Trickster of the Butterfly

Chapter 24- Pain of the Wielder

The intense light around Michael faded. He ran over to Alora.

"Alora?" she was face down on the floor, right next to the mysterious man's gray denim hoodie and pants. She wasn't moving.

He knelt down to get a closer look at her.

Michael heart sank at the sight of blood. Dark red liquid was spreading on the floor beneath her.

Tears began flooding Michael's eyes. "Alora? Alora? ALORA! Hindi, HINDI!"

He got up and took a step back, terrified at what he'd done. He sat down on the floor and sobbed bitterly. He felt paralyzed, sore, exhausted and extremely guilty. Michael couldn't get his eyes off of Alora. He wanted to punch the masked man so hard he would get thrown to another country, but he knew it in him that he was the one fired the blast. The blood was drenching Alora's shirt red.

"Hindi... di to puwede. TULONG, TULONG!" Michael shouted desperately. He crawled over the pool of blood to get closer to Alora. He couldn't touch her for fear of making things worse.

"LORD! TULONG!" he shouted even louder. "Kahit sino... tulong please," he said weakly.

The complex unfroze and the few spectators from the other end of the building went over to the scene.

"Oh my God..." one student said and ran to the exit.

"Tulong, tumawag ka ng tulong!" a professor shouted to the student that just left.

"Iho, tayo ka muna diyan," a security guard urged Michael. Michael got up and watched as the guard assessed the situation.

Everybody heard the exit doors open and turned around.

"Bilis! Bilis!" Norman ran toward the scene with two medics holding a stretcher. The people made way for them.

Norman cursed when he saw Alora lying there.

"Buhay pa siya. May pulse pa," the security guard said.

"Oh, anong hinihintay niyo?! Buhatin niyo na siya!" Norman shouted to the medics. They very carefully lifted her to the stretcher.

Michael's heart ached and burned as he watched them rush to bring her outside, leaving a trail of blood across the complex.

Norman put his hand on Michael's shoulder. "Michael, Michael! Brad! Gising!" Norman tried to shake Michael out of his shock. He only turned to face Norman with a blank, teary expression.

"Brad..." Norman hugged Michael. "Magiging okay lang siya. Wag ka magala-" Michael pushed Norman away.

"Kasalanan ko to. KASALANAN KO!" Michael ran away from them and stormed out of the complex.

Outside, he saw the crowd of PLMayers still there. Once he saw the medics loading Alora on to an ambulance, he couldn't help cry some more.

"Mike," Joy approached him. "Pagdasal lang natin, magiging okay lang siya."

Michael couldn't focus on Joy's words, he couldn't hear her. He ran through the crowds and past the ambulance.

"Mike! Wait!" Hera shouted.

Michael ignored her and went straight to his house which was just a short walk away from the Sports Complex. He pushed open their house's fence and barged into their house. His parents were on the couch and his three brothers were sitting on their personal chairs, all of them watching TV in the living room.

"Michael? Tapos na kayo?" his mother asked. His family seemed oblivious to what was happening at the end of the street. It made sense since they didn't really go out of the house unless absolutely necessary since it was a little dangerous out this time of night.

"Michael, bakit ka umiiyak? Dugo ba yang nasa t-shirt mo?!" his mother said worriedly. Michael's thoughts were still in another place and he couldn't focus on his mother.

His brothers stared at him concernedly. His parents got up and tried to calm him.

"Mike, anong nayari? Sabihin mo samin," his father asked gently.

Michael stuttered, blabbering gibberish.

"Michael, Michael, tingin ka sakin," Michael was able to hear that and looked into his mother's eyes. It was a good thing his mother was a psychology graduate and she knew how to handle this. "Dane, kuha ka ng tubig, bilis."

His older brother handed the glass of water to his mother.

"Michael, upo ka muna, uminom ka."

Michael sat down on the couch and drank the water shakily.

"Anak, anong nayari? Pwede mo bang sabihin samin?" she said slowly. "Shane, patayin mo muna yung TV."

His younger brother knew the situation and obeyed immediately.

"D-dugo. Sobrang daming dugo. N-ni Al-Al-Alora," Michael managed to say. His mother just nodded. She stroked Michael's arm to calm him down.

For 5 minutes, everybody was silent. Michael was beginning to collect his thoughts and was beginning to calm down.

Then suddenly, Michael's body glowed intensely, like it did back with his fight with the hooded man. He suddenly shot to his feet.

"Michael?" his mother held his arm tightly. His father and brothers got up from their chairs and backed away.

Three long light tentacles emerged from Michael's body and lashed wildly around the living room, swatting his mother away, and sending her crashing into the TV. His brothers and father ducked for cover as the tentacles knocked over chairs, tables, and other furniture.  Michael didn't have any control

"Ano to? Michael stop!" his father was greatly bewildered. He tried to approach Michael but was swatted away too.

"Guys di ko macontrol! Layo kayo!" Michael said. He tried as hard as he could to turn off his powers.

"Michael, anong nayayari sayo-" Dane was slapped by a tentacle as well. Michael concentrated even harder until finally the tentacles and the light around him faded.

"The Butterfly's true form is exposed, a perfect time for my parting gift..." Michael recalled the hooded man's last words. He wondered if the man had messed with the Butterfly and made it short-circuit. What made him wonder even more was why he hasn't passed out yet after using the rainbow attacks so many times now.

His parents were okay and got up from the floor. Dane, Shane, and Ezekiel went out of their cover. All of them looked terrified at Michael. He ran past his brothers and went up to the second floor to his room.

He went to the closet, took off his bloodstained shirt and wore a new black shirt and put on his black hooded jacket with gray feather designs. Underneath his bed, he prepared a backpack with clothes and supplies he would need in case he had to leave in an emergency.

"Michael..." his father stood at the doorway. Michael snapped his fingers and walked past his frozen father, down the stairs, past his frozen family, and out the door then the fence. He ran down the neighborhood.

"I'm sorry Mama, Papa, Dane, Shane, Ezekiel, Sarah, Joy, Hera... Alora. Ayaw kong nasasaktan ko kayo..." Michael ran and ran and ran, as far away from the familiar places he knew. He decided he would never come back to hurt them.