Chapther 4, White wings again

*~~Eleanor~~*

Just outside of town there were big houses, in one of those houses a family lived, a mother, a father and a daughter who didn't want to play Mozart on the piano anymore, becuase she found it boring. The family did also have a dog that liked to disturb the daughter when she played the piano. The little family was rich and had lots of servants, that didn't want the daughter to be independent. The daughter...

"Eleanor!" the woman's angry voice cut through the air like a razorblade. The daughter pressed her fingers on the piano keys, hard. She felt the anger coming. She turned her head, composed, not showing what she truly felt, just like she had been taught. The woman walked across the garden, on the stone paths she had so carefully decided to buy last year, her face was trying to hide her anger. "Eleanor!" she said once again when she was in front the daughter.
"Yes, mother?" she said, not bothering to smile or hide the anger in her voice completely just to anger the woman even more. When Eleanor was small she had been afraid of moments like this and always tried to be perfect. She tried to be perfect now, too. Just not when her mother wanted.
"Why didn't I hear any music?" Fake sweet voice. "I was doing important work, you don't want mummy to fall behind, do you?" Fake smile.
"No, mother." They stared into each other's eyes, challenging each other.
"Then why did you stop?"
"I...guess I got lost in thoughts." She was so not going to get out this in one piece. Her mother almost lost control.
"You can't...!" She took a deep breath and started over in her fake voice. "How many times have I told you to focus? You can't be good if you don't focus."She sighed. "What am I going to do with you? You even wanted to go to that commoner school! Can you imagine what everyone will say?" Fake non wrinkly face, fake lips, fake breasts. "They will think you are poor!" Fake eyelashes, fake hair, fake nose. "That weare poor!" Fakefakefakefakefake.... "Eleanor, are you listening to me?" She sighed again. Then there was the sound of a car in the driveway. "I can't deal with this right now. Just go." With pleasure.
As she walked over the grass which she knew she shouldn't, she heard her mother's fake voice calling out "Mrs. Lark!" and another one, as fake, answer "Mrs. Ritchie!" She let her hair out. It tangled in her hands and she swore she would cut it soon. She went to the pavilion in the far end of the, big, garden. No one except she went there anymore so she went there when she wanted to be alone.She had spent a lot of time there the last few days. Not because she had a bad time at home or anything like that, but because she had discovered that she could do things. Different things. She had really gotten the hang of it, too. She could transform her arm now, the left one in case something went wrong, a lot faster, too. Usually she turned it into a dog leg just because she liked dogs, it felt really weird. Not to mention how it looked.
While she sat there, looking at her dog leg and just thinking about how she would look if she turned her whole body into a dog, she saw something small and white moving in the corner of her eye. She turned her head and saw a white butterfly.
"What the..." she had never seen such a butterfly before. She reached out to touch it with her right arm, not thinking about turning the left one back. The butterfly didn't fly away as butterflies usually do, no matter how close she got. As soon as her nail touched it's wing,

she was gone.

*~~Natalie~~*
She wasn't far from home now. It was pretty late, but it was still not dark outside. She had seen a movie with her friends, Sophie and Laura. They had been friends for as long as she could remember. Sometimes she thoughtabout how amazing it was. Amazing indeed..."Girls can't be three" her aunt had told her, Natalie had proven her wrong, though. She was good friends and happy with Sophie and Laura. Happy. No, she shouldn't think like that. Of course she was happy being with them, she liked them and they were friends. Then why couldn't she tell them about that?
As she walked down the streets she noticed that there almost weren't any people out. She was surprised, because it was still warm. She stopped at a crossing and a car drove past, someone with red hair that gleamed strongly in the sun rode in it. Then she walked over. She rounded a corner and bumped into two girls. She looked up a bit to say 'sorry', but stopped when she saw who she bumped into. Hannah. Sophie's favorite teasing object. Hannah was with a taller girl Natalie didn't recognize. She felt hatred and anger growing in Hannah, her eyes were locked in Natalie's and she found it really hard to look down, mumble 'sorry' and go away. She felt the piercing look in her back when she walked away.

Now she just wanted to get home. Not because she had met Hannah, but because she felt a big change was coming, and she didn't like change. As she got closer to her home, the feeling became stronger. She trusted it. It had been right many times. That didn't stop her from wondering what was about to happen, though. Would she be hit by a car? Or stabbed and robbed? She knew that happened sometimes. She was in so deep thoughts she hardly noticed the pure white butterfly on the bench she hurried by. She began to walk faster now and various scenarios played in her head. She glanced at the white butterfly that flew right next to her face, but didn't dare to stop. It was getting ridiculous.
Then, suddenly, she felt something. Someone, very close to her, was very annoyed. She stopped and looked around. No one was there. The feeling didn't go away, though, and she began to feel a great power, too. A white butterfly flew right past her. She hardly noticed it this time, either. When she stood there trying to think who could be causing the feeling and forgetting about the scenarios she had just had in her head, the butterfly jerked her from her thoughts.
It attacked her. Flew in her face, around her head, dodged her hands. She couldn't catch it and it didn't fly away. She thought it was strange and annoying. More annoying, though, so she took up a magazine from her purse and lifted her right arm to strike the butterfly that was right i front of her face. Then her hand let go of the magazine, that fell down and made a disturbingly loud noise on the empty street, and her arm fell down her side. She stared at the butterfly and it stared back. This was the oddest thing she had ever experienced and she had experienced a lot of odd things. She felt the feeling again, stronger than ever. She didn't pay much attention t it. It felt like the butterfly almost hypnotized her. Her arm rose to her face and her index finger, as an invitation for the butterfly to land on. It did.

All that was left on the street was an astrology magazine.

*~~Charlotte~~*
She sat on the porch and played memory by herself. She liked to play memory, just for fun and, of course to test her memory. Her memory was excellent, she didn't need to be told that. Sometimes she played with her big sister, but mostly she played by herself. She sighed and picked up the memory. She was done. She put her elbow on the table and rested her head in her palm and began to look out of the window instead, fantasizing about what would happen when they went to Australia later this summer. Maybe she would meet a guy that would be nice. No. He would probably just fall for her beautiful sister. She almost had the perfect body and a nice face. There was nothing wrong with her brains or personality, either. People always commented how nice she looked, while Charlotte listened in a corner, her dark brown hair in her face. Charlotte wished someone, except her family, just once would say 'wow, you're beautiful' and look at her, too. Or did she? It would probably be embarrassing to receive that much attention. She wasn't known for her people friendliness, either, so no one would come near her in the first place. Even her relatives had begun to give up on her, they asked the usual questions, tried to talk with her, tease her sometimes (which made it worse), but then left her alone.

It had become quite windy outside now and even though it was almost half past eleven it wasn't dark. It wasn't cold either, they had all their windows open, hoping to let in some cool air. The house was a sauna in the summer, especially the living room. The house wasn't built so well, the living room's big windows let in the sun from morning until evening. The porch was mostly in shadow, though. The flag on the flagpole moved gently in the wind, the clouds had started to become a little pink, it was fairly silent. Only the sounds of a warm summer day. She leaned back in her chair, looking up at the roof instead. How she wanted summer to come to an end. She had done nothing these few last days and she really longed for Australia. She sighed again and then decided to play with her eyes, so she took off her glasses. Yesterday she had discovered that she could look up at the ceiling, but if she concentrated and did this thing with her eyes, she could see the garden. If she tried really hard she could see the second floor. After she had played for a while she turned her head lazily to the window again. It wasn't windy anymore, and a white butterfly flew in through one of the open windows. She watched it. It was white, slightly bigger than most butterflies and didn't seem to be afraid. It flew straight towards her and landed on the table, moving its wings like butterflies usually do when they sit still. She continued to stare at it and realised she couldn't take her eyes from it. She was almost paralyzed, she couldn't even put on her glasses. Her left hand began to move and reached for the butterfly, her right clutched around the glasses. Thoughts ran through her head. What was this butterfly? Was it poisonous? Why else was she like paralyzed? She didn't have the time to think too much, though, because as soon as she had touched the butterfly,

they were gone