The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

It All Ends with Fresh

In the dark of the night, all is quiet. Ambient, still, unconscious. Alive, but only sleeping. Looking down from the clear night sky, full of stars, looking into a forest. Full of life. Resting until the light returns.

Unfortunately, not everything is sleeping, nor resting. Not tonight.

From amidst the trees, there is a light. A light where there should not be. Followed by sounds. Sounds which are not hushed or quiet, when they would usually be during the night. The sounds, the noises, coming from within these trees, throughout the light that should not be. They are panicked, fearful, startled, afraid, dying.

Within the light, the light that burns everything it touches, the fire rages and grows with every passing second, consuming all it can devour. And from throughout the burning light, there are people that flee frantically in every which way. Trying to avoid some unseen enemy. And while most of these people, either looking for safety or protection, abscond to wherever they feel is the safest to be. But most of these people lie on the ground, in their failed attempts to escape. Ceasing to move, damaged, cut from the threads of life. And more pile up and fall one by one.

And from within the fire, within the destruction and terror, there is one who has managed to evade most of the damage.

She may be small and young, but somehow she continues to flee.

Strawberry blonde hair, down to her shoulders, reflecting the light and glow of the fire. Her dress, once clean and pure, now smudged and tarnished during her attempt to escape. Tears flooding down her face as her skinny legs, bruised and sore from running on the rough, charred earth, continues to bllindly flee. Eventually, she comes to a stop, looking around, searching for some sort of safe place to hide or someone to run to that will take her away until it is safe to come back. But even through her eyes, blurred by her tears and the blinding light of the fire, there is nowhere she can run to.

She sobs, overwhelmed, not knowing what to do next. Until she hears something. From a distance. Her name is called. She looks around and sees a shadow coming towards her. She recognizes him for only a moment. She'd seen him before, but where?

As he approaches, she notices that he's holding something. For a moment, she is somewhat relieved to see a somewhat familiar face.

He's holding a bag. A satchel of some sort. He gives it to her and says that he found it earlier, remembering that it was hers. She grabs it and looks up at him. He urges her to follow him and she does. He says he knows a way out and a place to hide. But just as they were leaving, something flies overhead and crashes into a home with such force that they were knocked off their feet and tumbled to the ground. The remains of the home separate them. The girl sobs in pain as she tries to get up. Raising her head for a moment, she sees him. Lying on the ground surrounded by stones. She's unsure if he's unconscious or worse...

She bawls in pain as she tries to stand. Her knee is badly scratched and starting to bleed. She can't run anymore, but limps onward, too terrified to turn back. She screams, calling for help. Calling to anyone near enough to hear her, to come to her rescue.

But no one came.

She gripped her bag tightly and sobbed loudly.

Shielding her eyes from the terror she was witnessing before her. For what could a scared little girl do?

Until she hears her name called out again, but this time by a familiar voice. She looked up, wiping away her tears and notices someone else coming towards her. They run into each other and as soon as they embrace, they sob into each other. The other child is trying to say something, but was unable to as they choked on their tears and their words. Startled and stuttering.

The younger girl cannot say anything. She doesn't know what to do. She doesn't know what's happening.

She didn't understand what had happened.

Suddenly, the other child screams and grabs the young girl by her hand and tries to pull her away. But the girl doesn't know what they're screaming at, so she turns to look. And she suddenly freezes in fear at what she sees coming over the horizon of her vision. A great, shadowy figure, black smoke rising from him. Twitching and bubbling. Dark and blacker than an eye's pupil. It was the only thing she could see clearly throughout the burning light. Along with two glowing, piercing, red eyes. The girl is terrified beyond comprehension. And she couldn't do anything but stare. Her legs were too weak to even flinch, but as the other child pulls her by the arm, she notices that they were slowly being dragged away.

Suddenly, the shadowy figure extends its arm and reaches for them. They both scream and embrace, but they weren't able to hang onto each other as the other child was suddenly pulled away and lifted into the air by an arm of thick, black smoke and they yelled helplessly. The younger girl drops her bag and starts running after her friend. She couldn't live without them.

But the shadowy figure stops her and pushes her away as he too begins to rise into the air as the child he holds is suddenly enveloped in the inky smoke and begins to choke on the air. Tears stream down their face and their sight is blinded by a growing darkness in their eyes until it appears as if they're crying pure ink. They struggle to escape, but to no avail. They go limp and silent. The younger girl shrieks and begs to let them go. The shadowy figure looks at her, sees her face.

She's wounded, she's scared.

The figure stares at her as she grits her teeth in pain and begs to let her friend go. He finally drops the child, and flicks their body off to the side as the younger girl screams again, but was shortly cut off as the figure suddenly approaching her and she found herself unable to mutter a sound. They both stare at each other. Eye to eye. The only sounds around them to hear are the screams of the wounded and the burning light of the fire that has surrounded them. Enveloping them as the smoke begins to rise to the stars. Blinding them and covering the sky in a blanket of suffocation and shadows of sins.

The shadowy figure and the young girl continue to stare. Until he suddenly begins to reach out a hand. Slowly, so as to not scare the girl any further. The inky, black smoke around him begins to fade and he starts to regain his physical appearance. The details around his face start to become noticeable. The young girl, through tears and teeth, unable to think about anything else, let alone try to get up and run, nervously reaches out her hand. Confused, but wondering as to why he was holding out his hand to her. She finally breaks away from his gaze and looks at the hand that is being offered to her.

Has he finally realized?

Does she want to know?

Their palms becoming ever so close together, until just before they touch, in the space between, a spark emanated. Smaller than the head of a pin, but the force sent them both flying far from each other as everything else around them was suddenly blown away by the force of the shock wave. The fire that was close and had surrounded them went out, but the others beyond the range of it continued to rage on. After it had subsided, the burning light, the frantic, terrified people, never ceased.

The light within the dark that shouldn't have been, halting their rest under the light of the stars as the sky above them, becoming blinded and smothered by the destruction and extirpation of a civilization that lived below continued on as a spirit whose destiny was suddenly changed, might never be the same as what it used to be. And possibly, they might never exist long enough to fulfill that destiny, and the dreams of a world it wished to bring upon those who were around to witness it.

But such a spirit cannot be diminished so easily. Especially not this one.

When the spirit awakens again, a new future will be seen by a new pair of eyes.

A very unpredictable new life awaits for those who encounter it. And the time and space of the universe in which the spirit lives, will bear witness to something entirely new.

But of the events that have just transpired before you, the only thing that is known by those people that live within this civilization is that they will never be known to anyone outside of it, nor this world. And in the future beyond now, it may never return to the state in which it was previously. It may fall to ruin and be swept away by the tides of time, only for the landscape to appear as if it was all naturally grown.

Sadly, the souls who were stolen from their homes will never return to their lives. Their lives ended long ago.

And to the survivors. They will never know that they even had a home.

For Haven has Fallen.