Black butterflies
[Now, let the game begin. Be careful! You might lose your memory. Only a few of you can keep the warnings.]
Everything seemed to tremble all of a sudden and the ground broke revealing the existence of a pit they all fell deep into. Darkness engulfed them turning all what they experienced into oblivion. When Elianna came to be, she was in a classroom that felt familiar to her eyes. She checked around searching for Emmanuel but she didn't find him. Instead, Diana lied down unconscious.
A moment ago, she was wearing a costume and now she had school uniform around her body. The classroom ground was made of wood and there were some parts broken to the touch. She couldn't fight the urge to look around first; she wasn't Diana's friend after all. The windows were all shut with planks that had signs of moss and the tables were all placed in misshapes. The chairs on the other hands were scratched repeatedly showing drawing of delinquent students. The space made her feel gloomy and insecure… But she had the memories.
Elianna checked for her phone and was relieved when it was in her pocket. The signal wasn't working either. After strolling around the room, she stopped at Diana and eyed her with an eye full of suspicion. She still remembered when the girl spread fake rumours that made her bullied for the rest of the year. She thought it was better to leave her like that but in the end, she crouched and shook her energetically to wake her up. Strangely, her dark feelings were stronger.
"Diana! Wake up! We aren't in a moment where you have to enjoy your dreams."
Diana opened her eyes slowly. She turned her head all around, looking like someone who had just woken up from a bad sleep. "Where am I?" she asked, concerned. When her eyes stopped on Elianna, nervousness made her hands tremble and her sight agitated. She remembered being in a party and then she was somewhere in an old school that looked shut.
"I don't exactly know where we are but… Do you remember anything from what happened? Something like mysterious, kidnapping, I mean such things," Elianna lied.
"I remember I was in a party where I met a lot of my classmates. Doesn't this look like our old classroom? I remember it by that butterfly poster you hang on the wall because of a project. Do you remember it? We did it together."
Elianna looked back at the poster that she didn't notice earlier and let out a sigh. "Yeah, I remember it. We were such good friends until you went behind my back and made rumours about me."
"I didn't do that. I only told the truth. We will not argue now, right?" she jumped from her position and held Elianna's hands. "We won't argue. I feel scared. I don't want you to leave me alone. Were we kidnapped?"
"I don't know. We should look for the clues and get out of here. Isn't it the norm? Maybe someone is playing a prank on us," she retracted her hands and moved to the butterfly post.
They were indeed in their old school. She remembered an article about the school shutting down and replaced by a new building. She didn't know much about it since she hated coming back to it. Diana checked the door and drawers while Elianna examined the poster. The creature said it was a game and a game had clues, puzzles, creepy diaries, ghosts even… It was a horror game.
Her phone buzzed.
{Butterfly colors are one of the most aesthetically pleasing parts of nature. They are so unique and fascinating that seeing a butterfly flying around you can be considered a good omen. However, was it the same omen for all colors?}
Some cultures associated the butterfly with the soul, and some interpreted them as a symbol of life and resurrection. A butterfly is a symbol of transformation in many ways; their life is a journey from the caterpillar stage to the cocoon.
{Red butterfly: Romance, passion, a powerful spirit.
Brown butterfly: the bearers of important messages.
Yellow butterfly: Happiness, joy and creativity.
Blue butterfly: a sign of good omen, joy and fortune.
Orange butterfly: Healing, passion and aggressiveness.
Green butterfly: good fortune, wealth and prosperity.
White butterfly: purity, good luck and peace.
Grey butterfly: a sign of bad events, change and hope.
Black butterfly: A change, the dark before the light.}
"Elianna, I found something under the teacher's desk. What do you think this is?"
A totem in the shape of a grizzly bear was in her hands. Elianna watched everything intently. Observing, questioning and then eventually being convinced… She had to admit it. Her heart didn't beat from fear, it was from excitement. It was like those games she used to play on her phone in her free time. She always had horror games; they were her favorites. She ran to the girl and snatched the totem from her hands then turned it around examining every inch of it.
When she turned it around, she saw the shape of a black butterfly. Her eyes immediately jolted to the poster on the wall. Black butterfly signified a big change, the dark before the light. However, it wasn't always right, or more than right; the meanings behind the words. Death could also be a change.
"Isn't this a butterfly?" Diana asked horrified. She remembered how black butterflies had dark symbolism.
"Yes, it is."
"Then… Is it a bad omen?" she swallowed.
Black butterflies are regarded a symbol of death in many parts of the world. Seeing one in your home is equivalent to someone will die or someone had died and needed to be discovered. An encounter with a black butterfly is an emblem for a secret insight being dispensed for those selected and those ready for it.
{Black butterflies got their color because it was said that they got it from the Death in person. As if Death pitied the poor creature and decided to give it more time to live. The power of Death is always to strip life and a life brought from death always swallows souls to survive. There is another version of the story but I don't believe like it. Death decided to have a bearer of death, a guide to the afterlife and it chose butterflies for that.}