Butterfly with Broken Wings

Part 2 to “Butterfly in a Jar.”

An arrow impaled through my heart. A machete sliced through my limbs. And a dagger slitting my skin. The pain is too real.

Oh, the torture… the agony.

My purity and my innocence. It’s all gone. They have stolen them.

I’m drowning in my own blood and tears. Even their scent of sweat and musk is flowing in my air, suffocating me some more. Much to my disgust.

Their eyes—their eyes were filled with nothing but demonic lust.

I hear nothing but their laughter of malignity… and my cries of agony. I see nothing but total blackness and blur.

When they were done taking over me… they just left me here. All alone inside this jar. A jar filled with agonizing Hell and fear.

I’m the prey of the praying mantis. I’m the little fly in the Venus flytrap. I feel devoured and imprisoned.

I am entirely immobilized with trauma.

I’m hearing nothing but their echoing laughter mixed with my screams and cries. It’s locked up inside my head. It’s making me lose my mind even more. And…

I feel as if I’m on my one last breath.

I started thinking for the worse.

What if they come back—for another? What if they do something more atrocious to me?

I have to make an escape. But the problem is…

What if they see me? What if they catch me with their net again?

The decision is hard: either I stay here and die… or get out and risk it all.

I have no choice… I have to risk it.

Fortunately—one of them left the only exit unlocked. An accident, I presume? Using whatever strength I have, I push it out of the way—and I’m finally liberated from the jar of Hell.

I feel the torturing pain. It turns out that they have broken my wings as they were taking over me. The horrid pain is interfering with me, though I have to keep going if I want to make it out alive.

I limp my way to the corridors. It’s like a labyrinth—a labyrinth with wooden walls and torn wallpaper instead of concrete stone.

As I—painstakingly—limp through the hallways… I noticed that I’m not the only captured butterfly. In the hallways are more jars. Inside each jar—are the other agonized butterflies.

Some are dying… some are already dead… and many of them have gotten their wings broken apart.

Several of them wanted me to help set them free. I did—but I came too late.

As severely traumatizing it is for me to watch them die before my eyes, I have to keep moving on.

I limp and limp and limp as I try my best not to witness more deaths of the bounded and trapped butterflies… and soon, I hit the end of the labyrinth.

There is a door. I assumed it’s the exit. Making sure that none of them catches me—I opened it.

It’s not the exit I anticipated. Instead it’s just a small room with a large bay window. The ray of light from the outside is gleaming through the transparent glass.

Curiously, I walk in without making a sound. I can feel the adrenaline rushing. I gaze around the empty place. The walls are entirely covered with photos.

With a better perception, I realized that all of the photos…

Are me.

And right on top of the desk—is a bell jar. Inside the bell jar—is the exact same white rose I found in the field earlier. Underneath its stem… are my locks of hair.

I felt the back of my head. My hair has shortened from my waists to my shoulders. That explains it.

Was I their target all along? How can I not recognize this?

Most importantly… if they were going after me, why did they go after those other butterflies?

The answers will remain a mystery to me. Always.

While slowly and silently stepping closer to the desk, I kept my focus on the deadly rose. Just when I was about to touch the lid…

I hear the door slam behind me.

I gasp and jumped. My heart is racing with anxiety and paranoia.

I weakly turn around… they’re here. Here comes the catatonia.

They caught me with their net again.

Their malignity has returned. They chuckled their evil chuckles.

“It was wrong of you to escape without our permission,” the leader darkly informs, “You shouldn’t have left and try to escape. For that, you shall be punished.”

Punishment? No… they’re at it again. I backed away until I hit the wall, right next to the window.

“You don’t want to end up like the others now, do you?”

“There’s no way out, this time. Looks like you’re trapped—again.”

One of them locked the door. They were right.

I’m surrounded.

I’m losing again.

Then—I felt a huge grip on my wings. Followed by some more sharp pain… and the sound of something ripping and breaking.

I screamed in more agony.

They stepped closer, incarcerating me in the Venus flytrap. They’re praying mantises about to devour me.

With tears of fear in my eyes, I look through the window—which happens to be the only exit.

I noticed that we’re 10 stories high in this sanctuary.

Another tough decision to make… and I already made it.

Sending out more sobs, I quickly turn to the opened window and stepped onto its ledge. With the wings broken off—the leap will be suicide for me… but it’s the only way out.

“You can’t take over me anymore…” I tell them in between my sobs and without looking back at them.

With no hesitation…

I leap off.

I would’ve seen the look of their eyes for what I just did as I fall…

But they have vanished mysteriously, like phantoms.

I’m confused about their disappearances, but then…

I hit the concrete ground… and my heartbeat is gone.

Within seconds…

I hear a familiar male voice telling me,

“You’re okay now, you’re safe now… because you’re in a better place now.”

Happily relieved, I opened my eyes.

I gaze at where the voice came from and soon…

My relief came to a sudden end.

Even in death… they don’t seem to give up.