Wings of Butterflies

Prologue

It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly’s wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world - Chaos Theory

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Honey Hill, South Carolina, 1864

Long before I even saw them, I could hear the piercing sound of the cannonballs flying through the air and the people screaming out in a way that made my skin crawl. Knowing there was no time to stop and think, I grabbed my sister by the arm to try and make a run for it. Outside the little wooden-house there was only chaos. Our three arable lands, which only last week had been harvested from corn and wheat, had now turned into battlefields where soldier after soldier were being slaughtered. Nothing of this we were able to see, because through the thick smoke I couldn’t even see the hand in front of me.

     “Where are we going Gabrielle?” my little sister asked, her voice cracking.

     “Away from here. Now come with me and be silent!”

     It was a good thing I knew this land as well as the back of my hand, or else we would have been lost already. All I was able to think about while running as fast as possible with my sister hanging from my arm was that we had to search for shelter somewhere nearby. The woods. Quickly I ran towards the path I knew would lead us in the right direction and prayed to God that none of the soldiers would notice us. The feeling of panic started to grow in my torso, so I tried my best to block out all the petrifying noises from the raging world around us. I started to focus on my sister’s breathing that was surprisingly calm and even. Sooner than I thought possible there was wet grass underneath my bare feet. A wonderful sensation tied up the tense muscles in my body and I exhaled loudly. Though I didn’t know where my mother and father were, I somehow knew that we would be reunited soon and that put a smile on my face.

     “We’re safe now Leslie.”

     “But how are mother and father going to find us out here?” she asked with tears in her crystal blue eyes.

     “I honestly don’t know. But if we stay where we are and keep safe, then they will find us eventually. And when they do, I’ll be happy to tell them that my brave sister deserves something special for her birthday.”

     At the memory of the upcoming celebration, Leslie’s eyes lit up and I could finally detect that beautiful smile I had waited so long to see.

     A few moments later, when a bullet flew past the tree we were sitting beneath and made a dent in the bark above my scalp, my head was thrown back to reality. Apparently, we were not safe yet. I took a crying Leslie in my arms, trying to calm her with my steady voice while my insides were trying to break free. I had always hated this war. It had no meaning at all. Slavery was a natural thing in the world. It was as natural as the fact that the grass was green and that the sky was blue. In our family, it didn’t matter that Lucille, Roman, Hector and little Thomas didn’t have the same rights or our skin colour. They were as much a part of our family as any of us. Since my father spent most hours of his days working at the bank, it became natural for me as a child to spend time with whoever was around, and that was Roman. I was turning four years old when he came to work for us and we grew very close in a short period of time. He taught me all there was to know about life and since that first day, we had been inseparable. When I realised that the thought of Roman being the father I never really had was about to fly through my mind, I stopped it before nothing but my heart had time to register it. At that precise moment, my heart froze to ice. Not because of my recent almost-thought, but because I knew that we no longer were alone. In my arms, Leslie felt my body stiffen and looked up to read my face. 

     “Gabrielle, what is wr..?” Her question died as I put my hand to her mouth.

     “Do not say anything”, I whispered closely to her ear. “Just do exactly what I tell you to do. Do you see that hillside over there?” 

     I took her hand to point it in the correct direction.

     “I want you to run over there and hide until I tell you that it's okay to come out. Nod your head for me if you understand what I am saying”

     Leslie’s eyes got even bigger than usual when she understood the meaning of my words. I could feel her whole body trying to protest us being separate, but I found it in me to give her a small calming smile. 

     “Please do this without question and whatever you do, do not look back”

     She quickly got on her feet and took a long glance at me. Her eyes were bewildered and already covered in tears. They were more beautiful than ever. I felt that I had just saved my sister from whatever was waiting for me. Nonetheless, I still felt the urge to call her name so I could see her face again. But I wasn’t that selfish. When I saw Leslie disappear down the steep hillside, I scraped myself off the ground on my trembling legs. 

     I could hear leaves crushing and I quickly turned in the direction of the sound. As the man moved closer, my brain suddenly worked in slow-motion. Though he was running faster and faster towards me, every move he made seemed so slow. I noticed everything about this man in just a few seconds. The way his torn up uniform, saying he fought for the northern army, blew in the wind. The way his skin was so pale that it practically looked see-through. His crazy eyes that almost looked red in the dusk. But it was neither of these traits that were the most disturbing things about him. Not his ash blonde hair hanging heavy with tangles of dirt along his shoulders or his discolored long fingernails that had something brown under them. The thing that finally set off my fear was when he opened his mouth and I saw his canine teeth. They were so long and oddly shaped. Almost like the teeth of a wolf. This was not an ordinary soldier. As fear overpowered me, my brain recovered for some reason and returned to normal sped. After that moment my world became very blurry. It was like everything I experienced from now on happened behind a thick wall of fog. I knew that my head was pushed up against the tree behind me and that this stranger had his hands around my throat. But I couldn’t do anything about this, because all the muscles in my body had stopped working. If the soldier hadn’t held me upright, I would have fallen flat to the ground. His face was too close to mine. Suddenly his nose was pressed up against my lips and he took in a deep breath. When the air from his lungs were released, the rotten scent of it sent a jolt of nausea through my body. Yet again, he opened his mouth in a broad grin, showing nothing but pure triumph, which revealed his misshaped teeth a second time. I waited for the fear to return but it never did. Instead I felt his teeth sink into my upper arm and that led to a both icing and burning sensation. With the loss of my blood, my consciousness started to fade and from somewhere behind all the fog, I heard Leslie’s terrified scream.