Xerces

Prologue

When the little boy saw the first flame ignite in his room, he was bewildered.

There he laid on his bed unsure what to do, he knew he should put the simple flame out before it grew, but he wouldn't. He also wouldn't call for his parents for he didn't know or care about their whereabouts.

The flame swayed in a soothing motion, something the boy couldn't take his eyes off of. He was hypnotized.

Seconds passed by, and then soon minutes did too. The flame spread to his rug and grew in height. The boy clapped his hands in excitement, applauding the flames to do more. And they did.

They started to manifest everywhere in his room, burning and destroying everything in its path.

The flames grew even closer to him, catching on his blankets. The warmth they gave off, soothed the kid even more.

The boy looked around his room and saw that it was entirely covered in the heat. He laid back letting his head rest on the pillow, he was excited to see where the flames were going to take him; he'd been dying to get out of this place.

But the flames never touched him, they only ventured outward towards the rest of the house. Soon the fire alarm went off and it's frantic shrieks filled the whole house or whatever was left of it.

His parents came rushing up the stairs, looking to see if the boy was dead, though they couldn't see much due to the fire lurking in the doorway. After a few minutes they gave up their search and tried to get out themselves. Only all the doorways had been ablaze, and there was no way out.

The boy wondered what was going to be of him, if this fire was an exit out or only a block in his path.

From the corner of his eye he saw something else, something that surly didn't belong here in all the flames; a butterfly. The long winged creature was blue and effortlessly beautiful. It stayed on his window sill, the only thing in his room that seemed not to be burnt except for him. The boy saw it flutter its wings at him as he heard his parents screams of torture. He continued staring at it not giving his parents a second thought.

Then as did the flames the butterfly vanished, flying out the window. And the boy was all by himself once again.

"Xerces."