“Dreaming about a butterfly means you need to give more attention to the person you love. If you dreamed about two butterflies, you two will live happily together.”

— What happened to you? Have they ever caught you? — asked Doctor M.

— Fortunately, not like they did with Gabriel, but I couldn’t sleep at all for the rest of that night. I was feeling that, if I ever tried to sleep, I never would wake up again…

— So, there was any pattern on the attacks? Have they come on the next night?

— No. The attacks seemed to stop a little.

— And about David’s dad, what happened to him?

— Nothing much. Things got worse for him, but he was able to get out of jail after they heard some trial testimony. The police come to pick me up on the next day and they heard me as well…

— What did you say to them? Have you insisted on the “shadow thing”?

— Surely, but I watched out for saying who I am. I just said the same I said to Gabriel’s mom as if I would be saying a lie and a truth; point out which one was the truth and which one was the lie. In the end, they preferred to assume that there was a person attacking Gabriel and it was able to cut his legs off, even though David’s dad and I pulled him away from the intruder. People didn’t believe in Gabriel who said he was having a terrible nightmare exactly like that and Gabriel’s mom cursed David’s dad, vowing never to see him ever again while she was alive. That entire story got David’s dad pretty good. He got fired after people heard about it…

— Why he got fired?

— He said to me he was doing something wrong at his work and it was really something simple, that wouldn’t make anyone gets fired, but they used it as an excuse to not have him around anymore.

__________

— Can you believe them? — He said to me, making me smell his bad breath. — I’m making them feel some negative energy around them! What a bunch of duckers!

— And you? Do you still insist that I was dreaming about it? — I asked.

— That’s impossible, David! You are just mentally ill!

— Really? Don’t you have a single drop of doubt? You did see Gabriel’s legs!

— Someone attacked him! I couldn’t see it! It was dark! It was a crazy person! That’s all! — And he took another sip of his beer.

— You shouldn’t drink that much — I said, being aware of how many problems drinking too much alcohol caused to humans.

— Duck off! You ain’t your mom!

— Hum… So, is that why she was running away from you before the accident?

— Enough! — He shouted, making his speak getting stranger. — I’m an adult! I do whatever I want! You ain’t no one to tell me what I’m supposed to do!

It was a little strange to me; suddenly there was some kind of heaviness in the air around us. Then I heard some flapping sound of a small bug coming from somewhere inside the house. I looked after it and I found a big orange butterfly on his neck.

— Why is there a butterfly on your neck? — I simply asked.

He passed his hands all around his neck and the butterfly just moved away, returning to where it was without letting it be touched.

— Are you kidding me? There’s nothing here! — He said getting pretty mad at me.

— It moved.

He tried again and got in front of a mirror, trying to see it.

— There’s nothing here you damned kid! If you are trying to trick me… I swear…

— Calm down. I can catch it for you.

He almost couldn’t stand still, but he let me got closer to the butterfly. I prepared myself and with a quick movement, it was inside my hands. I tried to show it to him, but then:

— Ouch! — I screamed in pain and tried to get rid of the butterfly throwing it away, but it disappeared.

I looked at my hand and I saw that a huge piece of flesh was missing between the thumb and the index finger. Soon it was bleeding pretty badly and I just had time to look for the closest piece of cloth. I only found a dish wash clothing to wrap it. I looked at David’s dad who was leaning on the couch and I saw he was sleeping.

___________

— Had the butterfly bit you? Butterflies don’t bite.

— That’s exactly the point of telling you this. It wasn’t a simple butterfly. It was one of them, one of the shadow things, disguised as a butterfly — π12-45 stopped, thinking for a moment. — I tried to search more about those creatures, doctor; I tried to find whatever I could about them. Do you know what I have found?

— Presumably, nothing. No one has ever talked about things like that in history!

— You guessed it right. There’s absolutely nothing about those creatures. No one has ever talked about them as I’m talking to you. Except…

— …except?

— Myths. They didn’t talk about them properly, but I was sure that myths like the bad witches disguised as moths have something to do with that. It was said before that some moths would come at night and drain humans energy until they die, principally kids.

— But you didn’t see a moth, you saw a butterfly, am I right?

— Yes, but that doesn’t end there. There were more if them. I suddenly started to notice that, on people’s backs, there were shadow things living in there, draining humans’ energy and they simply never noticed any of them. This case with the biting butterflies only got worse…

__________

After some months, going back and forth between the two timelines, as I human kid, I needed to go to school. They tested me, to know if I was good enough to let me be in the right grade for David’s age. I passed with good grades, good enough to go to school, despite David losing one whole year of studies. David’s dad was holding it up, working on temporary jobs here and there, and he said I didn’t need to worry about anything. All I should do was to keep studying. The butterflies bite turned into an ugly scar and I was ready to deal with new humans in my life as the human David. However, the school wasn’t what I expected.

Most of the time, I couldn’t hear a thing the teachers were saying, as they only let me sit in the back. Them some people liked to pick on me because David’s head had this lack of melanin on one of its side and around his eyes. Some kids liked to ask me questions I didn’t know the answer and they laugh at me for not knowing it. I was puzzled with only one week of studying at a human school.

I tried to ask the teachers what they had taught that day sometimes:

— If you stop talking in the middle of my class, you could have heard it! — said a teacher to me, a man thirty to forty years old.

— I didn’t talk at all in your class.

— That’s not my problem! — He left me alone in the class and then I noticed another orange butterfly on his back.

I followed him right after, going to the teachers’ room, where he stopped at the entrance, talking with another teacher. I looked at the butterfly on the back of his neck, opening its wings for a few times and I caught it in my hand.

The teacher didn’t notice it and I smashed the butterfly in my hand, hearing it screaming like a human person in agony. Soon the teacher fainted and the other teacher found me right behind him, thinking I did something:

— What did you do? — said her, looking at me with her eyes and mouth wide open.

— Nothing — I said.

— What you have on your hand, boy? — She insisted.

— Nothing — I kept saying.

— If there’s nothing, then open it now.

— Okay… — I opened my hand and I saw no trace of the butterfly, but a big bloody mass in my hands, painting it into a vivid red.

The teacher said to me to go away, while she helped that teacher. I have no idea what she thought that was.

A little after, one or two months, everything was going fine with me as I could sleep well a little sometimes and, with that, I wasn’t feeling so unsure about myself and seeing things wasn’t a problem anymore. I just needed to deal with both lives the way I could. However, that doesn’t mean seeing a butterfly wasn’t unnerving to me. Every single time I saw one, I smashed them right before it could escape, being real or not.

Eventually, I noticed people not being so mean to me after I killed one butterfly or two. Actually, things got way more silent than I thought and I was finally learning about human things. That was until I met Julius.

Julius was a happy boy, as they like to say. His blond straight hair was way too long for a boy, as I noticed, his light skin was really smooth, and sometimes he was so girlish that, at first, at his first day in the new school, I thought he was a girl. Even his voice was girlish. As that wasn’t curious enough, people started to pick on him for that same reason. I even asked him why he was like that, being so different from the others while he was alone at the recess:

— I’m just too gorgeous, you fool! — He said giggling like a girl, making his little dark eyes shining.

— I never thought a boy could be like that. That’s interesting…

— Do you like me? — He asked a little surprised.

— There’s anything to dislike on you? — I asked, thinking about it rationally.

— You know… I’m boy… I’m not a girl… The other boys dislike me for being so girly…

— I know. I saw what they do to you… But that’s exactly what I don’t understand. That’s not a reason to be bad with you! I never saw you doing anything bad to them!

— Oh! You are so cute! I never met a boy this cute! I’m Julius, by the way!

— Hi — I said, without seeing any reason to say anything else.

— Wait! Aren’t you going to say your name?

— Why? Didn’t you hear it already?

— I… don’t think so... I’m a little bad with names. Did you already know my name?

— Yes, I did. The teacher calls your name every day, right?

— Yes but… I didn’t hear your name… I guess…

— They like to call me David.

— Is that a nickname?

— No. Why?

— You said they like to call you like that… They like to call me Julia… Sometimes I like Julia but… they don’t mean it as a good thing.

— Oh, I see. Well, I would tell you all the story about they calling me David, but you wouldn’t believe in me.

— What? I promise! I will not laugh at you! I swear!

— Let’s see then… My real name is π12-45, I’m a robot from the year 3’5XX and I have no idea how turning me off makes me come back to the past and live inside this human called David.

Julius burst into laughing out loud.

— Hahaha… Okay…. That was a good one — he was almost crying and needed to clean up a tear from the corner of his eyes. — Now you can tell me why they call you David, you fool!

— Haha, I said you wouldn’t believe in me — then we heard the signal to go back to our classroom. — Well, that was good! Thank you for the nice chat — I said and gave him my back.

— Wait! — He ran to be by my side. — Please, tell me the truth! I swear I will believe in you if you tell me the truth!

— I’m sorry Julius. I didn’t tell you any lie. If you don’t want to believe in me, that’s your problem.

— But… That’s not fair! Don’t make me a fool as the others do! Just tell me the real truth. Please!

— Julius, I told you the truth! I’m not hiding anything from you! You are the one who wants to believe in something else, not me.

— Are you… for real?

— Maybe I am… People just want to make me believe that I am David so hard that even I have my doubts if I am an android… Well, I just told you the reason why I said why they like to call me David. It’s my human name, but my real name is π12-45.

— Wait… Are you like… an alien? I like aliens!

— No. I’m like a machine. I have no soul. At least, not a human one…

— Really?

— Well, I will not lie to you; it has been hard to live since I wake up being a human in the past. I really would like to find someone who would believe in me once.

— Oh… If I believe in you… would you like to be my friend?

— Well, I wouldn’t say no even if you didn’t believe in me. I’m used to it now and you are a pretty cheerful person.

— Really? — He asked, being so happy he almost screamed like a girl, making me close my eyes from the sharp sound.

— Really.

— Wouldn’t you be mad at me… even if I say I want to be a girl?

— I see no problem about that.

— Really?

— Really.

Julius hugged me so tight I thought I would die.

— You are squeezing me… — I almost couldn’t say it without air.

— Oh… sorry… I don’t know my own strength! — And he looked at me and kissed my cheek quickly.

I smiled to him first, feeling happy for him. Then I heard some growling from behind me. I remember hearing something like that from the shadow things because they mostly act like animals and I just looked back slowly.

— What? Didn’t you like my kiss? Oh, no… someone saw us and now we can’t be friends anymore! I’m sorry! I’m really… — I interrupted him.

— It’s not you…

— No? What is it then?

— I swear… Something growled at us after your kiss… Something is really mad at us…

— What?

— Julius! David! I’m waiting! — said the teacher by the door.

— We need to go. Another day I tell you about the shadow things…

After some days, we set up to meet each other out of school in a near park. I was still wearing my school uniform, but Julius wanted to change his clothes and when I saw him, I couldn’t believe it. He was wearing a skirt.

— Did you like it? — He asked, looking more girlish than ever.

— Well… I don’t know… I still think you looked better with pants… somehow…

— Oh no… I thought you would like…

— I didn’t dislike it; I’m just not used with that idea but… if that makes you happy, it makes me happy too — and I smiled at him.

He was so happy with that, he gave me another kiss on the cheek and again I heard a mad growling sound from behind me, hiding somewhere in the bushes.

— I’m so happy for meeting you, David… my dear Pi’twelve. I don’t care if you are a robot or not, I’m so happy with you. I think I like you… — he said and I almost couldn’t hear.

— Did you say something? — I turned my face to listen to him, but he got mad at me.

— What’s wrong with you? Are you not liking my company?

— I like your company, but…

— But what?

— There’s something around us… Something I can’t see…

— Oh… you just want to dump me out! — He said really mad at me and walked away from me.

— No, Julius, you don’t understand!

He walked through the bushes and disappeared from my sight.

— Oh… A butterfly! I love butterflies! — He said from somewhere near me, but I couldn’t figure it out where he was.

— A butterfly? Julius! Get away from it! NOW!

— So many blue butterflies!

— Julius! No! Please… leave him alone, he didn’t do anything bad!

It was too late… I finally find out where he was and I saw thousands of orange butterflies over something that was as tall as Julius was… I felt my central core hurting and all the butterflies flew away, living nothing but pieces of his clothes and his shoes. I picked them up and took them to David’s home. That was a pretty bad day to me… I had one friend and I lost him…