The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

The Face of the Enemy

[Apollo]

The first thing Apollo felt was coldness. Cold all around him. His body shivered and he pulled his legs close to his chest, realizing all his senses were coming back to him.

"Sophie!" he called out in surprise, hearing his voice echo.

"When he opened his eyes, he saw nothing. He was confused for a moment, wondering if his eyes were even open. He couldn't see a thing. He reached his arm out in front of his face, but he saw nothing. He thrust his arms wildly in the air, as if trying to catch somehing. His fingers only slipped through darkness, grasping nothing. He realized he was lying on the ground, cold and hard. He rolled over and tried to push himself up. For some reason, his body felt heavy as he tried to sit up. He squinted his eyes, trying to peer through the darkness. He didn't like not being able to see anything. Despite the fact there was seemingly nothing, it felt claustrophobic in a way.

"Hello?" he called out quietly in the darkness.

He jumped when his fingertips smacked against something in front of him, pulling his arms back. He cautiously inched forward, reaching his arms out again and managed to grab something in front of him. He traced the shape up and down with his fingers. It felt like... a pole or a bar of some kind. Apollo reached out his arm, feeling another pole between him. He leaned left and right, feeling more beside each other. He inhaled sharply, his imagination filling in the blanks. He tried to stand up, only to bang his head on a metal bar just above him and falling back down. He groaned and rubbed his head, the pain only confirming his fear. He walked on his knees, reaching out, feeling bar after bar, tracing them upwards as they curved around and he felt a stone cold wall behind him. Apollo began to breathe heavily as he felt around the wall, unable to move forward. He turned around, pressing himself up against the bars and trying to squeeze his arms through, reaching out, unable to grab anything else in front of him. There was nothing else in front of him, and there was no way he'd fit through the bars.

"Hey! ... Hello?" he called out louder, the sound of his own voice making him flinch. There was no response.

There was no way this was happening... there was no way this could be happening...

Apollo was trapped in a cage.

His eyes darted around the void in a panic. He tried to remember how he got down here, but he couldn't seem to remember anything. He did his best to concentrate.What was the last thing he was doing before this?

He remembered his friends. He remembered being with the twins. And then... then there was that earthquake, and then...

It finally all came back in a flash, making Apollo gasp and the blood in his viens turn cold. How long had it been? Was Sophia okay? She got pretty beat up before... Everyone must be out looking for him. Apollo gripped the bars of the cage tighter and tried to queeze his face through.

"Hey! Hello? Anyone?" he shouted into the darkness. The echo of his voice was the only sound he heard.

Okay, okay... don't panic... don't panic, he told himself repeatedly in his head.

Apollo realized something and sat more comfortably, holding his arms out in front of him and trying to focus. He tried to steady his breathing, taking deep breaths, but the fear was still there.

"C'mon... c'mon..."

He grunted frustratingly and tried wiping off the grime off of his hands onto his pants, before holding them up and focusing again. Out of nervousness, he started rubbing his palms together, trying to keep them warm, fidgeting with his fingertips. He couldn't seem to focus as much as he wanted to. The cold air and his own fear kept pulling him away.

"C'mon!" he shouted, accidentally snapping his fingers and a small spark burst. He saw the glow for a moment. He brought his hand closer to his face and tried snapping his fingers again, the snap getting louder with each attempt as the sparks grew brighter. With one final snap, a bright flame burst from the end of his fingertips, much like the flame of a candle. It brough much relief to Apollo as the light grew, finally lighting up the room, being able to see more of his surroundings.

He was indeed trapped in a cage, the bars bending into the wall, and seemingly no door or lock. He stuck his arm with the flame through the bars, trying to light up the rest of the room around him. He put his fingers together, making the flame grow and the light glowing brighter. The stone wall behind him wrapped around, he spotted more rocks on the ground and cracks in the walls. It almost looked like... he was in a... cave of some kind. Apollo could see that there was some kind of pass off to the side, but from where he was sitting, he couldn't see where it lead. A tunnel perhaps, or another part of the room?

Was he... back down in the caves? The one in the Mutant Strawberry Field? How did he get all the way down here? There was no way...

Apollo shook his thoughts out of his mind. There was no time for that now, he had to get out. He needed to find a way out. Sophia and his friends are out there somewhere looking for him, but who knows how long it'll take for them to decide to go searching the caves?

But a cage with no door, no key... how was he supposed to get out of this?

Apollo thought for a long while, involuntarily pulling his arm back in the cage as the flame decreased in size, but was held up just against the bars. Apollo gazed over it for a moment. And then he had an idea.

He reached out and grabbed the bars tightly, the flame in his finger going out, the heat now focusing in his palms. His hands started glowing a dull orange to a bright yellow. Apollo had his eyes closed, trying to focus all his will. If he could concentrate long enough and heat up the bars as hot as he could possibly make them... he might be able to bend them enough to crawl through and get out...

So that's what he did. Minute by minute, the bars he gripped started glowing red and thin streams of steam started flowing upwards. Every now and then, he'd try and tug on the bars, but they weren't hot enough to be moved just yet. He didn't know how long he would have to keep this up until they could finally be bent.

He thought about his friends, he thought about Sophia, he thought about getting home, hoping to use whatever strength he had to increase the temperature. But all of a sudden... something started to feel strange. The air around him got colder. Much colder...

Apollo opened his eyes briefly, looking down as he breathed heavily and noticed... he could see his own breath. A faint transparent cloud. He felt goosebumps as his body shivered. Why did it suddenly get so cold in here?

When he looked up, he saw a pair of bright red eyes staring back at him.

"Don't." said a deep voice.

Apollo screamed as he pushed himself backwards, hitting the wall and curling his large wings around to shield himself. The glow from his hands and the bars diminished. All that was left to be seen in the room was the eyes. Apollo watched in fear as the eyes shrunk back, moving to his right, as if the eyes were studying him.

"Abandon determination." said the voice. its tone so deep it rattled through Apollo's bones, each syllable making him quiver.

"Your hope is not yet missing. Remain stagnant, and you might stay alive."

The eyes slowly moved around to the left. Apollo wanted to look away, hide his face in his hands. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't look away. No matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't look away.

"Her persistance will lure her to you. Pray she be swift, as I do."

And with that, the eyes disappeared in the darkness.

Apollo was frozen to the ground in fear. The voice still vibrating within him, as if his very organs had been subtly shifted. He put his face in his hands and wrapped his wings tightly around himself as he shivered.

What the hell was that...? What the hell did any of that mean...?