That night he dreamed of ghosts.

The dead just wouldn't leave him alone. In his dream, he walks the streets of Empire city and watches it burn. The flames lick the sky as charred corpses lurch from the buildings. Then came the spirits. Ghosts of every shape and size drifted through windows, rose out of the concrete, and floated between vehicles on the street. They were all silent as they circled him. Cole tries to back away but he finds himself stuck in a corner.

This is it. This is where he would die. The dead were going to take him with them. A single female spirit breaks away from the others and comes forward.

"You should be dead," the spirit says, its voice as quiet as a breeze.

"I know," Cole manages to respond. The spirit of the girl seems to consider him. Her white eyes flashed. Cole felt like his soul was laid bare before this spirit. If she wanted, this girl could have snapped her fingers and Cole would have dropped dead, his spirit leaving his body to join this legion of ghosts.

Clearly his continued existence is all a huge mistake. He should be six feet under right now.

As if reading his mind, the spirit girl speaks again.

"It's no mistake," she whispers. The other ghosts around her seem to be growing restless, but the girl ignores them. "You still have some life left to burn."

"I do?" Cole says uncertainly. The spirit nods slowly.

"Yes," she says slowly. "But don't squander the time you have, or your fate will be ever sadder than ours."

"I won't," Cole answers, relieved. The other spirits begin to dissipate, except for the girl spirit. Cole starts to move when he notices blackened corpses grabbing him around the ankles. He falls forward on to the pavement, hands scrabbling at anything to hold onto as the charred, oozing corpses begin to drag him backwards.

"Wait!" Cole cries out to the spirit. "I thought you said I had time left!?"

"You are alive for a reason, Cole MacGrath," the spirit says, regarding him with her cold, dead eyes. "You must change the future."

"What?" Cole gasps desperately. But the girl spirit disappears into mist. The dead drag Cole down into a pit and the ground crumbles on top of him, burying him alive.

/

Cole was alone, wandering the ruined streets. Trish was being so distant, like she was blaming him for being alive instead of her sister. That thought really hurt. It wasn't his fault Amy was dead... was it? Sparks traced their way through his fingers. Cole had gotten so used to this that he barely noticed. He hardly had any control over it anyway. There was no point trying to stop it.

He didn't come across many people on his walk, and the few he did come across veered away from him so quickly you'd have thought he had fangs. Sighing, he ducked down an alley. He felt at home here. Urban exploration had always been a hobby of his. A sort of, kind of illegal hobby that Trish frowned on but he'd never been able to bring himself to give it up.

Still, it bothered him that so many people were avoiding him now. He knew what people had thought of him even before this whole disaster happened. Big, bulky, scary Cole MacGrath. He supposed he was big and muscular, that was a result of his hobby and his job as a bike courier. Scary he didn't understand. He was just a normal guy who wanted what every other guy on the planet wants. That being a nice home, a nice girl, and a job bringing home the bacon.

Well, he'd gotten the first two. He had a decent apartment and a nice girlfriend. The only thing was... he wished he was the one who brought in the most money. He supposed that was a bit misogynistic of him, but still... once Trish became a doctor, what would she need him for? She'd have all the money she needed. Maybe she'd keep him around for sex, but even that seemed unlikely lately. She hadn't let him touch her in weeks.

Not that he blamed her, now... a single touch from him could kill her, if he let what pathetic control he had over his powers slip...

He noodled his way through the twisting side streets, his mind still wandering. That's when he heard the crying. He turned, expecting to see a crazy person huddled by a garbage can. But no... it was a child. Cole immediately knew why the child was crying. His arm was broken, bent at an unnatural angle. He should know, he'd broken his arm a few times.

Cole nearly bit his tongue in his indecision. Should he try and help this kid? Trish would have tried to help, but Cole had no idea what to do. Then it hit him. Maybe that power could help the kid too... He held out his hand, pinching his eyes shut to focus. Blue light pulsed around his fingers. Before the kid could move, Cole pushed the energy away from him.

A few seconds later, the child's tears ceased. Cole opened his eyes.

The kid gave him a look like he'd just seen either an angel or the devil. Then he got up and ran off. Cole was in shock. He couldn't believe that had actually worked! The man stood up, still gaping at his own hands.

Man, if Trish ever found out about this she'd be so jealous...

He was about to run off to go tell his girlfriend when the breeze drifting between the buildings suddenly became a gale, blowing debris all over the place. Cole let the wind push him along as he went, not that he had much choice. And then it stopped... but as it stopped, Cole heard someone speak.

"That was a very nice thing you just did."

Cole whipped around, but there was no one there. Nothing but trash.

"Hello?" he called uncertainly.

No one appeared. No other voices spoke. Cole was starting to feel jumpy. Even though he couldn't see or hear anyone, he felt like he was being watched.

As he ran back to his apartment, he was sure he heard amused laughter following him in the air.

/

Cole was feeling nauseous. Normally heights weren't a big deal for him, but he wasn't normally one hundred feet in the air dangling by one hand off a city monument. And even that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was the mob assembled below him. Most of whatever they were screaming was lost in the wind whipping by, but Cole still caught a few words of it.

"Terrorist!"

"Murderer!"

"Monster!"

Cole wanted to yell back at them to try and defend himself, but he could barely remember anything from the day of the blast. What would he say? He was sure he must have gone to work like always, but... then what? As far as he could work out, he must have just been unfortunate enough to be nearby when the bomb went off. What made no sense at all was how he had gotten this power over electricity form being in close proximity to an explosion. Common sense told him that people didn't usually get super powers from being blown up. They would just be... well, dead.

Everyone thought he'd planted the bomb. But even thought he couldn't remember anything from before the blast, Cole was positive he hadn't orchestrated it. Why would he want to get himself blown to pieces? It was obviously just some sort of freak misunderstanding, with the emphasis on freak.

His hand was getting tired, but he didn't want to get any lower. Any lower and they'd be able to hit him with rocks, although why none of them had thought to simply shoot him was beyond him. He switched his hands.

"I didn't fucking do it!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. It was pointless to yell, they probably couldn't hear him anyway, but it felt good to say it out loud. At least he could get that off his chest before he plummeted to his death and was subsequently eaten alive by the mob.

Then he made the mistake of looking down. That's when he saw her.

Trish was standing there at the front of the group, quietly looking up at him. She wasn't yelling or shaking her fist, but even from one hundred feet in the air, Cole could sense her disappointment. Was she waiting for him to fall, hoping for it even? He had to try and make it right.

"I didn't do it, Trish! It's not true!" he yelled, kicking his foot against the metal monument that he was hanging off of.

But even as he said that, he could feel the power he'd gained churning in his abdomen. It was the strangest feeling. It felt like having a full stomach, except that he was starving. And he'd been starting to gain some control over it. He could almost always hold the electricity inside him now, and only release it when he meant to.

He could see how people could come to the conclusion that he'd done this. Maybe he'd set the whole thing up to get super powers. Wait, even that didn't make sense. What was he supposed to be, some kind of mad scientist? Yeah, a guy who delivered packages on a bike for a living was totally an evil genius.

"I was set up!" Cole roared over the sound of the wind. "I never planted a bomb! That's fucking crazy! You're all crazy!"

Maybe he shouldn't have said that. The screaming of the crowd only got louder and angrier. How long was he going to have to hang here until they all got bored and left? He considered shooting some lightning bolts to try and scare them off, but that probably wouldn't help his case that he was innocent.

His arms were starting to shake with fatigue. Cole wasn't sure how much longer he could hang on. He was sure his shoulder was going to be dislocated by the end of this. Not that he would know it for long because he would fall to his death and be ripped to shreds.

Lightning crackled in the sky. Cole looked up and sighed. Apparently nature was eager to finish him off too. Black clouds were rolling in. A few minutes later raindrops began landing on his face.

Cole could feel his hands getting slippery. It wouldn't be long now. He'd lose his grip on the statue and he'd be dead. He tried to feel sad for himself. It wasn't exactly hard, but this was all so surreal it was like he was feeling sorry for somebody else. He wondered how bad it would hurt when he hit the ground. Who really wants to have time to think before they die, Cole thought angrily.

Shit, Cole thought. He'd have to try and climb back down and risk being caught by the mob. At least then he might have a chance to live through today. He started edging down the statue's arm. He had just reached the elbow when a rock came sailing out of nowhere and hit him hard in the small of his back. That was enough to make him lose his grip. Cole felt his fingers slip from the slick metal and the next thing he knew, he was looking up at the black clouds.

Afterward, he could barely explain how he survived. All he knew was that one second he was looking at the clouds, and the next he had somehow twisted in mid air like a cat a split second before his feet slammed into the ground. A second later, more thunder and lightning clashed above Cole's head. The sky rumbled so loudly the mob hesitated and quieted down, most people looking up at the storm. Cole was still standing where he had landed, completely stunned. How had he done that and not been squashed flat? He glanced up at the sky briefly too. The thunder was so loud, he'd never heard thunder that loud before...

The mob was recovering from their initial surprise, seeming to decide that Cole was a bigger threat than the storm. They began to close in on the man they perceived to be a demon. Cole turned on the spot, there was nowhere to run.

"Stay back!" Cole snarled, raising his sparking hands. "I'm warning you!"

Thunder rolled over the crowd, making them pause once again. Cole stopped dead in his tracks. There it was again, that feeling building up in his gut... He could feel his own terror feeding it, giving it power. Lightning flashed above his head. Mouth now hanging open in horror, Cole's eyes rose to look at he storm swirling above them as the pieces fell into place in his head. Rain fell into his eyes from those ominous black clouds.

I did this. I called this storm. I'm creating it, feeding it...

Cole's attention was diverted from his horrified staring as a big beefy man suddenly lunged at him.

"No, don't!" he screamed, trying to back away. The storm was too big now, too strong to control... just like he was. Cole swiftly began clenching his muscles even as he ducked the man's initial blow. The storm inside him had to be contained, or more people would die. But Cole was fenced in, and the man collided with Cole, knocking him to the ground. Cole landed on his ass, bumping into a woman behind him.

The crowd was snapping out of it's confusion of seeing him survive that fall and its fear of the storm. They started screaming at Cole, and egging on the large man who was gearing up to attack him. The woman he'd bumped into pushed him away with a sneer.

From his position on the ground, Cole quickly took in his attacker. The man was large and muscled, wearing a dirty T-shirt and ratty jeans. Cole wasn't sure he could take down a guy like that without using his powers. And he didn't want to kill anyone...

So when the big guy reached down and yanked him up by the collar of his jacket, Cole kept his power in check.

"I've been hoping for this, freak," the guy said, baring his teeth in Cole's face. The crowd closed in around them. It seemed like now that they knew Cole was trapped, they were willing to watch him be tortured by the big man. They wanted his death to be a show.

Cole didn't say anything, just strained against the man's grip.

"You killed my girl," the guy snarled in Cole's face. "I saw you talking to her, moving in on her."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Cole choked, still mostly focused on containing his energy. The rain crept down under his clothes. Lightning snaked around the sky, like it was watching the violence too.

Cole was thrown to the muddy ground. As he tried to get up, a foot connected with his chest, forcing the air from his lungs. The big man knelt down by his side.

"You're a damn liar!" he spat. "She would have been mine if it weren't for you!"

Cole's thoughts were feeling muddled after being kicked around and realizing that he was causing a massive storm. But he knew an arrogant asshole when he heard one.

"You're a fucking shithead," Cole murmured through bloody lips.

Cole winced as he was yanked to his feet yet again. A fist connected with the side of his head, sending him stumbling backwards. Cole wasn't sure if it was water or blood all over his face. Thunder clapped in the sky.

"Stop!" he pleaded, not for himself, but for them. He wiped his face with his sleeve. This would just be a repeat of the hospital only much, much worse. The power had him now, and it wasn't going to let him go. Lightning and electricity, unless controlled, would destroy everything around him.

"Kill him!" someone behind Cole shrieked. As the big guy circled him, Cole's mind worked wildly to think of an escape. His heart pounded against his ribs, valiantly keeping him alive. Electricity pulsed in his arteries along with his own blood. He had never quite appreciated how awesome it was just to be alive.

"I'll kill you for her," the guy growled. "You took her from me!"

The beefy man pulled out a long knife from his belt. Water dripped from the tip of the blade. Bolts of lightning traced their way over Cole's wet skin and clothes. Cole held up his sparking hands.

"Back off!" he growled, putting all of his desperation into this last plea. As he feared, the man didn't listen. The enemy lunged forward, and Cole, with nowhere to go, felt the blade sink into his shoulder. Cole groaned and sank to his knees. Rain mixed with his blood that soaked his clothes. He held his breath. It was close to the surface now, so close...

No, not again...

The beefy man was now grinning down at Cole, raising the knife again, preparing to stab him once more. Unable to watch his own death, Cole stared up at the storm clouds. In the wind he thought he could hear a voice begging for mercy for him, trying to stop his murder. Who was trying to save him?

Cole let out the breath he had been holding, and the world was torn apart. White lightning split the sky, aiming for the bleeding man kneeling in the middle of the mob. The bolt struck the wounded man and a scream tore from his bloody lips. His body convulsed as he took in the power and he fell sideways onto the asphalt. But he couldn't contain it, it strained the bounds of his willpower, and overwhelmed every sense he had.

An explosion rocked the whole park as the power easily broke the limits of Cole's control. Thunder shook the asphalt. Lightning flew from his skin, leaping over the wet ground, blasting through anyone in its path. The crowd's screams of rage changed to screams of terror. Those who hadn't been hit fled in fear. The ones who had been hit either lay dead or twitching on the ground.

Rain continued to fall, slowly soaking Cole's clothes. Minutes dragged by.

Cole regained his senses and began gasping for breath. His eyes wouldn't open. Even without his sight, he knew what he would see and he hated it. Having seen it once before, it scared the shit out of him. There would be more death, and it would be his fault. Still struggling to draw a breath that didn't make his chest feel like it was full of knives, Cole rolled over onto his stomach and began to crawl.

He hadn't gotten far before his hands landed on a body. Fear jolted his senses and he stumbled backwards, hyperventilating. He'd just seen into a mind that wasn't his. Thoughts that didn't belong to him rushed into his head. He could feel lust and frustration, longing for the tiny woman with the blonde hair. Her laugh ignited his fire, his desire to possess her. Every day he watched her, and every day she passed him by.

Cole dry heaved onto the asphalt. They were that murderer's thoughts, he knew it...

Even when he was done heaving, Cole wouldn't open his eyes. There would be ghosts, or walking corpses. If he saw it, he'd hear those dead people in his head, too. There would be no escape from that. Then a voice spoke.

"It's okay," said a girl's voice. "Just open your eyes and get out of here."

Cole sat there, sucking in huge breaths with his eyes pinched shut. Who the hell was still here? Was it the same person who had pleaded for his life only minutes ago?

"Get away from me," he growled. "I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't," the girl assured him, sounding kind of sad. "Just keep moving forward, towards the grass. You'll be fine."

Cole stood up, the presence of another person fueling his desire to move. He thought he could hear someone moving nearby, that had to be the girl.

"I just killed fuck knows how many people," Cole hissed, stumbling forward awkwardly. "Just stay away!"

Cole tripped over another body. To his embarrassment, he felt himself shaking with fear.

"I saw," the girl commented blandly. "That man stabbed you. What happened wasn't your fault."

"Why won't you just go?!" Cole screamed straight ahead of him. His legs felt like rubber and he wobbled his way forward, trying to get away from this stubborn girl. He didn't know why she was persisting in trying to reassure him, but he wanted her to leave before he did something else he would regret.

"I know you didn't mean to," the girl said nearby.

"What would you know?" Cole snarled, clenching his fists. "You don't know me! You don't know what I'm capable of!"

Then there was silence. Nobody else spoke or moved. Cole felt that he had gone far enough to be well away from the bodies. He opened his eyes to find himself inches from a tree trunk. Looking left and right, he saw nothing. There was no girl anywhere in sight.

"Uh..." he said to himself, looking up into the tree to see if she was above him. Nothing.