The white butterfly tango

Chapter XVIII

Esma returned to her dormitory room late in the evening and only then felt how exhausted she actually was. The girl took a shower and then fell directly into her own bed. It creached loudly despite being new but she couldn't hear that. Her thoughts were all about a couple of days and terabits of new information that she uploaded into her brain way too quickly. Esma knew Mike and Mister Hubert were still on the mission and Ruth promised to watch some film with the twins. Her only activity would be a healthy sleep after the exclusively tiring day.

"Esmeralda? Hello?" Esma once again appeared in the bright white room but the little girl wasn't there. Maybe it was all a dream after all...

"Why did you come here?" The girl appeared as the cloud of butterflies and then appeared out of it, giving a curious look to her guest.

"I really wanted to talk to you. Do you mind?" She took a step closed and then sat on the ground, giving a little girl a slight smile.

"No..." The little girl smiled as well and rushed to sit in front of her, "you are calmer than usual." She then made a quick observation, taking a glance at the older girl.

"I finally understand a lot of things," Esma answered her politely, thinking she did manage stress well in the last couple of days. "Will you answer me?" Her questions were careful and very calm. She didn't want to scare her only hope for any answer away.

"Do you promise, not to stress out?" The little girl frowned and stated seriously.

"I will try my best..." Esma smiled sincerely. "Is your father, Jan Hoover?" She asked very carefully, just trying to make sure everything she knew before was true.

"He is." The kid answered but Esma noticed some fear inside of her. "Did you see my daddy?" She then asked a bit worried and started fidgeting on the spot.

"Just don't get scared. It's okay..." She then assured the little girl and tried to calm her down. Stress was not beneficial to any of them. "Only me in here, I promise." Esma kept speaking to her very carefully until then asked another question trying to change the topic. " Do you know how old you are?"

"5 and a half!" The girl giggled to her and then relaxed.

"You are such a big girl." Esma chuckled sincerely to that, thinking how cute the kid was, even though her eyes were completely white.

"I've been 5 and a half for a while, actually." Esmeralda rubbed the back of her head and then took around the room, which by now was covered with white butterflies.

"Why are you here? Do you know?" The girl then asked her next question patiently expecting the answer.

"I don't remember exactly. But there was a butterfly and it showed something to me..." The little girl reached her hand and a white butterfly landed on it. For her next move, Esmeralda reacher that hand towards the older girl, and Esma patted the little creature very carefully.

It opened a new flashback for her but the girl was not scared, since it wasn't something new. She saw such a flashback back at the park when remembered about the curse. In the scene, Esmeralda, who didn't change a bit, stood in some kind of isolated room, rubbing her eyes from the tears. The room looked like some kind of prison and was covered with butterflies. The kid then stomped her feet and screamed about something and the butterflies got in the air, uncovering the corpses of few people. Those were killed mercilessly and couldn't possibly escape the attack. Esma tried to see their faces but couldn't recognize any. Some woman in the corner of the room had a tattoo on her wrist. It was the sun. Just a simple circle with stirpes around it. Nothing too complicated, just simple lines and contours. That's when they both returned to reality and Esma noticed Esmeralda's scared eyes.