A story I saw on "Tales of the Unusual" a long time ago.
Professor A was famous as an anti-psychic. Up until then, he had confronted numerous self-proclaimed psychics and exposed their tricks. He had even performed "magic tricks that look just like psychic powers" for his students.
As Professor A was dozing off at his desk in his university office, someone suddenly strangled him from behind. Despite his resistance, his attacker kept choking him, and the strength gradually faded from his body.
Then he woke up. What he thought was an attack had been a dream.
There was a knock on the door, and when Professor A answered, an unfamiliar young man (hereafter B) entered the room. B declared, "I have precognitive abilities. What I see in my dreams actually comes true. Yesterday, I dreamed of meeting you. That's why I came."
Professor A gave a wry smile and replied, "You didn't have a precognitive dream; you're just acting out what you saw in your dream." But B stubbornly insisted, "I have psychic powers."
The professor took a deck of cards from his drawer, showed B the top card face down, and said, "If you have psychic powers, you should know what this card is." B readily answered, "It's the 3 of clubs."
When he turned the card over, it was indeed the 3 of clubs. Professor A then had him guess seven or eight more cards, and B guessed every single one of them. Faced with a situation that could only be real psychic power, Professor A turned pale as his previous worldview was overturned.
However, after B failed to guess a card and said, "I don't know that card," the professor regained his composure. When Professor A asked, "Why don't you know?", B replied, "Because even in my dream, you didn't turn that card over."
Then B moved behind Professor A and began to strangle him. It was just like a re-enactment of the nightmare right before B had visited. Despite Professor A's resistance, B kept choking him, and the strength gradually faded from his body.
Then he woke up.
Professor A was dozing off at his desk in his office, and he was the only one in the room.
Professor A took the deck of cards from his drawer and flipped through the top few cards. The top card was the 3 of clubs. After that, the exact same cards lined up as in the dream.
At that moment, there was a knock on the door, and when Professor A answered, a visitor entered the room.
Entering the room with a gentle smile was B.
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