Trickster of the Butterfly

Chapter 1- Deadline

"You never deserved this," Michael muttered under his cold breath. "I thought it could go on forever, but, I've only been holding you back..."

"You saw this coming," a deep yet gentle voice said behind him in the chilling air.

Michael turned and only then did he realize droplets of rain were suspended all around him as he stood alone in the middle of the street in front of his house. Orange light from lightposts illuminated the night in the neighborhood and no lights were lit along the houses' windows.

An eerie vibe crept on Michael and caused him to tense as he looked around for the source of the voice...

Then finally he recognized it and relaxed. "Oh, it's you."

"Boy, what are doing out here, at this time of night?" said the gentle disembodied voice. "Surely, you remember... the deadline."

"Oh, of course I remember," Michael replied as he scooped up floating raindrops from the air. "I was just, you know, reminiscing in the rain."

"Then why are there tears in your eyes?" the voice said with a concerned tone.

Michael didn't notice that tears were flowing down his right cheek. He stared into the night sky for awhile. He saw a few stars shining among the clouds, but they weren't twinkling, as if they were just white spots dotted on a black canvas.

Tears filled his eyes. Then Michael whimpered as he fell on his knees with his hands covering his eyes, crying bitterly. Tear drops fell from his eyes and chin twice as fast as tears would normally fall, like they had a stronger pull of gravity on them. The rain drops were still hanging in the air, though.

"I did see this coming!" he said in a broken voice. "I used the Butterfly, and I used it selfishly!"

Michael removed his hands from his face. "I only looked at what I could get, never really considering what a mess I was already making!"

"Are you saying you misused my gift?" the voice said in what sounded like a sympathetic tone.

Michael pounded his fist on the asphalt road "I horribly misused it."
"How? What did you do?"

Michael looked straight at the sports complex building at the end of the road and made a troubled expression as he tried to recall. The raindrops which were suspended in the air were now very slowly falling to the ground. Michael's tears were now slowly falling from his chin then stopping in mid-air right before they reached the ground.

" I hurt her..."