Butterfly Farm

Chapter Nineteen: Your Devil Is A Ghost

Your Devil Is A Ghost by Red
Bleed by Connor Kaufman

🦋🦋🦋

The beast had been real after all.

Ava drew in a sharp breath, choking when her throat closed suddenly from all the emotions she was trying so desperately to swallow back. It had been real. She'd really almost died out there. It was real!

Mrs. Lennox patted her shoulder weakly, distractedly, as if she too was lost in her own thoughts. It felt like a bomb had been dropped in the room, and they were both just waiting for it to go off.

She'd almost been mauled to death by a giant, imaginary metal monster.

Shit.

The shocked silence was abruptly broken by the loud pounding of footsteps coming up the stairs. Both Ava and Mrs. Lennox jumped at the sound. Ava turned in her seat with wide eyes to face the door to her bedroom just as it burst open with no given warning. A boy with short dark hair and a red tshirt was followed closely by a mirror image of himself, though the second wore a yellow shirt. One looked concerned. The other looked uninterested. Both looked entirely too tall from this angle, too big for the confines of her little room.

Ava sucked in a trembling breath, her nerves forcing her fingers to grip the back of her chair tighter. They were here. In her room. Right where she'd never wanted to see either of them, no matter how comfortable she was or wasn't with them. A slow shiver worked its way from the top of her scalp down to the small of her back. This was not helping her anxiety at all. This was only bound to increase her paranoia about locking her doors at night. What on earth were they doing in her room?

"What are you boys doing up here?" Thankfully, Mrs. Lennox was the first to speak. Ava shot her a grateful look over her shoulder. At least she wasn't the only one that thought the boys shouldn't be here right now. Or ever.

Especially not right now. She couldn't deal with it right now.

The brothers were silent for a long moment. Ava could feel her stress levels rise with every passing second of quiet that dragged on. A steady hand on her shoulder did a little to calm her nerves, but not much. Not enough. Not when she could feel their attention so keenly, regardless of whether or not they were looking directly at her. Something about the way their eyes flickered to her every few seconds gave her the impression that they were as hyper-aware of her as she currently was of them.

Why were they here?

Sidney finally spoke after an uncomfortably long few seconds, his eyes now on Mrs. Lennox. "Ironhide is done berating us. We wanted to know how she's doing. And what happened." His gaze dropped to meet her own, his expression painfully sincere. "Are you okay?"

Ava nodded slowly, beyond confused. "I'm fine." Why did it matter to them?

He nodded back, looking like a puppet being pulled by guide strings. "That's good." He appeared to be completely lost as to what to say next.

Mrs. Lennox sighed loudly. "You knucklehead. Why didn't you at least knock? What if she'd been getting dressed? You can't just come barging into someone's room without asking permission first. You know that!"

The boys looked at each other in obvious bewilderment.

Sidney scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Why would she be getting dressed? It's the middle of the--"

Sev reached out and whacked the back of his brother's head, effectively cutting him off. "Idiot. Her shirt's torn. I told you this was a stupid idea."

"Hey! You followed me."