Trickster of the Butterfly

Chapter 28- Reminisce

An express trip through a time portal was the dizziest experience Michael's felt in his life. The last time he went through one was when he was unconscious but now he could feel its side effects in its full horror. He didn't even consciously summon this portal but here he was. Just a while ago he was on a sidewalk in Aurora Avenue and now he was in a hospital room and everything was spinning.

He tried to collect his thoughts and hold back his puke, not easy since he just ate his breakfast. As soon as his vision and stomach went back to normal, he heard a heart monitor beeping. Michael turned around and saw a girl with bandages all around her head, asleep on a bed. She was hooked up to a ton of medical equipment, wires, tubes, and whatever other stuff Michael couldn't comprehend. There was something about the girl that caught Michael's attention: her distinguishable nose and lips showing in the openings between her bandages. He couldn't hold back his tears.

"A-A-A-Alora?" Michael's voice broke and he fell to his knees. Right in front of him, was his friend, alive, but not well. Michael could feel his chest getting heavier, guilt rushing in again. He couldn't stand what he was seeing, he looked down and wiped off his tears. 

"Why? Why am I here? How am I here?" Michael got up and tried to get his eyes off the painful sight, he walked toward a table at the west wall of the room. Papers, no, "Get well" letters, Michael read, were stacked on top of it. He picked them up and skimmed through them, to keep himself distracted. There were some from their blockmates, one had "Magpagaling ka Alora! God bless!" in big colorful letters and a super realistic drawing of a phoenix on it. One was from Hera, Joy, and Sarah. Michael's heart ached, not just at the super long message which he didn't bother to read but also at the picture pasted at the bottom. It was a picture of the five of them sitting on top of the walls of Intramuros in their casual clothes under the shade of a tree with sunlight beautifully scattering on their heads. Michael remembered it clearly, it was taken on one of their free days, it was their first group photo ever since they became friends. He glanced at Alora on the bed. He thought about how he kept her away from both school and her friends by putting her in that condition. Michael looked away again.

He looked at another letter, this one was from his own parents. He didn't read it anymore but put down all the letters instead. Although each one of them was addressed to Alora, they made him think about the pain he caused not just to his one friend, but to his own parents and probably the rest of his family. The two months he's been alone, only now has he really considered that maybe he's caused so much worry for so many people who cared about him. 

A tear dropped on to the letters. 

"You guys never deserved this... I've been holding you all back from happiness..." 

As he backed away from the table, he noticed the same magenta flower he picked earlier was on the floor. The flower suddenly disappeared, to Michael's surprise. Another time portal opened up beneath him and he fell straight through.

The next moment he was dizzy and felt water wash his face and soak his jacket. Once he got his senses back together, he noticed it was suddenly nighttime and he was alone in the middle of a familiar street. He felt like he could just say something to the air and let it all out.   

"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 in front of his house. Orange light from lightposts illuminated the night in the neighborhood and no lights were lit along the houses' windows.