Pathway Shorts With Real People Engagements #3

Gold And Blue Rays

A butterfly landed on your arm when you were taking a stroll through your garden. Its wings were bright blue and gold. The butterfly glowed in the sunlight, but it looked like it was exhausted.

You know that touching the butterfly’s wings could kill it, so you just let it hang on to you while you continued your stroll through the garden. As you complete your walk, you are ready to go inside, but the butterfly is still on your shirt.

Every once in a while, it flapped its wings as if showing off its beauty. The butterfly’s head turns towards your face and looks at you with a deep intent.

Readers Poll:

Choose carefully to decide your path on what to do with the butterfly. Do you…

A: Brush it off your shoulder, risking touching the wings?

B: Shake your shoulder until it falls off?

C: Bring it inside with you?

1/11/2021

Poll Results: 100% chose to Bring it inside with you..

The butterfly was gorgeous. You brought it inside with you. As you walked through the door, you could see its eyes flutter to the door and observe the surroundings.

It stiffened its legs as if frightened, but once you were inside, the butterfly’s legs relaxed. There was not a lot you could do but take it around the house with you as you go about your way. It was kind of cute. You folded the laundry, did the dishes, and picked up the trash.

The entire time, the butterfly just closely watched you with amusement. Occasionally it would walk up towards your shoulder blade, and lean in close to your shirt, while other times it looked as if it was asleep.

As you went about your daily chores, you talked to it as if it was your friend. The butterfly reacted by tilting its head back and forth as if it understood your every word, which was a little weird but funny at the same time.

The sun was setting, and you knew that bedtime was here. Taking your clothes off was going to be a little tricky.

Readers Poll:

Choose carefully to decide your path on what to do with your clothes. Do you…

A: Take them off fast?

B: Take them off slow?

C: Sleep in them?

1/18/2021

Poll Results: You have chosen… 50% chose to take them off fast, & 50% chose to sleep in them.

As you walked towards your room, you contemplated how you were going to take your clothes off.

You decided that the faster, the better. You entered your room and threw off your clothes as fast as you could. It scared the butterfly, but you were so fast that it grasped the shirt and went flying towards the wall. It was hooked on your shit!

The shirt bounced off the wall and onto the ground. Your eyes widened as you noticed the butterfly falling towards the ground with your shirt. Why didn’t it fly off?! The shirt hit the ground with a thump, and the butterfly rolled off and was covered underneath it.

You could see one of its wings move slightly, but the shirt was too heavy. Did you just kill it? You jumped towards the shirt and picked it up slowly to see the massacre.

The butterfly held onto the shirt as you lifted it off the ground, but you could see one of its wings was bent backward. The butterfly was twitching in a convulsive shock. Seeing it shudder like this brought tears to your eyes.

You didn’t want to hurt the little thing, but it happened. It wanted to be on the shirt and you knew that it wanted to be close to you. Once the shirt was stable, it walked over to your neck and nudged your neck, as if saying thanks. Now what?

You had to go to bed as the day was exhausting. You decided that sleeping with this shirt was the best option now. Hopefully, it would not get squished. As you lay down carefully, it shuddered again. It was hurt.

You fell asleep quickly but were in and out of sleep all night to make sure it was not under your head. Finally, morning came, and as you got up, you noticed the butterfly was gone.

Readers Poll:

Choose carefully to decide your path on what to do. Do you…

 A: Throw the sheets on the floor?

 B: Look under the bed?

 C: Walk away?

1/25/2021

Poll Results: You have chosen… 50% chose to look under the bed, and 50% chose to walk away.

You hung your head, saddened that it was gone, and walked away from the room. As you got to the edge of the door, you turned around and take one more look. Maybe it is under the bed.

You lifted the sheets slowly and glanced under the bed. The floor was covered in dust, realizing you hadn’t cleaned it in ages. As you moved around the old shoes under there, the butterfly showed no signs of emerging.

The butterfly most likely would not have come up under the bed, as it was a mess. Shaking your head, you lowered the sheets back on the bed and walked out of the room to get your day going. As you went about the day, the image of the butterfly kept popping up in your head.

How could it have just disappeared like that? It should be somewhere around the house. Hopefully, it wasn’t damaged further. You felt horrible about its wings. Maybe it realized you were dangerous and got back outside.

You continued to go about your day with the image of the shuddering butterfly in the forefront of your mind. No matter what you did, you couldn’t get the image to go away.

Finally, the sun was setting, and you called it an early night. You laid down and closed your eyes. As you drifted off to sleep, you felt a wet drop fall on your nose.

Readers Poll:

Choose carefully to decide your path on what you should do… Do you

A: Wipe Off Your Nose?

B: Turn The Lights On?

C: Go Back To Sleep?

2/3/2021

Poll Results: You have chosen… None.

The wet drop on your nose felt strange, but you didn’t know what to do. You could have wiped it off, rushed to turn the lights on, or just ignore it and fall asleep... But you did nothing.

You instead just laid there motionless. Soon, it went away, as if it was never there in the first place, but you could not get your eyes to go to sleep. You stayed awake all night wondering what had just happened.

Finally, as the sun emerged in the blinds, you saw a glow of gold and blue rays fill the room. It was strange. As the room got brighter, the colors danced on the walls as if they were taunting you. They got so bright that your eyes squinted and blinded you.

You could see the bright colors behind your eyelids and a small shadow among them. You tried to focus on the shadow and saw it had the shape of a butterfly. It was back! Excited, you opened your eyes only to find out that you were blind.

The room and everything that was around you was gone. Shaking your head, you closed your eyes again, and the butterfly shadow was back. From that day forward, the butterfly shadow was the only thing that you could see besides your dreams where it would morph into wonderful things.

Occasionally, a gold and blue streak would rush across your eyelids, making you wonder every time what happened, and why the butterfly was there. Your dreams were filled with chaos, and the butterfly was the only comfort you received.

However, it was hurt and in danger, and there was no way to save it. You finally realized that the butterfly was always there, but not in the way you wished it to be.

THE END

By: Tc Farrand