Page 194 of Everdoll

Raymond

“Look, Remi! This time I found a blue one!” The little girl slowly opened her palm, and a large silver butterfly fluttered its wings gently. It hadn’t flown away yet, but Raymond knew it would. After all, he was the one who created that butterfly.

He smiled broadly. “It’s so beautiful, Mina. Well done.”

The moment it flew away, they both stared intently. When he saw her eyes fill with tears, he closed the few steps between them and awkwardly wrapped his arms around her.

“Don’t be sad. Why are you sad?”

She was sniffling to keep from crying, her eyes bright red.

“Thanks to you, it became free. You should be happy.”

“But I didn’t want it to be free. I wanted to keep it in my hand forever.”

“You can’t keep anything in your hand forever, are you stupid?”

“Don’t call me stupid,” Mina said immediately, her eyes still red but now smiling softly.

“But you are stupid, you’re a total idiot, Mina.”

“Don’t say that!” She laughed and broke free from Raymond’s arms, began running. Raymond ran after her to catch her. After a few minutes of chasing, Mina grew tired and lay down on the grass, breathless. He lay down beside her and started playing with her thick, curly red hair.

When their laughter faded, she said. “It looked like you.”

He turned his head toward her curiously. Mina was watching the clouds, looking sleepy. He’d probably have to carry her back to bed again.

“Butterfly,” Mina repeated insistently. “It looked like you.”

“What part of it looked like me?” Raymond asked, half-annoyed. “Do I look like a blue alien to you?”

She laughed at his words. “No,” she paused, she was thinking the right answer. “I don’t know… It just looked like you. That’s why I didn’t want it to leave me.”

He fell silent.

“You won’t leave me, will you, Remi?”

“I can’t fly like a butterfly,” he said, not knowing what to say.

“Maybe you can. Sometimes it feels like you could. You have the power to do anything. Flying would be easy for you, I think. Will you fly away one day, Remi?”

“I won’t fly anywhere without you.”

Mina giggled at this answer. “You’re sweet, but I can’t trust you, Remi. That butterfly stayed in my palm for minutes, yet it still flew away from my grasp.”

She turned to him, their eyes met. Her hands reached up and wrapped around his throat, gently tightening. Even though his face scrunched a bit, he didn’t move. Whenever Mina gave him that dazzling smile, he could never find the strength to move. Not from her, not from her lovely eyes or her haunted voice.

“I want to keep you in my hand forever, too. You’re not allowed to fly away like that butterfly. Do you understand me, Remi?”

When no answer came, her lids grew heavier. Her hands slipped onto his chest, she could barely keep her eyes open. The dark haired boy whispered something into her ear and embraced her as she fell completely asleep.

When I opened my eyes, my body felt lighter.

Not in a weight-loss kind of way. My veins, my bones, my entire being had been swollen before, and I’d just been living with the bloating. But now, I felt as though everything inside me had thinned out.

The second thing that crossed my mind was the red hair.

I didn’t remember what happened after Krivan and the white soldiers arrived. They had forced me to drink something. Like an energy drink, but far more devastating. Every fiber of my body vibrated with the overdose. Was this how they felt before mutating, I wondered?