Nearly Hysterical

"Wh-What... What's up!?" Jennifer says with deadly intent. Your attempt at levity has clearly failed. "What's up!? You were having a fucking nightmare and started shaking the entire building and we couldn't wake you up!"

You're unsure if she is going to hysterically scream at you or start letting her fists do the talking- and you're unwilling to find out. Looking her directly in the eye, you very sternly say, "Calm."

Jennifer very visibly calms herself much to all of their astonishment, as muted as Jennifer's is. "Wh-what...?" But before she can react further, you pull her into your lap and hug her tightly to you.

"James... What's going on?" Kathy says with a significant tremble in her voice. You felt a spike of fear coming from both her and Allyson. The fact that Kathy could possibly, and justifiably, fear you, metaphorically stabs you in the heart.

"I... I'm not entirely sure, Kat... It's all disjointed now..." you reply honestly.

"What are you sure about?" Allyson asks evenly. You have to give her an A+ for effort. If you couldn't feel her fear, you would almost swear she wasn't even nervous, let alone feeling the terror she was currently expressing.

You close your eyes to think. "My awakening was traumatic. When my powers first manifested, I sent out a telekinetic wave that knocked over a dozen people on their asses. Not fully aware of what was going on, I wanted to figure out what the hell was going on. My desire to know what happened awakened my telepathic abilities and I simultaneously reached out and touched every mind of every person in the immediate area. People who were all just as scared and in the dark as I was. In my heightened fear- I shut down a part of my mind."

"What does all of that have to do with everything that just happened?" Allyson asked.

"Everything," you reply looking her dead in the eye. "The circumstances of my awakening lead to a near universal rejection from everyone I've ever known in my life and made them and me fearful of my powers. This was further compounded by the fact that a douche named Zack Miller was harassing Sheila Hastings. I lashed out and very nearly shattered him to peices with my telekinesis. Sheila, instead of being grateful, actually became afraid of me. This lead to the school councilor, Mrs. Avery, trying and help me master my powers. Unfortunately, the only thing resembling guides for those learning to use psychic powers is Star Wars."

"Did you have to run an obstacle course with her on your back?" Kathy joked.

You chuckle at the imagry. "No. But we did have me work up to lifting rocks while doing hand stands."

All three girls laughed at that.

"Telekinesis was hard at first, and progress was slow," You infom them. "Once I started making strides with it, we tried moving onto telepathy. We started with meditation, and even picked up a fantasy book or three that dealt with mind reading. Spoiler alert: rereading Harry Potter did absolutely nothing to help me learn telepathy and only made me even more certain that Snape wasn't the tragic hero Alan Rickman fangirls like to think he is."

Jennifer, being a Snape fan, frowned and slapped your shoulder for that remark. "Ass!"

"Anyways, we started trying to just pull random crap out of our asses to help me further my telepathic skills, by having me practice on her. A week later, she was waking up from a coma and it was another week after that before she could gain full functionality of all her faculties," You continue. "Needless to say, I buried my power deeper into my mind subconsciously, actually making them harder to use."

"Okay, so what caused you to nearly bring down the apartment?" Allyson asks.

"Story short, you gals," you reply.

"Us!?" Allyson exclaimed. Both Kathy and Jennifer are equally surprised.

"How did we make you do that?" Jennifer asked.

"You accepted me. You knew about my powers and accepted me. That caused me to drop my guard slightly and when I gave my powers an inch, they took a mile," you tell them.

"You make it sound like your powers are alive," Kathy states.

"They were responding to a subconscious need," you explain. "I don't quite remember it all- not in any way I can understand it at least. But I wasn't dreaming and I wasn't exactly here- or at least my mind wasn't. It was on another plane of existence known as the Astral Plane."

"You can do that now?" Allyson asks with surprise.

You actually take the time to think about your answer. "No... Not on consciously, at least... Not yet, anyways..."

"What is the Astral Plane?" Jennifer asks.

"It's the plane from where all psychics get their power," you respond.

Kathy then giggles. When you all look at her, she blushes with embarassment. "Sorry, it's just, you keep saying psychic and while I know you're talking about moving stuff with your mind and hearing peoples thoughts, I keep thinking of things like the Psychic Friends Hotline."

Closing your eyes again as the thoughts enter your head. "You're not to far from the truth... Psychics fall under four basic categories: telepaths, telekinetics, psionics and diviners. True fortune tellers, psychics and oracles, etc. fall under the last category."

"Back to what you were saying," Allyson interjected, making sure to keep everyone on topic.

"Sorry," both you and Kathy apologize, but Allie simply waves for you to continue. You sigh. "It starts getting fuzzy from here and I'm not sure if it's because as a physical being I can't fully comprehend the Astral Plane or if it's a side effect of what happened while I was there."

"Tell us what you can, James," Kathy encouraged.

"I wasn't alone," you tell them. "The woman I saw... She was, ironically enough, a seer. Something bad happened and I saved her."

"That's it?" Allyson asked skeptically.

"Like I said, it's all disjointed. The Astral Plane is a very volatile place. When I was there, I was everything I am now, while being everything I could be and I did the one thing I was terrified of doing- I completely opened my mind and unleashed every bit of who and what I am and could be to... Do... Something..." you reply snappishly. "Right now I'm not only still reeling from what I did, but I have no clear memories of what I did or who I was with or what happened to her. I'm more powerful and skilled than I remember being when I went to sleep- and I have no idea how permanent or temporary that boost is and I've developed at least one secondary ability- empathy- the ability to feel others emotions, which is a cross subset of telepathy and divining. And on top of all of that, I have to deal with random bits of knowledge that I'm only mostly certain wasn't mine to begin with, having been carelessly shoved into my head!"

It was then you notice that various things on shelves started shaking and you take a deep breath to calm yourself. "Sorry... I just... These abilities of mine are a lot to deal with and I'm not only out of my depth, I have a nearly overwhelming feeling that if I don't get a handle on them soon, things are going to go to hell real quick."

"Sorry... It's just, we didn't know what was going on with you and that scared us," Kathy replied as she sat down next to you wrapping her arms around you.

"I know, empath now," you remind her. "My developing powers have been one step forward, two steps back and I have enough doubts and insecurities about myself and my powers without all of your fears feeding into mine."

"How bad is it?" Allyson asked with concern.

"Manageable now," you assure her. "When I first woke up, not so much. I really am sorry about all this."

Allyson smiled at you. "Try not to let things like this happen while you're with us. As much as I enjoy watching the exorcist, I don't need a live reenactment."

You laugh lightly. "Maybe one day, I can go all out. Floating objects, bleeding walls, etc..."

"One day," Allyson teasingly confirms before heading back to her bedroom. Jennifer and Kathy are quick to follow suit, leaving you alone once more, only unable to sleep without being haunted by green eyes.