It was just an ordinary house basking in the warm July glow; the sun hidden through the layers of factory smog, which lent an almost dusk-like feeling to the scene despite it being nearer midday The house was simple in architecture, just a typical 2 storey accommodation, with no remarkable detail to catch anyone's eye. For, of course, no one knew that the house hid a secret. No one, that is, except the ordinary-looking man who lived there.

Gabriel Gray was sat on the floor, immersed in a book, when the call came. The incessant ringing cut into his menagerie and he cursed as he dropped the book straight on top of something half-eaten from the day before. He crossed the room like a ghost, almost gliding across the open-plan room, and intercepted the contraption before the next ring could explode.

"Sylar Gray?"

Hearing the name was as forceful as a smack in the face. His fingers automatically touched the watch face on the opposite hand – his everyday reminder of everything he had overcome. This same watch had given birth to the name this faceless person was now calling him and the memories, forgotten for what seemed like so long, were bursting at the surface of his brain and it took everything inside of him to silence the cry on his lips and calmly answer. He managed six letters before being cut off sharply. " We need your help. We know what you can do…and are prepared to reward you, very fairly. Overall a fair deal – you help us and we'll help you. You are special…and we can help you to realise that. We can give you everything you've always wanted..?" The voice tailed off after coyly spitting out this last sentence and Gabriel's fingers tightened around the receiver.

"Wh...what..how have you? Wrong person…icanthelpyou. Atall." The words all rolled into one at his sudden haste to be as far away as possible.

"Oh but you can Sylar, or do you prefer to be called Gabriel again nowadays? Never mind, potayto potahto. Or have you forgotten that you still owe The Company for giving you a chance to be normal? Never forget that we're watching you Sylar. One of our agents will be in touch shortly."

The voice of Noah Bennett cut out, only to be replaced by a dialling tone as Gabriel put the phone down in a daze. Thoughts and memories overcrowded his mind; everything he'd left behind had finally bitten him – he was not a free man as had been promised. What had they meant? Were they really still bugging his house, his every movement? Could they see him right now? The confusion settled as a red mist and anger fell in. He swept his right hand in an arc and the closest kitchen unit relieved itself of its foundations, threw itself through the air to crash against the faraway wall and splinter with a terrific smashing sound. The remains fell on top of an attractive French bureau, which cracked straight down the middle, failing to hold the weight of the broken furniture.

Gabriel screamed in frustration – a primeval sound – and punched the wall, his hand easily going through the 15 centimetres of plasterboard. Finally, his rage spent, he fell to the floor and sobbed heart-rending=g cries that could only be compared to that of a lion cub in a circus, when first faced with the ring of fire 2 metres above it's head, with nothing to retreat to but the fatal whip of its' ringmaster.

The Company was the most dangerous of all ringmasters; they who thought nothing of the morals of it's purpose and to whom human life was a mere inconvenience. Gabriel cried, among the wreckage he had created, for the inevitability of the fate that now lay before him and the flames he would surely be facing. And then, somewhere in the corners of his mind, he wondered whether or now he would survive the choices that he made, this time round.