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CHAPTER SIX
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Kaugnay na kabanata
THE GIRL WITH A THOUSAND BUTTERFLIES CHAPTER SEVEN
The bus moved after we entered. We were five minutes late but somehow the bus driver had managed to wait for us. I wished he didn't. I wanted to go back home and empty my eye sockets. I wanted to scream till I woke up from this unfair dream. But Nikki, she never let me be when I got sad. After that day she adopted the belief that I was itching to go back to the knife every time my little heart got cloudy. And she couldn't be more wrong. I had developed the unbending will to live, that was why my therapist didn't need to see me again. It was almost a rebellion against everything that was bent on making me wallow in agony. My father ceased to be a bother to me, the empty house made me feel like a Disney princess because only princesses are locked up in a castle. Like a battle knight, I had been toughened to mount this journey of life with unrelenting drive and a pocket full of passion.I will live. I will get all that I desire, all that I deserve. I will love someone. I will find some
THE GIRL WITH A THOUSAND BUTTERFLIES CHAPTER EIGHT
The surroundings of my dad's hospital were the only beautiful part of the hospital, inside was as grey as a graveyard and as white as heaven. They really had to make hospitals in the colours of death. If it was up to me, I would throw in some pinks and lilacs to give the anguished hearts that patrol these hallways something pleasant to look at. Everyone could used a break in the monotony of dreary grey and wilting white that made one feel like they were in the stomach of death the monster. I know I did feel that way the last time I was here. The hospital's compound made sure to have everything not found on the inside, as a compensation I suppose. Flowers, my favourite thing, were in every direction that the neck turned. Some forgotten Christmas lights still tangled in the shrubs shone dimly in the twilight. It was life, twinkling in the dark like a promise, like a tangible hope that somehow this life riddled with affliction and endless agony would end in joy, maybe in this world, may
THE GIRL WITH A THOUSAND BUTTERFLIES CHAPTER NINE
I was going back. I wanted to see him and nothing ever stopped me from doing what I wanted to do. Ninety nine percent of all my problems were because of that. I faked a call from my dad in front of Nikki to escape her judgement because she would never understand why I had to do this. Going back to him was mandatory to me. It was as necessary as taking the next breath. No one could understand this. I didn't understand my restless mind either but I did know peace might be when he looked back at me with his eyes made of gold dust. He was alive and he would be well but now I needed a glimpse at him. And I knew where he was, what should stop me from seeing him for the briefest second? Who wouldn't be tempted to? It was just a glimpse, I wouldn't disturb him. There can't be anything wrong with that. "I'm just going to see him and be off my way." I told myself as I turned head first to the direction of the elevator by the left. I practically floated to it, my steps touched the ground like
THE GIRL WITH A THOUSAND BUTTERFLIES CHAPTER TEN
Nikki sighed. She picked up her phone and watched our Uber ride approach from the app and sighed again.We were by the roadside, almost a mile away from the hospital. Vehicles zoomed past us into the highway ahead of us. Our Uber was late, the day was dark and Nikki's phone blew up non-stop. Her parents were calling her. She had passed her curfew and I knew that would be an issue for her at home. She was never out from eight and it was eight thirty."What am I going to do, Nikki?" I trembled head to toe. I bit down my shaking fingers, chewing out my fingernails as I transformed into a bag of nerves. "Nikki." I cried out but to no avail. She wouldn't even look at me, just her phone and the road. "Nikki, you are not even saying anything!" I cried even louder. "Say what?" She snapped. "Say what, Colette? I'm asking you. You caused this for yourself and…just leave me be. For now." She faced the road and screamed at the incoming traffic. "Jeez! Where is this man? Oh God! What is even h
THE GIRL WITH A THOUSAND BUTTERFLIES CHAPTER ELEVEN
Author Note ************Hello Besties! It's your homegirl, Tinaa. And I want to thank you, first and foremost, for reading my novel till this point, like seriously, you are awesome! Just for doing that I want to give you the amazing award but you already have it…so keep it then😍. I also want to ask for a favour from you. The love and support I feel from afar as you read each chapter and wait for the next but do you know what will have me giggling like our favourite silly Colette, your comments. At the end of every chapter, please leave a comment to tell me exactly what you think about that chapter. What you like or don't like, lay it out. I have, like, one brain cell so with yours supporting the hell out of me, you know it will be lit. Let's write the sweetest love story together. And off to sweet Colette finding her sweet love or not. *************Nikki's bedroom smelled like a tiny perfume shop with all the fragrances fighting for dominance in my small nostrils. Vanilla, ci
THE GIRL WITH A THOUSAND BUTTERFLIES CHAPTER TWELVE
He was here. The sun was up and in my eyes. The first thing I saw was a sheer curtain attempting to keep the morning light away. The wind blew, sending the curtains up to the ceiling. The few seconds that the window was left bare, I caught a glimpse of the flowers designed by mother nature blooming in bunches and shrubs. They were in a dozen poignant colours, the reds looked like it could bleed. And there were butterflies, two– no three fluttered in my vision. Their wings, quite small but painted like it could only be made for the museum or for Disneyland. The curtain closed and I saw the room more clearly. It was not my room nor was it Nikki's. This room and this king sized bed with a seriously thick duvet must belong to a prince. A prince charming. I knew what this was. It could only be one of those dreams. I smiled because if this is a dream, I knew just who would be behind me. "Good morning princess." The voice confirmation came through.Romeo. I almost laughed at myself.
THE GIRL WITH A THOUSAND BUTTERFLIES CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Let me drop you off." Nikki's mother signed as she knocked at the entrance of Nikki's room. "It will be better that way."She was mute but she heard everything Nikki and I had argued about in her room. Nikki kept insisting that I went to school that day. So much for someone that wanted to protect me forever, now she wants to cast me to the dogs just when they are furiously seeking for prey. I had wanted to stay back home for a week till everything fizzled out but Nikki wanted me to be in school like right now and even board the school bus where they will start to take a bite from me till I vanished from this Earth. "Good morning ma." I knew much of sign language from relating with Nikki's family over the years. Although I understood more than I could gesture. Her mother had always been sweet with me but she always had his pity look on her face for me. She would give me extra meat, stuff me all the snacks in the house even those she restricted Nikki from and sometimes she wanted me
THE GIRL WITH A THOUSAND BUTTERFLIES CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The TV was on and someone spoke passionately on it, even though the volume was brought to the minimum, one could tell the speaker was angry. And for some reason, every word they spoke itched my brain in a certain way, not a good one too."Turn it off." I muttered as I tried to get fully awake. My eyes were opened but I couldn't see a thing for a hot second. The fog started to disperse with every blink I took. And when it was all gone and I could see more clearly then my eyes started to hurt from the bright light. No one had turned off the TV and for good reason, no one was here with me.For a moment, I wanted to be mad and sad but then isn't this the usual? By now, emptiness should give me an high five whenever it was around because we were buddies forever…even till death.I had expected that at least, regardless of all my troubles and assumptions, I wouldn't die alone. I thought Nikki would be with me, she would cry and possibly miss me and Hussein too, he was always agitated whene
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THE GIRL WITH A THOUSAND BUTTERFLIES CHAPTER 28
“I don’t believe you,” he spat after a long stretch of silence.“Huh?” I swallowed.What was I thinking? He couldn’t just believe me because I said so. I would have to prove it with their shared experiences of which I had none. I couldn’t be Angel without knowing one thing about her or him or heck about their time together. What if they had like a signature greeting? Or maybe they had pet names for themselves. I let out a sigh loud and clear as I soon realize that the wall I had just pushed myself to.“I don’t believe you.” This time he had magically covered the distance between us. I stepped back as his glare crawled all over my body like eight-legged insects. I pushed back even further as he covered the breathing distance I had created, until I hit the foot of the bed and sat forcibly on the bouncy foam did he stop.“If you will allow me…”“Allow you to do what?”I swear I didn’t even know where I was going with that. A chance to explain? Explain what exactly? That I pretended to be
THE GIRL WITH A THOUSAND BUTTERFLIES CHAPTER 26
A woman met me at the entrance of the building and parted my ways with Romeo. Romeo disappeared into the gigantic door in front of us while the woman in a white starched housekeeper’s uniform lead me round the house opposite the direction I was just coming from with Romeo.We arrived at a different entrance, this one leads into a hallway that gave this illusion that it continued forever because of the glass-like floor that held the reflection of everything. On the walls just right of the hall was golden sculptures, heads of lions bursting out of the walls in between doors as if there were trapped in it in the eighties with magic, on the left side was this stairs that seemed to curve into the ceilings. And the ceilings itself wasn’t left without stunning designs, the intricate ironwork was left exposed to show a masterpiece of a chain of connections looking like some constellations of some sort.I stared in awe, turning my neck in almost three sixty degrees in admiration.“Wow! This pl
THE GIRL WITH A THOUSAND BUTTERFLIES CHAPTER 25
NIKKII wasn’t trekking the whole journey home but I was getting out of her sight. I put one foot after the other seething in fury, justified fury because it made no sense why Colette would treat me this way after everything I had done for her. And we’ve been friends since our first school leaving examination day when we met in the same venue, we were barely ten years old then. She let me copy from her math answers and stretched her neck over the answers on the general papers on my OMR sheet.When we got into the same high school and found out we lived in the same estate, it seemed more ordained for us to be friends. Especially to Colette, she called me her best friend from the very beginning and wanted to only be where I was and do whatever it was that I did. Little me thought it was cool, that I was cool to have my own personal sidekick. We did everything together but everything really did change after that day. That night when I saw her covered in her own blood, a new fear gripped
THE GIRL WITH A THOUSAND BUTTERFLIES Next Chapter Due Tomorrow
Hello Besties...I know I have not been updating as usual, please forgive my inconsistency. I don't even have excuse, I am just lazy and I think a lot, more like overthinking on every single chapter I try to write.I will be updating tomorrow unfailingly. Two chapters infact, unlikely the single one I do. infact I want to try updating two chapters a day from now on. Wish me luck. Keep reading and stay with me, okay. Don't run off just yet...I'm still loading y'all. PS: if you are seeing, please leave a comment, even if it is just a hi or hola, anything. I'm trying to figure out something. It is really important if you do this for me. Thank you as you support me, love. See you tomorrow.
THE GIRL WITH A THOUSAND BUTTERFLIES CHAPTER 24
“That’s not news anymore.” I bit back with the biggest smile I could find.He wouldn’t get to me this time, not when I knew what he really thought of me-that is that Angel girl behind all those jabs and insults.If Angel was me, which I knew she was not me, okay, but in a hypothetical sense, if he thought that Angel girl was me and he loves Angel then he loves me, a total imposter but nonetheless, it meant those eyes darkened with rage was just superficial and misrouted. He didn’t hate me even as those death glares screamed hatred to my face.“I don’t know why you keep doing this for me. It is just super nice of you to help me in the worst situations that I managed to put myself because you guess it, I’m pathetic.” I shrugged. “See, you don’t have to say it all the time, I know, the world knows. You have to be born yesterday to not know that the new meaning of pathetic is Colette. Me.” I laughed at that even though saying that aloud made me realize that jail or no jail, my life could
THE GIRL WITH A THOUSAND BUTTERFLIES CHAPTER 23
Not once have I ever imagined such a place existed in Nigeria. Africa was a poor continent who? We crossed the third mainland bridge like every average and working class Lagosian would do every day of their life and took a turn and another and another and another till it led us to this heavenly gate.And I kid you not when I said, ‘heavenly.’ It was the very line that separate the poor dwellers of earth from the prestigious paradise residents.Our car stood for a few seconds while the security guards, I would call them kingdom knights with their shining golden embroideries and attachments on their navy-blue uniform, they ran through with their routine while I marveled the masterpiece in front of me.Ivory and Gold, mostly ivory with the thick tall bars that shone combined with golden accented swirling pattern at the top and bottom. The gate was then situated in the middle of gigantic pillars that was almost two times the height of the gate itself. The concrete sculpture curved into an
THE GIRL WITH A THOUSAND BUTTERFLIES CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Do you know how I felt being dragged by the police officer like I didn’t have legs that worked? It was like these dirty walls planked at either side of my vision was the last thing I would see.Fear found my soul and spread through my bloodstream. I breathed loud so I could hear myself taking in bouts of breaths without that if felt like there was no air reserved for me, like I didn’t deserve it anymore, like there was no point for it.One good thing was that I haven’t cried since.That was a win, in the midst of this chaos and upending of my sad little life, this was a win worth celebrating. At least, I wasn’t being a crybaby on top of all my other depressing qualifications. Imagine being a murderer and a crybaby on top of it all.I was breaking apart and no one had noticed. And no one had to know.Just then, the officer took a turn that didn’t lead to the holding cell, we came out of the building in general and pulled towards a black car parked but with the engine still running.Jus
THE GIRL WITH A THOUSAND BUTTERFLIES CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
“Nikki, tell me he is fine. Is he—” My breaths broke into isolated chunks. I exhaled but it was until I was completely out of breath that I took another breath. I was visibly shaking, my hands on the counter trembled without any control.“Yeah, he is okay.”“Are you sure?” I asked. I pressed my palms to my face to get hold of myself. The policeman that brought me out of the holding cell I was thrown into since morning watched me carefully as if he was sure I was making an incantation to disappear alongside my friend.“Yeah.” She reached out to hold my hand. She smiled but I knew that smile had nothing on the inside. She had this expression that seemed distant, like her real worry shoot to someplace far. Nikki was the person I called first immediately I was given a phone. She called my dad, she told me but right now, I just wanted someone that understood me, someone to tell me that I was okay because right now, I wasn’t. I didn’t think I was even me.“I don’t know, Nikki. I don’t know
THE GIRL WITH A THOUSAND BUTTERFLIES CHAPTER TWENTY
ROMEO“Finally! We’re home. I’m so glad we are out of that stupid hospital, at the very least, that one step forward or one roll forward.” Jennifer said as she rolled me into the room I grew up in.She hurried to open the dark curtains to let sunlight in, something she couldn’t do to her heart content when she was in the hospital. She adjusted the pillows already set on the bed, smoothen the non-existent crease on the black sheets that had already been ironed so much the batman in the middle was crisp and clear like a billboard on the highway. She went next to the framed picture on the nightstand, my first award ever where I got best kid actor of the year from the TV show I was starred on, she began to rub the dust off, there was no dust on it. There was no dust anywhere, everywhere I was tidy and ready for me to come in and live like I belonged here. I don’t. I stopped belonging to this household since that day, the day I opened the pandora box of my life.“Are you glad to be back?”
