Believe

Sam felt like he was in an endless black dream. There was nothing but emptiness and darkness. After a while, Sam slowly regained consciousness. He noticed that he was in a somewhat familiar room, yet not entirely familiar.

He seemed to be lying on a well-made white bed, next to which was a small table with some perfumes and makeup. "Am I in Christina's room?" Sam thought intensely, recalling the glimpse he had of Christina's room when she entered to change. But he couldn't confidently say it was the same room. Simply put, it was much smaller.

Sam tried to get up from the bed, but his body betrayed him with fatigue. He couldn't move, feeling an odd sense of weakness. It was then that Sam remembered his bleeding nose. He touched his nose, feeling a tissue stuffed in one of his nostrils. "At least it stopped the bleeding," Sam weakly tried to reassure himself.

He waited a moment and settled back onto his bed—or the kindly hearted bed that he had taken temporarily, as he decided to believe. He suspected that the person who helped him was a girl based on the feminine touches in the room.

Suddenly, the sound of the doorbell rang in the room. A tall, slender woman appeared from behind it, wearing a white coat and tight casual home clothes that accentuated her large breast. Her lovely brown hair was tied up in a cake-like fashion, and her green eyes gazed at the bedridden Sam.

'Bloody nonsense' Sam immediately recognized the woman. She was the same woman he accidentally unleashed into her room and asked for batteries. A million questions flooded Sam's mind at that moment, but the woman interrupted his thoughts by saying, "There's some fried eggs. Would you like some?" Then, she looked at him intently. Sam had no choice but to accept and took the food slowly, chewing it. The woman continued to look at him strangely, as if she was seeing something deeper within Sam.

"Excuse me, but where did you find me? The last thing I remember is fainting in the middle of the street," Sam urgently asked the woman. She didn't answer him directly, instead, she continued to stare at him before her expression softened, and she said, "About fifty meters away from the apartment building we live in."

Sam pondered for a moment before realizing that the woman had said, "When I found you, I carried you to the apartment. Good thing you were lightweight." Sam looked at her with an odd expression, thinking, 'Wait, a lone woman carried me for about fifty meters, and who knows, maybe more, and continued to carry me up the stairs to the third floor? There's something very wrong about this woman.' However, he quickly changed his expression and decided to show that he understood and didn't doubt anything.

The woman looked at Sam with a strange expression for the thousand time, then a soft smile appeared on her lips as she said, "Don't worry about that. Neighbors are always there for each other." Before Sam could thank her again and leave, she asked with an odd expression, "So, what led you to be out late at night, and later unconscious in the middle of the street?"

Sam was slightly taken aback by her sudden question and looked at her with a shocked expression, realizing that this woman was way off then what he assumed. Sam collected himself and said, "I was at a friend's house and he insisted I stay late. As for fainting, I honestly have no idea."

In truth, Sam had an idea of why he fainted. The likely cause of his fainting was the mental and physical strain of using his time-stopping ability. No other explanation convinced Sam. The woman continued to stare at Sam and then said, "Really? To my knowledge, it's very rare for someone to faint with a bleeding nose without some sort of blow. And, of course, I made sure you're perfectly fine. Except for some very recent passionate love bites on your neck."

Sam was completely shocked to the point where he almost screamed at the woman for invading his privacy. But before he could process what he heard and what he should do, the woman continued, "Honestly, I don't care. Sleep with whomever you please, and it's your right to lie to me since I have no right to know the truth about what you were doing. But let me tell you, I'm an expert at detecting lies and extracting facts from even the safest places. So, I want you to answer my upcoming questions absolutely truthfully. Understood?"

A sense of panic coursed through Sam's entire body. He wanted to escape from her apartment as quickly as possible, but he knew it was currently impossible with this dangerous woman. 'Calm down, calm down, panicking will only make your situation worse.' Sam reminded himself and raised his eyes to meet the gaze of the woman's attractive green eyes. 'What's this nonsense? Why do I feel attracted to her when she's a dangerous woman capable of things I don't understand! Focus, Sam, focus!' Sam gathered his courage and averted his gaze randomly, saying with an indifferent expression, "Of course, ask whatever you like."

The woman smiled mysteriously and said, "Alright, first, I want to ask you about the reason you asked for 'batteries' a few hours ago."

Sam felt that she had suspicions about his unusual arrival, but he didn't think the matter would still bother her. Sam sighed and said, "I caused a bit of commotion upstairs and noticed that I might have disturbed you, so I went to apologize. But you weren't there, so I decided to leave before you surprised me with your arrival, which made me a bit flustered. Then I asked for the first thing that came to my mind. Batteries."

She looked at him with interest, then gave a mocking smile and said, "And what kind of noise did you exactly create?" Sam sneered at her taunting and provoking laughter and coldly replied, "It's none of your business." He then approached her as much as he could before continuing, "All I cared about back then was not bothering you. Other than that, I'm not obligated to tell you what's happening in my life or invite you to take a look at my privacy."

The woman cast a prolonged look at him, then laughed and said, "Don't worry, I was just wondering because you were the third man to knock on my apartment door and ask about his own 'battery'." Before breaking into laughter, she continued, "I was just trying to lighten the mood for you a bit. Please don't take it personally."

Sam looked at her and said, "It's okay, nothing personal."

Sam's quiet chewing of food continued in the room shared by him and the woman. She didn't say anything, and he didn't feel like talking.

As he neared finishing his meal, he realized that he had regained his strength. He decided to thank the woman and leave her cursed apartment as quickly as possible.

The woman noticed him gets ready to leave and calmly said, "As I thought."

Sam turned to her, What do you mean? What is this crazy woman sayin- … Then, in an instant, realization struck him. This woman possessed a similar kind of abilities. And due to her experience, she managed to deduce that Sam, in turn, also had an ability.

Sam's expression grew more serious, but he tried to maintain his composure and feigned some confusion. He asked her, "Like I thought?" Repeating what she said.

The woman smiled at him and said with a calm expression, "I believe the situation started for you with that bullet. Is that right?"

Sam felt a shiver down his spine and a numbness in his scalp. Damn it! She knew all along and was just playing tricks on him. Sam suppressed his anger, confusion, and panic, and continued to look at her. He asked, "What bullet are you talking about?"

She looked at him seriously this time and answered his question with a question, "Tell me, what exactly is your ability?"

Sam reached a simple conclusion about her. It seemed she didn't know much about the incident before her conversation with him. Otherwise, she won't bother asking him. And she had already informed him that she was an expert in detecting lies and truths. If she had an ability, her ability was undoubtedly related to revealing the truth of others' words! Needless talk would only bring him more trouble.

Sam didn't say anything. He continued to stare at her with a confused expression.

Suddenly, the woman burst into laughter. She laughed so hard that she almost fell from her chair. When her laughter subsided, she turned her face toward him and said, "Facing my barrage of questions with silence is indeed an effective approach, but it revealed something to me."

Sam's expression grew even more confused, but the woman didn't care about his expression at all and continued, "A normal person would say something trying to manipulate or make himself innocent to the eyes of whoever questioned him. Because simply, he wouldn't believe in the existence of abilities and that there is an ability that reveals truths and lies even if the person in front of him says so. Only a person who possesses some sort of ability is the only one who would effectively try to find a way to disable the opponent's ability and deal with it."

'Bloody shit' Sam cursed as loudly as he could inside, looking at the woman who was smiling with great joy ...