The feathery bedspread under him flowed like the wings of an angel to the steady gust from fans placed near both sides of the bed. But the top left corner didn’t fly. The heaviness of blood leaking out of the back of his skull soaked the corner creating imagery of the defeated angel. But there was a persistent smile on his face…or whatever remained of it.

The ominous hum of the table fans sounded like collective hymns sung by gods to mourn the death of their child. Then, a sudden scream broke the hymn.

“Please give him some water,” said Charan “And don’t let anyone in” announced loudly as he turns off the second fan.

The constables dragged the room boy away. “What’s your name?” they try to engage with him “Rama…” he faints again

“I don’t get it, why was he smiling?” said Chaya voicing her confusion “He was about to kill himself, and yet he was smiling or almost grinning”

“You can’t make such an assumptions on just first impression,” Charan says although he thought exactly that.

Chaya wasn’t making any grand assumptions so to say. His lips were indeed curved resembling a smile. The room was very small and recently built, even the ceiling fan was not fixed yet. When they entered the room, the body was lying only in a towel, the bedsheet was spread upside down but that’s nothing special in a hotel room this bad, it could simply be a mistake of room boy who by now has fainted multiple times and is recovering in nearest government hospital. Gun still in his hand and a pillow to separate it from his forehead, may be a makeshift silencer. The spilled blood from the back of the head sprayed the wall, table lamp, and his phone as well.

Roopesh tries to enter the room but is stopped by the guards outside. “Please let me through, I own this place” he requests. And the guards obliged as they saw Chaya nodding.

“So, where were you when this happened,” asks Chaya.

“I was out to buy geysers for new rooms Ma’am. Ramu called me and you know what happened after that”

“Yes, yes. What about cameras? Are they fixed atleast?” enquired Charan

Roopesh scratches his head in embarrassment “We have them sir, we will give you the footage”

“What about his details, have you got that”

Roopesh’s eyes glimmer saying “Yes, sir. Although there was something peculiar about the details he provided”

“The date of birth and document he produced seemed pretty old for a 16 year old, the DOB on it had some 1960s date written on it. You know teenagers nowadays, they produce fake docs” Roopesh says

“We can arrest you for renting underage boy a room, you know that right?” Chaya said.

“Ma’am please ma’am, We worked hard as hotel managers and finally we opened the hotel just yesterday, he was the first person who came asking for the room, it’s bad luck to turn away the first customer and that’s the only reason we decided to give the room” Roopesh’s face was flusterered and at this point he was ready to bribe as well but just too afraid to offer to Chaya so he turns to Charan.

“Newly opened hotel sir, if this news gets out, no one will ever visit sir. Please let’s come to a mutual conclusion, I will fully co-operate but please don’t make this case a public interest sir, please, I can do anything” Roopesh starts sobbing folding his hands.

As all 3 stakeholders talked the money matters after collecting evidence such as the phone that looked cheap and peculiar, the DNA samples, a pair of school uniform that looked vintage.

But between me and you, I mean you, the one who’s reading this. Chaya, Charan, Roopesh and the constables who investigated the case and looked for evidence missed on a weird clue. Under the body, the bed, on the other side of the wooden bed of the cot, there was a hand painted drawing of what seemed like a human with no arms, legs, face or nothing to identify the particulars apart from the wings.

It’s almost like the boy’s face was placed on this faceless drawing. If the bed was transparent, he’d have looked like a butterfly. But let’s not worry about that incident, that happened 2 months ago and the “smart” cops are nowhere close to solving it. Let’s talk about the butterflies, shall we?

Ahh, I tell you, I am obsessed with butterflies. Until I met him, I didn’t even know why I loved them. Butterflies are these beautiful creatures that symbolize so many happy things, the summer, beautiful flowers, gardens, women, childhood, freedom…A bit too many things. Don’t you think?

Butterflies have become the whores of metaphors. These bloody poets, they just compare with anything nowadays, I recently found out people compare butterflies to vaginas too. What a sick world we live in.

I’ll tell you what butterflies are, with an actual good metaphor. Do you know before these colorful angels get their wings, they lie in their own filth as caterpillars and before that, they’re just these ugly mini-monsters. If you look at it, we’re all just caterpillars in this cocoon called earth. We lie in our own filth, we struggle, we deceive, we cheat, steal…we do so much just to stay alive in this cocoon when we can be butterflies, we just have to get out of this fucking dirtball that we populate! Okay, maybe metaphor was not really about butterflies but he told me all this, he told and taught me many things.

I was angry before him, he is my guru. He just helped me find my happiness. He accepted for who I am, Haha, he was probably forced to do it because he trusted me too much with his powers, but he had to go. You see, he had to be sacrificed for my happiness. But is it selfish to make this world a happier place? haven’t you heard of the quote “A truly happy man makes the happy world”? He was unhappy anyway.

Anyway, why am I telling you all this? Why am I vaguely confessing to my crimes? I was just passing by, you see I had a job to take care of. The murder scene of a boy I described earlier is of my bloody father-in-law’s. He stole something I had acquired from my guru, the device they are referring to as a phone has a piece of that power, and it helps me pop in and out of anyplace, even if the place is past and future, amazing, right?. Now, although killing him meant it’ll erase my estranged son and whore of a wife, he had to go. I did him a favor really, he grew up to be unhappy in this cocoon anyway, and now he’ll be a butterfly.

Ahh stupid me, my humble apologies, I again took a detour and confessed to more of my crimes haha! But it helps me stay happy you know, and I am very particular about happiness. Anyway, as I was saying, I was passing by and I noticed you being unhappy, I noticed you noticing me, now I don’t want to be the reason you’re unhappy so, thought maybe I’ll help you be happy again by releasing you out of this cocoon. And look! I have some paint too, I’ll draw a beautiful butterfly under your bed, Yellow one. I wouldn’t be happy if you thought I’m one of those sadist serial killer, like from that Saw movie, oh that movie has not come out yet in your time, that was a great reference actually.

Now come on now, Wipe those tears away, I’m not going to hurt you, just close your eyes, stuff this sock in our mouth till it reaches your throat, I’ll make it quick and painless, I promise.

Now, Just smile like you mean it, you’re about to fly…