Short Story
I’m not sure what type of experiment it was, but it was certainly a unique one. I had found an advert online to get money for participating in a variety of experiments at the local science centre and due to being slightly behind on the rent I was convinced to take the risk.
I stepped inside the science centre and was greeted by an elderly man named Nigel Saxonbourg. He explained his role within the centre and detailed his various achievements and successful experiments he’d conducted through his many years. He seemed to have mistaken my politeness as intrigue into his clearly prestigious career. He was wrong. I was too polite to inform him otherwise and continued with the facade of smiling and nodding that attempted to prove I was interested and taking in what I was being told. The lengthy conversation ended when we reached a long corridor. Each room containing a number and a date. I was gestured towards a room. Nigel had stopped talking by this point. Thank God.
I now find myself in a small box room no larger than 5 square metres. There are no windows, no decorations apart from one chair seated in the middle of the room. The walls and floors were all white, the floor a soft white carpet while the walls seemed almost ceramic but much to larger to be a singular tile so I’m unsure what they were made of. The was a solid metal door which seemed like overkill for such a room, and then in the ceiling there was a small, grated vent, no larger than A4 sheet of paper. I still had no idea what I was supposed to be doing.
“Do I take a seat?”
“Do whatever you think is right Mr Parker”
Cryptic. Not what I needed. I was hoping this was going to be some kind of make up testing or something where I needed to watch a video and react. I didn’t like the sound of this so far.
With a large bang the door shut. I made myself as comfortable as I could in the grey plastic chair and settled in for what I guessed was some type of mental test to see how I coped in an empty room with no stimulation.
With no clock I struggled to gauge the passage of time. I estimated around 20 minutes had passed though it could have been much shorter. I heard a noise from above and a red glove pulled back the small vent in the ceiling and an Emperor Butterfly was released into the room. The vent quickly closed and the red glove was gone. I ventured many lines of thought to figure out what was going on but none came to fruition.
The butterfly breezed around the room with a calming flow. Attempting to land on the ceramic like walls but failing to do so due to the lack of texture. The constant fluttering of the wings soon became a slight annoyance. The sound getting louder as it flew past my ears, almost sounding as though it was inside my head rather than fluttering around me. The creature seems to move with no real focus or goals. It’s unpredictable. No idea where it’s going to land. I just pray the thing doesn’t land on me. It’s tiny legs sticking to the thin hairs in my arm as the creature attempts to rest before taking flight and randomly landing somewhere else. I was thankful the chair was in the room to give the creature some options of a landing platform.
An hour had passed. By this point I had vacated the chair and was avoiding the butterfly as much as possible. I don’t fear them in typical circumstances but being trapped in a room with one makes you overthink everything about them. They lay eggs. What if it somehow manages to lay an egg in my ear? What if it lands on the back of my neck and crawls down my t-shirt? What if more butterflies are distributed throughout the room? None of these scenarios would cause any physical harm to me. I know that. But the thought of them makes my blood crawl. Such an innocent creature has reduced me to feeling like I’m trapped in a room with a madman with a gun. Avoiding eye contact, steering as clear as possible, trying to remain calm so as not to make it scared.
Another chunk of time had passed. I don’t know how long. Every minute felt like 10, but then every 10 minutes felt like one. I became very observant of this butterfly now. Trying to see some kind of pattern in its flight and landing. There were none. It remained as unpredictable as ever. Thankfully it hadn’t landed on me yet. I was however getting rather tired. It’s a shame there wasn’t a bed in the room. Resting myself in the corner of the room, my back pressing against the joining walls to ensure I could see the creature at all times. I kept thinking of the money. That’s what this is all about. There wasn’t an amount specified but it was described as sizeable, but I suppose it depends on the person as to what their interpretation would be. I would say maybe $500. However someone who wasn’t in a science centre trying to pay their rent might say $5,000. Either way I can’t wait for this to be over.
Butterfly, butterfly if you could fly,
Out of this room would you try,
Or would you stay in here forever,
Acting as though you’re my possessor.
I don’t know what time it is. Many hours had passed that's certain. I wasn’t yet asleep however I was starting to drift. I couldn’t sleep. This creature would fly inside my ears and lay eggs. No that’s impossible. But was it? And what if it did? How many would hatch? It’s warm enough in there for them I’d imagine. They’d thrive. How far in can they go? Is that all I’d hear? Could I avoid it? There must be something in here I can stuff my ears with.
“Of course!” I proclaimed to nobody.
I took my shoes off and then my socks. I then curled the socks to a point and placed the thin end of each into each of my ears. I lay my head on the cheap carpet and closed my eyes.
I awoke. Time forever progressing with no sign of an end. Was I to ever leave this room? Sitting up I notice my left ear no longer had a sock inside it. Laying by the foot of the chair was my sock. How it got there I couldn’t fathom. Next thing to find was the butterfly. Where the hell was it? Come on you fluttering little bitch. Show your face, if that’s what you call that weird mess of features. No sign of it. I slowly rose to my feet. I glanced up at the ceiling to see if the vent had moved at all. Still secure. That’s when I heard it. A sound so close it sounded like it was coming from my own mouth. A gentle adjustment deep within the cavity of my ear. A movement of something so delicate. How the fuck did that fit in my ear? Those obnoxiously sized wings couldn’t flatten to that size surely. Fearfully I gently inserted my index finger into my ear, slowly feeling around for anything alien within the cavity. Nothing. But it was definitely there. I frantically wiggled my finger around within my ear. Still nothing. I removed my finger and started pressing against the back of my ear. Then I started scratching.
SCRATCH
SCRATCH
SCRATCH
That’s when the blood started.
I awoke. I had no idea what the time was. As my eyes adjusted I saw a clock. 3:17. I was unsure whether this was AM or PM. My eyes glanced down from the clock and my surroundings had changed. I was in a hospital bed. I sat up. Adjusting myself to my surroundings and trying to figure out what happened after I started scratching my ears. I must have passed out and they brought me here....hear.... everything was silent. Why was everything silent? Is the room sound proofed? I called for help. My voice had clearly worked for someone approached but my voice had no effect on my ears. She entered the room bearing a pen and paper. She wrote on the pen what had happened. I was found in the street by a man named Nigel. He saw me frantically scratching at my ears and rushed to my rescue and brought me in here. He had generously left a “sizeable amount” of money to cover what he expected the medical bills to amount to. I mentioned I was in a science centre taking part in an experiment to which she returned a quizzical look. She wrote on the paper that what Nigel had said is all that she knew for he was the one who found me. She proceeded to write that it was a miracle Nigel was passing by that why for he and I were the only two people on Butterfly Street as Nigel called it. Of course that’s what you called it Nigel. I queried the fact that I couldn’t hear and she wrote on the paper the damage I had done was irreversible and I had also been assigned with a therapist and was to placed under special care to ensure this incident wouldn’t reoccur. She left me alone to presumably allow me to process everything. I closed my eyes. And then I heard it....
FLUTTER
