The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

Dark Light

[Sophia]

I groan quietly as I regain consciousness. I can feel my eyes opening, blinking. But all I see is darkness. My head began to roll around as the pain began to return. I could feel my whole body now, but for some reason my arms were tucked in tightly. I tried to move them, but they felt stuck. Like something was wrapped around me. Around my whole chest.

I was tied up.

I tried not to panic, struggling only makes it worse. As I force my eyes to refocus, I begin to remember. I'm surrounded by darkness, sitting up against a rough wall. I squirmed around in my restraints, trying to find a way to loosen them. I'm still down here in the caves, and I couldn't see anything, not even the floor I was sitting on.

Wait.

Crap, I need to get back to Apollo! It's gonna get dark soon! He's gonna flip if I don't get home soon. We haven't seen each other all day. I hope he's not looking for me...

"I think it's awake." said a quiet voice. I stop moving and look around. I couldn't turn my head as easily because of the pain, and I forced my eyes to try and pick up where the voice came from. But it wasn't working.

"Yeah, it's awake."

Who is that?

I hear someone walking towards me and my heart begins to race. I'm frozen.

"Hey, eyes up here." the voice said. I look up and spot two bright orange eyes, staring down at me. They almost seemed to be... glowing dimly through the darkness. I begin to tense up and shrunk against the wall.

"W-who are you?" I spoke quietly.

"It can speak?" asked a similar voice. But it came from a different direction. I turned to my right and saw another pair of the same eyes, glowing a faint cyan hue. They're the only colors my eyes can pick up, and I couldn't help but stare back.

I realized I was dealing with two people.

Oh no, are they twins? You gotta be kidding me, I don't have time for this. I need to get out of here. How did these guys even find me? Why are they down here, and how did they even- No, forget it. I have to get away from them somehow.

"So, since you can talk," the bright orange eyes said as he moved closer to my face. "Then you can answer our question."

No way dude, I'm not telling you anything. If you think I'm gonna say anything, then you-

He suddenly held something up to my face. It glowed a dim blue hue and my eyes became transfixed on it. Looking at the shape more closely, it looked like a flower. It was hard to tell at first, because it looked like it had been trampled on.

"Did you do this?" the orange eyes asked in a deep tone. I was hit with confusion and I wasn't sure what to say. My mouth was agape, but no sound came out of it.

"He asked you a question," said the other voice. I almost couldn't tell who was speaking because their voices were so similar. I couldn't see their faces or their mouths. Just their bright eyes glaring at me.

"I didn't do anything." I replied quickly.

"Your lying." the voices said together.

"I'm not lying!" I retorted.

"What do you think I did?"

"Do you know what this is?" the voice asked as he held the flower closer to my eyes.

"It's a... glowing flower?"

"What kind of flower?" he asked me.

"I don't know!"

The orange eyes turned to the cyan eyes. They looked at each other for a minute before turning back to me.

"They're called Moon Flowers. Every single garden of them is dead," the first voice said.

"Are you sure you haven't seen them before?" the other voice added. I shook my head, but I wasn't sure if they could see it.

"I've never seen them before. Ever! That one looks really pretty though. I'm sorry, I don't know anything, I swear! I didn't mean to intrude. I'm sorry you lost your gardens." I quickly responded. I wasn't sure if that was the right thing to say, but I couldn't think of anything better. The eyes looked at each other for another moment. I wasn't sure if they were trying to communicate to themselves silently, but I couldn't help but notice something odd about the shape of their eyes. Normally, I avoid eye contact at all costs, but their eyes were the only things I could see clearly in the darkness and I couldn't pry my gaze away from them. But I couldn't help noticing that something about their eyes was... really odd.

"How can you prove that it wasn't you who did it?"

"How can we believe you?"

I thought for a moment. But I couldn't think of anything else to say that could convince them to let me go. Especially if it risked exposing myself in any way. I couldn't let them know who I really was. I didn't know them, there was no way I could trust them. I didn't know what they would do to me. But I had to say something to them.

"Well... did you see whatever was destroying your gardens?" I asked nervously.

"...We're... not sure." they said.

"Then how do you know if it was me?"

They went silent and looked at each other again.

"You might be true..." the second voice said.

"But we need more proof than that," said the first voice. I thought to myself again, but there was nothing I could show them to prove I wasn't the culprit. I didn't think I could say or show them anything without exposing myself.

"I... I don't have proof..." I started.

"Then answer me this." the orange eyes said as he knelt down near me. "Who are you and where did you come from?"

I tensed up again. My mouth became drawn shut and I refused to utter a sound. I couldn't tell them, I couldn't reveal anything to them. But they still expected an answer, and I tried to think quickly of something they could easily listen to.

"I don't know, I just- I...uh." I stuttered. "Look, I... I'm sorry about what happened, but it wasn't me, I swear. I just... I found that giant hole up at the surface and I got curious is all. So I... I came down here just to explore, I didn't know what was down here. I didn't even know this place existed. I'm not lying, I swear. I... I didn't know anything about this place."

I saw both the eyes widen, as if they were surprised and they glanced back and forth from me to themselves.

"You came from the surface?" they asked me.

"Yeah, I just found that tunnel that lead here. I was only looking around, I didn't touch anything, I swear." I stammered.

I heard them shuffle back and I stared at them in confusion as they stared at each other for another long while in a strange communicative silence.

"You must be speaking the truth," they finally said.

I suddenly felt hands touching the ropes and the tight feeling around my chest was gone and I quickly stood up. I rubbed my eyes and they focused a little bit better in the darkness, but I still couldn't see much.

"We're sorry about the accusation." they both apologized.

"Uh... yeah, it's okay." I said blankly.

"Also, sorry for knocking you out with a rock," the cyan-eyed boy said.

"Oh, that was you?"

"Yeah, sorry. I'm Flyboy."

"And I'm Fleetfoot."

Huh, interesting names... maybe they really aren't human?

"I'm Sophia." I said automatically.

"That's a pretty name," they both said.

I get that a lot.

"Are you gonna go home now?" they asked.

"Um, yeah. I should get going. I'm not really supposed to be out here this long."

"We can take you back to the surface tunnel. That's where you came from, right?"

"Y-yeah, that's right. Thanks. I can't really see where I'm going anyway."

"That's no problem, it's just this way. Follow us."

"Yeah... okay." I said in an unsure tone. I still couldn't see them in the darkness, so I didn't know how I was going to follow them. I just stayed close to the sounds of their footsteps as we began to walk through the dark tunnel. We turned a corner and started walking down a different tunnel. And near the end, I began to notice the area was starting to brighten up a bit. But it was still very dim.

"It's just over here. Right at the end, you should be able to get out from there." they directed me.

I looked ahead and realized this was indeed the same tunnel I had come from and I quickly raced to the end where I could see the light reaching all the way down to the floor. But as I looked up, I noticed that the light wasn't as bright as it was before. I could hardly see the sky. I couldn't tell what time of day it was. The sun couldn't be setting already? When I went to go look for Apollo, it was still early in the afternoon, if I was remembering it correctly. I debated on whether I take the chance to leave now, or if I should stay here until the next day when it was safer to leave.

"Is something wrong?" the boys asked me. I looked down at my shoes before looking at them.

"I... I don't think I can leave right now. It might be too late for me to go home. But I can't tell... How long have I been down here?"

"I'm sorry, I think that may have been my fault. When we found you, I knocked you out and you were asleep for a long time." Flyboy apologized to me.

"It's... It's okay, you didn't know. I'm just... not sure if it's safe for me to leave right now..."

"We're sorry for keeping you down here for so long." they apologized again.

"Maybe you can just sit here with us until the light comes back?" Flyboy wondered aloud.

"Yes. We'll just sit here and rest. Then, when we see the light, you can go home." Fleetfoot added.

"Um..... Are you sure that's okay? It... might be a long time until... until..." I trailed off as I looked back at them. They stood within the shadow of the tunnel, but the light that refracted off of the ground was illuminating them a little more.

"What? What is it?"

I suddenly broke my gaze and shook my head.

"I'm sorry, um..... Just...Can you come over here for a second?" I asked. The boys took a couple steps forward into the light, only stopping when I let out a light gasp.

They were indeed Twins. Their black hair was in the same style, but parted on opposite sides. The clothes they wore were grey and disheveled, and covered in holes in various locations. As if those were the only clothes they had ever worn for their entire life. And their skin was almost as grey as those clothes, but only one shade lighter. Their eyes completed the whole picture. It was the shape of their pupils that stood out to me, and now it all made sense.

"You..... you're not human?"

The Twins looked at me with a confused expression.

"What's a... human?"

For some reason, I felt a little more at ease knowing that they weren't who I thought they were. When they had me tied up, I was afraid they were human at first and they were going to report me to the police or something for trespassing and take me away. But as I continued to stare at them, maybe a little unpolitely, everything started to make sense. But now I wasn't sure how to act around them.

"I..... I'm sorry, I thought you were... someone else." I mumbled.

"Huh, what do you mean? Who did you think we were?"

"Uh-... no, nevermind. I... I just..... wait... do you live here?"

The Twins exchanged glances before looking back at me with a confused expression.

"Yeah... we do. Is that why you asked us to take you back to the surface? Is that where you're from?"

"Uh... yeah? I told you before, that's how I got down here. Have you ever been up there before?"

"No! No, no no!" the Twins shrank back to the darkness of the tunnel.

"This is where we live, and we should stay here."

"We never even go near this tunnel."

"It's nicer down here. And safer too!"

"Anything could be up there. But we're the only people living down here."

"I know it doesn't look like much. You should've seen it with all the Moonflowers growing around."

"You can stay with us until the light comes back. It'll be safer here." They spoke in turn.

I eyed them suspisciously.

"Oookaaaayyy..."

"It's okay. Come sit over here. We'll stay in this tunnel so you can see the light."

I cautiously walked towards them as they shuffled back into the dark tunnel, until I noticed something peaking out from behind Flyboy.

"Hey, is that my bag?"

Flyboy turned and looked down.

"Oh, yes! I was keeping it here in case you were going to use it against us. We didn't touch anything inside it."

He gave it back to me and I threw it back around my shoulders, relieved that everything was safe. But as I looked back at him, I noticed something peaking out from behind his shoulder. I didn't realize I was staring until Flyboy noticed.

"What are you looking at?"

"Um... there's something... on your shoulder." I pointed out.

Flyboy looked behind him and turned his back towards me so I could get a better look.

"Oh, you mean these?"

I watched as a large pair of dark bat-shaped wings unfolded from his back and my jaw fell open in shock. Fleetfoot stared at me over his brother's shoulder with a confused look on his face.

"You... you... you have wings?"

"Of course we do," they both replied as Fleetfoot stepped forward and revelaed the same set of wings from his back too. My mouth dropped even more as my eyes grew wider. The Twins noticed my stunned look and slowly folded their wings back in.

"Have you ever... seen these before?" they asked me. I shut my mouth quickly and pulled my shirt from behind, letting my own wings slip through and they gasped. I must've startled them because they took a few steps back, only to slowly approach me and stare at my feathered wings in surprise and amazement.

"You have wings too?"

"Yeah! I've never seen anyone else with wings like yours though!"

"What do you mean?"

"No one has wings! I thought I was the only one- ah! This is amazing!"

We all sat down on the cold floor and I let them take a closer look at my wings as they let me look at theirs. They asked me many questions about myself and I answered as best as I could. I was still surprised that I had actually found people that had wings like I did. I always wondered if there were more, but I never thought I'd actually find them. Especially anyone who had different shaped wings. After a while, we realxed against the wall and continued to talk for a long time. At that point, it had to have become late because I was starting to feel a bit tired.

"So what's it like living up there on the surface?" the Twins asked me. I looked over at them, but avoided eye contact.

"Well... I think it's better than staying down here in the darkness. Do you... know anything about what's up there?"

The Twins shook their heads.

"But, haven't you ever wanted to see what's up there?"

"We've... never really thought about it before. We were so busy taking care of the Moonflowers, we always thought it would be best if we stayed here with them."

"I've never seen a Moonflower before. Do they only grow around here?" I asked.

"They used to... We don't know what happened to them. We woke up and went through one of the tunnels, and they were..... all dead. All of them."

The Twins looked away and their faces became sullen.

"I'm... sorry to hear that. Really. Do you think there's a way to grow more of them?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, I know how to grow plants, it's really easy. If you want, you can come with me and I'll show you where I live. I promise it's completely safe and I have all the stuff we need to make sure they grow healthy. We can make sure that they'll be safe and whatever killed them in the first place won't come back. It might be better for them up there," I told them as I smiled. But I could tell that the Twins were still skeptical.

"Are you sure it's... safe up there?"

"Of course it is. Believe me when I say this, it's not as bad as you think. We don't have to go up right away though. We can wait until tomorrow. It's up to you. But I'll show you everything there is to see. It's pretty cool."

The Twins exchanged glances before looking back at me. I couldn't help noticing that they did that a lot. I thought maybe it was just a twin thing, but I didn't want to assume anything.

"We'll think about it. Maybe it's best to wait."

"Yeah, that's okay. We've got plenty of time."

I tried to make myself as comfortable as possible, but lying on the floor of a tunnel made out of rock and stone was a little harder to get used to. I watched as the spotlight on the ground near us became darker and darker as the day turned to night. Until it became so dark that I could hardly see the ground anymore. I used my bag as a makeshift pillow to sleep on during the night, but it was hardly any more comfortable. I happened to glance over at the Twins once or twice and they looked like they had no trouble at all getting to sleep. I guessed it made sense if they'd been living here this whole time, they would have been much more used to it. But I could hardly stay asleep. I wanted to adjust and roll around to stay as comfortable as I could make myself, but I didn't want to make too much noise and bother the Twins. So I just lied there for an awfully long time as my body continuously protested to move. I just tried to keep my eyes closed as long as I could, hoping that the next time I opened them, the sun would have come back and I could finally get up and leave.

Apollo's going to kill me when I get back home. Hopefully nothing actually happened to him when he went out swimming. I don't know if I should tell him about this or if I can just make something up on the fly. I doubt he'd believe me if I told him the truth...