The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

Guidelines

[Sophia]

When it comes to living this sort of life, it's easy to see how quickly everything can unravel if you're not careful. Hiding your entire existence, yet maintaining the appearance of a normal human being is just as exhausting as it sounds. And not having any authoritative figures around to make rules for us or just generally make sure we don't do something stupid on accident is certainly... well, just as sad as it sounds, but with all we've experienced up until now, we've learned to make our own rules.

Well... we don't really call them rules, more like... just, general guidelines to staying alive and staying hidden.

Our first couple of... rules... Just don't do anything that might risk bringing attention to us. If we go out in public, we have to wear large, loose clothes, preferably jackets or hoodies. Hiding a pair of wings on our backs isn't as easy as it looks. Have you ever tried to walk to the grocery store and back in 90 degree heat?

Avoid talking to people if at all possible and just make sure no one notices us. Sadly, that includes not making any human friends. I'm okay with that because I don't like people anyway. But I couldn't stop Apollo from trying. He got along well with a couple people back at school, but when that year came to an end and we decided to leave... they all had a bit of a falling out and he hasn't seen them since. He still feels bad about it, I feel kinda bad for him, but in the end, we both understood the risks that came with that. He couldn't have them come over and hang out. He couldn't risk going anywhere with them outside of school, that sort of thing.

Our next set of rules is simply don't let anyone know where we live.

We don't ever use the front door, gotta make sure our neighbors don't see us leaving or entering the house. No ordering takeout or online shopping. Also gotta make sure we're not being too loud. This neighborhood has plenty of kids and family running around, and they all have at least one dog. We can hear practically all of them yelling, laughing, conversing loudly, partying, the occasional dog barking. More than once I've heard someone sneeze loudly. And I can hear them all the way from the confines of my room. Whatever these houses are made out of these days, we can tell that it's gotta be something cheap, including the ones we're squatting in. I can hear Apollo singing in the shower while I'm in the garage.

If we can hear them, they can hear us. We're normally relatively quiet, but we mostly have to be mindful if we're watching our shows on the TV or playing games. (Especially me, I'm the one that likes to yell occasionally........ Often.)

Another general set of rules is keep the house clean. All those boring chores and things. It's not fun, we're certainly not the best, but we try. Even if we forget or... put things off longer than we should, we still try.

And last but not least... while we have the freedom of going out and hanging out at the tree house to do whatever we want with little consequence... there is one rule. And this one is an actual rule.

Don't go out into the forest at night.

While the tree house is a general safe area, including the surrounding grove, the rest of the forest beyond that is... unpredictable. There's less risk in the daytime, but at night... well... let's just say we speak from experience.

However on this particular night, the day after yesterday's shopping trip, this rule temporarily became a guideline to me.

(Don't tell Apollo.)

I was getting ready for bed. My newly acquired clothes were organized in my drawers, a small pile of shopping bags was piled in the corner of my room that I said I'd take out tomorrow. Apollo had also retired for the night as well. I got into bed and tried to get as comfortable as possible. But after a while... I was beginning to feel restless. I tossed and turned, I adjusted my pillows. After another while longer, my eyes popped open in frustration. I sat up in bed and sighed. I should've been tired. I felt tired climbing up the stairs.

And now here I am sitting in bed, not tired enough.

I didn't want to look at my phone and risk staying up later than I should. My eyes gazed over everything in my room, wondering what I could do... or even if I wanted to do anything. Until my head turned towards the window and I ended up staring through the curtains. I crawled over to the edge of my bed, pulling the curtain away and gazed into the night sky. My mind wandered for a moment until a thought hit me. I was suddenly filled with anticipation and I could feel my heart race, but at the same time I wanted to shoot that thought down immediately. But it was too late, a small shot of adrenaline had already kicked in and it was desperate to take action. My thoughts were starting to be considered as I glanced back and forth from my door to the window. Glancing nervously upwards into the sky and the jacket that was sitting in my desk chair. I sighed as I got out of bed.

With my room being closest to the stairs, sneaking out of the house isn't difficult. I'm good at being sneaky. I'd jump out the window if I could, but the sound of my wings would've alerted Apollo. I carefully and gently opened the backdoor, making sure it didn't make any squeaking sounds. The forest beyond the fence was dark. Really dark. My heart was racing the entire way. I brought no light with me to see. I walked through and through, only the sound of my shoes crunching on the dirt and dry leaves was all that could be heard. I soon reached the tree house and my anticipation grew again.

I zipped up my jacket and unfolded my wings.

I took off into the night sky, feeling the cold air on my face, through my hair and making my entire body shiver.

I know this place is dangerous at night, I know I shouldn't be out here, especially at this hour. But I couldn't help myself.

Apollo and I used to go flying around at night when we were kids, before we realized how dangerous and stupid that was. But when we started going to school, I started doing it again because... well, honestly... I'm not entirely sure why. I guess I just wanted to get out for a while before I was forced to live in reality again.

I pulled myself higher and higher into the night sky. It's amazing how different things look up here. I like gazing down and seeing all the lights from the town, the neighborhoods, the distant highways, all the cars moving in smooth lines. Sometimes if I squint my eyes, it's almost looks like I'm watching a city full of sentient stars. Sometimes I'll listen to music out here and it makes everything feel like I'm exploring a whole different world. Especially when there's lots of clouds and you can hardly see the ground. If I could just sit on a big fluffy cloud and watch everything from below, I would.

I suddenly realized I was flying over the lake. From the far left, I spotted the tall cliffs. There was a river up top that fell over the cliffs in a thin waterfall which carried itself into the lake. I suddenly began to see my own shadow flying over the rocks. I glanced up to see the clouds were parting just enough for the moon to shine through.

I always tell myself never to stop, as long as I stay up high, I'll be safe. No one can see me. But the second I saw the moon, I felt compelled to stare at it. I looked back down at the waterfall and started considering...

I told myself I'd just land and stand by the edge for a while. Then I'll go back home. It was starting to get cold out here anyway.

I flew around in circles, lowering speed and altitude until I touched down on the edge of the cliff, beside me was the thin waterfall flowing over the edge. I took a few steps forward as I watched the sea of tiny clouds move away and focused my eyes on the light of the moon. The surface of the lake began to reflect its light, but only briefly. The tips of my feathers began to drag on the ground as I slowly wrapped my wings around my shoulders, trying to stay warm, but I was beginning to shiver. I couldn't pull my eyes away from the skies.

Even though the moon had captured my gaze and the cold was starting to get to me, there was another feeling I was beginning to sense. I wasn't sure if it was real or not, or if I was finally feeling tired, but...

I swear... I had the strangest sense that... almost as if... I was being watched..... from somewhere really far away.