Mia was packing her things, she was going to a new school when the summer was over. In order to get to this new school she had to move, get a small apartment and take care of herself. If she were honest, this wasn’t something she really wanted. She wanted to be independent, but she knew she was likely to just buy a nice dress with the little money she got, or drink it all up with the new friends she was probably going to make...
Mia was sitting in the middle of the floor, thinking of all this. She had got lost in her own thoughts and forgotten that she really was supposed to be packing. She shook her head and began once more.
She was storing away clothes, and in the bottom of her closet there was a wide, flat box. She hadn’t noticed it before, shoes were piled on top of it. Shoes she hadn’t touched in years. Those she loved but didn’t fit anymore. She removed some pink sandals, remembered how her legs were when she last wore them. Maybe at the age of twelve. Ah, those days, everything was problem free back then.
She held the box in her hands, the floor was cold and clean and she sat down and opened it. She felt like she had seen it before, well of course. She was the one who put it there, long ago. But why in there? In the closet? Well, these questions had to be answered, she thought, and opened it.
It held folded papers. She saw something was on them, but since they were folded she couldn’t tell exactly what. So she took them all out onto the floor before her, and looked at them one by one. These were old, she could see that. She loved to draw, and she knew she was good at it. The drawing she first looked at was from maybe age 7 or 8, maybe even 10, she wasn’t too sure. It was of a cat among lots of trees, and in the branches were silhouettes of heads, two heads. Mia nodded to herself approvingly, it wasn’t bad at all. It was rather impressive, that she was so young and yet she had pulled it off. She could see that the young girl had done a lot of work on it.
Mia looked at the next one. It was of two children holding hands, one a short-haired blond boy, the other one a half-long-black-haired girl. Most of her drawings from that time were of people, cats and dragons. But the people were either blond-haired girls or mothers. So this was a bit weird, and she had never been interested in drawing couples really. It was too cheesy, she thought.
She looked at the next drawing; those two kids again. They were playing ball. Next drawing, the couple again, holding hands. They were stood close this time, looking into each other’s eyes. The last drawing had a little girl in the middle. Holding their hands, one on each side, standing a little behind them. Mia tilted her head, what is this?
“Mom!?” Mia grabbed all the drawings and ran downstairs. Her mom was making dinner but wasn’t too busy to talk to Mia about this.
“Yes?”, she answered as Mia entered the kitchen. Mia laid all the drawings on the table and pointed at them as she looked at her mother.
“Do you remember this?” Her mom nodded.
“Yes, I do. You made those, and told me about them for days.”
“Them? What do you mean?”
“You mean you don’t remember?”
Mia shook her head. The food was boiling and the smell of a good soup went through the room. Mom sat down and looked at the drawings.
“One afternoon you disappeared. At the age of not-quite-eight. The next day, in the late evening, all of us out of our minds with worry, you walked through the door as if you had never been gone, and told us where you'd been and so on.”
Mia sat down beside her. Mom picked up the drawing with the cat.
“You followed a cat, into the woods, you said. You loved cats.”
Mia nodded, she knew this. Mom nodded too.
“You remember the neighborhood where you learned how to ride a bike?”
“Yes?”
“We lived in a house near the woods. They were basically our garden.”
Mom waved her hand, as if this was really important. “But anyway,” she continued, “You couldn’t find your way home that evening, and got scared and cold. Late that night, you said it was almost morning, but still dark, these kids found you.” Mom pointed at the kids holding hands. “I don’t remember their names, heck Mia, this was a long time ago. But I do remember that you asked me if it was wrong to be gay. When I asked why, you said those two kids were boys, and they were a couple.”
“What did you answer me then? About the gay thing?” Mia asked. Mom looked at her a bit puzzled.
“I said it was okay, and just as natural as the love me and your dad share.” Mia nodded.
“Good.” She looked at the drawings. “But it looks like a boy and a girl.” Mom nodded in agreement.
“What else happened?”
“Well, you said they brought you to an old house, they gave you blankets and some food that was 'bad' and..” Mom passed a hand over her face. “I don’t quite remember.” She thought for a while.
“You told me they slept all day long, and purred like cats. I remember that about the cats. No humans purr like cats.” Mia pondered about that. Maybe a cat was nearby?
“Then what?”
“You didn’t tell me much more, well. One more thing, but that was pretty weird.”
“What?”
“You told me that they flew you home, and that was how you got back.”
“Pff, what an odd kid I was.”
Mom took her hand and said: “You were perfectly normal, even if we don’t know why you did it, or what exactly happened. You were a child with a wild fantasy...and that’s a good thing. We were furious, of course, but we were even more relieved that you were alive...”
-
Mia thought about it as she went out of the door. She had her backpack, in it was a laptop, some candy, and the drawings she had found earlier that day. She was going to sleep over at her good friend's, and wanted to tell her about this super weird story. She had one drawing in her jacket pocket, and she took it out and looked at it.
It was dark outside, but the street light was just enough for her to take a closer look at the drawing. The one where those two boys were holding each other close. Real or not, it was very cute. She folded it again and put it back in her pocket. She started humming a song from the radio. “Butterfly butterfly, flying into the wind. You can be sure of it, that’s no place to begin..MMmMm, Tralalalaaa lalaa..” A song by A-ha. She really liked that song, pity they no longer were a band. “Tomorroooowwww! You don’t have to say what you…”
She became quiet, sang only to herself, then whispered. Because she saw a person maybe twenty meters ahead of her, almost...pulled into a dead end, it looked like. Now that she was quiet, she heard someone scream. He must have tripped and gone over; it looked like that.
She tiptoed to the dead end, she stuck her head around the corner. The rest of her body was pressed against the brick wall. Someone was rubbing the man, it looked really strange. Two people laying on top of him and rubbing him. At the same time, it looked like a fight, although Mia couldn’t see those two people's arms or heads, it was too dark to make out everything.
She turned around and began to run, the streets were still a little slippery after a recent rain, she slipped and fell. She looked back to see if anyone had busted her spying, and someone had indeed. A girl, with longish black hair.
She had blood around her mouth, and her arms were attached to both sides of her body by wings of skin that she folded together by having her arms down. It couldn’t be! Mia screamed and got up, started to run once more, with her heavy backpack. She gasped for air as she ran; she swore she would exercise more after this. No one could run for their life if they didn’t have the body for it. Although Mia was thin, she was not trained at all. She looked back, relieved to see no one, the girl had let her go.
She bumped into someone in front of her as she was looking back. A short-haired blond boy stood there, also with a bloody mouth, and Mia was even more startled as he opened his arms, huge wings folded out, the boy jumped from the ground, and his legs got hold of Mia’s waist. She closed her eyes, and seconds later they landed on the ground again. Mia opened her eyes; no, not on the ground. On a house roof. Mia began to cry as the girl appeared again.
“What do you want from me!?”, she yelled.
The girl spoke; she sounded more like a boy.
“We can’t afford any witnesses,” she said.
“Oh, well I..” Mia couldn’t find anything to say. She was going to die anyway now, no way these monsters would let her go. They probably think she would tell the police. And she would!
“Can the last thing you do before you leave from this roof be to kill me quickly?”
The kids opened their eyes, this was surprising.
“I want to live, as long as I can.” Mia said. The girl nodded.
“Fine then, a good wish I must say.”
The blond boy nodded too, as he pointed to her backpack.
“May I?” He asked. Mia nodded, and the boy went to it.
The girl sat down beside her while the boy opened Mia’s bag pack.
“We do need money.” The girl said.
Mia lifted her arms so they weren’t in the way of the pockets.
“Just go ahead,” she said.
Mia didn’t want to die, she had a life ahead of her. What is going to happen with mom and dad? Her siblings, friends, her school? Mia began to cry as the girl looked through her pockets, found her wallet, and the folded drawing. The girl unfolded the paper and looked at it; an empty, distant expression came over her face.
“What is this?”
Mia sniffed and dried off her eyes.
“What is what?” She answered.
“This drawing. Who made it?”
Blood dripped onto it from the girl’s face.
“Oh, yeah, I found it just today, in my closet. My mom said I made it when I was a kid, after I got lost in the woods overnight.”
The boy got up, with more paper in his hand.
“Look at this,” he said.
The girl went over to him and they looked through the drawings, slowly and thoughtfully; they were evidently very surprised. Mia looked at them curiously, she couldn’t understand what was so interesting to them. After what seemed a long while, both of them looked down at Mia again, and they asked her at the same time:
“Who are you?”
Mia looked away.
“No one you're interested in, obviously. Since you're going to kill me!”
“No, don’t you see?”, the boy said. He turned the drawing towards her, the one of two children holding hands. She could barely see it.
“What about it?” Her tears started rolling, why did it matter?
“Are you stupid?” The girl said. She pointed at the drawing.
“Don’t you see you made a drawing of us?”
Mia, shocked, realized the girl was right, it was them. Then the girl was a boy, and then what she had told her mom was true, and then...Mia jumped. “Oh my god!” she said.
The kids sat down, while Mia looked at them intensely. They had batwings but somehow she thought both of them reminded her of butterflies. But not completely like batwings, rather silvery and iridescent, almost fragile. They sat down beside each other, shoulder against shoulder, with their naked chests. The folded wings between their arms faded away and their arms became normal. Mia was startled.
“What’s your name?”The girl asked, or the other boy... Mia shook her head, confused. He looked so much like a girl. “Mia, and you?” “I am Eli and this is Oskar”, Eli replied, and pointed at Oskar for a few seconds. The kids showed her another of her drawings, the one where she, as a kid, was between them, holding their hands.
“When did this happen?” Asked Oskar.
“I don’t remember it myself, but I think I was about seven or eight.”
“Where did you live?”
“In Trondheim.”
The kids looked at each other. Then back at Mia.
“I remember you now”, Oskar said.
“I do too”, said Eli straight after him.
“Really? What was I like?”
The kids started to chuckle.
“You were really funny.” Oskar replied. “We didn’t have food, so Eli bought some in the store. You didn’t like it at all, and you yelled out: 'This is bad food, my mom never makes bad food!'
We found you crying in the woods, you were cold and hungry and we helped you. We had to tell you that we couldn’t handle sunlight so you had to stay awake all day in the house. The next night you had been walking around the house, looked through our stuff, even tried to solve the Rubik’s cube. And when we got up by dawn we brought you this food that you hated.”
“When we flew you home,” Eli continued, “you were so excited you almost fell off, several times. 'Oh, what is that? Look at that. I can see my house! This is awesome!' You said.”
Eli got more serious. “You also taught us a Norwegian lullaby. We sometimes sing it to each other. Like you did to us.”
Mia smiled from ear to ear, this wasn’t that bad after all.
“Oh, really? Which song did I sing?”
Oskar looked at Eli, he obviously didn’t want to sing. Eli got a resigned look, and then made himself ready to sing. He sat upright and breathed in...
“Når trollmor har lagt sine elve små troll, og bundet dem fast I halen.
Da synger hun sakte for elve små troll, de vakreste ord hun kjenner.” Eli sang softly and pure, it sounded like he was in a children's choir. Oskar stared at him and smiled while Eli sang with closed eyes.
Mia sang along, and finally so did Oskar.
“Aiaiaiaiaiboff. Aiaiaiaiaiboff. Aiaiaiaiaiai, boff. Aiaiaiaiaiboff.”
They all stopped and looked at each other. Eli leaned on Oskar’s shoulder and took his hand.
“Who knew?” He said, looking over at Mia, “that we would meet our little troll again.”
Oskar added, “Last month we were in Trondheim, and slept over in that very house you lived in. Of course we knew you wouldn’t be there.”
“So do I get to live then? You aren’t going to kill me?”
The kids shook their heads.
“But this time, if you tell anyone, we will have to kill you, you do understand that?” Eli spoke as if he was angry. Mia nodded mutely as both Oskar and Eli gave her a very serious look. After a while in silence, the kids got up, Oskar closed Mia’s backpack while Eli gave her wallet and the drawings back. In just a few moments Oskar handed her the bag pack.
"Here”, he said.
“Thanks”, said Mia, and put it on.
Eli made his wings again and indicated that Mia should get hold around his neck. They were now at the edge of the roof, it wasn’t so very high, but high enough for Mia to get hurt if she jumped from it. They jumped together, Mia and Eli, and floated through the air as if they were feathers. Soon, none too soon, the ground was under Mia’s feet. Oskar was already there beside them when they hit the ground, and Mia let go of Eli.
Eli and Oskar hugged her, held around her body. Both of them were at least a head shorter than Mia.
“We will always sing that song, we won’t forget you”, said Eli.
“And you have grown so much since we last saw you”, Oskar said as he looked up at Mia.
“I mean look at how tall you are.”
Mia pushed them from her gently, she was anxious to get away. “Well, it was nice meeting you again; I have people waiting for me, so I better go. Bye!” She began to walk away, as fast as she could without actually looking like she was in a hurry.
“Bye, Mia!” The kids said behind her. As soon as she knew she was out of sight, she began to run. She was shocked, scared, startled; but also relieved, even a little happy. Their little troll. They said she once had been their little troll.
Mia went back home and threw all the drawings in the trashcan, she just wanted to forget it all. Then she went back out again, on her way to her friend's house, as if nothing had happened; but she knew she would never be quite the same again. Not after she had seen a pair of bloodsucking butterflies.