Beware the Calm

Listen!

What the hell had that stupid, idiotic pudding brain been doing, poking about inside his head like that! How dare she?! What gave her the right to do that?! And to use Clara against him like that – well that was unforgivable!

How did she even know about Clara anyway? How did she know him? He'd certainly never met her before – he'd have remembered. A striking face such as hers, with the long, dark hair, intense emerald eyes with flecks of gold swirling in them like the time vortex itself, pale skin – deathly pale in fact. Almost like she was sick. It wasn't a healthy look. And she looked tired as well. Withdrawn, overworked even.

But that surprisingly didn't detract from the natural beauty she still somehow held. A beauty that you only had to scratch the surface to find. No, he'd most definitely have remembered encountering her at some point in the past. So they couldn't have met. It was impossible.

But then how did she know Clara?! Was that another trick, to mess with his mind?

And talking about messing with his mind, those powers of hers! Not only had she read his mind – invaded it without his permission, he might add! But she'd done it without even making physical contact with him. He'd felt her poking and prodding about, and had been forced to quickly shut a lot of his mind off from her in defence of the invasion. But she shouldn't have been able to do that in the first place! It was impossible for a human!

Though of course, she'd already told him that she wasn't human. Had she just been saying that? Or was it true? Sure, there were plenty of human-looking races out there, many of which had been around long before the humans. Humans were still fairly young by comparison, and had stolen the look, claiming it as their own, in their naivety. But if she was one of these much more ancient races, that only raised the question of which one? And why was she hiding in plain sight amongst humans? He'd seen the looks on those hunter's faces. She clearly didn't use her powers often. That might even have been the first time she'd ever revealed them, in fact, in her desperation.

The mind powers could be hidden with a lot of care, but then there was the cellular transformation to consider as well. She'd taken on a completely new look, transforming herself physically into a whole other person. And not just in looks. She'd adjusted her voice to suit as well. It was a handy trick – great for disguises and fancy dress parties – but not when she used it against him like that! She'd taken his biggest weakness and used it, and he'd fallen for it, hook, line and sinker. Idiot! Stupid, stupid idiot!

He paused at a window and glanced out to the sun setting beyond the mountains on the horizon. Leaning forward, he gripped the ledge so tightly that his knuckles turned white, and then he closed his eyes and took a deep breath in, tasting the stillness in the air for the first time. It was unnatural, eerie even, and his eyes snapped back open again in an instant, his rage forgotten as confusion took over.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

Straining to hear anything out of the ordinary, that was when he realised. He couldn't hear anything. At all! There was no sound, no bird song, no wind rustling the leaves of the trees...nothing. Just a deathly silence, broken only by the sound of his own breathing.

"Hello, hello?" He spoke aloud, testing to make sure that he hadn't actually gone deaf. His voice echoed into the silence, both relieving him and alarming him at the same time. Because in all honesty it would have been so much easier if it had been him who had lost his hearing. But no, his hearing was still just as sharp as ever.

"Not good," he declared aloud, spinning on the spot once, then twice, then licking his finger and holding it aloft, then licking it again just to double check that he wasn't mistaken, not at all liking what he was tasting. "Oh very not good."