Roseus Papilo (Red Butterfly)

Dreams are supposed to be a place that pulls you from reality, but this one pulled me more and more into reality. It was like I was outside my own body, watching myself from above. Terrifying as it is, this is probably my reality if I don't train with Jun. In the dream my whole body is covered in blood, me panting with excitement wanting more and more to kill. My eyes were lost in the endless souls I had taken, in the world of the living....torn by the deaths of strangers. I wake up abruptly sweating out my own deep fears of becoming what was in my dream.

Jun didn’t pay me any attention because his eyes were of into another world other than the one we live on. I always wonder what goes on in that mind of his….It’s almost like he was listening to something in a far off place. He twitched a little which indicated to me that he really did hear something. I could see his icy blue eyes turn from the distance to my eyes.

"Run!" he yelled to me as the footsteps started to come ringing in my ears.

But as soon as I heard him say that I didn't run, no, I stood there like an idiot scared out of my mind. I look down at my feet screaming in my mind for them to move. They didn't. I look up to see what Jun was doing and everything at that moment looked as if they were in slow motion. A guy in a black suit came up behind him, I wanted to call out to him but it was too late.

I closed my eyes not wanting to know what had happened, but the pain in my heart was much stronger. I opened my eyes and seen that not only was Jun okay but he had some how made his way beside me.

"Roseus! Snap out of it and run!" My legs still didn't want to move but I had to make them no matter what, if I didn't it would put me and Jun in danger.

I started running through the massive mounds of sand, Jun takes a hold of my hand pulling me even further forward. I made the mistake of looking behind me. Around ten guys were catching up to us, I can see in their eyes that they wanted us bad enough to kill us. This kind of scared me a bit. But I kept running just like Jun told me to do.

I could see tall buildings rising above the sand, I almost felt relieved at the moment until I remembered we were being chased by a couple of crazy men. I looked back again to see how close they were to us, but instead of them slowly moving towards us they were stopping. I was confused for a while but I didn't really feel like caring about anything except getting to that town.

I could feel my legs starting to give out, my body couldn't take much more. My hand was losing its grip onto Jun's hand, and I guess he could feel it. I was breathing hard, I knew my limits in running and this was it. My eyes started closing....then I felt familiar arms scoop me up, yet again I'm being saved by Jun. But I couldn't hold back anymore my whole body felt like it was getting ready to burst open. So I just sink my head into his chest and hold on, I think I'm getting use to this.

I could tell we were almost into the city, I didn't know where we were but I was totally relieved that we weren't being followed by those creeps anymore. I still held onto Jun noticing his interesting smell. He smelled of burnt wood and sweat, it wasn't a nice smell but I was comfortable with it for some reason.

He put me down gently on the nice soft pavement of the city. Cars and people were all around Jun and I as we made our way down the street. I was looking around, hearing all the noises cities made. It had that familiar aura that I had gotten use to throughout my life. Jun seemed a bit panicky, but nothing could break his concentration right now. I could tell he wasn't use to all the people, you could say he was more of an outcast than a sociable person. It's kind of ironic though with his looks he could probably be very popular with both the women and the men.

Jun had his face covered so many people were looking at him probably wondering why he did that. He didn't pay them much attention...walking behind him I probably looked like a little person, he was so tall. He makes me angry not even saying anything to me. He looked back at me a few times checking to see if I was still behind him, at one point I guess he got tired of looking back and grabbed my hand pulling me forward. I hadn't really thought about it much until now that we were out of danger but his hands are pretty big compare to mine. I guess he really is a guy, I mean I knew he was a guy but I wasn't really aware of it that much.

He came to a sudden stop at an alleyway, and before he turned to go in that direction he looked at me. It seemed as if he wanted to tell me something but never opened his mouth. I could only guess on to what he was about to say. I quickly followed behind him not knowing where we were going, I was feeling a bit weezy because alleyways weren’t all that “good” for me. I just hope we don’t get into some kind of trouble, and that he actually knows where we were going.

“Jun?” An older man appeared in front of us, I couldn’t really make out what he looked like at the moment but he seemed to know Jun well enough. “Ah it is you my son! Come in come in!...and oh who is this pretty thing you have with you? Don’t tell me you are introducing me to your….”

He stopped for a moment to have a good look at me; I did the same, seeing as I didn’t know who he was. He stood about a head above me a little shorter than Jun, he had grayish blond hair and dark blue eyes. He looked nothing like Jun so I don’t think he is his real father. But what do I know. I felt pretty awkward just standing there so I moved behind Jun, yeah I know, it’s a force of habit now. I grabbed onto Jun’s sleeve just for comfort and the man just stood there smiling a crooked smile. He was German by the way he talked, I could tell because I had a German teacher in High School.

“You picked a good one Jun I can sense her power already, but why come here?” His eyes became serious as he started talked to push us into I suppose was his home. It was a quaint little house that stood between two tall apartment buildings. I would had never had found this place, my first thought going into this house was it was homey feeling. I don’t think I had ever felt that way my entire life. A fire was crackling and hissing in the fireplace, nice and warm.

The two of them went into the kitchen to talk about something, probably about me and the bad guys following us or maybe it was about Daemon. I’m pretty sure he knows about him as well since Jun looks as if he trusts him. I just sit on the floor next to the fireplace trying my best not to freeze. I don’t know when it started getting cold in the desert but I’ll take it. I look over at them to try and get Jun’s attention but what I seen was probably something even better….his smile.

I have never seen it before, it was so care free and beautiful that it almost didn’t look like Jun but what do I know I have only known him for maybe 3 weeks it kind of made me lonely that I didn’t have someone who I can smile like that to. Jun’s eyes caught mine and I quickly turned away, I think he thought I was eavesdropping on their conversation because of my “Super” hearing or whatever. I wouldn’t do that though, no not to him.

The older man comes around to sit in the chair directly in front of me. I was never the one for sitting in chairs so I decided to stay where I was. Jun on the other hand stayed in the kitchen making me feel a little strange being with his so called “Dad”.

“So I bet you are wondering why Jun brought you here of all places, and who I am, right?” He did seem like one of those older guys that would know anything and everything if you ask him a question. I really didn’t know what to say though.

“Well kind of, I feel a little out of place asking you such questions though.” I did feel that way he didn’t have to tell me who he was. It was probably none of my business anyways.

“You don’t have to feel that way, goodness you’ve been around my son too long I just hope you aren’t as silence as he is.” He let out a burst of laughter that made you want to join. I gave out an awkward laugh as he started to talk some more.

“My name is Leonardo, you can call me Leo for short. I’m Jun’s father, well adoptive father. I adopted him when he was 10.” I looked up at Jun but he wasn’t even looking at us, I was just wondering why he is telling me these things. I guess I’ll try to contribute to the conversation, for conversation sake.

“I’m Roseus, you can call me Rose if you want to. Umm I don’t know why I’m here, Jun won’t tell me anything.” I was very confused on to why he was telling me things about himself like I was going to be staying here for a awhile. But the conversation continued.

“Well you see he was telling me about how you and him are running from Daemon’s men, and I wanted to know why they were chasing after you, I’m a bit curious.” His voice seemed sullen and confused. I knew why they were chasing me but why didn’t Jun tell him?

I looked back and forth to Leo and Jun looking for an answer to give him, because I mean it is hard to explain. Although he appeared to know a lot more than what he is giving off. I didn’t know if I could trust this man or not but as I started to pull up my shirt to show him the tattoo his eyes grew wider with curiosity. I closed my eyes lifting my shirt more, the scars on my torso were worse than they use to which made me a bit embarrassed. Even more I was embarrassed showing this complete stranger my body. Jun looked away, like he hadn’t seen everything before but I guess he was just being a gentleman.

I turn around to show Leo the massive tattoo left by the doctor that had kidnapped me. There was a silence in the air as I put my shirt back down and faced Leo. He looked alarmed, I didn’t really want to ask what he thought. It scared me. He stood up playing with his scruffy beard, pacing around the floor….which made me anxious.

“Ah! Hold on. I shall be right back!” He said running upstairs. Jun sit down in the chair that once occupied Leo and stared at me for a long moment. I was just sitting there not knowing what was going on.

I sit there for a while before Leo came back down, in his hands was a book that had a butterfly on it. Is he going to tell me what this tattoo means? Leo flipped through the pages as he sits in the chair right next to Jun, until he stopped onto a page that he wanted.

“Papilo Liberi.” That’s all he said before turning the book towards me, for me to grab it. I started looked at the picture before the words, it was of a red winged woman she almost looked like a fairy but more terrifying. Her eyes were red, body covered in scars….I stopped and thought “this is me.”
I didn’t notice that I had said that out loud until Leo said something, “ Yes my dear. I never seen one of your kind until now but you are far more beautiful than the definition on that page tells.” I then started to read the definition

“A woman who has great powers, she is part butterfly as you can see. Her thought power is that like no other, before she fights her foe she calculates the exactly movements before they even think about it. They are quite the assassin if they are willing, for they can be a light as a feather on their feet. She may or may not have wings, if not then her speed will greatly become faster. With the wings she will fly of course but not as fast. Her appearance may not be sightly for she will have crimson eyes when chasing down an enemy and will have scars around her body. The scars are conflicted by someone else giving them to her and also they will gradually appear deeper and deeper.”

I stopped reading because I thought I had read enough bad news for one day. I look up at the faces in front of me confused still because, I couldn’t be this I mean the doctor is the one who gave me the powers I didn’t have them already.

“You look confused.” Jun finally spoke in a soft undertone.

“I am confused, I didn’t have these powers before I got this tattoo.” Leo then took over the conversation.

“See here is where I can answer your questions my dearie. You see the doctor who gave you that tattoo, his name is Josef. He of course is German, like you can see is just like me. Yes I know my name isn’t exactly German. My mother was Italian. But anyways back to you, that tattoo was put there to brand you, you see. You had these powers ever since you were born but you never knew because of course I’m guessing your mother either put you up for adoption or something of that line. Josef brought out your powers by branding you with the magical tattoo left on your back, which is his power. He has been looking for you for a very long time because a Papilo Liberi is a very rare breed. I know all of this is very crazy sounding but Jun and I are one too, well not the same kind as you but we are of the Liberi.” He stopped to pull up his long sleeve from his forearm to reveal he had the same tattoo as Jun, but instead of it being red it was gray.

“So you guys are, what? A couple of werewolves?” I was totally serious but Leo must of thought I was joking because he let out that great laugh he did before.

“No, No, No my child we are called Lupus Liberi. We don’t turn into wolves looking at the full moon, we actually just have traits of wolves. Like hearing, strong, fast, etc., etc.” He looked at Jun to see if he would add onto the story but he didn’t say anything. Which to my surprise made me feel nervous.

Jun turned his head to face the fireplace to try to avoid my stare. I wasn’t trying to look at him so deeply but I wanted his help, his thoughts at least. That’s when the pain came in; it shot through my back, into my head, and back through my eyes. I hunker down into a little ball to maybe ease the pain a little but nothing would help, I could hear faint voices coming from Leo and Jun but I couldn’t make them out. Tears started rolling down my face burning as they went. I grabbed my head thinking it would help. Jun grabbed my face pulling me back into reality…in an instant the pain just pushed itself just on my eyes. My eye sight was blurred and my breathing was fast, the only thing I could hear was Jun’s heartbeat and his breathing quietly calming me down.

My eyes lowered as the pain quickly went away, for now. Jun’s voice started to echo in my head… “Rose! Are you alright?”

“Quickly Jun put her on the bed!” I heard Leo’s voice almost screaming at Jun, or maybe it’s just that I had an unbearable headache. Jun picked me up and carried me upstairs and onto a bed that seemed so unfamiliar to me. But it felt good to be sleeping on a nice comfortable bed.