BUTTERFLY

IMPENDING DOOMSDAY

There is a woman; silence and stillness are her abode, one side in darkness and the other shining in light. She has no God, when will her story be told?

The sun of the approaching spring crept in through my window, adding color to my waking. I opened my eyes and looked at the sunlight shining through the slightly ajar curtain. The fact that it was shining so beautifully at this hour meant that we were nearing the end of winter. As a flower butterfly, nothing could make me happier than spring.

I quickly got out of bed and ran to the window. My body was in a sweat from the nightmares, but the bright sun immediately lifted my spirits. When I smiled and opened the curtains, the warm rays of the sun caressed my face. The ice on the roof of the house was melting; melting drops were falling like rain, there was no snow on the trees anymore. The snow on the ground was melting too, so the plants were about to wake up and that made me very happy.

I jumped out of the room and quietly started to do the housework, as Grandma was still asleep. For the first time in a long time, I started the day happily. I was generally stressed and scared because I had never been out of trouble, but I had a feeling that with the arrival of spring, I was going to have good days. In fact, I had made a decision, I would return home before the end of this spring and be reunited with my family and my flowers.

I must have been happy because I finished the chores quickly, but Grandma hadn't woken up yet. I put my hands on my waist and sat on the couch and thought of something to do. But I had finished all the chores for the day. After much thought, I decided to take a shower because I couldn't find anything to do until Grandma woke up. I was still feeling sweaty from training with Kize the other day, but there was no need for training, I was sweating too much from the dreams I had every night.

Since it was almost time for Grandma to wake up, I took a quick shower and dried my hair. I had sold my body a towel, Kize could surprise me with his yellow light every now and then and I was afraid that he would see me naked. Yes, most of the time I was almost completely undressed in front of him, but... I still couldn't help my embarrassment, my body wasn't strong enough so we hadn't yet been fully together, and even though I often longed for it, he said we would have to wait.

As I dried my hair, I noticed my image in the mirror. My formerly skinny and weak body now looked strong. I didn't have much muscle, but I could tell I was a rosarian. Kize's training, which was hard enough to kill me, was definitely enough for my goal. He knew what he was doing, and I had let him train me because I already knew that.

After tidying my dry hair, I threw the dirty clothes in the closet to be washed and cleaned the bathroom, straightening the towel that had slipped down my body. I hadn't packed any clothes, and now that it wasn't so cold, I didn't have to rush to get dressed and run to the stove.

As soon as I opened the bathroom door, I heard men's voices. With my hand frozen on the doorknob, I looked up and saw the men talking to Grandma at the front door, men of God. I quickly grabbed the towel with one hand as my breath caught in my throat; if it fell or slipped, it could mean my death.

I locked eyes with the red eyed man when a few of them's eyes fell on me, and when his gaze shifted from my eyes to my body, I quickly closed the bathroom door and took a few steps back, taking deep breaths. The first thing I did was look at my body. If anyone had seen my race mark, I could be in trouble. No, it could be the end of me.

I examined every part of my exposed skin, I even looked at my legs even though there was nothing on my legs, but my race mark was not visible. Once I was sure of that, I took a deep breath, what would I do if they saw me? They could kill me right here.

My hand inevitably went to the necklace Kize had given me around my neck. I was so distracted, so focused on my thoughts that I didn't even hear the sounds coming from the living room, even though they were very low, but I had to be careful. After all, my life was at stake.

As my shoulders slumped, I sat on the edge of the bathtub and waited for them to leave for a while, eavesdropping, of course, trying to hear what they were saying. But the voices were so low and muffled that I couldn't understand anything. After two minutes the voices had stopped and I got up and went to the door, thinking they had left. I leaned my ear against the door to make sure no one was there when there was a knock on the door. "They left, you can come out." Grandma said with a grumpy demeanor. I quickly opened the door and came out of the bathroom, shivering from the cold. Grandma had taken the teapot on the stove and was pouring tea.

I went to the stove and reached out my hands and tried to warm myself. "What are they here for?" I asked and went to my room to get something to wear so I wouldn't get sick. I put on the first pair of pajamas I could get my hands on, listening to what grandma was saying. "They are looking for the thing that chased you, they asked me if I saw anything suspicious." Grandma took a sip of her tea as I left the room and went to her. I poured myself a cup of tea and sat in the chair across from her. The heat from the stove had made me wince because I was cold while waiting in the bathroom. Or it could have been because I remembered that monster.

"I don't know why it took them so long to find it." I muttered, watching the glass in my hand. She shook her head from side to side and smoothed the edge of the small blanket that had slipped off her shoulder. "Hiding from Kize and Iske is not easy. You were in great danger that day." She nodded and took a bite of ham. Yes, of course I was still not eating meat and I was absolutely against it.

As I took a slice of bread in my hand I felt nauseous, like I was too tired to eat. It had been a month since the day the monster chased me, but I still felt the same as the first day. And the monster hadn't been found, which made my feelings worse. On top of that, there was news of missing people all the time, there were missing posters all over the city. Their families were even going to God to find them, but there was no solution. They couldn't find a single one of the missing people.

Oh, shouldn't God have done something about it! After all, he was a god and it shouldn't have been difficult for him to find a monster in his world. But could he have seen all this and not reacted? It was like... As if they didn't care about the missing people.

"Don't bother, have breakfast. A solution will be found soon." I nodded and forced myself to eat breakfast even though I didn't feel like it. We were going to do spring cleaning soon, we needed to organize the garden, so I needed energy. I also needed to eat a lot to stay healthy while training with Kize. Otherwise, I could die of emaciation from that sport.

After breakfast, we quickly cleared the table and started cleaning Kamer's house with Grandma. We had decided to do the spring cleaning at kamer's house first. Besides, since it used to defecate where it lived, no matter how much we cleaned it, it always smelled. I guess animals might not have brains.

While we were cleaning the house, I took Kamer by the saddle so that Kamer wouldn't be disturbed and took it out into the garden, stroking its fur. When we got to the little cherry tree, it shook the fur off the back of its neck and wagged its tail to shoo away the flies that were hovering around. I smiled and looked at its tail which occasionally bumped into me, animals are very interesting creatures. I would love to have one in my world.

When Kamer made a loud noise while I was tying it to the tree, I was startled for a moment, but I kissed its cheek before the smile on my face fell, it kept shouting for a while. Grandma told me that donkeys often do this, so I knew it wasn't scared or hurt. When I first met it, I would have been scared away when I heard that sound, but over time I got used to its sudden reactions.

When I heard a woman's voice saying, "So this is where you live?" I inevitably got goosebumps and the smile on my face slowly faded. Of course I knew the owner of this voice and I didn't like it enough to take away my happy mood.

I took a deep breath, smiled and turned around to look at Irine standing at the entrance to the garden. She had her blonde hair in a tight ponytail and was wearing a beautiful low cut dress as if it wasn't winter. I folded my arms across my chest as she stood with one hand on her waist, watching my house. "Irine?" I said, not afraid to let her know I didn't like her. She was a very nasty woman and I certainly didn't think my bad feelings towards her would ever change.

"The little mouse has been living in a hole of her own." She hadn't looked at me yet. I frowned involuntarily when I saw Grandma walking past me and standing in front of Irine. And her feelings were exactly the same as mine.

"Greetings to Irine, the woman of God." She said gruffly. Irine took her eyes off the house and looked contemptuously at me and then at the grandmother. "Any problems around here, old woman?" she said, raising one eyebrow. She had an ugly smile on her face, as if she was mocking her. "There is no problem, the men of God came in the morning and I already told them everything." Grandma said and shook her head from side to side and grunted. "Don't come and bother us all the time, as if you are good for anything. Go find the missing children first, what are you doing here?" She continued, scolding Irine. And I could see the anger in Irine's eyes that this was bothering her.

When Grandma turned around and came to stand next to me, Irine let out a loud laugh. It was obviously a nervous laugh. "I knew you were a ghetto person, but this rundown house..." She pointed her finger at my house and let out another laugh. "...and this arrogant old woman, even I couldn't have guessed you were so ghetto." She continued. Her words were enough to make me angry, I narrowed my eyes and looked around. There was no one else around but the three of us.

Irine had come alone, and from what I had heard, everyone was traveling in a group of five, and they were on guard duty. That meant that she was not here on duty. She came knowing I was here, so what was her purpose? To bother me, to warn me about Kize. To harm me?