The Forest of Butterflies
~Short Story~
A forest stands, cloaked in a dark mist of the night, away from unwanted visitors. It isn't too big. In the center of the forest, there is an opening formed by four young trees.
There is something there. Can you see it moving? It's not moving yet, just standing quiety - waiting, and waiting, and waiting...It's waiting for something to happen, but what?
The four trees, though young, are deadly bare. Only butterflies cover the cold dark branches. The dead grass on the ground is covered by a soft carpet of dead butterflies, their wings stained with dropplets of blood. But who did this? Where is thys mysterious killer? They're waiting - I hear them. Their moves may not be apparent but you could hear them.
Silver lines are strung in between the trees and from the trees. In the soft glow of the moon they glitter. But look - some of the lines are the colour of fresh blood, dripping off one drop at a time, drip, drip, drop.
That's when a human hand appears. Slender pale fingers run along the hundreds of lines, collecting the blod. Then, they return to their owner, who licks off the blood.
It's a girl, with crimson red eyes narrowed in delight, and feathery gold decorations adorn her long raven-black hair. She has more than two arms though. While two of her arms are holding up a perfectly ripe apple, two more are looking over the lines and two more relaxing, hanging and doing nothing. They are resting at her glass web-like skirt. She floats around, looking around herself, then takes a bit of the ripe apple, the juice dripping down her chin and onto the dead ground covered with butterflies.
Everything in her sight is dead, killed by her own six hands. Her two spider helpers crawl up and down the trees, looking for anything living. But they fail every time.
Just about to give up, her keen eyes noticed something twitch. Walking over to that spot, the girl sees a butterfly, still alive, caught in her web. This pleases her, for she opens her eyes and reaches for the butterfly. With no effort at all, the butterfly comes off the spiderweb, and towards the girl. She smiles to reveal her sharp pointed white teeth, and moving the butterfly towards her mouth bites into the soft fuzzy body of the creature, injecting her venom into the prey. Within a few seconds, the butterfly is already dead, joining the others in a happy place somewhere on the other side of this world.
Have you realized yet? No? If no, then I shall tell you - the girl is a spider. Though not having the appearence of one, her characteristics and behaviour matches a spider perfectly.
And so, the spider girl continues spinning her silky silver webs in the hopes of adding another victim to her collection of butterflies. It is no wonder that those who have been here call it the forest of butterflies.
End
Labels: 2009, Butterfly, dark, random, Short Story
