The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

The End

The Stars Shine Within the Darkness.

Beneath the darkness, all is quiet. Alive, but only sleeping. Looking down from the night sky, into a dense forest. The breath of life is slow and steady, but barely noticeable. Everything is as peaceful as it has always been.

However, on this night in particular... not everything is as peaceful as it should have been.

From amidst the trees that stand closely together, there is a light. Light where there should be none. Within the light, sounds echo through the distance. Disturbing the peace of the life that was sleeping only moments ago. As the light grows in strength, so does its destruction. And the sounds that echo within shriek and wail in fear and pain. The light surrounds everything now, leaving little room to abscond. Figures rush everywhere in a blur, trying to avoid the burning light, either looking for safety and protection or an escape route.

Unfortunately, as the burning light grows higher and stretches to anywhere to fuel its growth, the life that looks for escape slowly begins to diminish.

But there is one figure in particular who stands above the rest.

She is actually very small, but she has been a witness and a survivor since the beginning. Her hair reflects the light that burns around her and her outfit has been smudged and tarnished as she continues to blindly flee. A bag too big for her to stay at her side is dragged along the ground. Tears flood down her face.

She stops and looks around at the scene before her. Figures rush by her in every direction, but not one seems to notice her. She merely watches as the destruction around her grows, leaving her nothing but the feeling of Fear.

She clutches the bag close to her and wails. Out of all the figures that go by her, she doesn't understand why not one of them stops to help her.

No one comes to her rescue.

That was until she heard something calling out. Her vision is blurred by her tears, but as she looks up she sees something heading towards her. A small figure calling her name. The girl drops the bag and the two figures embrace, partly relieved that both of them were still alive. They pulled away briefly, tears rolling down their cheeks. They try to communicate, but they can't get a single word out as they choke on fear and smoke. Stuttering and stammering their way to the point. Not one word was understood until the figure screamed and pointed at something behind the girl and they turned around.

The embodiment of fear and destruction was approaching them. A strange shadow that stood out amongst the burning light. As if the black smoke that rose into the heavens shaped itself and was pulled into a form that walked amongst everything else. It twitched and convulsed, unable to walk in a straight line. As if it were in pain. A pain that couldn't be self-extinguished.

The girl and the small figure hold each other, frozen to the ground out of fear. The shadow looks up and sees the pair. Its arm suddenly elongates and reaches out swiftly. The two shriek as the smoke wraps itself around the small figure and pulls them up into the air. The girl reaches out and races after them as the shadow pulls the figures towards them. The girl and the figure cease their wailing as they come face to face with the shadowy figure.

It can hardly stand up straight. Its head rolled back and forth. The only thing the figure could see within it was a pair of deep red eyes. A color that stood out far from anything they had ever seen. Even as the burning light grew closer towards them, the brightness could not blind them to the eyes that stared through them. The shadow mumbled, as if it were trying to speak, before raising its voice from a shout to a roar. The small figure's face was completely enveloped within the black smoke, leaving their body flailing wildly. The girl shrieked, begging to make it stop. But she stood frozen to the dirt, her arms reaching out.

Until the small figure went limp and all sound was silenced. The shadowy figure tossed the small figure behind them and their body flew such a distance, it almost looked as if the burning light consumed them within an instant.

The girl shrieked. She wailed. She screamed and sobbed.

Both she and the shadowy figure dropped to their knees at the same time.

It startled the both of them and they both went quiet.

The girl was shaking and shivering, her face smeared and her hair ruffled.

The shadowy figure was also shivering and twitching, unable to keep sill.

Neither of them were able to utter a sound.

They both stare at each other. Eye to eye.

The burning light is slowly stretching towards them as the smoke continues to rise and blind the sky in a blanket of suffocation.

The shadowy figure begins to reach out its arm, slowly as to not frighten the girl any further. Its head rolled back and forth, but it managed to keep its arm as still as possible. After a long moment, the girl also reaches out her tiny hand.

The space between them slowly gets closer and closer.

And closer...

And closer...

Their palms are parallel to each other.

Just as the tips of their fingers were about to touch, a light, no bigger than the head of a pin flashes in the space between them. And suddenly, they are both blown far, far away from each other.

An enormous shockwave blows anything and everything away. The burning light is snuffed out within an instant and anything standing was blown over at such a force that there was nothing else to be seen other than space and distance,

A hole was blown through the smoke where for a brief moment, there was a perfect circle of sky and stars.

Everything stopped.

Even Life.

The destruction and extirpation of a civilization that lived beneath the stars had changed everything in so little time.

The destiny of a spirit was changed forever that night. It will never be the same as what it used to be. Its existence and the dreams it carried may never exist long enough for enough witnesses to truly understand or see that destiny fulfilled.

But such a spirit cannot be diminished so easily.

Life cannot be halted forever. And when it becomes tomorrow, something new will start. Though everything may have changed, destinies cannot be re-written. Only altered.

A new future will be seen by a new pair of eyes. And a very unpredictable life awaits it, including those who encounter it or merely witness it for a brief moment.

The time and space of the universe in which the spirit lives in will bear witness to the birth of something entirely new.

But of the events that have just transpired, the only thing that was known is that the life within the previous civilization will never be known to anyone again. It's people, it's history, it's culture, it's discoveries and inventions. They are no more.

The tides of time will come by to sweep up everything that was and replace it with nothing more than possibility.

The souls that were stolen from their homes will never be heard for a very, very, very, very long time. They may never be heard at all.

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

The End of Haven

Is the Beginning of Their Story.