My eyes shuddered open, wet due to a sprinkle of water on my face. And the face I noticed was of Holden, bending down on me. Immediately, I attempted to punch him but he held my hands as I struggled like a fish out of water to hurt him.
“Ellie, please relax, I am not going to hurt you,” he assured, holding my hands, with a fit of fury I spat on his face desperately, and he backed off with disgust.
“Ellie just calm down!” shouted Judy, as she entered the room carrying another glass of water. A splash of relief broke over me to see her out of harm and lunged to give her a tight hug. Judy, on the other hand, didn't return the warmth and pushed me back and held me at arm's length tightly, staring at me reproachfully. “What on earth's wrong with you?”
“It's alright Judy,” said Holden, wiping his face with a napkin and looking at me understandingly, with no sign of resentment or provocation. Judy loosened the grip on my arms and sat me on the couch. Both Holden and Judy then sat opposing me gazing at me with a grin on their faces which puzzled me frantically.
“Miss Ellie, I sincerely apologize, but this was a setup,”
“What do-",
“Yesterday, when Judy rang me up and elucidated the events you have experienced, I understood in a flash what you were and what was happening with you, and then Judy and I hatched a plan to measure the extent of your powers and abilities and to show you who you are and what you are capable of at the peak of your potential. And though it was anticipated by me that you'd pull off such a feat, when you intensely focused your mind onto your target, it still left me dumbstruck when I witnessed it,”
“But what or who am I?” I demanded loudly, absolutely puzzled as all his words were passing over my head.
“You are a psychic Ellie,” piped up Judy, giving me a rather admirable grin.
“A what-"
“An extraordinarily gifted person with the ability to use extrasensory perception to identify information which is concealed from the ordinary senses, with predominant involvement of telepathy or clairvoyance, and also déjà vu,” Holden elucidated, pausing to remove a cigar from his rugged trouser and smoked it, nearly making me choke due to the intense smoke. Although I would clearly understand concepts and definitions in Psychology, this explanation sounded gibberish. I looked at Judy with a muddled expression and she jumped in to simplify the matter.
“What it means is, that you have the power to read a person's mind at will when you promptly focus on it, but at times it can also occur spontaneously in situations of sheer desperation or emergency. That's how you were able to read Rachel Dawson's mind that day. Moreover, the most impressive part, as you proved today, is that you can use psychokinesis or the ability to move objects or people at will, when utmost concentration, as well as focus, is placed onto it,” Judy's explanation stuffed a considerable amount of sense in Holden's robotically scientific definition which had felt as though he had swallowed a textbook.
“And Miss Ellie, you are not just a rare psychic, but you possess another miraculous ability, or shall we call it a superpower coz there’s no scientific explanation to it,” he stated, finally dumping the frustrating cigar in an ashtray. “Your advanced hearing, something which allowed you to hear Judy's voice when she had yelled from far away that day at the carnival,”
“And that is truly a superpower you got Ellie, as we can't explain it but can only test its limits,” Judy's words gave me a feeling of assurance that I wasn't going to be left alone to deal with these supernatural abilities and I had her support and Mr. Holden's guidance to gain control over them.
“But you guys took it too far,” I asserted, looking at them with resentment. Holden was half-shrugged and looked a little awkward.
“Well, I understand Ellie, I am sorry, but in my defense, I would just say that it was entirely Judy's idea. I had only conveyed to her that the extent of your power could be discovered when you would be in a potentially dangerous and life-threatening situation, and she directed the scenes and persuaded me by giving me her father, and my best friend's sake,”
I opened my mouth to scold Judy, but closed it back, as she made a childishly apologetic face while holding her ears, which sucked away my agitation and I raised my hand as a playful gesture to hit her. The substantial belief and support that these two showed for me, along with the grave danger that they had placed themselves in to unravel the mystery of my powers, tempted me profoundly to confide in them the tormenting nightmare about the castle which haunted me endlessly since the last ten years, as well as the horrendous creature who had been following me like my shadow for the past few weeks. However, I suppressed the urge to do so, being unwilling to place them under any more peril.
Life seemed quite simpler with a drastic reduction in worries as we left Drake's Bar, having unlocked a miraculous side of me, as well as discovering a new and loyal comrade in Mr. Holden.