Rain splattered over the grass squares in the building lawn. As the wind came by, the tree leaves rustled, and it swept away the long branches. Yet the butterfly flew, almost unbothered, landing on another flower.
There was something about this funeral that gave her a weird feeling of surveillance. The brown curtains were drawn away. The glass buildings were utterly transparent, exposed to the outside world. Perhaps someone outside was watching them through the rain. What a creep. Or maybe it was the dead inside the white casket, noticing her every move. She shook it off.
Ascending the small stand, she spoke a few words to the person in the casket. She didn’t dare put her fingers on the wood. Like a fever, she was burning with a desire. She never wanted justice, she just wants revenge. Her body was still and cold. Not a tear on her face.
Stepping out of the building, she clenched her fists. It was time. Taking out her thin, transparent phone from her pocket, she pressed hard with her thumb. The system unlocked. She pushed into the app that had recently mysteriously appeared on her phone, The Butterfly Breeder.
A hologram appeared with a butterfly and a line underneath. Are you ready to make a wish?
She pressed the button. Yes.
I want my brother to die.
A small circle appeared, loading. If you wish to edit or retrieve, please press no in the next five seconds.
5
4
3
2
1
Wish made.
You will receive your task in the next 24 hours.
Then, the hologram disappeared. She stayed outside a little longer.
With a tap on her shoulder, she snapped around. It was her father.
“I told you, no.”
The man persevered, “Cecilia, please, I will return it. It’s just ten thousand. You have so much more than that. You can trust me. I just need it for a little while.”
“No. This is your third time meeting me in person, and you are here asking me for money.”
“I’m your father. If I say I will return it, I will. You are my child!” Seeing no response, the man became flustered. “I am your father and you will do what I say!”
“Mother did what you said. Where did that get her? Murdered by her own son.”
“Don’t throw that around,” he put a hand over her mouth. “I’ve already lost your mother, I can’t lose your brother too. Please. Please keep that quiet.”
Throwing off his hand, laughing, she shook her head, “Coward.”
A ding came from her pocket. She took out her phone.
Task: Find the sharp pin on the left windowsill on the third-floor mall and roll it outside.
The corners of her lips tilted. She turned around, pushed past her father, and didn’t look back.
Don’t worry, father. I will do what’s right for you.
She didn’t notice the butterfly in the bushes, watching her every move.
***
“I want the document on the sister. This situation makes little to no sense. How could our suspect suddenly die after losing their footing on the cliff? Why was there so much honey on the ground? Why was the cleaner not there today? Why has our suspect always ridden their bike along that path safely but just happened to die today?” The policewoman noted all the questions as she walked.
“It can’t be her though. She has an alibi and there was no indicators of her presence at the scene of crime.”
“Background information?”
“Cecilia, seventeen, top of her classes, admitted to the best university near here with full scholarship. Family is poor, her dad is an alcoholic but no previous crime records and her mother died a week or two ago. Her older brother is a major suspect of her mother’s murder. Their family is complicated, the dad lives with the brother and her with her mother, according to both, they have never seen each other before her mother’s murder.”
“Monitor her heart rate and blood pressure, report to me after interrogation.”
Striding into the room, the woman shut the door with a bang.
“Do you know why you’re here?”
Cecilia answered, “Yes. My brother died.”
“But you’re here not only for that. What was your relationship with your brother like?”
“Nonexistent.”
“What do you mean?”
“I have never met my brother,” Cecilia said in a louder voice.
The woman pressed on her earpiece, “Stats.” The voice came in, “Heart rate completely normal. Truth report, 90% truthful.”
“My dad and my mum are divorced. He lives with my dad, separate from me. Even if I had a chance, I wouldn’t want to know him.”
The woman raised her eyebrows, “How come?”
Cecilia shrugged, “I heard about him from my mum. High school dropout, alcoholic, had criminal records, not really someone I liked to be associated with.”
“Do you not feel anything about his death?”
“I mean, not much. Would you feel anything for the death of a stranger?” Cecilia leaned back in her chair, her posture relaxed and casual.
The woman was not pleased by this, “Nothing at all?”
The girl pretended to think for a second, biting her lips before replying, “Nah.”
“Where were you at 2 am this morning?”
“In my friend’s house. We had a massive sleepover. There’s more than ten people who could prove that I was there. You can check the surveillance.”
Moments later, the woman nodded and left the room, knowing that she had no evidence to keep the girl detained.
***
Cecilia felt her arm being pulled, quickly, she snapped around.
“How could you do that?” There was pure disbelief in her father’s eyes. “I know it. You are using the app, aren’t you?”
She threw his hand off, “How could I not? He killed my mum. Isn’t it such a coincidence that the camera caught him changing mum’s tires just before the car lost one wheel and drove into the ocean?”
“He’s your brother! How did you know it was not an accident? I know right now you think you got your revenge so easily. But it’s not like that. You took away a life, Cecilia, an innocent one too.”
“His death was an accident-” Before she could finish, a slap landed on her face. She froze for just a second before regaining her senses. Her fists clenched and she slowly faced her father again with gritted teeth, “Get the fuck away from me, coward.”
Opening her phone, she saw it.
Third Wish fulfilled!
Task: Shut the door completely before leaving.
As the instructions said, she closed the door completely before stepping out of the police station. Sauntering to her parking place right before the station, she opened her car door and sat down in her seat.
Calmly, she watched as her father reopened the door. Suddenly, the policewoman who they had been interrogated by stopped him and pulled him aside for a few words. About five minutes later, they come back out with their attention still fixated on each other. Before they could run away, a truck sped down that lane completely out of control.
It began to beep, but they didn’t have enough time. Her father pushed the policewoman away immediately, his own body was not fast enough to move.
In the car, Cecilia bolted out of the seat and swung open the door of her car only to see the truck keep driving. For a second, she wanted to run to save him, but it was too late. Her father was like a small dark vase. A little breeze could knock it down, shattering onto the rough concrete ground. Unlike the Butterflies, he had no weapon to wield against the gale that’s not life.
Her body froze. She closed her eyes and tried to take deep breaths. Shakily, she dialed for an ambulance on her phone. The noises around her buried her under the water. Her fingers were covered with blood, and they dripped down her arms. She pointed them up at the sky as if trying to summon the invisible butterflies. But they didn’t come. The blood followed her pale skinny arms and down her small white dress. It soaked through her breast and then to her heart.
There was no guilt. Suddenly the thin wall that guarded reality faded. Exhilaration and an overwhelming sense of power overflooded her. The pure adrenaline was a high that she couldn’t get over. She felt powerful as if she could hold the world at her fingertips. She could kill, and she could get away with it. She could be a superhero.
The butterfly afar began to twinkle. Beautiful colors soaked through the butterfly’s growing wing. Under the moonlight, they shone dangerously and iridescently.
***
But she was wrong. She wasn’t a superhero. That night, she returned to her home. Except everything was different. Because she has killed her own superpowers, she could no longer summon the smell of hot soup in the kitchen, no longer text to the online friend she never met, no longer would a blanket fall onto her body in the dead of night.
All was gone except a pink box on the desk, on top, was a letter. She opened it carefully.
Dear Cecilia,
I’m so sorry. I know that if I said this a million times, it would not be enough to compensate for all the pain and unfairness I have caused. I’m so sorry. I’m not writing this letter to excuse myself for anything I’ve done. I’m only writing because you deserve to hear the truth.
I’m Roger Benedict, your older brother who you’ve ever met. I’m sorry, dad and I left you before you were born, dad had no choice. Your mother was better off without him. I didn’t think I was ever going to meet you again. That’s why when dad mentioned you, I had never been so excited in my life.
Your father, my dad, is a man that gets his living entirely off dealing cards. He’s addicted to it. He gains all his money from it, and he loses it all to it too. I began working when I was twelve just to barely be able to support myself and pay my dad’s debts. I have stolen and begged, I’m poor, and I’ve always been poor, and I was going to see you for the first time. We have only ever texted each other. That’s different. This is real. I had to prepare a decent gift, at least.
That’s when I made a mistake. An app on my phone told me that by completing a task, my wish would come true. That night, I wished for $10,000. It’s not a hard wish and the wishing was so easy. I didn’t know that the consequences would be so great.
My task was to change the tire to a new car. That was your mother’s car. At least, at the time, I didn't know what was going to happen. An hour later, on the highway, your mother’s car tire exploded. I take the blame.
Nevertheless, my money arrived. You should see a box with the necklace I got you. I want you to know that I’m sorry and that I’ve made a mistake. My only wish is that you will never touch that app and never realize how feeble and predictable human life is. The app knows too much to be safe. It’s beautiful and deadly. With so many wishes, it can become immediately dangerous. If there is one last thing I wish in this world is for you to never have to bear the weight of another person’s life.
Finally, I’m sorry.
Happy Birthday!
Roger.”
That afternoon, she poured out fifty tablets of Tylenol onto her desk. She got out the cake she had prepared for her first meeting with her brother and like candles, she stuck the pills in. Using her hands, she dug the cake, she dug and dug until she no longer could.
The ambulance couldn’t save her in time.
🦋🦋🦋
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