Timeslip or alternative dimension slip? Her reaction to the question was very strange......
I suppose it depends on which way you look at it, or in what context. My take on it is this. I’d better set the scene. I don’t believe in ghosts, per se, and by that I mean when people see them, it’s not actually a ghost of a once living person, it’s a demon appearing in physical form, trying to perpetuate the lie that we can be in touch with “the other side.”. An explanation for this can be found in Luke 16:28. I’d have to check it again to be sure who was saying what, but basically once a person dies, they cannot come back. Someone who had died asked if they or someone else could be sent back to warn his brothers. He was told no, because "between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us."
This being the case, who are these ghosts or spirits of your dear departed uncle Bill or whoever ? Because if it’s not him, the main culprit is the devil, who wants to trick as many people as possible so they go to hell instead of knowing the truth.
Under a spirit of deception, Frank met ‘Nicola’ who the devil had sent to lure him to his death. It almost worked, but just before the point of no return, Frank’s gut instinct told him something was very wrong, he felt uneasy and this translated into a physical feeling as well
The hairs all over my body stood on end as if I’d touched a live wire
. At this point, his rational mind became strong enough to override the demonic deception he’d been under, and he vocalised it by saying the first logical thing which came into his head.
Do you know why the 23rd is called mid-summer although today is the Solstice?
This was effectively the spellbreaker, and it angered ‘Nicola’ or whoever she / it really was. The dog / biker was one and the same, another physical embodiment of a demonic spirit, and both of them left Frank alone once they knew their attempt to lure him to an untimely death had failed.
People can, in certain states of consciousness, be very suggestible. In some types of counselling therapy, a way to bring a person back to the here and now, if they are delving deep into something which is troubling them, is to ask them a question. A good one is, “What was the original transaction ?” People can use the same thing on themselves if they are getting too deep into something and aren’t comfortable with it. It can also be used to bring people back to reality if they are hallucinating. One of the ‘text book’ ways to do this is to talk to yourself and ask a rational question, or focus on a physical object near to you. In the case of Frank, Nicola and the large, menacing and black dog / biker, Frank used it to his advantage, either knowingly or not, by asking a question which clearly demonstrated he was in the here and now, and no longer in a suggestible state or under the deception the demons had originally been using to take advantage of him. I suppose to some extent, the actual question isn’t actually important, as long as it demonstrates that the person asking it is in their adult ego state, ie in the here and now, and not in a suggestible state where they can be led and manipulated.
Oppressive people and /or spirits often react angrily if denied their wishes, so it’s hardly surprising to read that Nicola reacted as she did once she / it realized Frank wasn’t going to hell that day.