"…cause we lost it all, nothing lasts forever, sorry I can't be… perfect…" The alarm was cut short as Michael turned the clock off at the wall. Drifting up through the veil of sleep, he awoke to the clutter of items on his bedside table lit up by the morning glow. Groggily he turned over onto his other side right into the beam of light shining through his window. He closed his eyes as the light seared his weak retinas, however after a few minutes his eyes had adjusted to the lowly lit bedroom that was his. Now that he was awake, Michael had no chance of getting back to sleep, and his boss would have his throat if he slept through another shift. He forced himself out of bed and down the empty hallway to the shower; a nice warm shower that would hopefully wake him up enough to get to work.
After falling asleep in the shower twice, despite the water cascading over his muscular body, Michael headed out of the bathroom in just a towel; his destination being the kitchen. Michael's apartment was nothing flash, nor was it big. It had all the amenities that a single guy needed; a bathroom, a kitchen, a lounge, a fairly large bedroom and a study. However Michael disliked the place, it felt… somewhat empty to him, like it needed something to fill it up, but the girls he always seemed to meet wanted only his body, and to be in his bed; his love life was lacking majorly. However Michael for the time being just focussed on living and working; not to mention writing his novel, which now covered three of the four walls of the study, as well as a considerable amount of space on his hard drive.
A healthy bachelor's breakfast of eggs on toast, for the protein, and pulpy orange juice, for the vitamin C, was followed by a morning workout; press-ups, sit-ups, weight lifting and a variety of Karate Kata movements to keep his physical shape in check. Breaking little more than a sweat, he finished his workout with a nice spray of deodorant to get rid of the odour before getting dressed into his work clothes which were slightly tight against his muscles. Although not overly muscular, but noticeably, Michael always found that shirts were a real problem and often had to get sizes that were two sizes bigger, just to avoid ripping. A banging interrupted his train of thought and Michael looked towards the noise. Focussing on the point that it came from, Michael's irises slowly changed from his somewhat 'normal' deep blue colour to black, certain flecks obtaining a milky white colour. Out of the corner of his left eye the window became transparent, showing a clear sky outside; something uncommon in Lancaster, but his focus was instead on the woman who seemed suspended in mid-air where the wall once was, her husband hidden behind her figure. Michael saw a hand rise before he forced himself to look away.
When he looked back, the wall was solid once more. Letting go of the breath he had been holding in in a shudder, he turned and left for work, shaking his head. "What has this world come to?" he whispered under his breath as he descended the stairs. Already his day had been ruined.
Michael was feeling slightly better about the day when he got to work, the events of this morning wiped clean from his mind the moment he stepped through the main doors. He greeted all his colleagues that he passed, almost as if he was as 'normal' as them, but there was always that feeling in his gut; the feeling of being different. Being Inhuman. Michael feared people finding out about him, and was lucky enough that his ability was easily concealed, but he had seen what humans had done to people like him; it was nothing pretty. His own friend at high school had been lynched by fellow classmates because he was thought to have abilities. The memory burned into his retinas much like his own ability. However, keeping his calm was paramount, so Michael put his head down and began working.
*****
"The weather looks like it is going to turn to crap in a couple of hours," she said before returning to munching on her sandwich. Michael's colleague Rose was the one person in his company that he would actually talk to; the others seemed more preoccupied with their own woes and gossip about their colleagues.
"Yeah," he started before swallowing, "might actually snow soon-" Michael was cut short by a small snowflake that settled gentle to the ground in front of them. It melted as quickly as it had come, yet both stayed silent as more snowflakes began to settle around them; some staying longer.
"What the-" Rose started, drawing Michael attention from the ground to a girl running towards them across the snow covered land. Her footsteps barely made tracks in the snow, yet she stumbled along, running from some unseen enemy.
She was only a few steps away from Michael when a loud 'bang' echoes and she fell to the ground. Michael raced over to her, her crimson blood a stark contrast against the pure white of the snow. Tears flowed from the pits of her eyes as she gazed up into the sky. "hey, stay with us," Michael yelled at the girl, "it's going to be okay, we'll get you a doctor!"
The girl merely touched his face and gazed deep into his eyes: "Hope awaits," she said before her heart rate stopped fully and she lay rigid on the ground. Rose grabbed Michael and pulled him away from the body, tears flowing from his eyes, as a mob encroached on the scene, several jeering as a final snowflake landed on the girl's dead body. Michael was incensed by this tragic loss of life, how could they do this to this poor, innocent young girl?
"How could you?!" He screamed at the mob.
"She was one of them!" a man called out from the crowd. "A Demon from Satan's Realm!" another woman screamed.
""She was a little girl you… you…" Michael's tongue was tied as his emotions wanted to scream every foul word he knew at them; instead he released it in a completely different way. Blood trailed out from the corner of his eyes. In a fit of anger he screamed at them, his vision went fuzzy and a large explosion thrust Michael backwards through the air where he landed several feet away; unconscious.
