“Butterfly” by Allison Page

Allison Page

“What, NO, this can’t be happening,” Beatrice said, waking up from a terrible nightmare. 

 

She slowly inhaled, remember what Aggy told you: when you’re stressed, think of your happy place. She closed her eyes and everything felt like it would be ok.

 

The doctor pulled out a knife as it led the way towards the girl’s wrist.

 

“AAHHHH” Beatrice screamed in pain, her skin splitting apart revealing the deep red blood.

 

She threw her hand over to her opposite side. Forcing the doctor to give up. The blood rubbed against her hospital gown that smelled oddly like rotten fish. As she panted she lifted her upper body off the bed shaking as she looked at the doctor with a look of revenge.

 

“Go back to sleep Beatrice,” the doctor said emotionless.

 

Beatrice starred in his dead and ragged eyes.

 

“No, no, NO,” she said her face looking like she had a million tiny wrinkles.

 

Beatrice pulled the satin sheets off her lower body and ripped the needle out of her veins. The doctor left his observing room as he was watching her he dashed towards Beatrice getting closer she got in her ready position like she was about to run the track she shoved the needle into his eyelet go of the needle to let it drag across the doctors white eye in pain, the doctor was left there to be in pain. She tried to open the door but it wouldn’t budge. She had to find Aggy.

 

~Aggy~

 

 Aggy tapped violently across the keyboard on his phone. 

 

“‘Hey Bea where are you? I’ve been waiting in this waiting room for over three hours.’ he plopped his phone down on his lap against the denim jeans he has had for multiple long years letting out a stressful sigh.  

 

Oh bea, just come out of that door already. 

 

He was getting extremely worried. That’s enough. He stood up for the first time in hours his legs felt like jelly. His eyeballs dragged across the room he eyed the woman towards the exit pacing back and forth. He had a vivid memory of her being here when he came to the hospital that day. He shifted his jelly-like legs towards her. She was slouched like a hunchback, her hair gray and lips red like a rose. 

 

“Hey you ok?” he said to the woman with a concerned face. 

 

He couldn’t help but notice that her eye bags were enormous and the veins in her eyes were bulging. She most likely hadn’t slept in hours.  Her clothing looked ragged and ripped, the veins in her arm looked like they were about to explode. 

 

“ y-yeah i-am ok-k,” she said, her eyes wandering off looking every which way almost trying to avoid conflict with other eyes. 

 

Aggy forgot she was even talking. He was so busy looking at her. She burst into tears. 

 

“I’m not ok,” she said, her eyes throbbing with tears.

 

 “I’ve been here for days and I can’t find my son, he hasn’t come out yet,”. 

 

Once he was focused again, Aggy didn’t respond, it was too hard on him but he was glad he wasn’t alone. He eyed the front counter. As he dashed towards it he felt a slight pinch under his toe against his brown sandal. He lifted his foot up to reveal tiny shards of glass in all the creases of his feet. He flicked them off and continued on walking. He slid the foggy glass sliding window, desperate for help. He stretched his arm out so that it extended to its full length. Like a bird ready for flight. As he opened it  there lied a human decaying and drenched in a mold smell. Aggy caught a quick whiff and pinched his fingers against his nose. Aggie’s face showed the expression as if he had just eaten a lemon. His eyes glanced at the light grey phone splattered with blood. He picked it up and immediately started dialing  911. ‘ sorry there is no signal in your location please try again later’ he smashed the phone against the counter letting tiny grey pieces of plastic flew everywhere like darts. I need to find bea she was the only important thing right now.

 

Doctor

 

He glanced at the moldy concrete wall. 

 

‘Come in, we got another one in room 328’ 

 

He shifted his limp body the opposite way like a robot. He picked up the scent of the rotten guts ‘someone needs to take the trash out’. He was so used to the smell of it he could detect it anywhere. He stared at the door as he arrived at room 328. The door was a pale mildew color. He twitched his lips into a grin. He placed his shaky hand on the rusty doorknob. As he twisted the doorknob clockwise. Standing there was a girl pacing back and forth massaging her temples. It was Beatrice. He grabbed her wrist as he was struggling to fight back at the punches she attempted. He placed her in handcuffs as they walked out of the room to soon meet the lingering smell of the decayed bodies. They were walking down the hallway. As he was walking all he could hear was the distant silence but up close all he could hear was his khaki shoes clicking against the marble tiles. The silence was coming closer and more deadly as they came to a stop. His eyes rolled to the creases, he made an immediate swift turn. He shut the door behind him as they walked into a dark but peaceful room. 

 

“Look I’m here to help you, but you have to trust me.” 

 

~Beatrice~

 

She hesitated. 

 

“I don’t know, this seems wrong, every doctor I’ve seen here wants to kill me,” she said with a suspicious tone in her voice.

 

The walkie talkie had a scratchy sound. Ronald picked up the walkie talkie with a shaky hand. 

 

“I already killed her ,” he said, eliminating the scratchy sound for a couple of seconds. 

 

Beatrice’s mouth dropped. He wasn’t lying. 

“Alright, but before we do, hand me all your weapons.” 

 

He tossed over a gun, taser, and anything else in his possessions. Beatrice’s pulled her fingers through her knotty brown hair. 

 

“Now I have some things to tell you, but we need to go somewhere where they can’t hear or see.” the doctor said secretly. 

 

They walked down a narrow hallway. They eventually got to a tiny confined space. 

 

 “This is my office!” the doctor said excitedly. 

 

Beatrice nodded looking around the room hoping he was joking. 

 

“The room where I almost got killed is bigger than this” Beatrice chuckled. 

 

“Now here’s what you need to know for now, this hospital is the last one on earth, it was used especially for murder everyone here whos a patient dies. No ones ever survived. This was all set up by a group called the HOPC also known as the human overpopulation protection center. They handle overpopulation coming up with different ideas on how to mysteriously kill people while handling this world to be crowded with people. No one knows what they’ll do if someone gets loose” the doctor said unsurprisingly out of breath. 

 

“Well then let’s get out of here,” Beatrice said.

 

~Aggy~

 

“What do we do we do now,” he said biting his lip. 

 

He turned around to see if the woman would respond. But it was awfully quiet. Too quiet. As he turned around to total blankness. She was gone.  

 

“Hey! Where’d you go?” Aggy said starting to get a little frustrated. 

 

“AHHHHHHHHHHH”.

 

Aggy dashed out of there just to end up finding a dead woman on the floor. It was the body of the stressed woman that helped her earlier, her hair as gray as clouds in a storm.  She had an enormous wound on her head purple, blue and gushing so much blood she could fill 10 milk jugs. Her eyes were as white as pearls… She had a trace of blood all over her hands, it had appeared as she had been framed for killing herself. Or she wasn’t framed. He turned around searching for a weapon when he felt the slightest chill in his back. As he slowly turned around the body had disappeared. 

 

~Beatrice~

 

They headed towards the elevator. Both hesitated to talk as the elevator went up multiple floors. She thought about how she had gotten into this situation, 

 

if I hadn’t gone to that party I would have been fine, it’s all my fault.’ 

 

As the elevator came to a stop Beatrice was ready to dash out and hug Aggy so tight that it would make her feel like she was flying. That feeling made her feel so warm inside that she couldn’t help but smile. She felt like a butterfly wanting to explode into the air with all her friends and family just to find the perfect flower to rest on for a while; but she couldn’t. Her wings wouldn’t move like she was taped to the floor, she wasn’t strong enough to get the courage to fly up with all her friends and family. As she watched her friends and family leave her behind on their journey, a tiny drop of tears trickled down her cheek all the way to her chin painting a picture across her face. She stopped smiling as the crease on her lip moved down.  

 

What if he left, what if he’s dead, it would be all my fault I should have not got him involved. 

 

The shiny metal doors slid open as Beatrice dashed out. She had never liked the feeling of running. It made her feel like giving up. That’s probably why Aggy worried so much about her. The doctor finally caught up to her, 

 

“Hey, don’t run like that again, someone could be here,” the doctor said out of breath. 

 

Beatrice nodded, “but i need to find Aggy”. 

 

“How are we gonna find Aggy he could be anywhere on this floor,”  she said unsure that they’d find him.  

 

Right at that moment Aggy came running. Beatrice’s eyes burst open as she dashed toward him crying with the joy that she was reunited with her best friend and the relief that he wasn’t dead. It was like Aggy came to save her from the tape that was holding her wings down, he was a true butterfly. Euphoria filled her. She wrapped her arms around him like a venus fly trap eating an ant. She’d never let go. She felt the warmth that she felt in the elevator and knew everything was going to be fine.

 

~Beatrice, Aggy and The Doctor~

 

“I missed you,” Aggy said almost in tears. 

 

“Same,” Beatrice said as she slowly exhaled in relief. 

 

“Ok, I hate to break up this reunion but to get out we need a code,” the doctor said looking like he ruined everyone’s day. 

 

“How do you know?” Beatrice said ignorantly.  

 

“Well since I haven’t talked on the walkie talkies or responded they put the hospital in lockdown since I’m basically their leader and they care about me,” the doctor said as if he wanted to show off. “You two start heading towards the exit. I’ll meet you back there with the code soon,” the doctor said. 

 

Aggy and Beatrice started toward the exit. They walked there in silence. For once, they had nothing to talk about. 

 

“Uh is that guy supposed to be helping us?”Aggy said kind of worried. 

 

“Yeah, he won’t kill us.” she said reassuring him.

 

“Well if you say so ” Aggy said sarcastically. 

 

They sat down on the foamy like couch. Suddenly a tall hunchback figure came walking towards them from a distance. 

 

“It’s him!” Beatrice said, pointing at the doctor with a whole lot of joy. Ronald pulled something out from his back pocket. It was a gun. He pointed it toward Beatrice, 

 

“both of you on your feet now,” They hesitated as they stood up. 

 

“Now go towards the exit,” the doctor said like the emotion had been sucked out of him. 

 

They slid their feet toward the door.

 

 “Now listen to me, one of you can leave alive, the other must die.” the doctor said. 

 

Before he could finish, with tears gushing down his face, Aggy said,“I’ll do it.” 

 

“Well that was easy,” the doctor said, starting to point the gun toward his head. 

 

“No let me Aggy, I’ve made so many mistakes in life and I have nothing to live for except you but we wouldn’t always be together so please let me do the one thing I can to let go of all the stress,” Beatrice said only losing one drop of tears as she did the slightest smile hinting that she wanted it. 

 

Aggy took a deep breath in, “ok, but ill always be there for you and just know I love you,” he said the tears overwhelmingly coming out. 

 

The doctor moved the gun against Beatrice’s head. As she felt it scrape across her head she exhaled like this huge weight being lifted off her chest for the first time in many years. The trigger fired as she landed on the floor. Aggy fell to his knees his hands holding his head up for himself. The doctor walked away and that was it. It was the end of the road for them, no more good times no more rough times. Even Though Aggy didn’t want her to leave, she would be happier in heaven than anywhere else. He wanted the best for his best friend. She had gone to her happy place. He imagined the euphoria she would be feeling right now. It was a chance for her to start over. He imagined her smiling down on him, her halo shining brighter than the stars on a beautiful night in outer space. Her smile so wide it was bigger than anything he had seen. It would always be like that so he had to move on. He inhaled as he closed his eyes like his life with aggy was flashing before his eyes. As he exhaled, he opened his eyes to reality and left the hospital not looking back.