BUTTERFLY : SHINOBU KOCHO (PART ONE)

Part 2: Final Chapter: To The Bitter End

Hey!

Hey, Big Bro!

Get up!

Eh?

Bright golden eyes were set alight, as he awoke to a pit of murky black encasing him.

Huh....?

He instinctively tried moving his arm, only to find that so much as a twitch of his finger was an impossible task. Confused, he furrowed his eyebrows, golden eyes darting every which way.

W-Where....am I....?

All around him was a constricting, eerie black, however, holding him down.

Why is it-......why am I pinned down like this?

He twitched again, this time managing a fist.

Ah.....I can move, He remarked to himself, So....I'm not dead yet.....

Maybe....if I just.....

In one swift movement, he yanked himself upwards, sitting up.

Ah.

Before he had realized it, the black had vanished. There was no longer the suffocating darkness clouding him, but rather more familiar surroundings.

The chirping of house sparrows called to him, as he stared blanky ahead. He familiarized himself with the feeling of thin, stained sheets and the hard mattress beneath him, the gentle early day breeze blowing in from the window left ajar. The small room in which he lay was near-barren, with a rickety old rocking chair draped with a lace piece of cloth over the headrest in the corner of it, by the door of the bedroom. Aside from the candle resting atop the small desk by his bedside and the loose stack of books by the chair, there was very little else of note, aside from the thin slits in between the boards that gave a view of the floor below and the hefty scent of smog followed the whisps of wind pouring through.

Yet, for him, all of this, the rising sun, the outdoor sounds of bustling cars and murmuring work-goers,

Ah.....this is.....home.....

For a moment, all he could do was remain upright, motionless, unsure of whether to move or stay still as he was.

Why.....why am I here.....

Then, his eyes, auburn and gentle, widened ever so slightly as the epiphany hit him.

Ah-....

He turned his head, towards the entrance, the thin wooden door.

Just now, he's going to-

"Big Bro, Big Bro!"

Just then, the door slammed open like the wind kicked it out, and a short, thin boy leapt out from the hallway with a jovial grin on his lips.

Ah.

"Big Bro!" The child repeated himself once more, racing over to his bedside. As the boy got closer and jumped up onto his bed, he was able to get a closer look at him.

"You've been in bed for hours, now!" The kid whined to him, sticking out a lip in a pout, "Mom left for work a while ago, and I've been left with nothing to do! I'm hungry, I'm bored, so get up and do something with me!"

The boy comedically crossed his arms and touched his chin to his neck, furrowing his eyebrows to reflect his displeasure.

This.....is....

The boy, sitting upright at his feet with a smile perpetually plastered on his visage, bewildered him. His arms, loosely covered with a stained beige long-sleeve top, seemed to be unhealthily slender, with the limp fabric doing little to mask the scrawniness of the smiling child at his feet. His collar was protruding like the bone wished to escape his very body, and the joints seemed to probe and prod at his skin in a winning attempt at breaking free. His cheeks were caved in, and shaggy brown hair seemed dull, void of volume or nutrition. Chapped lips, droopy doe eyes and yellow teeth seemed to hint at a lack of hygiene, though, for some odd reason, he felt no disgust at the boy's filthiness.