Butterfly

I first noticed it when I was walking past the old antique shop at the bottom of my road. I don’t usually look at my reflection in the shop windows due to the fear of seeing something I don’t like, but I had caught a glimpse of a golden butterfly necklace on the display board. I had an unusual obsession with butterflies at the time, I viewed them as the perfect combination of beauty and freedom; two words which never went hand in hand in todays society. So, I took a double take and that was when I saw her. I wouldn’t be able to describe what I saw if you asked me, but I knew it was wrong. So, I turned around and continued to walk away.

I went home that night to look at myself in the mirror, I examined every part of my body, I needed to be sure of myself, of my looks, and of who I was. I avoided the antique shop every morning after that, putting it down to the fact I hadn’t had time to eat breakfast that morning; I had obviously hallucinated from the lack of energy. That was until I saw her again.

I was on my way back from a late night band rehearsal, it was dark, and the only light that guided me was the dim flicker of the old radios in the shop window. I shouldn’t have looked. But I did. And there she was. Her body was crouched on top of the display cabinet, in a stance ready to pounce but completely relaxed; her fingers projected into long, sharp spikes that clawed gently at the wooden frame in a recurring scratching pattern. She was fully naked bar a single black cloth that wrapped loosely around her, slithering around her grey skin and delicately flopped onto the floor beneath her. Her black hair was wet, it stuck to the back of her neck and crawled down her bony back that jutted out like the rocks at the bottom of a cliff. She turned around. That was when I saw it.

Her mouth had been pulled up towards her eyes and tied to her ears so that they hung down low. The stitches were messy, sewn through her skin with dental floss. Her eyes were bright green and burnt, the glossiness of a blind eye but she stared directly at me. Her long jagged fingers slowly crept down to the necklace I had looked at days ago, she picked the butterfly from the chain, still looking me dead in the eye and shoved it her mouth with such haste. In that moment she smiled the most horrific grin, it stretched all the way across her face and round to the back of her head, let out a wild cackle and leapt down from the cabinet towards the glass window. Her head banged against the glass continuously as she laughed and chewed the golden butterfly between her rotten teeth. Blood began to drip from her forehead, and she licked it off the windowpane. Her eyes still locked on me. Her mouth opened wider than it had before, and she screamed in the most terrifying voice “TIME”. I ran.

I ran into bed; I hid under my duvet until the sun came through my blinds. I looked in my mirror. Nothing. Just plain old me. I ran my hands through my luscious black hair and stared at my emerald eyes. I was beautiful. Like I always had been. But who was she? I didn’t want to tell anyone about her, they would think I had gone around the bend. So, our secret was left in the dark.

Next band rehearsal I used my phone light to find the path, I was not risking looking back into the antique shop. That was until I heard that voice.

A hushed, scratchy voice echoed in my ear as if it were right next to me, “time,” it hissed.

I suddenly turned around to look at the window of the antique shop and she was squished against the panel as if trying to escape. The blood was gone but she was in the same place. Then suddenly she opened her jaw and started to try to eat the glass. Her jagged teeth met the pane and snapped upwards so that her gums were ripped upwards; over and over again she bit into the glass, faster and faster. Her teeth bending sideways as they were ripped from their roots, dark gooey blood dripped from each tooth, and she laughed again. It looked as though she was eating air. With a mouth full of blood and no more teeth she looked at me directly and smiled, “TIME”, she screamed. I ran.

This time I entered my bedroom and looked at my reflection straight away. I was still the same. Who was she?

I waited the next day until it was dark to go home. I knew she couldn’t get out of the shop, so I was safe, I wanted to know what she was. I walked up to the glass and stared into the old place. I saw nothing, I scanned around the objects from wardrobes, to vases, to old books. She was nowhere. I turned to leave but I caught a glimpse of movement from behind the cabinet where the fully intact butterfly necklace was displayed. It was then when I saw something I wish I could unsee.

It was her. But she was standing in a pool of black tar-like liquid. She stepped out gracefully from behind the cabinet and I saw it. The gashes, the teeth marks, the ripped skin. She had eaten herself. In front of me she placed her fully toothed mouth onto her forearm and dug her teeth into it and ripped it to shreds. Pieces of flesh flew across to the window and the stringy fascia fell from her lips and drooled down her chest. Licking her lips, she screamed at me. “Time!”

I ran.

I skipped the next day of school and stayed under my covers. So, when I went in the next day, I had to go to the gym hall by myself to complete my end of year exam. The gym was a large room with one wall as a mirror for the dance committee. I sat at my desk and opened my paper to the first math question. I began to read it when I heard the word ‘time’ called to me from across the room.

“But I haven’t even started yet,” I called towards the door. But there was no one there. I returned to my paper.

“Time,” a voice came again.

“I just started the paper,” I yelled, getting annoyed at the constant disruption. I turned to look at the door again but still I saw no one. I turned back to my paper but as I did, I saw someone at the door. But only in the mirrors reflection. I turned around to look at the door again, but I didn’t see anyone.

It was her.

“What are you doing here?” I screamed, “you aren’t allowed to leave the shop.”

She walked towards me, getting closer and closer to the front of the mirror until I saw her right next to where my reflection should be. She sat down in the chair I was sat in, and she grinned her sickening grin at me.

Around her neck was the butterfly necklace. I had no idea what to do. No one would believe me, I was too scared to leave, and I was too terrified to look away. So, I did the one thing I could.

I looked at this creature, dead in the eyes, and whispered under my breath. It was only me and her so I knew she could hear me. I watched as I said the word, it echoed across her lips at the same second.

“Time,” I whispered.

She smiled back at me.

“Out,” she grinned.

With that she slowly got up out of the seat and walked towards the front of the mirror. She started banging her head against the glass like the first time. But with each hit and pool of blood the glass began to break. I rapidly stood up and ran to the other side of the hall.

This could not be happening.

But when I turned around to see where she was, the glass was broken, and she was nowhere to be seen.

Then I felt a pair of lips against my ear, “time out,” she whispered.

In the distant reflection I saw her open up the shreds of skin which she had eaten away at and started to wrap the pieces of flesh around my reflection. Slowly I transformed into the hideous creature that had haunted me for months. It was me.

I had forced myself to smile for the pictures, to smile for those around me, pretending I was always alright. I had stitched a perfect smile across my face like a beautiful quilt. I had grown eyes of envy from the things I didn’t possess, they had spread until I had only seen through the green lenses and hate those who had more than me. I was blinded to the love and care my family gave. I had deprived myself of the treats of life as I starved to be skinny and beautiful like the model I saw on TV, I had eaten nothing, until it looked like I had only eaten air. I had torn away at the pieces of myself that I hated and tried to hide them from the world, tried to rip parts of me away that didn’t fit in the mold of who I was supposed to be. I had painted a new reflection. I had painted a monster.

Suddenly, she unwrapped the strips of skin and hung next to me again. I stood in the gym looking at the monster I had created. She looked at herself in the mirror and sobbed horrible tears, wailing at the creature she had become. She dropped to her knees and cried into her clawed hands, she hated herself.

I looked at the hideous reflection next to me and knelt down beside her, cradled her in my arms and whispered in her ear in a gentle voice.

“I think we need a time out.”