[ 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 .

The world found out about my powers not too long after I graduated from high school, when I saved that kid on the subway tracks, but I found out right around puberty. Or maybe I first gained my ability when I went through puberty, I don ’ t know. I definitely associate it with puberty though, because … well, because of the type of things I used my power for. Let ’ s just say that when a middle school boy discovers that he can stop time, he looks at a lot of boobs. SO many boobs. 
 
 I didn ’ t tell anyone. Not even my friends. I remember later spending a lot of time in high school worrying about all the good that I could be doing but was instead neglecting, just to hide my dirty secret. I couldn ’ t do anything that might let people know what I could do, maybe someone would remember some of those strange things that had happened around town, and they ’ d put two and two together. 
 
 But then I graduated and moved away, and I relaxed a bit. When I just impulsively stopped time to pull that kid away from the subway train, it felt so good to finally use my power the right way ( not to mention all the praise and awe I received ). I decided that was my chance to really dedicate myself to helping people. I just hoped it would atone for some of the things I had done. 
 
 At first I tried to stay vague about my power, and just let people assume I was super fast, or that I could teleport. I didn ’ t like the idea of people realizing what all I could do. But as it turns out, reporters don ’ t typically settle for vague answers, so it wasn ’ t long before I revealed what I was. And everyone loved me. Hell, I was a superhero! 
 
 My amazing rescues and general bad guy ass-kickery instantly became legendary. The world came to rely on me even more when it became clear that there was a supervillain out there as well, with similar powers to mine. When banks were impossibly robbed in an instant, or people blinked and discovered they had been moved to some new place or position, naturally they called on me for help. Of course, it was always too late for me to do anything about it. People figured that a battle between two equal forces would be a good one, but not many considered the fact that you could n't really stop someone who was gone before you knew you needed to stop him. Regardless, everyone knew that eventually things would end with a showdown between me and the Time Villain. 
 
 None of us ever guessed how it would really end for me. But now I know. I ’ m not sure how I know, but I do. For the past year or so I have felt one more day of life slip away from me each time I stopped the world for everyone else. I could feel that I only had a few left, and now I ’ m sure that my next stop will be my last. I feel it more clearly than anything I've felt before. 
 
 Now, the obvious solution is just to never do it again, tell the world I lost my power or something, and live a long, happy life sipping margaritas. But the problem is that I do it so habitually now, I know I ’ ll do it again by reflex. And it will probably be something stupid, like stopping everything to pull my half-brained dog out of the pool after he just walks right off the edge again. I swear he ’ s the only dog in the world who can ’ t swim. Well, he probably would be able to swim if I hadn ’ t kept saving him. He fell in when he was a puppy and started thrashing around and freaking out, so I had to stop time and go pull him out. And I've been doing it ever since. I probably should have taken the time to get in with him every now and then and help him a little bit until he figured it out, instead of just saving him all the time. There are so many things I should have done, if I just had more time. I know, I ’ m aware of the irony. 
 
 Anyway, I know I ’ m going to stop things again, so I better be intentional about it, and I better use this last one for something really big. The trouble is, you rarely hear about terrible things that are about to happen, only things that just happened. And here's another fun fact nobody thinks of, when time is stopped modes of transportation do n't work. Apparently the only chemical reactions that still work when I've stopped time are the ones that occur inside my body. Fuel does n't ignite, electricity does n't flow, cars just sit there, planes hang still in the air. All I can do is move things around. So I have to ride my bike everywhere. With my dorky helmet and everything. I'm really not that super, my skull will still crack if I fall off. 
 
 So I've been trying to find some kind of big catastrophe that only I can help with, preferably something local. Or something with enough warning that I can do my travel first and wait to stop time after I get there. 
 
 I had almost given up, but now I've finally found it. I say `` now'' because it is literally happening in this instant. Of course, this instant is probably going to last several weeks for me. In the previous instant, the TV news said that students and teachers huddled together in a middle school in Oregon were calling loved ones and the police, saying that a gunman had just taken over the school, loudly proclaiming that he was going to start shooting. But he had n't started yet. 
 
 So now the world is frozen one last time, as I pack supplies for my trip and pump air into my bike tires. Unfortunately, I live in Florida, about 3,000 miles away from the school in Oregon. But a hero's quest is supposed to be arduous, right? And it's so fitting - I'm going to save a middle school, the very place it all started for me. Surely this will make up for everything. 
 
 I'm about to travel across the continent, and yet I will never interact with another person again. Sometimes I wonder whether some evil genius gave me this ability as a trick or a curse - tempting me with amazing power at the cost of my life. Or maybe God gave me this gift, and He was so appalled with how I used it that this is now my punishment. Either way, it feels the same from where I'm standing. Maybe it would be different if I made better choices when I was younger, and formed better habits. 
 
 Regardless, the world is about to be in for a shock. My whole life was shaped around trying to hide my shame and put forth a good image. But as soon as time starts up again I'll be dead, and I wo n't have any control over what anyone thinks of me. I guess I wo n't care then, either. But still, I hope they do n't put it together. I ca n't imagine that they wo n't though. I mean, The Great TimeStopper dies and suddenly the Time Villain is also never heard from again? I'm sure they'll figure it out. Oh well. All I can do now is ride.
