Images flashed in and out of my vision. Flashing lights blinded me. A headache threatened to split my skull. My heart skipped random beats. My blood slowed. The images that appeared in front of my eyes came and went too fast for me to see what they were. All but one. One image lingered in my brain for several minutes. A small, rickety house, with rusted metal walls and chains scattered around the property. The house sat alone in the middle of a dark forest with scraggly trees casting shadows that looked like demons and ghosts. I gasped and sat up. Looking around, I saw a hunched over woman in the corner of the room. The air was heavy with sadness and pain. “Ah so your awake!” The woman turned and I swallowed back a scream. Her face was absent of skin. Literally. Her body was a mess of burns and bones. Her hair was scraggly and fell in strand like straw. I looked at my surroundings and saw chains. Chains and metal walls. There was an eerie green glow in the room, but I noticed there were no lights. “Wh-where am I? W-who are you?” I asked, but my tongue felt like led. My entire body felt sluggish and stretched out, and I could barely think. When I looked down, I realized I was stretched out. My hand and feet were chained to a table and I started to thrash. “Stop!” The skeleton woman rushed over and held me down, “You’ll catch their attention.” She glanced around fearfully. “W-who?” I asked. “The demons who live in the woods,” She said, “They shelter us until we do something worth noticing. We’re mere bugs until we do something they don’t like.” I didn’t say anything to that. “D-did they do this to you?” I nodded my head toward the skeleton woman’s unnatural appearance. “Every time I save someone, I’m punished. Today I was burned.” My eyes widened. “How-how did I get here?” I asked slowly. “I saw you walking through the woods as if you were in a trance. Smoke was curling around your body. I’ve seen people transform before. The demons were making you one of them.” The woman said. “So you saved me? Even though you have no idea who I am?” The woman nodded. “Even though you knew you would be punished?” “I’ve found people when it’s too late. I’ve seen what they become. I’ve seen their souls wander the trees, crying out for someone to save them, but it’s too late. I vowed a long time ago never to let that happen again.” The woman looked sadly at a picture of a beautiful girl with long raven black hair and green eyes. Her face was fair, sprinkled with freckles. “Who’s that?” I asked without thinking. The woman flinched. “I’m sorry,” I said. “No, it’s fine. Her name was Sadie. She gone now. I saw her soul once. Wandering in the forest. She was crying out for me. But when I ran to her, she had disappeared.” A tear rolled down my cheek. The sadness in this shelter was to powerful. But at least it was a shelter. I shuddered at the thought of becoming one of the souls wandering in the forest. A sharp scratching sound rang out in the room. The sound of nails on metal. “Close your eyes and don’t move,” The skeleton woman warned me, her eye sockets wide. I obliged, and I heard the opening of a door. “Hello, Demônio,” A bunch of whirs and clicks followed. “Scheletro,” 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘳 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘬. So that was her name. Scheletro. Made sense. Skeleton in Italian. Demônio was Demon in Portuguese. “Where is the girl?” Demônio asked. It seemed every sentence ended with whirs and clicks. “Here. Dead.” I tried to slow my breathing when Scheletro said I was dead. “You know we watch you,” Demônio said, “We know she’s not dead. We have eyes everywhere.” Scheletro sucked in a breath. “I’ll take her now,” Demônio said. “Unless you want the same thing that happened to Sadie to happen to you.” Scheletro said nothing. I felt myself rise, but I could do nothing to fight it. My mind wasn’t controlling my body anymore. My eyes shot open. I could feel my soul leave my body, and I started to wail as I watched my body which was no longer mine change. Antennae sprouted from my skull. My skin became soft like peach fuzz and gray wings with swirls and patterns grew from my back. “Welcome, Mariposa.” Demônio said. I guess my shelter didn’t last forever.