Eventually, numbness and boredom eased my terror, pushing it to the back of my mind. How long I hung, suspended like a worm on a fisherman’s hook, I know not for I spent much of the time fading into an uncomfortable unconsciousness. And then, the terror returned in abundance as I felt a presence within the dark, my eyes having grown accustomed enough to see the displacement of blank emptiness by something much darker and much more sinister. A sheen, if you will, of something shiny that seemed to devour the eternal night to which I’d been exiled to.

“Pretty little butterfly. Do you miss the sun?” she whispered, for to my ears, the voice sounded female.

“Oui,” I breathed, trepidation making the word shiver as the hair on the nape of my neck rose and panic made me struggle, helplessly, against my bonds, the rope chafing and burning the tender flesh on my now bloody wrists.

“A gift, then.”

Her voice came closer, revealing a barely perceived shape; humanoid to a degree, though strangely designed. I gasped, my breath filling my lungs, as I felt needle-like pricks dancing their way from the curve of one hip, past my ribs, and over my breast, finally coming to rest squarely upon my stiffening nipple. One again, my traitorous body betrayed me, causing me to whimper, not with fear nor pain as I felt it pierce my engorged teat, but with heated desire, much to the creature’s apparent amusement.

“A gift for me as well, little butterfly.”

“Non,” managed, my eyes rolling slightly back in my head as a pair of black orbs ringed by gold, filled my vision, and then another, and another, until I found myself staring into a sextet of unblinking eyes regarding me with keen interest. Dread ate at my soul as I was transfixed, fighting an inner battle to find my voice once more.

“What are you?” I finally cried out, moments before the visage before me loomed closer. I felt a pair of pricks in my shoulder, screaming with agony as pain beyond anything I could have imagined began flowing through my bloodstream, making me convulse and then, finally, robbing me of movement altogether. Abject horror threatened to overwhelm me as I found myself paralyzed and helpless, all to aware of how another set of needlelike fingers began to explore my flesh almost clinically.

“Sleep, little morsel,” the creature whispered seductively, a hint of what I imagined to be amusement laced through its word. Helplessly, I felt my eyelids grow heavy as the burning pain began to quickly recede, robbing me of all feelings and, eventually, cognizance as well, lulling me into a dreamlike state, or perhaps it was something more, something outside of my understanding…

The agony of her venom, for I am sure that is what she had filled my veins with, metamorphed into a not unpleasant miasma not unlike the afterglow of love making. I felt breeze upon my skin as well as the sound of fluttering. Peeling my eyelids back, I was shocked to find myself surrounded by a cloud of butterflies, the sky above me lightening slowly as if a new day was dawning.

“What is-“ I managed before a new agony silenced me; daggers piercing the skin between my shoulder blades. I screamed, or I believe I did, although the mob of insects that surrounded me seemed oblivious. And then, more pain erupted within me, as if I was being torn apart from within. Thankfully, it became too much to bear and, once again, I was robbed of consciousness yet again, and then, like before, pulled back into a dreamlike world, in which either I had shrunk or the brightly colored lepidoptera had grown to gigantic proportion.

“A hallucination,” I surmised, feeling the heat of the sun warm me as I, in what seemed like a perfectly natural gesture, unfurled my brightly colored wings and tested them out carefully. I had been transformed, at least in my dream. Gazing around, I found my reflection mirrored in thousands upon thousands of eyes, little rainbows washing over them every time they turned their attention elsewhere.

“Beautiful,” I whispered, awe filling my soul. To be rescued from such darkness and pain only to find myself here – it occurred to me suddenly that the poison which had been injected into my bloodstream had, quite obviously caused my surmise and that I was now either in heaven or on some pathway leading there.

“Death is not so frightening,” I murmured, testing my wings out, laughing with quiet joy as I felt myself lift skyward, freeing myself from the earth and gravity with an ease that I’d often envied in creatures such as I had become.

As I flew higher, I studied the earth below, somewhat surprised to recognize our beach and signs of our, until recent, habitation of it. Curious, I landed upon a berry branch near the shelter that Emma and I had shared. Had I eyebrows to knit, my brow would have furrowed as I considered my options. Exploration from a vantage point afforded by flight would be helpful in at least alleviating my curiosity. Also, it might answer so many unanswered questions, such as the fate of the rest of my party or the rest of the expedition, for that matter. Suddenly filled with an urgency, I rose, once more, into the air, following, at first, pathways I was familiar with.

It didn’t take me long to re-discover the cleft into which I had disappeared and found Isshu, my inhuman lover. The pull to enter was almost more than I could resist, and yet, I found the wherewithal to continue my journey, telling myself that I could return again if I wished.

With great effort, I fought off the nearly insatiably hunger, absently realizing that, unlike true insects, I retained many of my human attributes. A cunt, for instance, one which yearned to be filled. Absently, I stroked it with one hard skinned digit from one of my six legs until my cream fell from the sky to fertilize the berries the covered the cliffs and I shook with what can only be described as a climax.

“Cher Dieu,” I murmured, fluttering erratically in the direction of the direction our captors had taken us several fateful days hence, enjoying the view from thrice my normal height. It took days, during which I’d learned to feats on the nectar of indigenous flowers to sate my appetite, if not my hunger, which only grew with each sip until I found it hard to think as sexual desire clouded my brain until I nearly forgot my mission. Was this what the butterflies felt, I wondered, or was this some side effect of my metamorphosis – neither insect nor woman, but some strange amalgamation of both. I began to despair; the thought of finding myself in this state permanently might eventually drive me mad. I took to masturbating every time I settled on petals and drank the ambrosia deep within the wells of blooming flowers, relieving myself for short periods of time until the need arose again, disconcertingly stronger each time until I realized that, eventually, it would consume me beyond escape. Gathering what was left of my waning willpower, I hastily sought the village of the snake-men, hoping that, perhaps, reuniting with my companions might end this nightmare. This wasn’t heaven, I had begun to realize, but purgatory.

oOo

How I managed to hold on to my remaining humanity, I do not know. Eventually, though, I found myself sitting upon a spire shaped rock, observing a scene both miraculous and devastating. A battle raged within the village, one waged the reptilian warriors whom had exiled me to darkness and a rag-tag band of men dressed in well recognized uniforms; the survivors of the Golden Dove! My heart leapt with joy, hope filling my heart. My father might well still be alive! I watched in dread as they fought the inhuman warriors with sabers and a single revolver, my heart lifting at their occasional and familiar battle cries.

Eventually, they retreated, leaving the ground stained with the blood of both species. Bodies, as well. Precious lives had been spent in, what I had realized near the end, has been a rescue mission. My companions had been freed and reunited with the other survivors! Ecstatic, I rose into the air, determined to follow them and discover the plight of my father, my heart pumping so hard I thought it might burst.

“Come back to me, little butterfly,” an ominous voice dug it’s claws into my cerebellum. “I am not done with you yet.”

Despite my best effort, I felt myself suddenly yanked from the air and, once again, enveloped in darkness. This time, however, I was not hanging by my wrists. Instead, I seems to be hanging upside down and wrapped in cords made of silk.

“No, please, I wasn’t done!” I shouted, twisting and turning as I tried to break free, much to the amusement of my captor.

“Neither am I.”

I stilled as I felt the cords loosen slightly, before renewing my efforts to escape. Not even exhaustion halted my progress as I felt a single cord weaken and then snap. With a grunt, I tore at the silk with tooth and nail, pushing my limbs outward until, finally, the others gave way and I fell, hitting the hard ground unceremoniously. Dazed, I looked about me. Although still dark, I could see well enough to discern what appeared to be pearls clinging to the walls of a huge cavern, a muted phosphorus glow from a faraway source giving them a slight luminescence.

Breathing hard, I looked around, seeking an exit, frustrated by the seeming lack of a way in or out of the vast cavern. Then, and only then, did I push myself up off the cold stone and stand, naked and drenched with sweat as I slowly unfurled the delicate wings protruding from my burning shoulder blades.