The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

Afterwards

No one said a word to each other as they grazed the sky. They all kept their heads forward until they could see the little clearing where the tree house lied. They stumbled as they fell. Teri leaped from the twins at a perfect angle where she dove into the pond, taking a moment to rehydrate herself before climbing out and taking her trident back. Everyone confirmed that they were all okay as they stood around breathing heavily. Sophia suggested they all go back to the house to rest and patch up their wounds. Everyone agreed and they all trudged off. Apollo was ahead of everyone else, finally recognizing a familiar pain in his stomach he didn't feel before. How long had it been since he last ate? His mind must've been too full of fear to even realize he was hungry.

When they came upon the fence to the backyard, everyone stopped. Apollo and Sophia turned to Teri and the twins to stay quiet and make sure nobody could see them. This is all human territory. As they slipped through the fence, they rushed to the back door and everyone breathed a sigh of relief as they made it inside. Apollo pulled himself around to the kitchen, partly slapping Sophia with his wings and she moved off to the side and went upstairs to retrieve all their first aid stuff. The twins moved to the corner of the room where the small dining table stood and they slumped in the chairs. Teri leaned her trident by the door before moving back and looking at everything in the room.

"That's right... Teri, you've never been here before yet, have you?" the twins remarked. Teri shook her head.

"No... I... forgot that you guys live in two different places. But... now I'm starting to see why. So, is this like, a different kind of tree house?" Teri asked.

"No..." Apollo shook his head as he scrambled around in the kitchen, trying not to look desperate as he pulled out various pots and pans from the cabinet beneath him.

"This is just a regular house. All the humans live in places like this. Sophie and I took it... because it had more of what we needed. The tree house is still super cool and all... It was nice when we were kids. But when you start getting older and bigger... it can start feeling kinda cramped."

"Hm. Yeah, that makes sense." Teri replied as she sat comfortably on the barstool, watching Apollo look through every drawer and cabinet for other tools and ingrediants. He groaned as he noticed most of the dishes and silverare in the sink, yet to be cleaned. He threw open the fridge, lucky enough to find some leftovers and started cleaning a large plate as quickly as possible.

"Are you sure you don't wanna sit down?"

"No- I'm sorry, I would, but I'm really starving right now. I'm just gonna heat something up real quick."

Soon, Sophia came back downstairs with a box full of their first-aid stuff. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured. Some minor scrapes here and there along with large bruises. Teri helped with Apollo's wounds as he ate. Sophia asked if they wanted to pick up some food later and get groceries tomorrow and Apollo agreed. Looking over at the pile of dirty dishes in the sink made Apollo feel more exhausted.

"So... do you remember anything about what happened?" the twins asked after a moment.

Apollo pushed his empty plate aside and thought for a moment.

"I... I'm not sure. I..... I remember you guys were there, and Sophie, you were there too and..." Apollo suddenly shot a look at Sophia.

"Ohmygod, are you okay? I saw you fall after that-"

"It's fine, its's fine! I'm good. Teri was actually able to help patch me up. I'm... I'm good."

"Oh, okay good. Uh... right, anyway..... I remember that, and then........"

Apollo thought for another long while before shaking his head. "That's it, I... I don't remember anything else. But, at some point I just... woke up in that... in that cage and... yeah, that was it."

"... How long do you think you were down there?" Teri asked.

"I'm not sure, it felt like..... Wait, what day is it today? How long was it since then?"

"You were down there for about a day." The twins answered.

"A day?"

"Yeah. Sophie actually wanted to keep going after you, but we had to take her back because she was too injured. She stayed behind while we went back out to look for you. Teri came with us too, but we had to turn back when it started getting dark." they explained. "How long did it feel to you?"

"I... I don't know..... Hours, maybe? It... it was hard to tell."

"What about that..... that thing?" Sophia spoke up. There was a long pause between everyone. She felt a small sense of unease as everyone's eyes glanced at her before turning away.

"I... I don't know. That was... the first time I'd... ever seen anything like that."

"It... wasn't a Shadovian?" Teri asked. Apollo shook his head.

"No. No... That was the first time... I had ever seen one of those things... speak. That thing talked."

"Do Shadovian usually... not do that?" the twins asked. Sophia shook her head.

"No. Those things act more like animals. They make... sounds, but I've never heard them say actual words before. This is... way different." she explained.

"That thing spoke to me..." Apollo muttered.

"How is that even possible...?" Sophia wondered.

"No, Sophie, that thing spoke to me."

"Yeah, we all heard it-"

"No, no. Listen- that thing spoke to me before. Before you guys came to rescue me. After I woke up, I was... trying to find a way to break out until that... thing just... appeared and it... it spoke to me."

"What?" everyone said at the same time.

"I don't know, I don't know! But it was there! It was trying to stop me."

"What did it say?" Sophia asked.

Apollo just shook his head. "I'm not sure, I don't really remember. It... it sounded all weird. But... I..... Sophie... I think it knew..."

"...What?"

"That's what it was trying to say, you guys, it was trying to warn me."

"About what?" the twins asked.

"Ohmygod..." Apollo put a hand up to his mouth and shook his head again.

"It... I think it was trying to warn me about you."

Teri tilted her head to the side in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"It was warning me about you guys, it knew you guys would be coming after me. It... it knew."

"But... that doesn't make any sense. Why would it do that?" the twins wondered.

Something flashed across Sophie's face and she looked up in surprise.

"It was using you as bait."

Everyone's attention fell over to Sophia.

"That thing... it took you, but it didn't kill you when it could've. It dragged you down there to use you as bait because it knew we would come looking for you and then..."

"It was trying to lure all of us into one place..." Teri finished.

"That's it... That's gotta be it, you're right, it could've killed me right then and there, but it didn't. It... it was using me as bait so it could........ kill all of us in one place..." Apollo trailed off.

There was a heavy silence between all of them. No one knew what to think about it. No one knew what was more terrifying...

A monster that was smart enough to lay a trap?

Or a monster that knew about all of them. Recognized them. What they could do and the power they had.

The Shadovian's only seemed to want to hunt and kill. The ones that Sophia and Apollo killed are gone. Yet more keep coming. But was it possible to say that they could... remember? Could a creature made of shadows be... learning about them? Recognizing and remembering who was a target? And if so... was that... the shadow that spoke to them... could that be... could it.....

Many of these thoughts, others, and more swam around everyone's minds, but they were too afraid to say it out loud. Too much that didn't make any sense, too little information they had to even attempt putting everything together.

The long silence was eventually broken at some point. Everyone agreed that perhaps for now, they lay low for a little while. Rest and recover. Hope things might calm down until they were all able to meet up again. Teri had to leave and return to her kingdom, stating that she had been gone too long. She told everyone she might not be back for a while. Don't want to raise any suspiscions about her whereabouts. Everyone understood and the Twins offered to walk her back to the tree house where she could return to the lake via the tunnel in the pond. A safer way back home without risking getting attacked in the open.

Sophia and Apollo talked more while they were gone. Physically, Apollo was fine. Mentally, he was... quite shaken. There was a moment where Sophia admitted that she worried her friend had been killed and she did nothing. She admitted to going out in the middle of the night to continue searching, but she was... so tired that she turned back instead until the twins woke her the next morning. Apollo admitted that he was worried about the same thing. That maybe she and the twins were injured or even... killed in the process of trying to look for him.

Whatever that... shadow was... and what it was trying to do to him..... he never wanted that to ever happen again.

When the twins came back, they changed the subject, discussing what kind of food they should pick up later. The twins asked if they could spend the night here as they were too afraid to sleep in the tree house by themselves. Neither Sophia or Apollo minded as the couch would be comfortable for the both of them.

Later in the day when they placed their order for pickup, Sophia went out on her own while Apollo stayed behind to rest and explain the wonderful magic rectangle known as TV to the twins.

As Sophia fixed her hoodie and combed over her hair to hide her red eye, she equipped a pair of headphones and started a song as she began her fast food quest. Surprisingly, it was actually quite chilly. But Sophia didn't mind as it meant she wouldn't be super sweaty by the time she got back home. It was going to be a long walk, but she was in no hurry. She crossed through multiple neighborhoods, crossed the street multiple times as her music blarred in her ears and she began to think. As Sophia looked around at everything before her. The monotony of human infrasturcture, almost a dramatic contrast to what she just faced hours before. And yet... somehow she felt... safer... out here. Everything was practically... out in the open. She didn't need to worry about more Shadovians or other shadow creatures ambushing her when she least expected it. She didn't need to constantly watch her back. The only thing she needed to watch for were cars every time she had to cross a street. Rather than her life being at risk, the only thing that was at risk was her identity. As long as a strong gust of wind didn't blow her hair up, revealing her eye or a stranger bumping into her and make stray feathers poke out from her back..... then she was safe. In a sense...

She thought about all of this. The strangeness of it all. Yet, all of this, here and now... it felt much more... calm. Almost... unreal. Aall the strangers that stood around her at the crosswalk, heading back to their cars in a parking lot and waiting by a bus stop to get home..... they all had no idea.

Absolutely no clue that the young woman that passed by them had just gone out to save her best friend from an unknown creature made of darkness and shadows that all took place in a dark tunnel, in a forest alongside a couple of... non-human beings........ and not a single human had any idea that all of this just happened today. The forest just beyond the grove was merely nothing but... undeveloped land. You could alost say it was just a protected territory for wildlife.

Yet, as Sophia made her way back home, arms full of hot and packaged food, she really couldn't denote the strangeness of it all. The sheer unbelievability of everything that just happened. Even her own existence, here and now.

But when she got back to her neighborhood and went around to the backdoor, slipping her headphones off and setting all the food on the counter, reality came back.

She didn't think about anything else for the rest of the night.