'Bend this spoon without physically interacting with it.'

That was an odd request; I blinked at the man who had simply invaded my new home. His green eyes stared expectantly, his thin lips remained in a straight line. His scars were unnerving to look at…

I forcibly moved my eyes to the spoon he was holding. It was a perfectly ordinary spoon, silver in colour.

And I was suppose to… bend it without touching it?

'What, why?'

'Certainly you've seen the shows?' His lips barely opened to say those words. 'It's a way to test psychic powers. There are plenty of better ways, but sometimes it's preferred to go to basics. Now, bend this spoon.

'Psychic? But, I'm not…'

'If you weren't, you wouldn't be here.' No remorse, no nothing. This man scared me. Where was Divine? Actually, Divine was probably scarier. At least this man was blunt and to the point. 'The question is simply what you can do, and how well you can do it. To start with, bend this spoon.'

I said nothing. What the hell was he on about? Psychic? I think I'd know if I had those kind of abilities.

But he didn't appear to be budging. Him and that irritating white coat. I wasn't mad!

But I'll play his game.

I concentrated on the spoon. In my mind I told it to bend. Well, what else could I do? Even if I did have psychic abilities, I didn't know how they worked.

There was no visible effect on the spoon, but after a minute the man held up his hand. 'You can stop now.' His tone was harsh. I knew what the tone meant, it was used all too often at the orphanage. I had failed him.

'Perhaps the spoon is too much for you.' He didn't move. 'How about you break an egg?'

An egg?

There was an egg floating above his head, slowly coming down to rest in front of me.

I probably shouldn't fail again. I could see the cracks on his face, he was running out of patience.

I concentrated on the egg. Break, break.

Perhaps I was doing this wrong? Perhaps I was supposed to rummage through my brain to find whatever made stuff move?

Break, break…

How would that work, anyway? Brains weren't that simple.

Break, break…

Or were they? Perhaps it was as simple as imagining a light switch, flicking it on, activating my abilities…

Break, break…

Or maybe not, it isn't working. Damn it!

JUST BREAK!

…What was that? Some sort of crackling noise.

I don't even remember closing my eyes, but now I'm opening them.

A crack.

That's it? I was half expecting the egg to have exploded. But there was just a small crack. The yolk wasn't even seeping out.

I heard a sigh. 'Not particularly powerful in that aspect, are you?'

Oh, right, him. I looked over to his lined, disappointed face.

'I suppose you may have some other uses. But I think that's enough time spent on you for today…'

'Bloody orbs.' I murmured, I could already feel it crackling in my hand. I felt among the remains for the card I know is there, not bothering to look and earning some cuts on my hand from the sharp fragments as punishment.

Right now I was too tired to care. Besides, my wounds had healed well enough while I slept, disregarding this as reality and acting more like a video game.

I liked video games. I'd gone to arcades during my free time and had even been able to play them at home occasionally, although I was never allowed to touch the controller physically. A rather random and useless memory to have, I had to say.

…I'm moving?

I must have been moving on autopilot, I was already on my feet and despite feeling refreshed, I was already doing a weary trudge along the bloody sand dunes.

Wait, bloody? As far as I could recall, I had never seen sand before. And yet the sand seemed have a slight reddish-brown colour to it that reminded me of blood. Blood, now that I had seen enough of it. Red when fresh and it turned brown when dry.

The sand had somehow changed colour while I had slept.

But that wasn't important, was it?

Heh, I'm drifting off. Not that it matters, there isn't anything…

My eyes drifted around the surrounding area. Come to think of it, there was something new. Pillars of pure white tiles supported by glass untouched by the sand. Very impressive, although completely pointless.

Should I inspect the pillars?

…No, it was pointless. Just keep moving, self.

Idly, I took out the recent card I had obtained. I remembered the old saying. A person's deck was a window to the person's soul.

In my case, I suppose it was closer to my current predicament then what I am.

Chuckling, I inserted the card into my deck. Why not? My deck was thinning a bit since I didn't get any of the old one's back…

A thought struck me. I started sorting through my deck.

'Magic Cylinder…'

That card I had seen before I fainted, the card I had used so long ago, it was right there.

Where had it come from?

…Come to think of it, why did I draw the line at this card considering all that had happened?

I gave a laugh. Even to myself I sounded hysterical. Not that there was anyone to notice. I almost wish I had the uncomfortable feeling of being watched, it was so… Boring, I guess the word would be.

I had left the pillars behind, but now there were metal bars lying half-buried in the sand.

I vaguely remembered just wanting something to break the monotone of sand. But the landscape was simply nothing, it didn't help me keep anything. Especially my sanity. I couldn't even appreciate it. Big whoop, metal bars, pillars of tiles… Where was something to help me? I suppose I could take a metal bar and use it as a weapon, but how long could I drag one along? They were longer then me and quite thick.

No, it would probably be best to avoid it…

The bars were now all behind me. Now it was just sand.

Boring, boring sand. I bent down and swiped a handful. It was just sand, as far as I knew. Cold sand on a sunny day. It was odd, but told me nothing.

Like the visions of what was probably my past. Too fragmented to tell me much. I mean, I was psychic? Was I still?

I took a grain of sand from my hand and stared at it. Lift, lift...

Nothing happened. I threw the grain as far as I could. 'Dammit!'

Wait… I saw something.

I turned slightly. There was another of those bird creatures scuffling around the sand. It was only several meters away. How had I not noticed it?

And it was ignoring me.

I lunged on it, forcing it to the ground. Claws raked my back, but it wouldn't stop me. My fists struck its face. One, two, three...

Sand gushed out of its face. Kind of odd, the last one hadn't been filled with sand, if I recalled correctly. It had been filled with darkness, and it had been killed by… Whoever that guy was.

The guy who saved me from something only to lead me into a trap.

But it is up to me now. My fists came down with all the force I could muster.

…The creature had ceased to move. Panting, I got up. They could be killed, I could protect myself.

And I certainly would. In this place, I can only trust myself.