7: Beyond the Butterfly

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"Mike keeps picking on me." Kate complained as her and Elle walked across the football field, beginning their walk home. Mike was a boy in the grade above the two girls who had a habit of upsetting just about anyone in the school. He was under the impression that just because he was a "jock," and he was popular, that he could get away with just about anything he wanted to. He had every right to believe so, because teachers never did anything.

"Next time he does, I'm gonna beat his ass." Elle chuckled, readjusting the strap of her backpack on her shoulder.

"Yeah, right." Kate smirked, doubting the blondes claims.

"I'm joking, but seriously, you need to stand up for yourself." Kate nodded, knowing she was right. "Hold on, I need to tie my shoe." Elle crouched down to fix her shoelaces while Kate stood by her side, waiting.

"Elle, let's go." Kate tapped her shoulder, suddenly seeming to be in a rush. Before Elle could ask why, she heard the most annoying voice she knew.

"Hey Kate," Mike spoke in a teasing tone. Elle rolled her eyes, standing up. "Your hair is so pretty." He reached up and touched her long, dark hair.

"Keep your hands off her, jackass." Elle stepped up, swatting his hand away from her friend who was clearly uncomfortable.

"Relax, I'm just poking fun." He laughed, putting his hands up in defense, not wiping the smug smirk off of his face.

"Then go poke fun at someone else. Come on, Kate." Elle said, turning back around to continue their walk home. Mike found the situation amusing and turned to one of his friends.

"She's kind of got a nice ass." Elle didn't know, nor care, who he made the comment about, but she had enough. She turned around, facing the boy.

"Do you ever shut up?" Elle asked, obviously annoyed.

"Elle, it's okay." Kate tried to get her to drop it so they could leave and go home.

"No, it's not. He's a complete asshole and you shouldn't just sit back and take it. Someone has to do something." She argued.

"And what exactly are you gonna do?" Mike snarked, earning a small laugh from his friend. Before even Elle could process her own actions, her backpack fell to the the ground and her left fist landed a hard punch in the side of his face. He stumbled back a bit, surprised by the action. Elle shook her hand, trying to get rid of the pain that was quickly setting in.

Mike steadied himself and immediately went to return the hit, swinging at her. Elle quickly dodged it, ducking, when she came back up she elbowed him in the nose.

After a couple more hits landed on each person, they were on the ground as a crowd formed around them, observing the fight. They were kicking and punching at each other when a coach and a teacher made their way through the crowd. The two school cops followed close behind and pulled the kids off of each other, keeping distance between them.

They both had a bloody, and probably broken, noses, and bruises already forming on their faces and hands. For two middle schoolers, it was quite impressive. It was safe to say that Mike had taken more of a beating.

The two school cops led the students inside of the school and into the principals office. One officer brought Elle into the actual office while the other sat with Mike right outside while their parents were called.


"Alright, I'm Officer Walsh." A man introduced himself as he walked into the room, sitting in the seat across the small table from where Elle sat. "I hear you got into a fight at school?" She nodded. It had been two days since the incident, and she was sore.

Her nose was slightly crooked, it wasn't too noticeable, she had a bruise on the left side of her eye and on the left side of her jaw. She had a couple cuts here and there, but mostly bruising. "Well.. Mike's family is pressing charges." She sighed, not really surprised. She had a lot of built up anger that had been growing for months on end and Mike happened to be who she let it all out on. Did he deserve it? Not all of it, but a small portionโ€”yes. "He claims you attacked him for no reason." He added.

"He was picking on my friend and I had enough." She spoke calmly and honestly.

"Did he hurt your friend?"

"No, but he would touch her hair and stuff. It was like he was trying to make her uncomfortable." She shrugged. Officer Walsh wrote what she said down on a small legal pad.

"Some people who witnessed the fight said you landed the first hit?" She nodded. He began going over her file, asking her to confirm a few things, he went over the events and she gave her side of it.

He began explaining how she would have to plead either 'guilty' or 'not guilty' in front of a judge. Elle pretty much knew how this would all play out, she watched a lot of Law & Order.

When the time came, she thought hard about how she would plead. Her parents and brothers were fairly surprised when she plead guilty.


"What are you in here for?" A girl asked, noticing Elle was new to the juvenile detention center. Elle currently sat on her creaky bunk.

"Aggravated assault, you?" She looked up to meet the eyes of a girl who stood at the same height as Elle, had brown eyes and short brown hair to match.

"Stealing, a lot. Do you know how long you're in for?"

"Eight months and community service afterwards, hopefully I can get out on good behavior." She crossed her fingers. "I'm Elle."

"Becca." Becca and Elle had quickly become acquainted themselves with each other, learning they had a lot in common that all led back to emotionally absent parents.

She had told Elle about the scheduling and that for 'fun,' they didn't have a wide variety. It was limited to reading, tattoos, piercing any body part, and crappy board games with missing pieces.

Elle showed interest in tattoos and piercings, she never saw herself doing this, but she figured she might all well make the most out of a bad situation.




"What would you like? And where?" A girl asked. She seemed to be the appointed "tattoo artist," it was a simple stick and poke.

"You do butterflies?" Elle asked.

"As long as I don't have to hear whatever sappy story is behind it, I don't care." The girl's voice held no emotion whenever she spoke. Elle told her that she wanted the tattoo behind her ear and moved her hair so she could clean the area. "This might hurt a little." She warned. Elle braced herself as the warm needle entered her skin over and over again. Eventually, she had gotten used to it and pain was bare able, it was just slightly uncomfortable. After maybe an hour, the artist announced she was done. "Keep it clean, let me know if you need anything." The girl said, handing her a mirror.

Elle held the mirror up and turned her head in such a way where she could still see the new permanent mark. "I like it."


"We have to go." Becca panicked. The rumors were true. Dead people are coming back to life. The two girls were running when Becca fell to the ground. She had a bullet wound in her chest.

Elle quickly dropped to her side, seeing there was no way to save her. "Holy shit." She mumbled. She just watched a girl her age get shot and killed. Elle didn't hesitate to run when she saw guards approaching her. She found a dead cop who looked like he was ambushed by some of her inmates and took the walkie talkie. She then ran out of the detention center, the warm air hitting her. She could hear guards yelling after her, followed by rapid gunfire.

She didn't stop running until her body physically could not anymore. She was in the woods, alone, when she heard explosions. The city. Atlanta was being bombed. She figured the city would be where they would set up refugee camps, so why were they bombing it?

Elle decided to go into the city a week later, knowing that would be her only way of getting any sort of food or water. She cautiously made her way down streets, sucking if she heard any small noise. She peered around a corner and saw what looked like to be a man limping in her direction.

"Hello?" She asked. The made a growl like sound. "Sir, are you okay?" No response except for the growling. She studied the figure as it got closer. It had blood dribbling out of its mouth, all over its clothes. She could make out a chuck of flesh missing from the left arm. It appeared to be a bite mark. While having these thoughts, she slowly backed away. The dead person just shuffled towards her. She realized what it was and took her knowledge from television shows and movies to the test.

She looked around on the ground, which wa usually littered with trash. She saw an empty beer bottle that was missing the bottom half, exposing multiple sharp edges, and picked it up. She kicked the undead man's knee, causing it to fall before her, giving her a chance to drive the broken bottle through his surprisingly soft skull, silencing him. As Elle looked at the blood on her hand and moved out of the way so the man could complete fall to the ground, she heard growling again. It was much louder.

She looked past the corner to see a huge group. Panicking, she dove into a bar that was right across from a tank and stayed there.

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poorly rewritten: July 5th, 2022

WHAT MADE ME WRITE THIS LMFAO. 14 YEAR OLD ME THOUGHT SHE ATE THIS UP


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