- 4 -

- Unexpected Consequences -

Cal didn't know where he was. He had a pounding headache and it felt like a gang of people had beaten him with baseball bats for an hour. He tried to move his body, but it felt like it was made of lead, even his eyelids refused to yield to his commands. Giving up on moving his body, Cal instead tried to gauge his surroundings, using his other senses.

He couldn't hear much, mostly silence with the odd inclusion of what could have been voices; although they were muffled as if they were behind glass. His sense of smell seemed to be useless as well, wiggling his nose gave him the feeling something was stuffed up it. Taste wouldn't exactly help him out at this point, apart from the fact he felt like he had eaten recently, which was a surprise given as he couldn't remember the last time he had actually eaten. Eventually he gave up on trying to guess where he was and, since he didn't feel in immediate danger, he decided to drift back off into what he was sure was sleep; although it was plagued with nothingness.

What seemed like minutes later he woke up again, this time a little more aware of his surroundings. His eyelids had started to listen to him again and as he moved them open, millimetre by millimetre, he was greeted with blurry white. For a moment he thought it was simply his brain not reacting to what he was seeing, or getting used to the light, but the realised it was because the room he was in was all white. He moved his head slightly to the right, still stiff and still feeling as though he had been beaten all over, and saw a window with the blinds dropped.

As the minutes passed he could move more and more of his body; starting with his fingers and moving down until he could wiggle his toes. When he felt confident enough to do it, he slowly pulled himself up and into a sitting position, feeling his aching body as he moved, and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He attempted to sniff but instead was met with resistance from whatever it was that was in his nose. So he reached up and tugged sharply, pulling a small tube system free from his nostrils. Just as he completed this action, groaning loudly as he did so, a door in the far corner swung open and Louise Lee stepped into the room.

"Cal!" she called out and rushed over to him, immediately throwing her arms around him in a huge hug. "You're awake!"

Cal grimaced but managed to keep silent as Louise squeezed all of his aching muscles at once. "Yeah, although I feel like someone run me over in a truck." Louise released her grip and Cal grimaced again as he muscles expanded.

"Sorry about that…" suddenly her demeanour had gotten very calm, and slightly morbid.

"What's up?" Cal asked as lightly as he could, slowly rotating his arm, which is when he suddenly realised his right forearm was in a cast. "What the…?" he said as he gazed at it and the across to Louise. "What happened to me? Where am I?"

"That answers the question I was about to ask." She said, crossing her arms while her voice took on a more sympathetic tone. "You don't remember what happened do you?" she didn't let Cal answer the question as she moved on without pausing. "That's what the Doctor's expected to be honest, being as you've been in a coma for the last week."

"What?!" Cal replied, his shocked expression telling the truth.

"Cal, don't you remember him? The man in the cloak?" she moved closer to him and placed her hands on his knees, staring him in the eyes. "Don't you remember what he did?"

As she spoke, Cal's mind flashed an image of a man stood in the shadows, his white mask and red eyes bright in the darkness. He clenched his eyes shut, raising his good hand to his head as he did so, to try and hold onto the image but it had gone as soon as it had arrived.

"Cal? Cal, you remembered?" he heard Louise's voice but kept his eyes closed as he searched for that image again. "The doctor's advised against forcing you to remember, but I can't agree with that, not after what he did to you. Think, Cal, you can't forget him!" her voice was more forceful but it worked.

Cal's mind was suddenly filled with the grating voice of the man in the cloak, his plain white mask surrounding his glowing red eyes. He remembered approaching the man, only to me thrown to the side as though he was nothing but a baby, and then he was thrown through the wall. The man had had unbelievable of strength, and Cal had no idea where it had come from. He felt his arm break all over again, only just hanging on a refraining from screaming again, and then falling into part-consciousness. He heard his father talking and then he was flying through the air again before slamming into something and falling completely under.

He didn't know what had been happening; Cal didn't know who the man was or why he was so strong. Cal didn't know, but his father did. He snapped his eyes opened and stared into the blue of Louise's.

"Louise, where is my family?" he asked quietly, intensely.

Louise hesitated for a fraction of a second before answering his question. "He killed them, Cal, he killed them all."

Cal felt nothing for a long time, and then he felt his sadness well only for it to be instantly quashed by his rising anger. He closed his eyes and took a deep breathe in, controlling his emotions before he completely lost control.

"Cal?" Louise questioned quietly.

"I need to get out of here, now." He said, sliding off the bed and onto wobbly feet. Louise was instantly next to him, grabbing him by the elbow to support him.

"You can't go, you're still hurt."

"I don't feel any pain, nothing is wrong with me!" he said angrily, shuffling towards the door, practically dragging the much smaller Louise with him.

"Don't be an idiot Cal, that'll be the drugs taking the pain aw…ay." She then realised that the IV drip that fed into his arm was hanging down by the side of the bed, clearly having been free of his arm for a while; long enough for the drugs to have worn off.

"I'm not being an idiot, I don't feel any pain!" he shouted the last word and slammed his casted arm into the wall, shattering it into pieces and revealing a completely injury-free arm.

Louise had her hands covering her mouth but slowly moved them down to his arm to inspect them. "It's not broken anymore, but that's impossible." She was dumbfounded.

Cal was steadier on his feet now and he could feel strength seeping into him with every second. "It obviously wasn't as broken as you thought."

"I saw the x-ray Cal, it was snapped completely in two, and the doctors were worried it would never set back in its original position. This is bizarre."

"Whatever, I need to get the hell out of here." He snapped and pulled his arm away from her as he moved towards the door.

Cal reached out for the door handle but as he turned the knob to open it, the whole door jerked forward and he ended up with the door in his hands; having come off the wall completely. Cal looked confused for a second but shook his head and dropped the door, where it clattered to the floor, gaining the attention of a number of people but he ignored them all as he ploughed his way down the corridor.

"Cal! Cal, stop ignoring me! You can't leave, the doctors have to examine you and also…" Louise was shouting before Cal stopped dead in his tracks, causing her to slam into his back, nearly knocking her to the floor in the process. "Come on Cal, let's get back to your room." She said, rubbing her nose where it had collided with Cal's back.

"I don't think so, I'm allowed to check myself out now and get as far away from here as I can, and stop trying to stop me!" he started to move again before stopping at a giggling sound coming from Louise. "What the hell's so funny?" He asked, despite his wish to hurry out.

"Cal, I was also about to point out that you can't leave because you have no clothes on." Louise said, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.

Cal looked down at himself and realised that he was only wearing one of those hospital gowns, and nothing else. "So where the hell are my clothes?" he asked, ignoring Louise's look.

"Back in your room, if you hadn't been so keen to get the hell out of here, you would have probably seen them."

"Fine." He said and strode back the way he had come. He stepped over the broken door and ducked into his room. Just as Louise was about to follow suite, Cal stepped out again.

"What the…?" she said, staring at the now fully dressed Cal. "How the hell did you do that?"

"Do what? I've been able to dress myself for a long time now." Cal said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"But, you were only in there for about a second!" Louise exclaimed, her face a painting of confusion.

"Whatever." Cal replied and strode once more down the corridor, his face telling people to get out of his way.

He didn't exactly know where he was going, but by following the signs and a gut feeling he had, he eventually ended up in what was clearly the reception and waiting area. The waiting area was fairly full, but Cal had no eyes for that as he pushed his way through a set of swinging doors, leaving them attached to the wall this time, and made a beeline to the reception desk.

As he approached the desk, the woman behind it looked up and for a split second, she looked terrified, but smiled as he placed his hand on the top of the desk. "I'd like to check myself out please; my name is Calvin Kelham."

She looked momentarily surprised but her professionalism recovered as she clicked away at her computer. Eventually she stopped and frowned, glancing up at Cal as she did so. "This can't be right, it says here that you are a serious case patient. If that was correct, you certainly wouldn't be up and walking around. The Doctor must have made an administration error when entering your details onto the system." She reached into a draw and pulled out a sheet of paper, sliding it in front of Cal and handing him a pen. "Right, if you could print your name at the top and then sign at the bottom, you'll be free to go."

Cal didn't waste any time filling in the form, but the time he had taken with the receptionist had allowed Louise to catch up to him. "You're seriously checking yourself out, don't you want a Doctor to check you out? I mean, I would, if this was happening to me." She said, watching as he handed the signed form back and exchanged farewells with the receptionist before turning on his heel and heading for the automatic doors that led to the outside.

"Well, you're not me and I'm not you so none of that matters. I can't stay here anymore." Cal replied, sliding through the doors before they had fully opening but coming to a halt outside, the sun hidden from view by a slanted roof above him. "Where the hell is this?" he said, surveying the unfamiliar surroundings.

"Cal, we're still in London, England. You were injured too badly to be transferred very far, especially all the way to the states." Louise paused as she saw how confused and lost he really was, and her sympathy for him grew a little bit. "Come on, I'm booked into a hotel down the road, I couldn't be too far away from you." She stepped onto the pavement and gestured for Cal to follow.

Cal frowned and stepped out into the sun, intending to follow Louise, but instead froze on the spot. He suddenly felt like someone had fed him the world's supply of coffee, injected him with pure energy, forced him to drink every energy drink in America; all at the same time. He stumbled forward and tripped on the curb, sprawling into the road. Louise called out just as a car skidded to stop in front of him, the front bumper inches from his head.

Cal reached up and placed his hand on the bonnet of the car to pull himself up but instantly let go when he felt the metal cave under his grip. His hand was now imprinted into the car and the owner looked just as surprised as Cal felt. Cal jumped to his feet and took a step away from the car and into the path of an oncoming cyclist, who crashed into him. However, Cal didn't move an inch as the bicycle bent itself around him like he was a statue, while the rider was sent head over heels onto the pavement.

Eyes wide in surprise and horror, Cal took a step back and suddenly he was crashing into the building on the opposite side of the street; knocking the concrete to the floor as if it were made of cardboard. He spun away from the wall and took another step; this time disappearing completely.

"CAL!" Louise screamed and dashed across the road to the spot he had been stood moments before.

Hundreds of miles away from London, Cal splashed down into the ocean in a panicked frenzy and immediately started sinking. He managed to take a single breath before disappearing beneath the waves. He panicked and struggled but couldn't pull himself out of the current that was pulling him to the ocean floor. It was at this point that he realised he didn't have an urge to breath; he had no need for the air his brain was confusedly trying to force him towards.

So he let himself sink and eventually he touched down on the seabed. He instantly centred his balance and dug his feet into the ground to stop himself from moving any further. Cal looked around, ignoring the fact that he could look around without the sea stinging his eyes, and stared in wonder at his body.

What the hell is happening!? He thought desperately.