THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT
CHAPTER ONE
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

"Watch it!"

"Sorry!"

Narrowly dodging the cyclist as she darts across the road, Elle Crain struggles to balance her coffee cup, phone, and work folders in her arms. The universe must love her this morning, because not only did she sleep in, but the strap of her bag had snapped as she made her way to the train station. It had left her with a choice between running back to her apartment to switch her bag or missing the train, so she'd piled her things into her arms and ran.

God, it's not even 8 AM yet and her day is shaping up to be shit.

Darting into the train station and struggling to get her purse out of the pile in her arms, she comes to a stop when she notices the board displaying the train times.

The one she has been rushing for?

Delayed for forty minutes.

It takes all her restraint to not let out a scream of sheer frustration. She settles for dropping her papers onto the bench instead, before taking a seat and rubbing at her eyes.

Maybe she should just go home. Maybe this will be the day that she quits her godawful job and tell her boss to go fuck herself –

Or maybe she won't, because she needs to eat and that requires, you know, having things like actual money that she can only get by working her shitty job.

Ok, maybe that's a bit harsh. So being a personal assistant isn't exactly what she wants to do for a living, but at least it earns her money, unlike the writing career she wants to pursue. At least, that's what her mother always says–

Elle sighs, trying to shift her thoughts onto better things; because thinking about her mother will just sour her mood even further.

There are a few people on the platform that look as tired as she feels. Out of the corner of her eye, she notices a man in a dark suit and top hat come to a stop beside her. This was nothing out of the ordinary for her; working in London meant she had seen far stranger people waiting for the train. She folds her arms and stares at the clock, willing it to go faster.

"Lovely day, isn't it?"

Ugggh, what is it with people insisting on talking to her before eight in the morning? Elle can be civil, even downright pleasant, but only after at least three cups of coffee. Before then? Don't bother, she thinks. The best you'll get is monosyllabic grunts.

"Not a morning person?" The man says, making Elle's attention turn towards him.

She smiles sheepishly at him, a little embarrassed for ignoring his first question. She tries to make up for it. "Not particularly."

He chuckles. "Most people aren't, are they?"

Elle flashes him a small smile, intending to placate him and -hopefully- keep him quiet." "I guess."

He lets out an almost content sounding sigh. "You know, it's days like these where I always think about that saying, what is it…" he trails off for a moment, rubbing at his chin, "about a butterfly that flaps its wings in one corner of the world and changes the weather on the other side."

Okaaaay.

Where the hell is the train? It would be rude to move and she would hate to be rude. Like, she can be rude in her head but the idea of actually doing it and being rude? Can't do it, seems too mean.

"I'm a big believer in that," he says.

"That so?" Elle replies softly.

"Mhm," he says, "I think a person can do similar things. Their actions can effect many around them."

He glances at her almost expectedly, like he wants a response. It makes Elle shrink under the intensity. "I-I guess."

"I believe you could achieve something similar, Miss Crain."

What?

The hair on the back of her neck stands on end. How does he know my name? Her eyes dart up and down the platform, searching for somebody. How the hell does he know my name?"

It's empty. Why the hell was it empty? Wasn't there someone else standing near her like two minutes ago?

The man chuckles. The pit of anxiety in her stomach grows bigger. She needs to move. Fuck this, maybe she should start running. This sounds like the start of a bad thriller movie. Is this a kidnapping attempt?

She scoops her things from the bench and steps forward. "L-look mister I–"

She's suddenly yanked backwards by the strange man, his hand grasped tightly around her wrist. "You can't keep your head in the sand for the rest of your life."

Words don't come to her; they seem to be stuck in her throat in her panic. Instead, she throws herself forward to tear her wrist out of his grip.

It works too well. She manages to free her wrist, but the force she used to throw herself makes Elle stumble backwards over her own feet.

When her foot slips off the platform, Elle finally can make a sound. She shrieks, bracing herself for impact-

THUMP!

Elle groans, feeling her body begin to throb. She pushes her hands against the ground, feeling something soft underneath them-

Wait what?

Her eyes snap open. This isn't the train tracks–

It's snow.

Why the hell is there snow?

She pushes herself up to her knees, her vision swimming as she finally takes in her surroundings. It's only then that Elle realises that there is something very, very wrong.

Instead of being faced with the train tracks, she instead finds herself faced with a forest buried in about six inches of snowfall.

Ok.

Ok.

This is a dream. It has to be. She has cracked her head off the train tracks and is now having a bad concussion-induced dream. Hopefully she can just pinch her arm and then wake up in the back of an ambulance with a bad concussion.

The cold finally sinks again, making her shiver violently and curse at the thin shirt and jacket she decided to wear today. Are you supposed to be able to feel this cold in dreams? She tests her arm pinching theory, frowning when that only gets her a sharp pain.

Ok, so that didn't work.

Elle squeezes her eyes shut, hoping this would wake her up like it did when she was little and had bad nightmares. She opens them again, letting out an annoyed groan when she finds herself still faced with the mountain.

Ok, so maybe it won't work because she hit her head and concussion dreams are a lot harder to wake up from. Yeah, that's what it is. It has to be, right? Maybe she should just stay here and wait for herself to just wake up–

The howl of a wolf cuts through the silence. It's a little too close for her liking.

Nope, nope, nope!

It may just be a dream, but she is not going to have it turn into one of those dreams where she has to outrun something. Elle gets to her feet and takes a step forward, wrapping her arms around her middle tightly as the snowstorm gets worse. Man, she really hopes there's a house or something nearby because she couldn't think of anything worse than spending her time freezing her ass off.

How the hell does somebody will their subconscious into making something?

Her teeth begin to chatter as the wind gets stronger. It makes her focus on trying to actually find some kind of shelter, rather than trying to will one into existence. She keeps her head ducked down and her hands tucked under her arms to keep them warm. Could somebody actually get frostbite in a dream? God, could this get any worse?

A distant shout grabs her attention.

People!

Actual people!

Maybe it's mountain rescue or something. At this point, Elle doesn't really care; she just hopes they have somewhere warm she could hide for a little while. She looks up and tries to unclench her jaw to shout for help as the voices come closer.

THUMP!

Elle lets out a surprised shriek as a sudden force runs into her, making her fall down onto her hands and knees. Her heart pounds in her chest, feeling the painful throb in her arm return. Oh god, please tell me that's a mountain rescue team that barrelled into me or a nice man on a sledge that's come to rescue me and take me back to his cabin -

"Well, what do we have here?"

Elle raises her head and feels her stomach drop. The sudden force had apparently been a man on a horse that had barrelled into her. He leers down at her, his cowboy hat pulled down low across his face. What is this asshole in a bad Clint Eastwood cosplay doing on the side of a mountain and why the hell is he looking at me like that?

The voices get closer and she turns her head to find two other men of horses approaching her, both wearing the same leering grins as the first. She tries to make herself smaller, as if she shrinks small enough they'll stop looking at her.

Spoke too soon about things getting worse.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please let me know what you think, this is my first fanfiction i've written for a game like this.