn't tell her what they fought for. The coloured stones were uniformly set in a circle, after which the columns of bookshelves appeared. No matter what direction she looked at there was the beginning of the book aisle. Curiously she walked in the direction of one but when she was about to step out of the circle she was pushed back by an invisible barrier.

"Ouch!" said Anne while rubbing her butt.

"What the fuck-"

"Such foul words" hissed a voice behind her.

Suddenly she turned around and looked at the creature before her. A relative small snake stood on top of the desk, his dark eyes fixated on her. His skin, the colour of midnight somehow shined like a piece of diamond and yet looked fragile as glass.

"Wh-what? You ca-can speak?" as a chemist she knew relatively little about other fields of science but she was sure that snakes never spoke. Bewildered she didn't know how to react so she couldn't get her thoughts together, her mind was racing trying to make sense of the situation.

"Oh, but what an insult!" the snake narrowed his eyes in disgust still looking down towards Anna.

"Of course I can speak! What do you take me for? An animal?" his smug face turned to utter disgust while turning away.

"Duh...don't you look like one?" her words seemed to insult the snake even more as he started coughing and ignoring her sentence.

"Well, well...what do we have here. Only a bitch like you could survive to be able to see me a God." it annoyed Anne.

"Since when do Gods look ratty like you snake?" patronised Anne. She observed his smug face. 'Hmpf...he must be proud to look down on me.' Anne gave him the same looking face. He can't do anything to me since he hasn't touched me at all.

"Outrageous!" hissed the snake. "No wonder not even hell wanted you." smirked the snake.

"Heaven didn't even look twice while throwing your soul here."

"So what? It's not like I will miss much either. They can sing acapella songs for themselves. I never had a talent for music anyway."

"How du-...never mind. That's not how heaven works." hissed him.

"Oh yeah? What do they do then huh?" said Anne while crossing her arms and raising one eyebrow.

"They enjoy themselves, ripped men or gorgeous women and drink or pleasure themselves. That's why you don't go there." laughed the snake while looking up and down at her.

"Oh my...so I take that you didn't meet the criteria either" Anna patronised him.

"Outrageous! How can- what a disgusting woman you are! How dare you say that to me?" the snake's eyes emitted a blue mist that soon covered the entire room.

"Let's end this quick since I can't stand you any longer, foul human. I'll let you 'enjoy' the life of another person...have fun dying!"

"You're coming with me you bastard!" Anne ran towards the snake and caught him before the light overcome them.

Afterwards, the surroundings became black again, before she opened her eyes finding herself in a red space. It looked like blood but it didn't touch her, it stayed about 9 feet away from her. In front of her, a very good looking woman stood looking worried towards her. She had black hair that reached her thighs, purple eyes similar to amethyst and a slender built. She looked perfect from top to bottom, her olive skin complimenting her very well. She was a work of art! Anna looked at her boobs and saw two big mountains. She then looked at herself and they seemed more like a plateau so she felt depressed again. Anna never really cared for how she looked until now when she felt inferior both physically and mentally.

"Aham!" awkwardly Anna diverted her eyes and coughed lightly.

"Wh-who are you?" an angelic voice asked Anna. She couldn't believe there would be a person that can speak so beautifully and yet still look mature.

"Anna? Why are you here? Aren't I supposed to be dead?"

"What? D-dead? I-I was supposed to start a new life?!? Ricky!" the woman started crying pitifully. She would make any person's heart melt. Even Anna felt a bit sad for her but she quickly regained her composure.

"I don't know what happened or who Ricky is but I'm pretty sure I died. The snake told me so...."

"The snake? He-he..." amazed Selda looked behind Anna.

"You lied!" she yelled.

"I never told you what the deal was, princess." snickered Angus. Anna looked suspiciously at the snake and went to snatch the snake when she noticed a black tattoo on her right hand. It was a snake eating its own tail!

"What's this!" she yelled at Angus. Only then did he notice her tattoo. He looked scared.

"Oh no-" suddenly everything turned black again something Anna grew accustomed to by now.

~

When she finally woke up, she found herself in a soft bed compared to clouds. Her room decorated richly with expensive furniture, floor to ceiling windows that oversaw a massive garden. Her room alone could be compared to the lab she used to work in, looked spacious enough to dance Walz and not hit any furniture. The massive bed, in which she lay, was surrounded by sheer curtains that at the moment were tucked by two women.

Confused, Anna raised her hands towards the ginger-haired woman dressed as a maid.

"Oh my!! Princess! Mielda go fetch the Royal butler let him know!" the amazed maid hurriedly took Anna's hands and squeezed them to make sure she was alive. The woman called Mielda ran towards the beautifully decorated door and out the corridor.

"It's alright Princess! Everything will be alright! Do you feel any pain?" probed the maid worriedly.

Anna looked hazily towards the maid, her head was spinning and she didn't know what was going on. She remembered the PowerPoint she was working on, the snake and the beautiful girl. The tattoo was still on her arm, but the hands were those of a child. Hurriedly got off the bed and ran towards the massive oval mirror. A small 5 to 6-year-old, cute girl came to view, she looked somewhat similar to someone but Anna couldn't pinpoint exactly who.

"Princess Tinselda?? Is everything alright?!"

"Get out my room!" yelled Anna.

"Princess!... I will excuse myself then!" the maid ran backwards while keeping her head down.

"What the fuck happened with me?!?" Anna felt like crying when she looked at Selda in the mirror.