I woke up refreshed the next day, ready to indulge in the supremely important task of lazing around for the whole weekend. I could feel the fog lifting from my brain, and my thoughts were coming easier. I was definitely on my way to recovering from the concussion.

Jesse had stayed over last night. I could sense that she was just waking up in the guest bedroom. There it was again—the strange sense of knowing things around me.

Okay. Calm down. Think logically.

I couldn’t resist pinching myself, just to get the obvious out of the way first. I’m definitely not dreaming. Sometime between yesterday and today, I gained spatial awareness around me—not even impeded by walls. Unless the doctor was performing some illegal experimentation while I was unconscious, the only anomaly was the car crash… and the old man.

Jesse hadn’t even noticed him. She could’ve just been distracted and not seen him; he did disappear pretty fast. Am I really looking for a supernatural explanation for any of this? My brain took a hit, and it’s making stuff up. That’s probably it, right? It didn’t even sound convincing when I said it out loud.

I stretched, feeling the last remnants of sleep fade away and decided it was time to get moving. The rich earthy aroma of coffee grinds filled the kitchen as I turned on the coffee machine. I ran my fingers through the cool ceramic of the mixing bowl as I mashed in some bananas with the pancake mix, adding a touch of extra baking soda.

The batter sizzled as a I poured it over the pan, and I hummed a little tune to myself. The scent of fresh buttery pancakes hung in the air. I always had a sweet tooth, and pancakes were the perfect way to start the weekend right.

I was transferring the last pancake onto a plate when Jesse showed up, hair a bit mussed but still looking beautiful.

“Morning, soup,” she droned, barely keeping her eyes open.

“Here’s your wake-up juice,” I said, pushing a mug of coffee towards her. The stereotypical computer science grad, mornings were not her forte; getting anything coherent out of her before she had her coffee was an exercise in futility.

“Mmm.” She melted around the mug, sipping contentedly.

“Give!” she proclaimed, eyeing my plate of pancakes with the intensity of someone who hasn’t eaten in days.

“Your plate’s right in front of you; it’s even buttered and covered in syrup.” She continued eyeing my plate. With a sigh, I cut a tiny piece and offered it to her. She happily bit it off my fork, continuing to nurse her coffee.

By the time her coffee was gone, he looked a lot more alert. “Welcome to the land of the living”.

“Haar, haar.” Her plate of pancakes soon followed the coffee into oblivion.

“You sure know how to treat a lady,” she said, smacking her lips.

I just smirked at her. “You’re not getting any more of mine.”

“Hey, here’s a weird question. Do you think magic is real?”

Jesse sat up, her curiosity piqued by the tone of my voice. “Where’s this coming from?”

I shrugged, trying to make it sound casual. “Okay, let’s do an experiment.”

Turning away, I closed my eyes, and focused on the vaguely humanoid blob I could sense behind me. “Raise a hand.”

“Uh, okay…” she said, her voice skeptical, but I could tell she was curious. I concentrated, focusing on the blob. Its left side felt like it shifted slightly upward. “Left,” I murmured.

She made a noise of mild surprise, but we kept going. Each time, I sensed her movements more clearly. By the end, the blob had started taking on sharper definition—I could almost make out arms and even a vague head.

“Alright, that’s a neat trick,” Jesse said, trying to sound casual, though I could hear her intrigue. “Are you watching the reflection on the microwave or something?”

“That’s the thing!” I replied, excited, “Since the crash, I’ve been able to sense movement around me. Like… some kind of spatial awareness.”

Jesse raised an eyebrow, still not entirely convinced. “I’d call bullshit, but you clearly believe this.” Her eyes narrowed, A little wary but still intrigued. “You do realise you kinda sound crazy, right?”

I laughed, though it was tinged with nervous energy. “How do you think I feel? At first, I thought it was the concussion. But it hasn’t faded. I can actually feel it—almost like there are vibrations or some kind of energy around me in the shape of anything moving. I don’t even know how to explain it.”

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Jesse fell quiet, studying me for a moment. Then, she let out a small breath. “So… you’re telling me you’ve somehow developed some kind of sixth sense?”

“Or something,” I said, a grin creeping onto my face. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s real. And if this is real…” My mind raced, the implications crashing over me. “...What else is possible?”

For a second, Jesse seemed to consider the idea. Then she laughed, a little nervously. “Alright, if you’re telling me this is real… maybe we need to run a few more experiments.”

We spent the next few hours testing the limits of my ability. Apparently, I could sense movement within about twenty feet around me. Anything that moved was fair game, as long as it was at least the size of a baseball. We figured that out after I managed to dodge baseballs thrown at my head while blindfolded, only to get hit squarely in the nose by a golf ball.

I could even make out basic shapes now—head, arms—enough to tell what Jesse was doing without looking. Walls didn’t seem to interfere much either; I could sense her movements on the other side without any trouble. But navigating with my eyes closed was still out of the question. Anything that wasn’t moving was too faint for me to sense, like trying to make out a shadow in the dark.

There’s someone at the door. Ooh, this power is handy.

Ding-Dong

“Pizza’s here. Let me get it.” I walked to the door with a spring in my step, my mind racing with the possibilities of this strange new awareness. Opening the door with a grin, I barely had a moment to register a flash of green before a knife was screaming straight for my face.

My heart skipped a beat. Without thinking, I threw up my hands, my mind screaming for the knife to stop - before it could tear through my face. I braced myself, expecting the sharp sting of impact—but nothing. I opened my eyes, stunned, to see the same old man from before. He was pinned against the opposite wall, a manic grin stretched across his face, the knife lying harmlessly at his feet.

“Good,” he croaked, his grin widening.

Pop.

And just like that, he vanished. The knife was the only trace he’d been there at all, glinting ominously on the floor.

“Elias?” I heard a voice, tentative and unsure. It took me a second to focus and turn, still in shock, to see the delivery guy holding a pizza, looking at me with a mix of confusion and concern.

“Mm?,” I replied, dazed.

“Uh, okay… here’s your order. Have a good day.” He said quickly, stepping back as if he couldn’t get away fast enough.

I accepted the pizza, still trying to make sense of what had just happened, my mind spinning. He didn’t stick around long, leaving me standing there in a daze with only the knife as evidence of what had just transpired.

I stood there, holding the pizza, my mind still racing. I couldn’t quite shake the image of the old man pinned to the wall.

“What’s the holdup?” came Jesse’s voice behind me. The door opened, and she poked her head out. “Oh, you got the pizza. Perfect. I had another test we could—" She trailed off when she saw my face. “What happened?”

“Someone just tried to kill me,” I replied slowly, my voice barely more than a whisper. “Actually, no—someone tried to finish the job. I’m convinced the old guy was responsible for my crash, too.”

Jesse froze, a frown tugging at the corners of her lips. “Slow down. What are you on about?” She stepped forward, placing a hand on my shoulder, her tone soft but urgent. “Come in, sit down. You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Explain.”

I walked inside, still dazed as I set the pizza down on the counter. My mind raced, words tumbling out before I could fully make sense of them. “Okay, I told you that I was distracted when I crashed right. Well it was an old man pushing a cart, he looked straight at me and said something. And that’s when my car crashed. Onto nothing as far as I recall. If I have abilities, what’s to stop others having them as well. What if he cast a spell or something?”

Jesse raised an eyebrow, her curiosity piqued. “Wait, so you think this old man, the one you saw earlier, is somehow responsible for both your crash and this attack?”

I nodded, still feeling the adrenaline in my pulse. “I don’t know how else to explain it. And just now, he attacked me with a knife”. I paused. “The knife! I should get it. Its evidence”

Turning back, I reached towards the floor. To my surprise, I could still feel the knife with my ability, even when it wasn’t moving. My hand closed around the handle and I picked it up cautiously.

Jesse’s eyes flickered to the knife, a skeptical look crossing her face. “Are you sure he was trying to kill you? That doesn’t look like a very sharp knife.”

“Huh.” I didn’t have an answer for that, but I didn’t think it mattered. “He tried to stab me. I felt it, or... I think I did. But then when I raised my hands, he just… flew against the wall.”

Her brow furrowed in concern, but there was also a glint of something else in her eyes — excitement. “What is it?” I asked, catching the shift in her expression.

Jesse took a deep breath, her voice steady as she started to explain. “Alright, so, from what I know—mostly from comic books, admittedly—spatial awareness is usually a secondary ability, something that comes along with another power. Like airbending or electromagnetic control. In your case... I’d guess it’s Telekinesis.”

I blinked, trying to wrap my head around what I’d just heard. “Telekinesis? Like moving stuff around with my mind?”

She nodded, “Yes, exactly. Think about it. That would explain what happened with the knife. You raised your hand, and the force of your telekinesis stopped the knife mid-air and pushed the guy back. You didn’t even touch him.”

I rubbed by forehead. “But why didn’t I know about this? I didn’t feel like I was moving anything. It was just … instinct“

She shrugged, a smile breaking through. “A lot of powers are reflexive at first, until you learn to control it consciously”. The image of the old man pinned on the wall kept flashing in my mind, “So you’re saying that I have telekinesis, I just can’t control it yet?”

“Well it fits, It explains your spatial awareness as well. With telekinesis you have to be aware of the space around you, especially if you’re moving things around. You’d need to know where everything was”. Jesse explained, getting more comfortable with the idea by the second.

“What if I end up hurting someone”, I asked trying to keep the panic from rising again. Jesse put a reassuring arm on my shoulder. “Hey, one step at a time. I know you can handle this. Besides, I’m here. I bet I could make it safer… and even fun?”. I let out a long breath, nodding “Okay, lets see if we can figure this out”.

Jesse had an excited smile on her face. “That’s the spirit. Let’s test out this power of yours. We’ll start small, how about this pencil?”.

“Small”, I echoed dryly. “Right.”