The Silk Moth Dream (Season 1 Complete)

EPISODE 4: A BUTTERFLY DREAM

Shailene has tried everything to get the monk to speak, to no avail. She's triple-checked her translation device setting. She's interrogated him repeatedly with the same questions, hoping to annoy him into answering. She's even offered the most excruciating details of her sex life, including that time with the pomegranate and ensuing hospital trip, hoping that he'd at least beg her to shut up. Barring an electric chair, waterboarding, or actual physical contact, she's tried everything in her arsenal.

Only Fiona would be attracted to such a stick in the mud. Well, she has to admit that this silver-haired young man is rather captivating. Kind of like those "K-pop idols" that she grew up listening to. Shailene thinks about grazing her hand against his arm or bumping their elbows together. Most men would spill their deepest secrets with a look, a touch, a warmth. Fiona's face briefly flashes before her eyes, and Shailene shakes her head.

"Why are we giving you the time of day, anyways?" Shailene hums to herself as she digs through their storage room, looking through all the patched-up and barely-repaired Sheltersuits of Left Behind's past. "It's not like Left Behind's swimming in resources anyways. It's kinda miraculous that you managed to stay alive without a suit on for so long."

To no one's surprise, he says nothing. Just stares at the floor like some emo kid.

Shailene groans in frustration when she reaches the bottom of yet another useless box of old Sheltersuits. "So what, you have fancy powers. So does half the population in Sacramento after everyone started getting enhancement surgeries." She pauses, a thought suddenly dawning on her. "Wait, you look like an Azure Dragon type. Who's to say you aren't from Sacramento?"

The words seem to take no effect on the stranger, but it does nothing to stop Shailene from drawing her butterfly knife. She spins the knife almost out of habit.

That seems to get his attention.

"Are you from Sacramento?"

He drags his eyes up to meet Shailene's and she's almost taken aback by the strange emotion in them. She'd expected fear, but this is... something else. A penetrating stare devoid of emotion. An image of a stoic young girl, who quietly absorbed the life of her impertinent older sister flashes through Shailene's mind. She has to shake her head slightly to snap back to reality.

"What's Sacramento?"

Shailene laughs as she presses her dagger into his neck now, his cool breath tickling her forehead. "Playing the amnesia card, are we? Don't pretend to be some looney. Who sent you here? The Azure Dragon gang? The military?"

"I do not understand," he says, but she sees the breath in his chest pick up a bit.

"I'm sure you don't," Shailene says warmly, as she digs deeper, almost drawing blood. She has to tippy-toe to whisper in his ear. "People always underestimate me. But do you know what I can do with this knife? Unimaginable things. I can make you wish you were dead but it won't be that easy," she says, her lips almost touching the side of his face. "No, you'll have to work for it." She scratches the base of his neck with the tip of his dagger and he yelps, almost imperceptibly.

She traces the dagger down his collarbone, marking a path to his belly. "Now, where should I begin–"

Before she knows it, a blinding white light erupts in her vision, then she is knocked back by what feels like an invisible blanket, slamming her against the wall. Crushing pain ignites every nerve as her tailbone slams against a rack of weaponry, knocking the entire shelf. But it's not just her tailbone – her stomach aches, her brain screams, and her eyes are blinded by memories she hasn't allowed herself to think of in a long time. Smells of parchment and rain. Evie.