I live with my little sister and my mother.
At least I USED to.
Now I live alone, and surviving is a living hell to me.
My little sister was seven years old,
and my mother was forty-five years old.
She worked as a waitress in a cafe, and she came home
late and tired everyday, her pretty face was drowned by
the late hours of work.

My little sister used to love butterflies.
I brought her to the park to look at the different
sort of butterflies flutter there.
She especially liked red ones,
as my mother had shown her a red one when she
was five years old, and she seemed to have
become very attracted to the butterflies.

One day, my mother became very ill,
and she was in a very bad state of health.
I called the doctor right away,
and I was horrified with what the doctor said
about her health.
"You need to take her to a highly experienced hospital."
He said, his grey eyes focused and silent.
"Or ... she will die."
I almost fell off my chair when I heard the last four words.

I took care of her day and night from that day,
and worked very hard to obtain the money to get
her to a good hospital.
She soon fell into a coma, and as I was starting
to bulid up on the money, she died.
I cried bitterly over her death,
but I could not tell my little sister
that she had passed away.
I told my little sister that she had gone to
a very nice place, where she could meet us again.
We were soon kicked out from the house
by the landlord because I could not pay
for the rent. 

My little sister and I lived on the streets,
as I did not have enough money to 
rent another apartment.
Rumours had spread from the landlord that we
were trouble, and soon, none of the
shops took me in to work.
We lived by eating small titbits everyday,
careful not to use all the money.

One day, we ran out of all our money,
and my little sister asked me.
"Big sister, what's wrong?"
she was now nine years old,
and her mind had developed faster than I had thought.
"We are homeless, Beth."
My little sister looked at me with her
soft grey eyes that she had gotten from my mother.
I started to cry,
my tears showed many past memories carried in them.
My little sister patted me,
as I felt like she had suddenly become the big sister.

I searched for food in the trash cans around the streets,
and when I finally managed to find a piece of cake,
I was delighted. I could finally feed my sister.
I offered it to her, but she said, "No, you should eat it."
Her stomach growled, but she smiled and said "No."
She was in flesh and bones now,
and I did not know what to do.
I took a bite of the cake,
and told her to have the rest.
She did not listen.
I scolded her, and told her she had to eat it.
Soon, she ate it, although it didn't even fill quater of our stomachs.

We slept on the streets,
suffering from the cold.
My little sister would always wake up earlier than me,
and tell me that she had found food,
but when I looked in her hands, all I could see
were rocks. I started to feel very worried
when this continued for a long time.
I felt she had become mad from needing food.

I begged for people to give me jobs,
but all they did was kick me with their feet
and push me out. Soon, I began to lose
hope of finding a job, and my little sister and I
got used to spending our lives without any food or water.
One Sunday morning, I found my sister asleep beside me.
I found this strange as she usually awoke faster than me,
but I decided to leave her to sleep.

After three hours, I finally decided to wake her up,
as we had to search for food.
"Beth, wake up!" I shook her.
She didn't say anything.
"B-Beth?" I said, shivering.
She didn't move.
"BETH!" I shook her violently,
tears emerging from my eyes.
She opened her eyes, but only barely.
"Big sister ... it is time for me to go."
She said, her voice was weak and frail.
"No, Beth! Don't leave me alone!!!"
I screamed, ignoring the people staring at me
as if I was mad.
I could hear whispers like,"Look at those filthy things!"
"Big sister ... I will tell mother how good you were to me." 

I could not hold back the tears any longer,
and soon, I was crying bitterly.
"Beth, Do not leave me alone!"
My little sister smiled, and her head tilted to a side.
She did not wake up.
I lived my life alone from then,
and soon, I felt like my life had
come to an end as well.

Just before I lost my life,
I looked up the sky.

I could see a thousand red butterflies
rise from the earth, mounting their red wings onto their backs.



Beth had come to pick me up from heaven.




THE END