Chapter One

A yawn escaped a pair of dry rosy lips. The weary woman pushed a cleaning cart down the dimly lit hallway, her feet dragging softly on the cold floor. She had already been in England for a week and the jetlag was still taking a toll on her. Her headache intensified as one of the wheels on her trolley echoed a squeal throughout the corridor. She slowly came to a stop and looked out the large window to her right. The brunette took in the view of the sun setting over the horizon. The pink and orange sky silhouetted the intricate stone rooftops and spires, making the university look even more beautiful.

A small smile graced her lips and she sighed. Mai would miss Japan, but part of her had always called her to England and now she was finally here. She looked back down at her trolley and began pushing it toward the next lecture hall. On the long flight over, she had decided that the first employment opportunity she came by would be the one she would choose. And so that is what she did. She didn't really mind being a custodian, especially for such a prestigious university such as Cambridge. In fact, she had many similar jobs back in Japan such as being a maid for a businessman and a housekeeper at a hotel in Tokyo. She had to take multiple jobs, often at once, in order to save for England and she hadn't regretted a single one. Sure this wasn't her dream job, but then again she didn't even know what her dream job was.

Reaching out a hand, she opened a door to her left and entered the lecture hall. The light was still on but after looking around, there were no students or professor in sight. Mai looked over at the clock on the wall and smiled to herself. She was finishing early since this was her last room on her list for the evening. Mai hoped they wouldn't mind that she finished early, after all she did everything expected of her cleaning duties plus some. Oh how she longed for her soft warm bed at the moment.

Mai began to empty the trash bins around the room and sweep underneath the plethora of seats. She made her way to the front of the room to wipe down the table when she noticed something. There on the professor's desk was a small black box hooked up to a computer. There were four buttons with a small light above each one.

She stared at it. For some reason it was oddly familiar even though she had no clue what it was. An overwhelming urge to push one of the buttons gripped her. Her hand slowly started to reach out for one of the buttons until she froze.

She quickly shook her head and reminded herself that it wasn't polite going around touching people's things, no matter how enticing an unknown button was.

Quite proud of her self-restraint, she busied herself with sanitizing the large wooden desk. She had to admit this professor, whoever it was, was very neat. His board was always pristine and his desk always orderly if not cleared. She wondered who this mystery professor looked like and chuckled lightly when an image of a balding man with thick glasses and a tweed blazer with elbow patches popped into her head.

A sudden flash in the corner of her eye caught her attention and she turned to look at the black box again. All four lights were flashing in unison.

"Oh no!" Mai gasped. She rushed over to the box and looked at it, waving her hands frantically unsure what to do. She quickly reached out and pushed a button and the flashing stopped. Sighing she was about to turn around when a thought occurred to her. Cautiously she reached out again and pushed another button. Nothing happened. She pressed another. No light lit up. "Oh no, no, no, no, please work!" she pleaded and frantically began to push the buttons even more.

"Can I help you?" Mai froze in her spot as the deep voice reached her ears. She bit her lip nervously and turned slowly to the man who just walked in on her.

"I can explain…" She trailed off as piercing blue eyes bore into her.

A man in a black suit stood in the doorway with a raised brow. His skin was as pale as porcelain while his combed back hair was a contrasting dark ebony. Still, she couldn't look away from those eyes. There was something about them...

"Go on, then," he prompted.

"I was cleaning the room when the lights on that box suddenly started flashing. I panicked and pushed one of the buttons and it stopped but then it wouldn't light back up again. I think I broke your glowing...box...thing. I am so very sorry," she apologized bowing slightly.

A moment of silence passed between them until finally she heard a tired sigh followed by footsteps growing nearer to her. She quickly lifted her head, expecting to see anger in those blue eyes but saw none. The man walked by her and looked down at the box. A long slender finger reached out and pushed one of the buttons, successfully lighting it up.

Mai felt her mouth fall open in shock. It worked? She stepped closer and without thinking she reached out and pushed a button herself. Her brows knit together when the confounded thing didn't work. Irritation filled her. She turned to the man next to her and pointed to the box. "Do you mind doing that again?"

A slight trace of amusement was evident in his otherwise blank stare, yet he complied, pressing a button again. Irked, Mai placed her hands upon her hips when the bulb illuminated for him.

"See? Not broken. Now, I will ask again, can I help you?" the man asked with a hint of curiosity.

The brunette felt her cheeks begin to grow hot, finally realizing her lack of professionalism. "Oh my!" she covered her mouth in embarrassment and stepped backwards. She felt herself bump into something and spun around to notice the tall desk wobble unsteadily, almost as if in slow motion, before the black box fell to the floor with a crash.

Mai could have sworn she felt her spirit leave her body at that particular moment. The man beside her brought a hand up to rub his temples.

"Now it's broken."

Her hands flew up to cover her mouth in mortifiction. "I am very sorry!"

"Yes, you've said that already."

"I just came in to clean. It's my first week here. I can pay you for that!" she cried.

The man looked at her dryly. "You have £100?"

"One hundre-" she trailed off in disbelief that a small box could cost so much. Slowly she began to nod in defeat. If she went without food for a day or two she could make it work. "Okay. I can get it to you after I am paid."

"No need to bother." Mai watched as he bent down and picked up the pieces on the floor to assess the damage. "I made this myself. Luckily this was a prototype I made when I was young and it's not the final product, which would have been much more valuable."

She tilted her head. Even after her lack of professionalism, she couldn't hold back her curiosity. "Do you mind if I ask what it is?"

The man turned towards her, looking her up and down skeptically. After seeing only genuine curiosity, he replied. "It is a device that detects psychic abilities."

Her eyes lit up. "Really? That's so interesting. I didn't know it could be detected like that. You said you made it yourself?"

The professor began to pack his suitcase and nodded.

"Very impressive. And as a child too! How can you tell if someone has the ability?"

His hand came up to run through his hair and Mai realized how he probably wanted nothing more than to just go home. It was late after all. She suddenly felt like a child asking him question after question.

"The procedure requires the participant to press any sequence of buttons one thousand times. The lights are random so the theory is a person with psychic abilities will be able to correctly press the corresponding buttons at least eighty percent of the time. The higher the percentage, the higher the potential psychic ability."

She nodded, taking it all in. "I see…And?"

He looked at her oddly. "And?" he prodded.

"And, what if the participant doesn't get any correct? What then?" she asked, looking down at the box he was currently putting away. He paused thoughtfully at her words.

The calculating look he was giving her made her backtrack. "Hypothetically, that is!" she laughed nervously, scratching the back of her head.

He didn't buy that. "Hypothetically, that is mathematically improbable and I'd pity the simpleminded fool."

"'Simple minded?'" Mai scoffed, offended by his words. "Why you-Oh yeah? Well, have you even tried it?"

"I built it, remember? I wouldn't be a very good scientist if I didn't test my own experiments," he smirked smartly.

"And what? You're some sort of genius that guessed every light correctly?" she snorted to herself.

He stared at her blankly.

Her eyes widened. "Seriously? All one thousand? You got all one thousand right?"

The man sighed again and closed his suitcase. "For such a small person you're quite loud."

Mai felt her cheeks grow warm in embarrassment.

"You're not from here," he continued matter-of-factly, holding her gaze. "Good English, but gauging by the accent I'd say...Japan? Also, the fact that you still bow during an apology still leads me to believe this transition is fairly recent."

The brunette nodded slowly. "Shibuya."

For the first time that night, she saw a flash of shock cross his face. "I beg your pardon?" he whispered.

"My hometown; Shibuya. It's just south of Tokyo," she clarified, confused at his reaction.

Mai couldn't read his expression as he turned back to his desk. "Right, well then, I've cleared my things. I'll leave you to the rest." The tall man made his way past her but paused once he reached the doorway. "Earlier, you said all of the lights were flashing?" he inquired without turning around.

"Yes," she answered, confused.

His back was still to her as he hummed thoughtfully. "Interesting." With that he was gone and Mai was alone in the lecture hall once more. She let out a sigh and rubbed her eyes.

"Well that went great. Hopefully I won't be bumping into him again." And with that she finished cleaning the hall and ended her shift in embarrassment.

A week had passed before she inevitably ran into the professor again. His room was the last one on her list and she couldn't wait to go home. Her dreams had been very active since arriving in the United Kingdom and it was taking a toll on her sleep.

She wheeled her cart towards the large wooden doors but froze when she heard a woman's voice come from the other side.

"Professor Davis..." the voice was soft and femanine. Mai could hear the nervousness in the woman's voice and a smirk pulled at her lips as a thought struck her. Being naughty after hours with your students, Professor? "I-I was just wondering if you would like to go out for di-"

"Miss Holmes." His no-nonsense voice interrupted. "Why is it that you are in my class?"

Mai froze and from the awkward silence in the other room she could tell the other woman was shocked as well. "E-excuse me?" her voice quivered.

"I don't like to repeat myself."

"Uhm, to learn about the paranormal."

"Is that so? Then, why is it that you have been in my class for two terms passing by the skin of your teeth yet still lack the basic knowledge such as equipment used in this field?

"Well, I-"

"Answer me this simple question, Miss Holmes, what is an EMF device?"

"Uh..a radio?"

"Case and point. You have no interest in this field so why attend my courses? You are not only wasting my time but the resources of this university. Whoever allowed you into Cambridge was a fool. I do not think highly of those who only think of frivolous things such as romance. Taking a class solely on the physical appearance of the professor is daft, especially since I have never given you any inclination that I return such an attraction, nor do I intend to."

Mai winced, this professor didn't sugarcoat his words did he? But she guessed he did have a point.

She could hear the woman on the other side of the door begin to cry. "But, sir-"

"You're excused, Miss Holmes. If after this, if you still wish to remain in this field and my course, I expect to see a change in your performance."

Mai stiffened as she heard a hasty set of footsteps coming her way. Acting fast, she pushed her cart to the side just in time to see a tear-stained blonde rush out of the lecture hall. The woman froze when she saw Mai and glared at her. "What are you looking at, cow?" And pushes the cart into Mai. The brunette hissed in pain as the metal handle dug into her hip. She glared after the rude student and placed a gentle hand over the already forming bruise.

Trying to gather the cart with one hand, Mai awkwardly made her way into the lecture hall. She had been so caught up the string of curse words in her head that she hadn't realized the professor had been watching her the whole time

"Back again?" his deep voice reached her ears. "I regret to inform you I have no more equipment for you to break."

Mai regarded the man standing before her. He didn't seem phased about what had just transpired between him and his so-called student. Mai had expected him to be frustrated, but then again, his voice had never actually sounded angry with Ms. Holmes, rather he sounded more like an irritated parent explaining something to a naive child.

A small smile graced her features. "Ah, how unfortunate, I found it was a great stress reliever," she remarked sarcastically, rubbing her side.

The small smirk on his lips didn't last for long as his gaze settled on her hip and his disposition darkened. "Did she hurt you?"

Mai waved off his concern with a bright smile. "A little bruise here and there never hurt. I'm perfectly fine."

She could tell he was skeptical, and didn't blame him. She was trying not to wince as she began to get to work. It didn't help that the bruise was right where the waistband of her trousers rubbed against her.

After a moment he began to busy himself by stacking his files. A comfortable silence filled the room as she began her nightly routine of cleaning under all the chairs and emptying the multiple trash bins. She slowly made her way to the front of the room right as the young professor was finishing up.

She bit her lip softly. "Not meaning to pry, but do you have to deal with that often?" She asked curiously, motioning her head towards the doorway, referring to Ms. Holmes.

He looked her over momentarily before rolling his eyes. "Regrettably. But then again, who can blame them?"

Mai stood slightly stunned by his pride. "Someone's a little full of themselves, aren't they?" she muttered to herself, causing the man to smirk again. She thought back to Ms. Holmes and huffed a strand of hair out of her face. She didn't know why she was feeling so frustrated on behalf of the man standing before her. "Don't these rich kids realize how lucky they are? I'd give anything to go back to school."

Blue eyes regarded her thoughtfully, realizing that she was close in age to himself. "Did you attend university?"

May shook her head and began to clean the board. "Unfortunately things always came up. But, a bonus to this job is that I've been able to learn some pretty interesting things from what is left on the white boards. I clean the anthropology department, and did you know that Africa is home to nearly 1,500 of the world's languages, meaning it is the most linguistically diverse continent on Earth? One tribe even communicates through clicks! Speaking of which, there's a village, somewhere in Turkey, I can't remember where, that is able to communicate through whistling. Brilliant, right?"

The man paused his actions as he watched her excitedly explain the different things she had learned. Her expressions and movements became more animated by the minute as she cleaned and he couldn't seem to look away.

Mai suddenly realized the way he was looking at her and berated herself for talking his ear off. He most likely had places to be and here she was spouting gibberish at him. She looked down at her hands and trailed off, distracting herself with cleaning.

"Right, well, I'm all done here. I'll leave you to it," she muttered and rushed out of the room, accidentally bumping into the doorframe in her hasty escape.

The dark haired professor stared after her for a moment before realizing she had left her cart behind in her retreat. A thought came to him and the side of his mouth pulled up in amusement as he grabbed a nearby dry erase marker.

Mai leaned her head against the wall in embarrassment. She rubbed her shoulder which she had bumped during her ungraceful exit. Slowly knocking her head against the wall she thought about the forgotten trolly she had left behind. She couldn't go back in there, especially after making a fool of herself. She would simply just wait until the man left and then she would sneak back in to collect her trolly.

After a couple of minutes, she heard the wooden door open in the distance and the sound of perfectly even footsteps dissipated into the night.

Pushing some hair behind her ear, she slowly looked around the corner and found the hallway empty. Sighing with relief she made her way towards the lecture hall. She reached her cart but stopped when something on the previously cleaned board caught her attention. She couldn't help the smile that grew on her face upon seeing the freshly written words.

Poltergeist: a lingering spirit which can cause physical disturbances such as moving objects, making loud noises, and in some instances physically harming living beings. Some even believe a child's energy can bring a poltergeist into existence.

After committing the information to memory she picked up a rag and began to wipe the board clean, but before she left she wrote two words of her own:

Thank you.