Flutter by, Butterfly

Chapter 38

The nightmares came back full force. I dreamed of Serena all the time. She was coming back...with a VENGEANCE. She was training in martial arts as well, and had a fondness for throwing knives. What irked me the most was the two little body bags that were around the same size as toddlers....

My training doubled. I insisted on everyone learning how to catch knives. We used butter knives at first for Sandy and Bruno. Bruce had a knack for throwing.

Maria didn't like it, but she went along with it. She made me take the time for ballroom dancing as well. "You'll never know when he will return. Wouldn't it be nice for him to take you dancing?" I couldn't agree more.

I tried so hard to relax, and just be a family. I really did, but my dreams of Alejandro were worst of all. I dreamed of people trying to kill him. I suppose it was a good thing in my dreams that he never died. There were moments when he had to hide to tend to his wounds. Some of them were terrible. I could feel how much he suffered with each brand new scar.

"Would you like to tell me of your dreams?" asked Angie Marie one day.

I told her everything. I admitted to all of my fears and longings. She admitted to me, "I dream of him too."

"Did they ever..." I touched her forehead, "...you know."

She looked angry at first and then comforting. I could tell the anger was not pointed to me. "Oh, they never put that horrid machine on me. I never even wanted my son on it."

"Dumb-dumb and Loco said that it may have progressed my psychic ability."

"It may have, and it may not have; but I think that love is the most powerful contributor of all."

I continued to look out the window.

"How much did they tell you about his current mission?" she asked me.

"They haven't. I always make a point not to ask, but I will say this. He's standing up to them. He's fighting back. They were trying to recruit you, our babies, even me. He told them, "No more," and when they informed him, "You don't have a choice..."

We both looked out the window to the night sky. We ignored all of the city lights, only looking at the moon, longing to be able to see him, as the moon was peering down.

I dreamed of him again. It was the same dream I had of him, when he first took me to his home. They had him tied down, physically assaulting him. They wanted to change him again. He was fighting them so hard. The machine, they were lacing his veins with drugs dripping from an IV. Still, he fought. It wasn't until they began to treat him with electric shock that his mind began to splinter again.

"Alejandro! Noooooooo!"

I could not stop screaming his name. I could feel the violent electric currents, searing through his body. I could feel his cries of agony to the depths of my soul. The others stared at him so cold. "Again," they would say, making him feel the pain all over again. I screamed with him, feeling his hurt as if it were my own. Every time they did this to him, his body would become a little more exhausted than it already was. The fact that we had made him close to whole, they were aware of it all along. It played right into their hands. He hung on for so long. Just when his world was about to turn black, a handler looked him in the eyes and said "Wake-up, my Monarch King," and my Alejandro, vanished.

This terrified me more than anything else. I woke up wailing into the night. I could not stop. My boys, Clark and Bruce, came running to my room, only to find me alone. Maria tried to console me, only to have to leave and tend to my children because my screams of terror awoke them. Clark had his head cocked to the side, like he was trying to see inside my mind, but looked utterly confused. Bruce paced the floor, raking his hands through his hair, quietly freaking out that for all of my screaming, there was nothing he could do for me. I wailed on, for though I was awake, I was still dreaming. The nightmare continued. I could still see them. I could feel Alejandro's heart change to stone. I could hear their words just as surely as if I were standing there.

"Who is Jani Jones?"

"My butterfly."

"And what is your butterfly?"

"My slave."

"And what is the phrase you must say to reprogram your butterfly?"

"Flutter by, butterfly."

"And if she proves to be uncooperative?"

"She dies."