[ WP ] You are able to freeze time and for years , you use this `` power '' for good . As a result , you are viewed as a superman-like hero . But one day you learn how your powers actually work - for every minute that you freeze time , you lose a day off of your life .

One day for every minute… 
 
 My heart pounded to fill my brain with fresh fuel for the firestorm of emotions and memories. My Samsung made little clicking noises as I tapped my guestimates into the calculator app. I was looking for hope, but I only found finality in math. I was a ship sinking into nothingness, and only my mast still loomed over the surface of that black sea. 
 
 My breaths came out hard, like someone was punching me in the gut. I didn ’ t even know I was moving until my forearm came to rest against the storefront window. I let the window take my weight, and I let the frost from my breath hide my face from the noon frappe crowd. 
 
 I didn ’ t know that using my power to freeze time would shorten my life so severely. There was no one to warn me, no one to say *just live young man*, no one to tell me to love someone and hold them at night, no one to teach me about loneliness and regret. Worst of all, there was no one to show me the error of hubris, no one but time, and time is a latent messenger. 
 
 So I walked the path of the lone wolf, the selfless crusader, and the brooding hero. It worked for a time. I made the powerful pay my toll and told myself that I did it for us all. I had gifts beyond the power to stop time, gifts greatly enhanced by that power. I took their weapons of mass destruction. I took their poppy fields and their pharmaceutical demons. I sent it all to burn in the belly of the sun. I took their secrets and exposed them to the light of day. I took their *power*. I hurt them, and you were proud of me. 
 
 I did it all alone. I did it alone, I think, because I was selfish, because I wanted to be your Superman. I did it because I didn ’ t want you to become my Lex Luther. But Superman wasn ’ t enough. Alone I was only a temporary remedy. I wasn ’ t your savior, there is no such being. I should have reached out to those with heroic hearts who saw themselves in my actions. I should have empowered you to act on our behalf, for all of humanity, all of us, for freedom and future. 
 
 But I didn ’ t, and so in the end I was a sinking ship in that black see of nothingness, leaving my passengers with no sails or weapons of their own. 
 
 My fingers made that deep glassy *shunk* sound when I finally pushed myself away from the storefront and strode out across the street to my car. Perhaps there was time to do more, time to empower the people who deserved power. You know them. The fighter-philosophers, the jovial scientists, the honest comedians, *you*. It was something I should have done so long ago. I should have shown you my power when I first discovered it and asked you that single empowering question. *What should we do with this*? 
 
 I was finally ready to do what was right, but the pain in my chest came as a harbinger and forced me to my knees before my own fate. With a tear in my eye, I stopped time once more, just once more. It was a mercy for myself. By freezing time within my final day, I brought death to me on a swifter horse and ended the excruciating damage my heart was doing to itself. I had time only for this one final thought, this one thing you needed to know...
