The Butterfly Novels & Stories

I crouched beside her, trying to join in her wonder. "And the butterfly? What's it called, Aunt Mary?" she asked again. Before I could answer, a voice from beside us responded, "That's a monarch butterfly. Beautiful, isn't it?" I looked up to see a woman standing beside us. It was Julia.

He smiled, a genuine, unburdened expression, and reached out a tentative finger to touch a vibrant butterfly that had landed on a nearby flower. Its wings, a kaleidoscope of colors, shimmered in the sunlight, a fragile masterpiece of nature. Then, the idyllic scene shattered. The butterfly, a symbol of beauty and fleeting joy, morphed into a swarm of a million ants, their tiny bodies coalescing into a writhing, menacing mass. They descended upon him, an army of miniature terrors, crawling over his skin, their mandibles biting and stinging, inflicting a thousand tiny pinpricks of agony.

Before Ashley could ask, he suddenly speak up. "Why can't I get my butterfly, they always come and go but I never get to catch any" his voice was sad, almost teary. "Some little stars always shine here in the night, but daddy never let me come out...I always watch them through the window" he said and pointed at the upper right window. That's his room. Ashley was saddened by the fact he never gets to play like any normal kid. Ashley pats his hair. " Butterflies are meant to be admired not captured," she said, clasping his face. " That is why they are called beauty flies, they make the environment beautiful" her gaze caught sight of the rose flower behind," just like those flowers".

Sally’s POV Butterflies, Those little creatures fluttered in my belly whenever I saw Justin. This was it! I was going to do it. I exhaled deeply, clutching the gift box I had particularly stayed up all night curating just for him. I was finally going to tell Justin how I have truly felt after three years in colledge. It was our senior year and I didn’t want to live my entire life regretting why I never took the chance. I stood outside the building where Justin was throwing his birthday party.

"Letting it go like that." He nodded very seriously, his little face full of thought. "I think butterflies do not like hugs. They are too small and delicate. Their wings might get hurt." "I think you are right," I agreed. "They need to fly free." He giggled happily and ran off again, his short legs pumping as he spotted another butterfly. Watching him laugh like that settled something warm and protective inside me. No matter what happened with everything else... I would not let anyone steal this joy from him. Not ever.

Animals of all kinds did not want to harm him. I watched as he set the butterfly on a flower petal, his small fingers gentle, his smile soft. The butterfly flapped its wings, yet remained close, as if not ready to leave him just yet. I crossed my arms over my chest as I watched. “Look, Mama!” Adrian’s voice was a burst of joy. “She likes me! She doesn’t want to leave, do you think that it can come home with us for a while? But it wouldn’t have flowers if it did. I want to put it down because it needs flowers to live and make food.”

“Mommy, look! I caught a Monarch!” I made my way over, watching as she crouched, carefully holding the net with one hand so the butterfly couldn’t escape while she opened her bug cage with the other. Then, she gently cupped her hands around the butterfly and moved it to the cage. “Wow, Nora,” I said, crouching down as she closed the cage. The Monarch butterfly within seemed utterly unbothered, lazily opening and closing its wings as its little antennae roved about. Most small animals and even insects were like that around Nora; it was as if they could sense her gentle nature.

"She’s the Blueprint of the Twenty-Sixth. And she’s already started the re-weave." From the Hive, thousands of Silver-Black Butterflies began to emerge, their wings etched with the faces of the people we had lost.

“There is a reason why the mark of the Phantoms is the butterfly. It is for the sole reason alone that the butterfly is the most mysterious and also the most beautiful creature in the world.” Kenji smiled wistfully. “It first started out as a caterpillar. Then a larvae. Then it became the beautiful butterfly. No one will ever suspect the beautiful butterfly of anything. That’s similar to how the Phantoms of Hati actually work. No one who saw a Phantom will suspect them of anything until it is too late.” “A butterfly…” Yuri muttered to herself.

•Heather• A small smile stretched my lips as I silently studied the beautiful butterfly in front of me. It had large, bright colored wings that were attached to a small body. I wondered what kind of breed it was and where it was from since my parents made sure that there weren’t many butterflies in the manor because of my older sister’s weird fear of them.