Arthur startled awake. He was in pain, massive pain. It was like someone brought a seering hot poker and left it in his head. His head was splitting apart, and he felt his muscle contract. This is not the first time he was in pain, he was stabbed before,knocked out and even fell from the 3rd floor, but this pain was different. Arthur began screeching horrendously the loudest he could, but screaming did not help with the pain. Then all of a sudden, the pain just, stopped. After enduring that pain, he felt amazing. It was like he was born again. His thoughts were clear and he felt physically stronger. Then all of a sudden the door slammed open.
"OH THANK GOD YOU'RE FINNALLY AWAKE!"
That was loud, but for some reason Arthur wasn't affected be the volume. He looked at the source of the noise, just to find his older sister in his doorway, now rushing to him. He looked around, and he realised he was back home in England. 'What?'
His sister embraced him as she was sobbing; "You went in a coma 2 weeks ago in Egypt. When your class found you in a library all sprawled over the floor, your parents and I were about to have a heart attack. We didn't know what to do. Thank God you're alive."
Despite having just woken up, Arthur got to thinking. 'So I went to sleep in a library by an ancient man who couldn't speak, I woke up a couple of hours later, the man spoke to me and told me go back to sleep , forcing me back asleep and now I woke up here'
This was a recap of what happened, but it didn't make sense to him.
"It's fine, I'm okay. Is there food?"
Arthur tried to change the subject in case his sister wanted to delve deeper into the issue. He could lie pretty well, but his sister was even better at sensing when someone was keeping the truth from her. He was not sure if he could convince her without telling her the full story, and even then she'd think he's insane and probably call a doctor to check up on him.
"Yeah mom made some food earlier. Let's go." Olivia still had some questions, but she knew that Arthur didn't eat properly in 2 weeks, this whole time being fed through constant injections of nutrients straight into his bloodstream. She got up and also tried to help Arthur up. He did not need any help getting up.
Olivia was now in her late 20s, with the same turquoise eyes as Arthur but with black hair instead, inherited by her father.
They left Arthur's room and reached the stairs. She tried to help him down the stairs, but again, he did not need help. He was walking steadily, unlike someone that just woke up, especially from a coma of 2 weeks. Even his vibe was off. He was … different. She didn't know how, but he was different.
They lived in an above average house with 2 wide floors, a garage, a back garden and a front garden. They descended from medieval nobles, but that was a long time ago. Their house fell a couple of centuries before along with their finances. Now the only source of income were her father and herself. Olivia worked as a freelance software developer, whereas her father worked in some scientific department of the military, she was not sure as his job required silence and secrecy.
Now they got to the kitchen, which to Arthur's hopes was not being used by her mom. He didn't want to just show up in front of her. Let her digest the news first so she can calm down. His father was most likely at work. He went to the stove where there was some leftover Alfredo pasta from the night before and got some parmigiano cheese from the fridge and sprinkled it all over the pasta. He turned on the tv like he always does in the kitchen, and just as he was going to tell her sister that he needs some fresh air outside, the news on the tv started. Arthur reckoned not too much happened in two weeks.
"It's now been two weeks since humanity fell into chaos, with crime rates going up worldwide and the sports community in disarray after most of the records have been broken. Every government is in chaos. People are exhibiting supernatural levels of strength, and it's also been recorded that their intelligence has also increased unnaturally. Whilst it's only a small percentage of people that have these enchanced abilities, crimes have increased exponentially, with some of these people going around robbing stores and some even brutally killing people. The police can't stop them, they're too fast and strong, some can even jump over houses. This crisis is a danger to society, and acknowledging this issue the government put together a team called simply, the special force, consisting of some individuals from the police and the military and some scientists who have all 'awakened' these abilities. The scientists have found that some people have a weird dream where they're talking to themselves, and as they wake up they are sent into agonising pain, and their abilities awaken. It's speculated that the pain comes from the body building itself again in a short amount of time to handle these newly enchanced abilities. It's been noted that some of these people who are having weird dreams don't experience enchanced abilities. It's still unknown how these abilities are being awakened through the population and what the dreams mean. No one can remember what happened in these dreams. But now we have the special force. A team assembled and overran by the Union of Nations, which is split in every country now. These heroes will protect and help humans from this new world, and hopefully some answers will be found. In the mean time, governments worldwide are in the middle of implementing new laws and building prisons capable of handling these threats."
After that the newsman went on to other, less 'interesting' news. Arthur was in shock. Was he not one of those people, and who was the ancient man? Arthur had to go outside quickly and see if he also has some of these powers.
"The whole world is a mess. They've got no idea what to do, people are scared and government employees are being overworked. Dad hasn't been here in 2 days you know. I hope they find a solut- Why are you looking at me like that?"
Arthur tried to sound as nice as he could; "Can I go outside for a bit? I need some fresh air." He lightly smiled, as if that's going to help.
"…" Olivia looked at him in disbelief, like he was crazy.
"Did you not just hear the news!? And you still want to go outside!?" Arthur couldn't complain about her reaction, she was right to be worried about him, but he had bigger things to worry about.
"Just for a a bit." Arthur tried to sound genuine, he didn't know if he was actually going to be out for just a bit, he just hoped that Olivia would believe him. This was like experiencing that day 2 weeks ago all over again.
"Go and put your location on." Olivia said as she was walking out the kitchen.
"Thank you." Arthur went upstairs to get changed, turned on the location on his phone, and after changing into some pretty heavy clothes to protect him from the winter, he went downstairs again to put his shoes on and go outside. He was outside, and after hearing those news he kind of expected the street to be burning with some cars turned over. To his pleasant surprise everything looked normal. He began walking around until he was stopped by a voice behind him.
"Took you long enough."
He recognised that voice, he heard it for a brief second. He looked back to see if he was right about whose voice that was, and as he thought, he was right.
The ancient man was right behind him.