[ WP ] You gained the ability to freeze and resume time at will long ago . Recently when using your powers , you notice when you unfreeze time , everything seems a little bit more twisted than when you had paused it .

*Tick* 
 
 The world moves in a blur around my body. I'm curled up on the floor, shivering slightly from the cold. 
 
 But it does n't really matter how I feel. Because I have one shot to save everyone in the world. 
 
 *Tock* 
 
 I found out long ago that I have a special power. It all started when someone at my school almost killed me. He'd managed to hoist me over the monkey bars, had threatened to drop me on to the solid concrete head first. 
 
 *Tick* 
 
 Yet for some reason, when I focused on my mother's face - my beautiful mother, smiling even in death - the world stopped. I thought of how I might finally see her that day. And then... 
 
 *Tock* 
 
 Then the world stopped moving. Everything except me. It took me a while to make the link to my mother's face. 
 
 Quite ironic, really - she died from a fall as well. Suicide after a life of rejection and being fired to raise a kid she did n't want. 
 
 *Tick* 
 
 Now I understand everything. One night, a powerful demon escaped from an alternate universe and raped my mother. She was forced to bear a child that, according to a medium she visited, would bring about the end of the world. 
 
 And, looking back on it now, I see what she meant. 
 
 *Tock* 
 
 The changes were subtle at first. A slight haze over someone's head, as if the summer heat had regained some of its potential in the harsh winter. Or maybe a discoloured patch of grass. Though over time, the distortions became more apparent. 
 
 *Tick* 
 
 A shadow falls over the ground before me, and I look up in awe at the bloated body that engulfs the sky. Screams erupt everywhere as one, then two, and then everyone notices the flying monstrosity over our heads. 
 
 *Tock* 
 
 It became apparent to me over time that each time I paused time, the barriers holding the world inside a cocoon of protection weakened slightly. Demonic forces could escape through chinks in the armour. And after my most recent escapade of preventing a minor demon from slaughtering peace protestors, I had paused time enough times to almost fully obliterate the barrier that surrounds our world. 
 
 *Tick* 
 
 There is one way to save everyone on this planet: a quick, painless death. One more freeze before the barrier breaks completely, and the dark forces that wish to feast upon the world vanquish every soul in the blink of an eye. 
 
 *Tock* 
 
 One more freeze before I will finally be release from my curse. 
 
 Everything around me is utter chaos now. People are either huddling in the streets begging to be spared, or fleeing from the spectacle above our heads, or just standing there in a melancholy state. 
 
 *Tick* 
 
 I unfurl my body and rise to my feet slowly. Tears stream down my face as I gaze up in sadness. 
 
 For what will be the last time ever, I picture my mother in my mind: her coconut-scented hair, the way she would tickle my toes every time she tucked me in at night, and her smile that lit up my world every time I told her a joke. 
 
 My last thought before all hell breaks loose is about how I'll say hello to her in heaven.
