Susan let go of Jodie then looked through her large lilac plastic bags. “Look what I’ve got for you.” she took out a pink envelope and a brightly rainbow coloured sweet packet from one of her large iliac plastic shopping bags.

“Thank you!" Jodie’s face lit up with joy as she excitedly grabbed the items from her afterward they hugged again.

“I’m glad you like it!” Susan smiled happily.

“Can I eat the candy now?” she asked excitedly.

“Not until you open your birthday card.” Susan said happily. Jodie immediately tore open the card with haste.

“Have a wonderful 9th birthday...” Jodie read the front of the card out loud, the card was light blue and had a simple cake in the middle, then read the inside. “A hope you have a great time Love from Mommy oxoxox.” Jodie smiled happily then thanked and hugged her. Aiden helped her open the sweets packet slightly for her before she ate them eagerly. Thanks Aiden!

‘You’re welcome!’ Aiden replied happily.

Susan and Jodie walked down the corridor and saw Nathan and Cole, Nathan wore his in his brown suit with a matching tie and black shoes, Cole wore his DPA lab coat, dark grey, trousers top and black shoes. The adults greeted one another before they continued to walk down the corridor. “Nathan! Cole!” She couldn’t help but smile at them. ”I’m so happy to see you too… it’s been so long.” She shook Nathan’s hand.

“It’s good to see you again!” Nathan replied to Susan.

“It has been a long time.” Cole said to Susan, then shook her hand. “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

“Yeah we do.” Susan smiled at them. They walked down the corridor where a short blonde woman stood outside of Nathan and Cole’s office.

“Hello there.” the blonde woman had her attention on Susan while she fixed her DPA lab coat. “You must be Jodie’s mother...”  

“Susan, Susan Holmes.” She outstretched her hand.

“I’m Nicole.” She shook her hands firmly. “Your daughter looks so much like you.”

“Thank you.” Susan smiled with happiness.

“I’m Jodie’s maths teacher by the way and I’m glad to say that your little girl excels in maths.” Her appraisal made Jodie and Susan proudly smile at one another. “Well sorry to break this reunion but Jodie and I better get going.” Nicole said to her.

“Ok…” Jodie said dejectedly.

Susan knelt down to Jodie’s height then said. “Sweetheart, I promise you that were going to have the best time when your lessons are over alright.” She smiled at her little girl which in turn made her smile back.

“Alright!” Jodie said. She gave her card to Nathan and kept the sweets as Susan allowed her to do so, before they parted ways down the corridor and the trio went into the office.

The office was narrow with a large two way mirror that showed Jodie’s apartment next door underneath the two way mirror was messy desk with a grey computer and lots of papers scattered all over and other large electrical equipment on the desk which Susan wondered what is was, other than the messy desk the room was clean.  

“I’m glad you came back Susan, excuse the mess.” Nathan said to Susan as he sorted the paper work on the table before they all got a blue seat to sit down that was near the desk.


“It’s alright.” Susan replied then glanced around the room it reminded her when Phillip sometimes left the computer in a mess due to tiredness from work.

“We need to talk to you about Aiden’s behaviour…” Susan heard the sadness in Nathan voice.

“He didn’t strangle anyone did he?” Susan became worried.

“He did.” Nathan replied.

“I hoped the strangling stopped ever since the accident at old neighbourhood.” She sighed heavily then placed her hand onto her head. “Who did he strangle?”

“A volunteer at the DPA and a few more people in the first few experiments we did, his behaviour got so bad that we had to stop the volunteers altogether.” He said.
“Aiden causes a lot damage when he’s angry around the DPA when Jodie wants him to stop causing a scene he carries on until he’s satisfied. If he doesn’t calm down then I fear that Jodie can’t ever go outside even if we supervise her. His temper is too much for any too handle.”

“I was hoping these attacks would stop… so I could take her somewhere special for her birthday…” Susan rummaged through her bags. “Oh Nathan I forgot to give you this.” She rummaged through her plastic bags next took out the peace lilies to give to him. “This is for the passing of your family. ”

“Thank you, Helen and Laura would appreciate this.” He held it briefly and admired the plant before he placed it on the large spot on the desk.

“I know how you feel Nathan…” she felt the sadness wash over her like a horrid cold bath. “Phillip and I lost a child of our own...”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Both Nathan and Cole said to her.
She looked down sadly and decided to change the subject, as she felt herself start to tear up inside. “How do I know if Aiden is listening or not? Can he communicate to you two?” she asked both of them.

“He does by writing a message on the mirror with condensation from his presence.” Cole replied to her. “We do have footage of that.” Both men used the monitors to show the footage of the times when Aiden communicated on the one way mirror and she noticed that at the end of each message had wrote always hand his name at the end.

When Jodie was done with her lessons for the day Susan helped her with her homework studies then they watched the television together although she couldn’t help but glance at the cameras in the room. She told Jodie and Aiden that they needed to be on their best behaviour so they could go to out of the DPA to celebrate Jodie’s birthday which they both agreed to. Aiden wondered if Phillip would also go but decided not to ask anyone. Susan decided to volunteer for the experiment which Nathan and Cole agreed with, she wanted to see the potential of Jodie’s powers and hoped that Aiden would have calmed down.

It was late in the afternoon and Nathan, Cole, Susan and Jodie went to the experiment room that was further down the hallway from where Jodie’s apartment was. Nathan introduced Greg a lab technician to Susan at the DPA outside the experiment room, before he checked the room where Cole and Jodie were in the experiment room to make sure everything was alright. Greg took Susan into the other part of the experiment room where he showed her the other door that lead to the room opposite to the room Jodie was in.

Thud! The stacks of paper fell from behind Susan and made the adults both jump on the far end table scattered on the floor a few feet away from them, which startled the adults.

‘Aiden stop!’ Jodie shouted to Aiden through the ethereal tether, it only made Aiden laugh even more.

“Ugh! This is a normal part of the routine…” Greg said to Susan as he looked at the papers on the floor.

“I’ll get those for you.” Susan replied. As soon as she reached for the papers Aiden put the scattered papers in a neat pile before he gently positioned the stack into her hands gently, it made her jumped in surprise slightly.

“Thank you!” Greg replied happily, then eagerly grabbed the papers from her. “Telekinesis is a wonderful gift.”

“Well when you know how to control it then it can become something special.” Susan replied then gave him a genuine smile, while Greg gave her an inquisitive look. You must have telekinetic powers... it would make biological sense.

Greg placed the papers to one side before he opened the door for Susan, while she walked inside she noticed that the chair pulled out slightly from the table which made her felt weird to her as Jodie was not present in the room. When she sat down she wondered if Aiden was truly a separate soul from Jodie as she felt the familiar cold presence in the house like she did at their old home.

The test began when Susan flipped over the zener cards at random and Jodie got correct due to Aiden’s support, so Nathan told Susan to shuffle her cards and lay them out and choose them which Jodie also got right.

Susan let the condensation pass though her fingers as she realised just how cold Aiden’s presence was before Aiden was allowed to make several building block float around the room which made Susan startled and wondered if Aiden was truly separated from Jodie. The display Aiden gave made Susan and Jodie smile with happiness, she outstretched her hands to gently touch the blocks that gracefully flew in mid-air around the room. When the experiment was over and Aiden slowly placed the objects gently on the table not to frighten Jodie’s mother.

Within the first week Susan always volunteered to be in the experiments, helped Jodie with her homework, played with her and Aiden and even watched her favourite cartoons shows with her. Aiden kept himself occupied most of the time when he felt bored as he didn’t want to ruin their reunion. Jodie loved when her mother tucked her into bed and read her a bed time story every night in the first week before she left to go home, although Aiden couldn’t help but wonder what their new home must have look like. Aiden even left a thank you note on the two way mirror after she tucked Jodie into bed one night, it made her smile and realised that his name had a silent A which she found odd but sweet.

In the second week Susan continued to volunteer in the experiments, Aiden was much more obedient and co-operative although he wished he was allowed to physically interact with the objects more. The ‘monsters’ occasionally attacked Jodie most nights and swarmed in larger numbers Aiden was glad they could be defeated without much effort although more objects were tampered with. Susan, Jodie and Bunny Guff got their picture taken by Cole which Susan put in a wooden picture frame then stored it in her large blue starry box at the bottom of her small walk in wardrobe where she knew Phillip would never look through, although she found it odd that the top of the picture frame was slightly distorted which Jodie said was Aiden.  

In the evenings Susan would go to shopping centre and buy a lot of new clothes for Jodie to wear and even brought a few expensive dresses for her, she also brought a vintage pink mug for her mother’s birthday that was in few months’ time which had ‘To The Best Mother in the World!’ written on it, that she wrapped it in red wrapping paper and placed it on her wooden bedside table. She decided to place Jodie’s new clothes into her large starry box at the bottom of her small walk in wardrobe as she realised the sheer amount of clothes she brought for her, so only gave her a few clothes every other day.

Within the third week Susan always jumped out of her sleep for four nights in a row from a repeated nightmare, where she'd see Jodie and Norah attacked by possessed objects and invisible creatures in a large fancy living room that was encased in bullet proof glass. They shout to her to break the glass but she'd always watch them die horribly unable to save them. Every time she had this dream she always phoned the DPA to check up on foster daughter and she’d always hear the same situation that Jodie was attacked by the ‘monsters’ at night, so she’d check up on her in the morning to make sure she was ok, before she spent the rest of the day with her friends at her old work base.      

Aiden begun to realise that some of the smoke entities would hover around electric sockets and drain the electric current briefly before they directly attacked him, he realised that these smoke entities were slightly more resistant to his telekinetic attacks, but never let that bother him.

Susan had the same nightmare on the fifth night except she decided to use her leg to break the glass instead and when she did this an audible hum was heard and a huge random crack would appear on the glass cage, she eventually managed to make the glass shatter and set the two free. Susan hugged them both and thanked Aiden, she was relieved that she managed to change the outcome but when she felt the temperature around her drop significantly which she believes to Aiden’s presence, it made her quiver and she felt as if she was dunked in cold water.

"I’m glad you’re happy Mrs Holmes…” an unrecognisable deep voice chuckled lightly into her ear. “It's pronounced Ay-den not I-den."  The voice felt so tangible it made her scream and jump out of her sleep.

“It’s just a horrible nightmare…” she breathed quickly as she placed her hand onto her head drowsily. “Ugh… why’s this room so cold?…” the draft in the house was so cold that she literately saw the condensation from her breath. The bedroom lamp flickered brightly in the bedroom.

"Now the lamp needs fixing…" Susan glanced at the light before she noticed a piece of lined paper on top of the duvet cover in front of her and the cold draft around her left.

Thank you for everything, I appreciate what you’re doing for Jodie, Mrs Holmes.
- Ayden.

Susan looked in confusion the paper. “This can’t be possible…” she sat up in alert. “Jodie cannot be at our new home…” Susan noticed that the entire mirror on the dressing table that was adjacent to the bed had condensation on it as well as a written message. The message was too small for her to read on the bed so she decided to clamber out of bed to read, she felt the same icy presence around the mirror like the presence she felt in her dreams.

She’s not here, she’s at the DPA - Ayden

“How is that possible, when you’re here with me? The cord that attaches you both can’t travel that long she’ll feel pain and discomfort.” She asked and felt quite baffled.

The mirror fogged up again and another messaged appeared.

It’s what I’m capable of doing… sometimes… I wanted to make sure you’re alright Mrs Holmes. Have any monsters attacked you during the night? - Ayden

“Of course I’m alright, I appreciate that you’re looking out for me but you know that only Jodie’s the only person in the family who gets attacked at night. So why are you asking me this question? Did they attack the staff at the DPA?”

No everything’s ok at the DPA Mrs Holmes, No one was attacked. - Ayden

“You don’t have to be so formal with me Aiden… or should I start calling you Ayden now?” Susan became slightly confused.

The mirror was covered in condensation before the new message appeared.

Forget about the pronunciation of my name, it’s not that big of an issue…

“Aiden you need to leave now, what if Jodie gets attacked again now that you’re here with me.” Susan became worried.

I know she’s alright Susan, I have a telepathic link to her she’s 100% ok.

“Please Aiden leave… Jodie means the world to me.”

Jodie also means the WORLD to me to Susan! I have to make sure that NONE of those dam MONSTERS ever touch Jodie ALRIGHT! I’ve been doing my job for 9 long years now and I don’t want Jodie to lose you! Are you sure that nothing strange happened while you were in your home tonight?

“I told you I’m alright!” she placed her hands onto her temples. “Nothing strange has happened in the house other than you arriving here. Why are you so worried about me?”

I didn’t mean to overreact.

“I’m just glad that you didn’t throw anything across the room.” She glanced around the room. “Aiden, why are trying to contact me now when you could be doing this in the morning? You know Jodie would be safe then!” Her voice rose slightly in anger.

Fine… I’ll leave… just please keep this conversation between you and I don’t want anyone to know about all my abilities if you understand what I mean.


The icy presence left the mirror and the bedroom went back to normal, Susan sighed sadly and decided to go to sleep although she couldn’t sleep properly help but wonder if Jodie was alright. In the early hours of the morning Susan decided to look at the different places to visit for Jodie’s belated birthday on her computer before she decided to the DPA to check up on her, she decided to wear a simple grey top, purple trousers and brown shoes.

As soon as Susan opened Jodie’s apartment door she was greeted by the familiar cold presence of Aiden which she didn’t mind and Jodie’s warm hugs which she loved dearly, then decided to go straight to the point with where she wanted to take Jodie. “How does going to the science museum sound for your birthday?”

“We get to go to the science museum?!” Jodie replied in shock.

“Yeah, it’ll just be the two of us so we can spend some quality time together.” Susan said.

“And Aiden.” Jodie looked above her where Aiden was.

“Yeah.” She smiled at Jodie. “And Aiden… he doesn’t mind being called Ayden does he?”

“Not really,” Jodie shrugged her shoulders. “It doesn’t bother him that much, why did you want to know?”

“Just wondering...” Susan’s mind trailed off when she thought about the night Aiden visited her. “Your father can’t take any time off work but he doesn’t mind if we go to the museum together.”

Jodie smiled happily as she heard Aiden‘s cheer with joy.

With Jodie aloud to stay up an hour with permission from Susan for her good behaviour, Susan said her final goodbyes to everyone before she headed out the office. Aiden decided to hover by Susan’s side and keep her company.

“Ugh! Come on!” Greg shouted at the grey vending machine in the corridor.

“What’s wrong?” Susan walked to his side next to the vending machine.

“It took my money and never gave me my water bottle and as always no one has any change to spare.” he doubled checked his white lab coat then his grey trousers for change. “You don’t happen to have any spare change on you?” he pleaded.

“Sorry.” She shook her head.

“Great now what can I do?” he leaned closer to study the water bottle.

Susan looked around and noticed they were the only two people in the corridor. “Hmm, have you tried banging on it?” she rest her knuckles on her chin as she inspected the machine closer and noticed that the bottle was on the top row stuck at a 45 degree angle.

“Trust me banging it won’t do any good, I’ve tried it almost every time this situation happens.” He looked nervously at her. “Look Susan I-I don’t want to come across as being rude… but could you use you’re...”

Bang! The water bottle sprung upwards inside the vending machine afterward landed with a loud thump at the bottom which made the adults jump in surprise.

“Whoa…” Susan whispered to herself while Greg rushed to collect his water bottle.

“Susan that was incredible!” a smile beamed on his face. “I’m not surprised that Jodie takes after you...”
“That wasn’t me…” she cut him off quickly. They felt the temperature drop around them and could see the condensation emit from their breath. “It was Aiden this whole time.”

“Oh…” he placed his hand to his head in embarrassment. “Err… I’m so sorry I-I thought you were gifted… I swear… I didn’t mean to offend you.” He looked around nervously. “It’s just that in the experiment room a-a-and your daughter…” he scratched the back of his neck nervously.

“It’s alright you didn’t know, Jodie’s the only person who has a gift in the family.” She sighed unhappily and looked down. Aiden moved himself to the vending machine when he realised the adults started to shiver slightly.

“Oh… that’s unfortunate.” He replied sadly.

“It is… it just would have been nice if Jodie could relate to another member in her family...” Susan muttered loudly.

“Like you? I-I mean if you had telekinesis or telepathy.” He suggested.

“Yeah…” Susan shook her head slowly as she remembered the fun time she had with Norah when she was pregnant with Jodie. She remembered when Norah use her telekinetic skills to give her a drink at the DPA. I wish you were stable Norah... Susan quickly wiped her eyes to stop the tears.

“Are you alright?” he asked with concern.

“Yeah I’m fine.” she briefly smiled at him. “I was just thinking what life could have been like if I had powers.”

“Personally I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with having a gift or having multiple gifts in Jodie’s case. It would bring you too closer together.”

“Yeah your right.” she couldn’t help but smile as she thought of the idea of being able to push heavy objects with Norah and Jodie.
“If I had a gift I’d like to fly so I wouldn’t have to deal with traffic and I be stealing the food from the vending machine every day if I had telekinesis.” He laughed jokingly.

“Yeah me too.” Susan joined in and they both laughed.

“I’m glad you came back in your daughter’s life she needs you more than ever and you even managed to calm Aiden down in the experiments.” Greg said.

“Thanks Greg.” Susan’s laughed happily. “You’re not the first person who thought I had powers. In our old neighbourhood everyone believed that Jodie inherited her gift from me they said such horrible words to me. The kids couldn’t care less if they threw the hard snowballs at me or Jodie. It hurt like hell, my face became swollen...”

Aiden’s anger emitted a small wave of telekinetic energy that made the lights flicker aggressively. ‘They won’t hurt you again, I’ll make sure of it Susan!’

Susan looked around nervously in the room, she glanced at the lights fear then took a couple of steps backwards, Greg’s posture became more alert and placed his hands on her shoulders and looked calmly at her. “Look at me Susan, everything will be alright just stay calm, Aiden’s just angry, I just hope that objects won’t fly about.” he reassured her, she calmed down slightly when she looked at him. “Those people seem ignorant and scared, so it seems that they treat anyone different like outcasts.” shortly the lights went back to normal.

“I guess you’re right.” she whispered uneasily, she couldn’t help but glance around the room again. “The flickering lights don’t alarm you?” Susan asked in surprise.

“Not anymore it’s a normal part of the routine ever since the first experiment Jodie and Aiden did, Aiden’s managed to scare all the volunteers so far there’s not one volunteer he hasn’t either traumatised or scared but you must already know that, if it bothered me I would have left a year ago and worked elsewhere.”

“At least your use It.” she said.

“We all are.” he chuckled lightly. “Thanks… for the drink… I guess...” He sounded unsure when he spoke and looked around the room and wondered if Aiden was still in the room or not before he gave Susan and inquisitive and curious look before he smiled at her. I swear you had powers… I feel so stupid...

Aiden hovered above the adults and watched Susan smiled back at him before they made their way to the blue DPA doors. Greg held the door opened the door for Susan to pass. “Here you go, sorry about what I said earlier.”

“No need to apologise…” she smiled at him. “I should be holding the door for you, I’ve been on a paid holiday for three weeks!”

“Luckily you!” “Don’t worry about it, it’s just a door.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Aiden watched them exit the DPA doors before he returned to Jodie who was in her pink pyjamas on her sofa with Bunny Gruff on her lap. 'I can’t wait to go to the science museum with mommy, Aiden!' Jodie happily thought.

‘Yeah me too!’ Aiden laughed excitedly to Jodie.

Susan spent the whole Friday afternoon and Saturday with her old work colleagues they went to spa’s, to local restaurants and discos. On the Sunday she decided to shop late in the afternoon early to the local supermarket before she drove back home, she felt somewhat sad to go back to work on the Monday. Phillip called out for Susan from the yellow taxi cab that was parked outside the front of their house.

The couple greeted one another as they were reunited once more, as soon as they were inside the house they placed their belongings into the living room by the couch before Phillip lovingly whisked Susan into his arms and took her up stairs.

“Oh Phillip your full of surprises!” She laughed happily as she wrapped her arms around him eagerly. “So how’s your family?” she asked eagerly.
“They all doing great! My mother felt a whole lot better ever since I arrived.” He replied

“That’s good to hear!” she snuggled closer to him.

“How did you spend your holiday?” he kissed her on her forehead.

“Oh it’s been wonderful Phillip, I’ve been out with Kimberly, and she showed me a good places to get decent alcohol prices and places to eat not too far from where we live to get good deals on food. I spent most of my time to catch up with my old friends at the old base we’d used to work at...”

Phillip switched on the light and the happy reunion immediately ceased, they felt like deer caught in floodlights. Clothes were piled on their bed and scattered all over the floor, the lamps by both sides of the bed were broken, their books and shoes were dotted all over the floor, their dresser and wardrobes were opened with some clothes still inside. Phillip noticed that his work papers were also scattered on their bed.

“Oh my god…” Susan whispered to herself as Philip gently put her down.

“We’ve been burgled…” Phillip muttered under his breath as he immediately gathered his work papers from the bed. Fear rushed through Susan’s veins like an ice cold shower, she sprung straight toward her blue starry box in her small walk in wardrobe like a cheetah to its prey and hastily opened it.