Wings of Butterflies

Epilogue

England, 2040

As I flew over the tree roots in the dim forest, I saw the sun coming up behind me. If it had been a normal day, I would have stopped to enjoy the moment. But this day was everything but ordinary. During my run, the light hit my face and for an instant, I closed my eyes. Without me noticing, a smile lit up my face. How long had it been since I smiled, I wondered. But I knew that I had no need to speculate. I knew precisely how long it had been. It was 20 years, six months, three weeks, ten hours and seventeen minutes ago. The longest time of my existence. And the most lonesome.

Before…Him, I never had a problem with being by myself. On the contrary, there was nothing I loved more than time for me only. But as I had let Him into my life, everything had altered. I had changed. Forever. That someone I had been before Him, I had a hard time remembering and it was even harder to understand “her”. Or maybe I was simply repressing the horrible memories of the wicked creature that had been me for so long.

Suddenly I could see a clearing in the forest and that made me slow down a bit. As the speed took off I could feel my head spinning. Something was scratching me from inside my chest and I did not care for this disturbing reaction. I stayed right on my course and it didn’t take long until I saw it. The house was even more beautiful than it had been on paper. Surrounded by nothing but trees, open fields and the sky, it reminded me of another home. The home of the human Gabrielle.

For a second, the buried strong emotions took over and I felt a burning sensation deep down in my throat. I shut my eyes and cleared out my head until there was nothing but a big blank space. All I had to do was to move my feet, one foot after the other. There couldn’t be more than twenty feet left to the front door, when it suddenly swung wide open. My whole body was instantly on edge and I didn’t know whether to stay where I was or run back the way I came. Before I had the chance to make up my mind, a little boy was standing next to me.

     “Hi! I’m Ben who are you?” he asked with a smile as broad as his face.

     Without answering, I studied the boy closely. Even though it was hard for me to tell his human age, he did not appear to be more than ten years old. But his age was not the first thing that caught my attention. It was his brown wild hair, his tiny nose with a little tip, but most of all; his eyes. He was the spitting image of..

     “Marc! Where’s Benjamin? I can’t find him anywhere inside.”

     At the sound of the familiar name with so many reminiscences, I had to gasp for air. When a stronger voice, a male voice, spoke, I felt my mouth drying up like a desert.

     “Take it easy Beatrice, he’s probably outside I’ll go get him.”

     All of the sudden, the boy started to tug my shirt which automatically made me take a step away from him.

     “You never told me your name.”

     At that precise moment, He stepped out of the front door.

     “Ben, who are you talking to?”

     His mouth closed and he stood frozen for a few seconds on the stairs. Then his eyes started to wander, first to the boy, then to me and back again.

     “Dad, this lady won’t tell me her name.”

     Even though I had figured out that this was His son, the word dad made my heart flicker. He was really a father. A real father, someone who had made a child. With someone else.

     ”Go inside.” His voice was darker than I remembered. The boy opened his mouth as to speak but he did not have the chance to utter any words. ”Now!”