Fairydale: A Dark Gothic Fantasy Romance

The sun was setting and Lizette still could not bring herself to go back home. Not when her family would take one look at her and guess what had happened.

It hadn’t been her fault—she was aware of that much. But she didn’t think her family would agree. Certainly not her mother, who could barely stand the sight of her most days. If she knew, she would only have one more reason to hate her—potentially one more reason to send her away.

She was alone in the forest at night, a rather dangerous place to be in if you were female, but Lizette had already suffered the worst a woman could suffer. Even now, that place between her legs would not stop bleeding, no matter how much she tried to wipe it away with the material of her tattered sweater.

As she made her way towards the waterfall deep in the forest, her only thought was to wash away any trace of him off her body.

The sound of the water slowly reached her ears. Her cheeks were red, her tears already dried up. Yet as she came upon the waterfall, she couldn’t help herself from crying anew.

She gently removed her clothing, careful of her wounds which still pained her a great deal. Neatly folding her dress on the ground, she neared the river bank as she dipped her toes into the water. The first chill caught her unawares, but then that’s what she got for attempting to bathe in a river at the beginning of December.

Yet she still had one hidden weapon in her arsenal.

Rubbing her palms together, she willed the heat from her body to spread to the water in the river, making it the temperature she desired.

Lizette might not be as powerful as her mother, but she did have this one ability she was proud of—the ability to heat things up. Unfortunately, even that hadn’t been enough to stop his attack.

When the water had warmed enough, Lizette submerged her entire body, scrubbing at her skin and wishing she could remove her memories as easily as she could his scent.

She spent moments on end in the river, dreading the fact that she would have to face reality when she was done.

Slowly, she got out of the water and for a moment simply stood on the river bank next to her dress, unable to bring herself to put on the garment again. Luckily, due to her ability, she could keep herself warm without the need for clothing.

Yet as she stood there contemplating her life, she noted a colorful butterfly flying close to the surface of the water.

She didn’t know how any butterfly could survive a winter there, but she was too taken by the beautiful scene to question such a sighting.

The butterfly seemed to have a clear purpose as it headed straight for her, batting its brilliantly blue wings as it stopped right in front of her eyes. Before she realized what it meant to do, it went lower, settling on her lower stomach.

‘What are you doing?’

She found the strength to smile anew as she thought herself so lucky that the beautiful butterfly had come to her.

‘Of course you wouldn’t answer back,’ she chided herself as she released a weary sigh.

As she stared at the butterfly, it suddenly turned with its head towards her, almost as if it understood her. Yet that was not the strangest thing.

In the blink of an eye, the butterfly slowly melted into her skin until nothing remained of its beautiful form.

Startled, Lizette stood up. She was afraid she might have harmed it with her abilities.

One day, she would realize that she hadn’t killed the butterfly.

She’d given it life.