The butterfly from gt-con

—

Marie swore she heard a noise from the bedroom as she entered her home. She wasn’t nervous, no, she could handle any intruder. But she was curious. Slowly, she approached the bedroom door, listening for any signs of an intruder, and was shocked when she heard a heartbeat, confirming her suspicions.

Marie entered the room, and nobody was there. That is, nobody human. But Marie heard the tiny heartbeat quickening in pace, coming from… the wall? No, it was definitely inside the room.

“Hello? I can… hear you,” Marie said as she glanced around the room. She knew it had to be one of the little people from how soft the heartbeat was. Marie had only met a few of them before, as they were timid creatures. So timid, in fact, that Marie had never gotten to speak to one, and she had so many questions to ask.

Marie listened closely and heard a soft gulp from behind her nightstand.

“You’re in no danger, but can you please show yourself?” she asked, only to be met with silence. She walked over to the nightstand, getting down onto her knees to make herself slightly more approachable.

“Please, I know you’re behind the nightstand. I just want to talk. Can you come out?” Marie said softly.

Marie closed her eyes and sighed as there was no response, before she heard rustling.

—

Rosalie was cornered. Tears began to well in the borrower’s eyes as she realized the gravity of the situation. Somehow, the human knew where she was. Perhaps they saw her running behind the nightstand, desperate to not be standing in the middle of the bedroom floor.

“I don’t want to have to move the nightstand. Can you come out, please?” the human asked again.

Rosalie knew she was doomed. The human was going to move the furniture keeping Rosalie unseen. Faced with no other option, as far as her panicked mind could figure, she began to sprint, hoping she could outrun the human’s reflexes. They were kneeling, it would take them seconds to stand up, precious seconds Rosalia could use to escape.

—

Marie watched them run out from behind the nightstand. She was tempted to stop them, but she was afraid of startling the poor thing.

“Hey, hey, there’s no need to run, I’m friendly,” Marie softly said as she saw them running with everything they had. Unfortunately, they didn’t get far before they tripped, rolling across the floor as the bag they were holding flew away from them.

“Oh! You dropped your things, let me help!” Marie said, as she reached for the bag.

The tiny person quickly jumped to their feet, but something wasn’t right as one of their legs buckled under their weight. With a yelp of pain, they collapsed onto the floor again.

“No… no… no…” they softly whispered to themself, a voice so quiet that even with Marie’s heightened senses she was barely able to hear.

“Oh shit! Are you okay?” Marie said, though it was clear that they were very much not okay as they struggled to stand again. After the second time that they collapsed, Marie decided she was done being passive. This tiny person needed help.

—

No… it couldn’t end like this… she had to get away, she HAD to get away, borrowed materials be damned, she just had to get to the vent, and… open the vent… and climb in the vent… she could rest there.

But as the human’s cold hand gently wrapped around her, Rosalie knew in her heart that she would never get back home. She was caught. This was it.

—

Marie was trying to be as gentle as possible as she grabbed the tiny creature by the upper torso, avoiding touching their legs.

“It’s okay. I just want to look at your leg, you may have sprained something. That was quite an ugly tumble,” Marie softly said. The tiny person wasn’t fighting her like she would have expected, instead, they had gone limp. If it weren’t for their constant heartbeat, Marie would have assumed the worst.

After grabbing the tiny person, Marie stood up, and held the tiny person up to the lamp on the nightstand.

—

Rosalie kept pretending to be dead, hoping the human would lose interest. She didn’t think it would work. Why would that work? But she was being held in an oddly cold grasp by a human of all things, this was the literal stuff of nightmares, there was no way this could get any worse.

“Little one… I know how an unconscious human moves, and I can tell you are faking. Can you talk to me? I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me.”

Nevermind. It had gotten worse. The human knew she was faking. This was it. This was the worst things could possibly get.

Rosalie sighed and lifted her head, carefully opening one eye… which was met with the human’s blood-red eye staring back at her.

Rosalie’s other eye opened instinctively as her movements began to quicken. The cold hands, the red eyes… Rosalie was no fool, they knew exactly what they were dealing with, this was…

—

“Woah, woah, stop swinging your legs, please! You’ll hurt yourself! It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m a friend!” Marie cried out. She moved her other hand close, but was too afraid of hurting the little thing to grab their legs.

The tiny being began thrashing and kicking, wailing in pain with each kick of their leg.

“No… no… let… go… of me…” they weakly cried in between the pained yelps.

“I can’t just drop you, you’ll hurt your leg more! Stop moving it!”

“Can’t… you’re gonna… you’re gonna…”

“I don’t want to grab your leg, but I will if you don’t stop!” Marie said, finally getting frustrated with their antics.

“Toying with… me… like… a cat…”

“Will you listen to me! You’re hurting yourself!”

As the tiny being grew even more desperate, she kicked at Marie’s hand with their good leg… and then their bad leg. The resulting scream was bloodcurdling, enough to remind Marie of… there was no time to reminisce, though, as the tiny body finally went limp for real. A moment of small panic overtook Marie, but the tiny heartbeat she could hear relieved her worry. They probably had passed out from the pain.

—

Rosalie awoke in a box. It was soft. Padded with something. She swore to herself, but was in too much pain to move. She cautiously tried to get up, but the leg she hurt felt… heavy. Her breath quickened, but she lay back down, still half-awake. As she lay her head to the side, she saw her borrowing bag, with her supplies clumsily packed back inside of it.

“You’re awake…” the voice above said, quickly drawing Rosalie’s attention. The borrower sat up, finally seeing their leg, wrapped up with cloth and adhesive and a paperclip fastened into a brace.

After taking in her own situation, she looked up at the human… no, the vampire. Rosalie had heard tales of them, a creature that even humans feared.

“Calm down, please don’t freak out again. You’re safe. I’m a friend. My name is Marie. What’s your name? Maybe you would feel better if you told me?” the vampire apparently named Marie said.

“… Rosalie…”

“That’s a lovely name, Rosalie,” Marie gently said as a moment of awkward silence draped over them both.

Rosalie couldn’t handle not knowing.

“Are you… going to eat me?” she timidly asked.

“What? No, no, where did you hear such a story? I told you, I’m a friend.”

“But you’re… a vampire…” Rosalie bluntly stated.

Marie winced a little bit at that.

“Well… yes, yes I am. But I’m not going to hurt you. I promise.”

“Oh.” was all Rosalie could say in response. Her eyes started to wander around in the ensuing silence. The walls of the box weren’t very high, letting her take in the vampire’s appearance from the chest up properly. She looked young, but Rosalie knew that meant nothing. She had blonde hair, and her face was absolutely covered in various piercings. She was wearing a short-sleeved shirt that revealed an intricate tattoo on her arm, of human skulls and flowers. Her style was very different from the other humans, er, larger folks that Rosalie had ever seen. It was… charming, in a way.

“How does your leg feel?” Marie asked, breaking the silence.

“It doesn’t hurt when I’m not moving it,” Rosalie said.

“Well then,” Marie said with a small, soft chuckle, “I would probably avoid moving it.”

Rosalie seemed unamused, which Marie seemed to notice after a moment.

“Sorry, sorry, just a little joke. Seriously though, it looked like you hurt your ankle badly, though I have no way of knowing if it was sprained or broken. For now, avoid walking on it,” Marie said.

Rosalie finally asked the other burning question on her mind.

“Are you going to keep me?”

“What? No. What?” Marie asked, caught off-guard by the strange question.

“You said I can’t walk. You bound up my leg so I can’t move it. Are you going to keep me?”

“No no no, you’re got it all wrong! I promise, you’re not being kept here. Want me to help you get home?” Marie asked.

Rosalie thought about the trip she would need to get home. Not only would she need to climb into the vent, but also climb up a rope all the way to the house’s attic. There was… no way she would get there with her leg in the shape it was in.

“I… can’t get home right now. Too much climbing,” Rosalie responded sadly.

“That’s… that’s fine! You can stay with me as long as you need. Not as a prisoner or anything, before you start to panic again. But you can stay until your leg heals. Would that be okay?”

Rosalie sat in thought for a moment, looking at her leg before looking at the vampire above her. “I… suppose I don’t have a choice…”

Marie looked sympathetic. “You always have a choice, but… I do think staying would be better for you. Just for now.”

It was dangerous, for sure, but… for some reason, she trusted the vampire’s words. After all, if she really wanted to eat Rosalie, couldn’t she have done so when she passed out?

Rosalie finally nodded. “Okay. I’ll stay. Just until my leg heals.”