The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

#135 Distracted Minds

[Teri]

Everyone walked back together towards the tree house slowly. Teri was lagging behind the most, staring at the ground as she trudged along. The Twins were on either side of her, making sure she was feeling okay. She stopped coughing up the oily stuff, but it left a bad taste in her mouth. The worst thing she's ever tasted. Other parts of her body including her fins felt sticky and slightly irritated. She hoped once she got back to her underwater room, the fresh water would help clear everything out and it'd be easier to breathe. But besides the sick and sticky feeling, that wasn't what was disturbing her thoughts.
She felt sad to know that the ruins of her home revealed nothing to her and that the entire area was completely polluted. She was affected most by the strange clouds of ink and if it caused her that much pain and discomfort, then it probably wasn't a good idea to go back down there anytime soon.
"Hey... do you think all that... stuff down there will clear out soon?" Teri asked. She heard Apollo and Sophia sigh.
"I... don't think so. Pollution in the water like that... that stuff can take a long time to clean out on it's own." Sophia answered.
"Yeah, I hate to tell you but... something like that isn't really... uncommon to see. Whatever that stuff was, it's definitely not oil. Things like this can take years to clear out and be safe enough to be in. I don't think we should go back down there for a while. Sorry Teri." Apollo added. Teri hung her head and let out a long exhale.
"Yeah, you're right. I understand. You didn't happen to find anything while you were down there, did you?"
Everyone shook their heads.
"No, I didn't see anything." said Sophia.
"Yeah, me neither." Apollo added.
"It was... a little hard to see anything. Sorry Teri."

Teri said nothing more until they all made it back to the tree house. Apollo and Sophia went ahead to go back to the house to get cleaned up and changed. The Twins stayed behind and tried to relax until they got back. It's been an exhausting day for everyone. Teri sank into the pond, floating downwards until she fell softly upon her bed. She cleared her throat and felt more relaxed as she could feel the clean water flow in and out of her. The sick feeling was gone and her limbs didn't feel sticky anymore. She never could have imagined that her own home could feel so poisoned and suffocating.
What was once a place of warmth, comfort and safety have rapidly turned into a place of decay and polluted memories of a world she may never see again.
She let out a deep breath and decided not to think anymore. She pushed herself up from her bed and floated back up to the surface, leaning over the ground. She saw the Twins approaching her.
"Hey, Teri. Are you feeling any better now?"
"Yeah..." she sighed. "It feels a lot better down here. I just... I just kinda hoped we would find something down there that we didn't see the first time."
She glanced up at them briefly, but she didn't lift her head. She just floated there, leaning over the ground with her head resting in her arms.
"We're sorry we weren't able to find anything. You know we're all doing our best to help you, it's been tough on us too. We really did hope we'd find something that could help us, but it was too hard to see anything down there."
"Yeah, I know. Even I had trouble seeing things clearly. I didn't feel like that at all the last time I was down there with Apollo. You know, when I was trying to get the rest of my stuff? It didn't feel so... suffocating like that. Maybe all that... pollution stuff didn't act up until now."
"Do you think it'll take long for it to clear out by itself? I don't think we have that kind of time."
"If Sophie and Apollo know that stuff like this takes that long, then they're probably right." Teri's expression began to soften. "It's okay, I'm just glad we got out of there before we all suffocated. I didn't think we'd find anything down there anyway..."
The Twins' faces changed to a look of worry and they leaned slowly towards her.
"Whatever was down there is probably long gone by now. Everything's all smashed up and there's nothing but rocks. It's all gone now..." Teri's voice began to shake.
"But there has to be other clues around here somewhere. We don't know if everything is destroyed," Flyboy assured.
"Yeah, we just don't know where to look is all. We don't believe that all the evidence is gone. We'll find a way to find it ourselves and make sure there's nothing left for the Demon to use against us." Fleetfoot added.
Teri frowned and stared down at her crossed arms.
"But then what? What if we don't?" Teri started softly. The Twins tilted their heads in confusion.
"What..?"
"What if we don't find it? What if the Demon already destroyed everything we needed? We don't know where to look and everywhere we have looked is full of monsters that try to kill us before we can find the answers." Teri's voice rose with every sentence. The Twins were starting to become a little unnerved by her tone. She pushed herself up from the ground, her legs still dangling in the water.
"We both lost our homes to that Demon and we can never go back because it's too dangerous for us to even see! And the area we have left to search is limited and every time we try to go out, we're always hunted down by those... those things! Not to mention the Demon is always watching us, so we don't know when or where it's going to attack us from, and they just keep getting stronger every day and if they manage to take us down, what are our chances for all five of us to do when the Demon shows up again?!"
The Twins stared at her with wide eyes, unsure of what to say. But Teri continued, pulling herself out of the water and pacing back and forth upsettingly.
"But what if we do? What if we do find a way to destroy the Demon and we're all still alive? What are we supposed to do then? What can we do? Will our homes be freed and safe to return to? Or is it just going to stay the way it is until we wait long enough for those places to clear out themselves? Will we ever get to go home..?" she stopped suddenly and turned to the Twins.
"You lost your home, but neither you or Apollo or even Sophie know if you actually have a family to find! I lost my home and all the family I had left!" she practically screamed.
The Twins continued to stare nervously with wide eyes, refusing to say anything now.
"We've got nowhere to go and we don't have any plans! We can't go anywhere else because there isn't anyone else in this entire world that is like us! Sophie already told us that all the people living around us that all these people living around us have never seen anything like us or know that any of this exists and if they find us, we're never coming back here! So what are we supposed to do?!" her face whipped around one last time and the Twins could see tears streaming down her face as she began to tremble. The Twins felt nervous about approaching her, but understood that she was clearly upset.
"What are we supposed to do? What else is there we can do? I... I-..... I just don't know what to do..." she muttered, finally breaking down and covering her face with her webbed hands.

The Twins tried to reach out to her, an attempt at comfort.
"Teri..."
"Just don't..."
She rushed past them and dove into the pond. Sinking back to her bed and pulling the thin sheet over herself. The Twins could see her blurred movements from above before looking at each other. They were quite surprised with her sudden outburst, but they understood that she was quite upset. Her home and hundreds of lives lost in a single day. No one could imagine that kind of pain. They decided to leave her alone for a while until she calmed down enough.

They turned around and stopped when they saw Apollo and Sophia in the distance, standing just behind the tree house. They too were frozen with wide eyes. Apollo waved at them and Sophia stiffened when she noticed they were looking at her.