Wings of Butterflies

2. No Man Can Be My Equal

     “Gabrielle, don’t fade away from me again. Tell me what you’re thinking about instead of always keeping it inside.”

     His words nearly made me jump and I wasn't usually the one who got scared easily. But the words were also spot on. I often lost myself in thoughts and didn’t talk nearly as much about them to him as he did about his thoughts and concerns. Today, I didn’t want to share all of my thoughts with him, so instead, I gave him half the truth.

     “I was actually thinking about the day we met. Do you remember it?”

     I flashed a tainting smile at him and waited for the response. He stood glued to the floor and didn’t make a sound. Then he suddenly ran from where he was standing next to the big bookshelf across the room to the leather couch, which was where I had ended up sitting, thinking about the past.

     “If you think that I don’t remember the day we met, you must be delusional.”

     At his words, I laughed hollowly out loud.

     “I am very delusional already, which I though you knew.”

     “You are underestimating yourself yet again.”

     The look in his eyes convinced me for one brief moment that I was something more than a brutal killer. Then I got real.

     “In your mind, I know that I am some kind of a saint but we both know that is not true.” Before Ray had the time to answer my statement, I had started speaking again. “Back to the day we met. The most distinctive memory I have from that day is that I was so happy that I had finally found someone of my own kind. I must have been all alone for years before I saw you. Walking around amongst humans like you were one of them.”

     Ray’s face changed from his natural smooth features and there was suddenly only hardness, but before he started to speak, his face had already gone back to normal.

     “My transformation had only occurred a few months earlier and I was so new and felt extremely lost. Everything I knew was things from my human life. And Charles of course.” 

     At the memory of his maker, Ray’s eyes narrowed and his lips were tightly pressed together. I quickly reached out for his hand and he held on to it in a tight grip.

     “But then out of nowhere, there you were. You were so beautiful and although you tried to melt in, you could never succeed completely. The glow around you made every man, and some women, to turn when you walked by. And when you walked my way, I couldn’t believe that you were actually approaching me.”

     “I noticed that, you turned around to see if there was another person standing behind you.”

     “I can still recall the exact words that you said to me, right there in the middle of the street.”

     His face, knowing that we were two of a kind and those words had changed my whole existence.

     “I think we are the same, you and I. Come with me and you will never be alone.”

     He closed his eyes and savoured every little syllable.

     “I feel like I’m back in Miami in the 70’s.”

     “Me too.” I closed my eyes also and got the pictures of Ray’s overwhelmed face when I had grabbed his hand and ran with him, away from all the people and towards my favourite deserted beach. “You were so cute in those little shorts. Don’t you still have them around somewhere? Now when we actually live in California, you should wear something else than jeans.”