Rainday

EXT. STREET—AFTERNOON

ASH(30) stands at the precipice of her next choice. She adjusts her grip on the cardboard box in her arms. Trinkets and pictures getting drenched in the sunlit rain. She looks up at the burnt sky as the sun slowly sets, the clouds creeping in and sealing the view.

In a few minutes, it’s going to rain much harder. Large pellets of juicy water smashing down like pebbles against a window. Ash thinks she should have brought an umbrella or galoshes. It's going to be a pain walking home in heels and a drenched suit.

Her hair is another issue. It reaches down past her shoulders. She usually has it up in a bun, but after today's shit show, she let it down. The pressure was stressing her out.

The pedestrian signal is beaming a red hand. Ash doesn't like the colour. She used not to care about things like that, but seeing it today just pisses her off. Like, why does that stupid thing dictate her actions and choices? She can do whatever she wants. Within reason, she tells herself. Any more trouble is not ideal for her right now. And with the way the cars are zooming through this intersection, it's just begging for an accident.

Why does it have to be a six-lane road? She thinks to herself.

It doesn't take long for her to make eye contact with the other individuals across from her, waiting for the signal to change. Some in raincoats, others shielded by umbrellas.

God, she wants an umbrella even more now. The rain isn't pleasant. It's cold and dreary. Her suit sticks to her skin. Rubs against her flesh

The other individuals feel the same, the ones that came unprepared. They use newspapers and bags to hide from the downpour, but it’s not enough.

Ash glances back up to the sky, the clouds now dark and threatening, and the beautiful scene from before a memory. "Fuck," she says and returns her gaze to the other side of the street. She freezes. There’s someone there staring at her.

Someone like her, dressed like her. In fact, they look like her. Except their suit is a ochre, unlike Ash's blue-violet. There is bags under—let’s call her Evil Ash. There's dark bags under Evil Ash's eyes and a glare that shoots daggers.

It's uncomfortable. Ash looks behind her. Maybe she's looking at someone else. Nope, she's staring at Ash. Is this a doppelganger situation, she thinks. She's read about those on the internet. How if you meet your doppelganger, something terrible will happen if you don't kill them. Like the universe is balancing itself out. Aren't the doppelgangers in three, or is it seeing them three times? She wonders.

The signal turns green, and she doesn't have time to think. She steps out onto the wet road. Evil Ash is making her way towards the original. Ash calculates that she's got about less than twenty seconds to figure out how to handle this. Right now her main plan is to ignore her. She really doesn't need this Orphan Black bullshit.

Ten seconds away.

Ash goes through the scenario a few hundred times in her head. Should she say hi? Comment on the way she looks. Say the orange actually looks good on her. Is it orange or yellow-orange or peach? Does it fucking matter?

Five seconds.

Ash decides it be best not to say anything and continues on her way home. Evil Ash is probably going through hell right now, and she probably doesn't want to talk to anyone. This seems right to Ash, so when Evil Ash doesn't move out of the way, the two stop in the middle of the crosswalk.

Ash glances to the pedestrian signal and sees it flashing it’s oppressive red hand. She needs to move, and so she does to the left. Evil Ash mirrors her. Ash moves right, and Evil Ash mirrors her again.

"Stop blocking me," Ash orders.

Evil Ash looks down at the box. There’s disdain on her face. She slowly looks back up to the original. "Weak," she says with a cold tone.

"What the--" Ash's box is knocked away into the road. "Hey," she yells. But she doesn't have time. Evil Ash is already throwing a left punch.

Quick on her toes Ash deflects the blow and runs to the cardboard but is yanked back by her hair. Hard. The sheer momentum throws her on the ground, where she rolls back, dodging a stomp from Evil Ash.

Ash jumps up to her feet, throwing her heels away. She doesn't have time. Evil Ash is on her. She blocks and deflects blows, one after the other.

Evil Ash is sharp, with each attack flowing into the other. Ash is not half bad, being able to keep up, but she can't defend forever.

A Buick zooms past her. Right, she thinks to herself. She's in the goddamn road. Ash ducks around Evil Ash and grabs her cardboard box off the ground, reaching for a photo of her and her boyfriend. It gets kicked away as a Mercedes runs it over.

"Hey!” Ash yells. She turns around only to get grabbed. Two knees fly into her stomach. The first smashes the box.

Ash can't escape. Her doppelganger is gripping her shoulders.

The second knee throws Ash back into the passenger door of a moving Mazda. She hits it hard, and the velocity of the vehicle spins her way. It hurts like she's fallen down a set of stairs.

Ash pushes herself from the road only to meet a kick to the face. She swears she heard something snap. But she doesn't have long to ponder it as she's lifted off the ground and thrown in the opposite direction.

She smashes into the windshield of, it doesn't really matter. It's another vehicle, and she flips over it, but this time she lands on her feet. The pain shoots through her immediately.

Evil Ash is trying to kill her, but the only thing going through Ash's mind is her trinkets. She eyes a small teddy bear she got from her father and rushes to it. She picks it up and Evil Ash is there to meet her.

Ash shoves the bear into her evil attacker's face. It does nothing but get swatted away and eaten by a zooming truck. A jab lands square in Ash's face. Fight back, stupid, she thinks to herself. She can get her trinkets later. Well, the ones that might be left.

The two go off on a string of deflects, kicks, blows, and jabs. Each a match to the other. It's like fighting a bloody mirror. Why the hell is she so good? Ash wonders. A single thought that gifts her with a jab to the stomach.

Evil Ash isn't thinking, no useless thoughts. She goes for another jab, but it gets slapped down. A backhand to the face stuns her as a quick punch throws her into a speeding vehicle. She flips over it landing on her neck. Blood explodes from her veins and pours from her face.

"Bitch!” Ash yells. "You should have left me alone."

Evil Ash creaks and snaps slowly back to her feet. Ash can see a truck heading towards her doppelganger. A smirk forms, but it doesn't live long. 

A crackle of electricity snaps from Evil Ash's hands. She places her right towards the vehicle, and the truck crushes forward, folding in on itself from its sheer velocity as it hits an unmovable object known as Evil Ash. The electricity evolves into lightning. Strands of it flare out, decimating the truck.

Standing tall, Evil Ash rushes forward. Lightning tickles Ash with each punch and jab she deflects from the doppelganger. She can feel her own power welling in her as the wind picks up.

She kicks only for Evil Ash to move centimetres out of the way. Bad mistake, Ash thinks as she changes her attack into an axe kick. She brings her leg down, and her doppelganger grabs it. It doesn't smirk or frown. Its eyes locked on Ash.

Electricity surges through Ash as she feels a sharp and sudden pain. Her muscles contracting at sixty cycles; it feels more like vibrating, but pain engulfs. The rain doesn't make it any better. She screams, her voice cutting in and out due to the surge. Her brain short-circuits as the pain intensifies. Her mind repeating the same word over and over and over, shit.

With a strong scream, she sends Evil Ash back with a gust of wind. The doppelganger tumbles and skids face-first against the road before smashing into another vehicle.

Freedom at last.

Ash lands on her butt; it’s wet, which isn't the best feeling, but it's darn comforting after being shocked. What sticks around is the wind. She moves her hands, commanding it. "Okay, okay, payback," Ash says.

Evil Ash pulls herself from wreckage. She slams her fists together, sparks crackling, before she cocks her arms like two pump-action shotguns. The lightning switches to red. Intimidating, and to Ash, that makes her uncomfortable.

Does it come in men’s? She thinks and quickly puts the thought out of her mind. It’s a stupid quip and ironic since they're both women. She does that sometimes when she’s uncomfortable. Using jokes to deflect the stress. She refocuses on the fight, and she has too, because Evil Ash is already upon her.

Two quick jabs is all Ash needs to know that the fight just went into phase two. Using the wind, she's able to strike fast against her doppelganger. Each block and blow freezes the rain in place. Under normal circumstances, she should be dead. They both should be, but they continue.

Right hook into a left uppercut only to be stopped short to block a high kick. An ever-growing pattern of blocks, deflects, parries, and attacks. The lightning is getting worse as it arcs into vehicles, killing all life inside. The wind rampages, knocking the cars off route and into steel poles.

Evil Ash speeds up because at some point she stopped being able to hit the original. Ash, now a master of her new power, is dipping and diving in and out of combat, circling her doppelganger with ease.

"Stop," Evil Ash says. She feels a blow on the back of her head, turns around, and her knee goes out from behind. "Stop!" The world is spinning around her. The lightning leaps from her fingers. She can't find the original because the original is above her. It's too late. "Stop running from me!" Evil Ash screams as the red lightning explodes from her. The body changing, growing in size, hulking into a beast of muscle and power.

They collide, and the busy intersection is decimated.

Ash finds herself up against a broken steel pole. Her newfound power is protecting her. She shakes off the daze. She can hear the groaning of her doppelganger. It's eyes glaring at her through the debris.

It’s foolish, really, to continue this fight. With her power, she can run, escape to anywhere. The wind at her beck and call. Yet as uncomfortable as it is to fight against this monsters, she knows she has to. It would follow her anywhere.

She stands to her feet, stretching her neck to one side till it cracks. Doing the same to the other. Placing her thumb on her nose, she sneezes out a wad of blood. "You picked a bad day to piss me off," Ash says. She crouches down as the wind riles up behind her.

"You can't run from me," Evil Ash growls menacingly, her breath appearing in the cold rain. The red lightning surges through her veins. Her size is a mere seven feet and arms as thick as tree trunks.

Ash is afraid, her body trembling, but she pushes forward. She throws blades of wind with ease. It’s invisible, slicing the raindrops in half as it travels. Evil Ash reaches back her arms and throws them in front of her for a simple clap. It blasts away the attack.

What she didn't expect is to see Ash on her left. The original is readying a right hook infused with the wind. It's a solid hit, and Ash knows it. She feels it in her elbow. The wind gives her strength, and the move picks the hulking beast a few inches of the ground. Evil Ash is heavier than anything the original can even fathom.

There's a difference between knowing something is a ton and experiencing trying to lift a ton. A surreal feeling letting the brain catalogue and pack away the new knowledge.

Evil Ash lands with a thud and the barrage of blows begins again, but this time it's different. Ash can't seem to do damage. Each attack hurts her. The doppelganger is slow, but Ash knows it's on purpose. This beast is fast. It must be to carry all that muscle around. So why is it going so slow?

It's a tactic. Ash can attack all she wants. All the dodging and tricks she thinks isn’t going to make a difference. In front of Evil Ash, it all means nothing. And she feels it when the doppelganger slams a clean left hook into Ash's body. Her bones breaking from the force before sending her flying away, flipping, and smashing to vehicles laid about dead. Pins in this newly created machine as Ash bounces back and forth like a pinball.

This battle just seems unwinnable. Everything is just making her doppelganger stronger. She notes that she'll write a long and detailed report about this for Reddit. Best to let the other keyboard warriors know not to fight themselves.

Better to deny it.

Ash chuckles to the thought. Better to ignore it, she thinks to herself. The pain, the rain. She stands up, dragging her left side towards Evil Ash.

That's all you have to do, she tells herself. Deny it. The struggle, the frustration. It doesn't take Ash long to walk as if she's perfectly fine. Just deny the existence of pain. Stay comfortable.

She looks at Evil Ash, standing before her. Whatever rage or frustration Ash had about her evil doppelganger is absent on her face.

The hulking beast slams a quick straight punch into the original, but the strength is gone. The power vanished. Ash blocks the move effortlessly. "No," Evil Ash says. "Don't." She throws more punches, kicks, all destructive but losing all the momentum when it touches the original. Her strength denied. "This is not the way," Evil Ash says, her voice trembling. "Don’t! I’m real!"

But her words fall on deaf ears as Ash closes her eyes. The rain is fading away, the damage disappearing. There is no doppelganger. There is no threat. There's only what she is going to have for supper.

Ash snaps her eyes open. A heavy pour of rain falls from above, breaking free. She glances down to the cardboard box of her trinkets in her arms. The teddy bear and photo are still there, now even more wet than before. The pedestrian signal blares for her to move.

She looks across the crosswalk, and there's no doppelganger. She sees people going home, all of them denying yesterday and focusing on today. The fight is a faint memory or even a feeling, one that Ash doesn't wish to recall. Best to forget such things. Nightmares. Best to focus on what she's going to have for supper; maybe another episode of The Office will cheer her up.

She's got to update her resume and then go job hunting at some point. She wonders when EI would kick in. She'll need it to pay rent; she can't stay at her parents place. Her mother would be all over her, begging for her to meet Mr. Right. Of course there would be a disappointing stare when she learns that Ash is single and will be, probably, forever. She doesn't have time for it.

All worries and concerns for another time. Now she just needs to get out of the rain. So... she takes a step out onto the crosswalk.