The Man with the Butterflies

You wouldn’t believe it if Jane Davis told you she was a villain. Nobody would ever expect the bubblegum-haired, 18-year-old woman who just started at one of the best universities, to be the bad guy. But she was.

It wasn’t something she chose, rather it was gifted to her - or at least the bracelet that gave her powers was. The original holder of the stunningly boring piece of jewelry, now cursed to her wrist, was a hero who she found dying in an alley, while butterflies gorged themselves on his blood. It was a nasty sight, but he held it out to her wordlessly, almost as if he knew the young girl. When Jane took it, it crawled its way onto her wrist, locking onto her with a violent green glow. She called for help, but when someone finally noticed, he’d vanished, a single butterfly left behind.

Jane started noticing the powers after that. Starting with telepathy, then super strength paired with the fastest metabolism anybody had ever seen, as well as floating. The last one doesn’t sound that extraordinary, but after tripping over a bucket at a roof party and not falling to her death, Jane was pretty grateful for it. Still, food and university were exceptionally expensive, and her part-time job was barely paying enough for her apartment.

Banks and ATMs were the easiest targets since she never had to hurt or scare anyone to get the money. Just a quick in and out for a couple thousand and she’d be back in a month or so. But when the short woman came home from her petty heist one night, she watched as a man attacked a woman in a cramped alleyway. She wasn’t going to let him get away so easily, but he began attacking her the moment she stepped in. A little too much strength and anger later, the man fell dead to the floor. The woman was thankful for her being there, but the press? Not so much.

They got information about the attack and even a photo of her, who had been luckily covered head to toe in jeans and a hoodie. Unfortunately, the mask she’d wear while stealing was visible, so people knew a bit of who “she” was. They’d even tried naming her, eventually settling for Blue, since her hair somehow looked blue in the pixelated photo.

That was enough for the supers of that world to get involved though, and this is where the true story starts.

The glare of sunrise through her mirror shot at her eyes with force, greeting her to yet another crappy day. Her thin tank top and soft shorts tugged on the blanket when she tried covering her eyes, rustling her slightly from comforting sleep. She reluctantly got up, grumbling while grabbing a face towel and stalking to the bathroom.

The bathroom was pretty small, with the ancient tiled wall chipped and water stained. The sink stood right beside the toilet, which housed loose toilet paper since the holder had broken her first week after moving in. She turned on the cold water, as the hot water hadn’t worked for the last month, and splashed her face, scrubbing her skin with a cleanser, then padding it dry.

She grabbed her moisturizer before checking her phone. Jane might have lived in a nightmare apartment but she prided herself on her hygiene. A news alert popped up on her phone even though she never read the news anymore. It was kind of pointless to check when all the stories out there were about her own alter-ego and the ‘treacherous deeds she might have done’.

She swiped the notification away while dizzily heading to the kitchen, yanking open the squeaky cupboards for a chipped blue bowl. When she finally dug into her sugar-filled cereal, a knock resounded from the door.

Jane yelled a muffled “Come in,” through her mouthful of cereal, and was surprised when a grey-eyed woman opened the door. “You’re not Meg,” she stated.

The woman’s kind smile lit up the room, dusting the photos hanging crookedly on her walls with sunlight. Her hair was a dull gold and she carried a plateful of fresh cupcakes in her hand.

“I am not, no” she replied. “I’m Jenny, I just moved in across from you.”

“Oh, cool,” Jane noted, taking another huge spoonful of her cereal.

“So…I brought cupcakes, thought you’d like some.”

Jane looked over at the plate, stretching her neck back to have a better look at the vibrant icing sitting on the vanilla bases.

“They’re-they’re very blue.”

“I like to decorate.”

The two were silent for a moment, Jenny standing awkwardly and Jane thinking of her options.

“Did you want to have a seat?” Jane asked, slurping down the leftover almond milk in her bowl.

“Oh, are you sure? I don’t want to impose.”

“I mean, you did bring cupcakes. You get to stay for a bit.”

Jenny took the wobbly chair opposite Jane, placing the cupcakes on the table. They were decorated with little butterfly sprinkles and glitter sugar, either light blue or cotton pink in colour. The frosting was perfectly swirled on each cupcake, and gold dust-covered their tops.

“So, these aren’t store-bought?”

“Oh no, I prefer to make them, I have too much spare time anyway,” Jenny replied, happy to have a conversation.

“Do you go out much? Sorry, what was your name?”

“Jane, sorry,” she murmured, putting her bowl in the sink. Thankfully she’d taken out the recycling last night, otherwise, the woman would have seen her week-old pizza leftovers she would chip away at for dinner.

“Ah, well then Jane, do you go out much?” she repeated, making sure to be respectful and include her name.

“I wouldn’t think so…Sometimes my friends and I go out and do idiotic things, but we can’t usually spend much money with tuition and all.” when she said this, she gestured at her run-down apartment, brows slightly raised as proof.

“What kind of things do you and your friends do exactly?” Jenny asked with curiosity and suspicion in her voice.

Suspicion. Well, this isn’t good, Jane thought.

“Well this one time, we climbed onto a neighbour's roof and…actually you don't need to know the rest.”

“Well, I’d certainly like to.”

Jane smiled, pushing her foot onto the table. “You’ll have to take me out first to get that info.”

The look that flashed before Jenny’s eyes was proof enough of who she was. There was a glint of darkness and shock when she’d said that, which wouldn’t be there under any other circumstance. It was only a second, but it was enough for Jane to want her gone.

“By that you mean…”

“A date,” she faked a laugh.

“Oh, of course!” Jenny smiled. “When should I pick you up then?”

Jane was caught slightly off guard by her advance but wanted to have fun with this a little longer.

“Pick me up tonight at 7? You’ve already seen my worst so my best should be pretty good. What’s your plan?”

Jane was convinced she would back out, saying she couldn’t or she wasn’t into her. But she did the complete opposite.

“Well,” Jenny started, her finger playing with her bottom lip, “there’s this cute restaurant that I’ve been wanting to try. They make dishes inspired by magick and stuff.”

Jane smiled, half of it being genuine. “The Faeries Food. They opened up not too long ago but they’re supposed to be kinda expensive.”

“Oh I can cover the cost,” Jenny stated with no hesitation at all. It was becoming comical as to how badly this woman was hiding her secrets.

“And how would that be?”

“Oh, I have some money saved up.”

“Yet you choose to live here?” she was messing with her now, completely aware of the lie but letting Jenny believe she was getting away with it.

“It…looked better in the photos.”

It was becoming impossible to hold back her laughter, she needed to get the stunning woman out of her apartment before she broke down.

“Right, so 7 tonight at Faeries Food. I’ll dress up for ya,” Jane teased.

Jenny left with a slight tint in her cheeks, making Jane curious as to how well she actually was trying to hide it.

Nevertheless, Jeny knocked on Jane’s door at exactly 7 pm with a beautiful blue rose. Jane had put on a short red skirt with frills lining the bottom and a cute pink blouse. Her pink hair fell around her shoulders in loose ringlets and her black pumps waited for her at the door. Jenny, on the other hand, had gone with a dress to match the rose’s colour, organza in blues and purples circling her body as if she were part of a fantasy world.

Jane was speechless, as was the other woman. It took a few seconds for Jenny to let out an amazing whisper of, “You look wonderful,” for Jane to come to her senses.

“Yeah, you look wonderful…Should we go - we should go.”

The pair headed to Jenny’s car and Jane sank into the passenger side, excited but scolding herself to stay focused. The night wasn’t an actual date. It was to really see who this woman was, though she guessed she already knew.

Fortunately for Jenny, however, the date went on amazingly and each headed to their apartments with smiles dancing on their faces. Jane did start out messing with Jenny, but the woman’s bright smile and thoughtful answers seemed real for once.

They had shared some stories from their childhood, which is how they found out they’d had very different families. Where Jenny had been raised with two loving parents in a big house, Jane quickly passed over the fact she’d only ever lived in group homes. She hadn’t wanted to talk much about it, so they skipped over the topic and found themselves talking about her bracelet.

That topic also took a quick turn when Jane stated she found it at a thrift store. Instead, Jenny wanted to talk about school and her interests. From there, the night went on in the blink of an eye for the two, both silently wishing it would never end. The dates became a weekly event that the two looked forward to, stretching out at first weeks, then months.

Jane had figured out after a week exactly who Jenny was and why she was watching her, so she began going later at night or while Jenny was sleeping over on the odd occasion. It was much more difficult to keep her secret when they spent so much more time together, but they wouldn’t spend every day together so it was easier.

Or at least it was easier for a while. Jane quickly found herself wanting to be more than what she and Jenny were. There were too many problems though, too many secrets. She ran it through her head for months, thinking of the best and worst scenarios that might fall onto her.

She could lie the entire time and have everything be okay or blow up in her face. She could tell the truth and have those same things happen earlier. After four months of thinking, going on dates and having the most fun she had ever had, she finally decided to ask Jenny to be her girlfriend.

The women didn’t get too far without coming clean to each other though. Things were tense for a while, neither knowing what to say or how to react to the other. But their separation only made them want to be closer. Jenny wanted to understand how the funniest and smartest woman she’d ever met could be the bad guy, but there was no way to understand her without asking.

The hero finally gathered the courage to knock on the woman’s door one night and Jane let her in reluctantly, uncomfortable at the determination in her eyes.

“I know you’re supposed to be the villain here, but I really like you and I don’t know how you decided to be the crime I’m supposed to hate, so I just want to talk…please,” she ranted before Jane handed her a mug of her favourite tea. It was a fall blend that Jane had stocked up on so Jenny could have it all year round, and she’d already added the milk and sugar too.

They sat down on her warped leather couch, decades of people etched into it. Jane was looking at Jenny face-to-face for the first time in a while, feeling drawn to her warmth, wanting to touch her but too afraid to do anything more than try and explain.

“So you want to know what happened then?” Jane asked.

Jenny responded with a nod.

“Well, do you remember that hero that for some reason always had butterflies around him?”

Jane smiled, nostalgia racking her brain from the kind man she’d met at many galas and missions. “I met him a few times. The butterflies were drawn to the bracelet because it was created on an island where nothing but butterflies lived. Or, at least, that’s what he told me when we met first.”

“Yeah, okay so this may hurt - and you know I’m not good with emotions, but -

“He died a while ago, I know,” Jenny whispered aimlessly.

“Right. Okay, so I found him in the alley and the butterflies were there and, long story short, he gave me the bracelet. I didn’t know what it was at first. I had no idea how weird my life would get. But once I touched it, the thing just held on.” Jane gestured to the pale gold jewelry on her wrist, looking at it with slight disdain.

“After that,” she continued, “I tried my best to get on with my life, but once the powers started…

“It was impossible to live normally,” Jenny finished, relating the story to realizing people on earth didn’t have powers like everyday people of her planet.

“I tried to hide it, I swear, but there are some horrible people out there Jen. I saw a man in an alley with a woman and I needed to do something to help. I didn’t know I had developed super strength, and it all happened so fast.”

Jenny could see the look of pain, of regret on her face. She didn’t want to push the topic, but she needed to hear more.

“I spent years in here, only going to school and never doing anything else. Finally, I started going to the gym to work on myself and to find an outlet where I could practice some of the more mundane abilities. But paying for everything was hard, and when you don’t exactly have anyone to help, your mind starts to kick in.

“I realized I could take just enough and I would never have to hurt anyone, or even break anything. I have a job too, by the way, I’m not dependent on stealing. I just do it to be able to eat and have a roof over my head while I study.

“I know what you’re gonna say, and I know you hate me, I know I’m a bad person, but I just needed you to know before you take me in or whatever you guys are gonna do with me.

Jenny sat there in silence, mind numb with everything she’d been told by her team and now by the gorgeous girl in front of her. Without thinking, she placed a hand under the woman’s chin and kissed her lightly.

“I meant what I said about liking you,” Jenny whispered. “I don’t know what to do, I haven’t reported you and I don’t want to. But there are ground rules we need to have if we want to make this work.”

“Okay,” Jane said after a few moments, “what’re your demands, Beauty?”

Jenny was able to understand Jane from then on, and the two talked about themselves and their relationship. The hero wanted to help her have a proper life that she was never given, and had even dressed up in her scarlet suit, complete with the utility mask, just to talk to the financial advisor about paying for Jane’s tuition.

They agreed that if Jane wound up killing another bad guy again, they’d need to put on a show. Though Jenny also promised to help her control her abilities so that’d never happen again.

Everything was wonderful until a couple of years after she’d graduated. She finally got sick of the public’s hate and cruelty towards her, as well as villains trying to befriend her. Jenny decided to talk to her friends, who generously agreed to fake Jane’s death, giving her anonymity. It also meant she could accept those friendships and work undercover for the heroes.

Eventually, Jenny started to keep loads of junk food in the trunk of her car for her whenever they were together, after noticing how much she needed to eat. She bought protein powders and foods in bulk as well, setting up Jane's place as a food pantry and sharing hers as a regular apartment.

Jane silently worked with Jenny and the others, who quickly welcomed her to the team. It was a little awkward at first, but the longer they worked together, the easier it was to have fun with them. The team became a family for her and for years they all worked together both on and off-planet.

After the Cosmos War, in the year 2029, a pact was made within the team to never accept anyone younger than 25 into the ranks. Losing so many friends and allies was devastating, and it was even worse that some were as young as she was when she and Jenny met. No amount of recovery would help them get over what they had to witness.

A few months after the war, they both decided to put their suits away, just after Jane proposed. They ended up adopting three amazing children, still working with the team, but just not in the field as often.

Jane was the one who decided to go back when their oldest started college, working undercover for ten years before she was nearly killed by a well-known alien overlord that she always made fun of. She did defeat him in the end but had to risk her own life for it.

Through that ironic encounter, her bracelet seemed to have come up with a new ability. To heal faster. She understood that the bracelet would eventually need a new successor in case anything were to happen to her. But not yet.

She wasn’t going to drop it on some random person and possibly ruin their lives like what had happened to her. Of course, things did turn out alright in the end, but that didn’t take away the PTSD or anxiety she’d fallen to through the violence she experienced. She hated the shows her kids watched sometimes too, knowing that teenage heroes would only inspire more mental illness in kids that needed outlets for their pre-existing conditions from parental neglect.

She did love to poke fun at some heroes with her wife though, laughing at the way the directors wanted the scenes to play out. Her life with Jenny and their family was perfect, and her bracelet, the only thing that’d helped her through those dark times, never once gave up on her, always coming up with new powers to surprise her with.

After years of pain, she was given a gift of freedom and love. She wondered if maybe the hero before her could predict future events, which is why he’d given her that accessory so long ago. After all, Jane felt that there was nothing in the universe that could have prevented her from meeting the man with the butterflies.