When The Butterflies Come

by Rosemary Ness Bitner

  With that pronouncement, David pulled on a rope running through the pulley block attached to the rafter of the barn. Soon, Marty hung upside down above the hay bales. As she became more terrified, she started squirming and struggling in earnest, which was useless. When David grabbed her hair, she was helpless to stop him. What would be unthinkable to a normal person, David believed was normal. He believed it was his duty to God to proceed.

  He took a very sharp knife and extracted a circle of skin and hair from her scalp, removing her streak of red hair. He looked at her scalp carefully, as a surgeon might assess an incision, satisfied he’d removed all her red hair as blood trickled down Marty’s cheek.

  “Now you are without blemish. You are perfect in the eyes of God.”

  He watched her look at the blood dripping onto the hay bale as she looked at the floor. He could see in her eyes when Marty realized she was under the control of a madman and that David was going to murder her. David could tell her was heart racing. He felt smug knowing he had her trapped like a rabbit cornered by a venomous snake. He enjoyed the sensations of her terror as he continued explaining his ritual to her.

  “Now, Marty, before I perform our next step, I want to explain that by participating in this ritual, your body will be freed from sin. Your bodily sacrifice will be accepted by God. When the Messiah comes and rolls up the earth and releases the spirits of the dead to come to him, to be reborn on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, your purified body will reenter another body somewhere in the universe, of which God is the great master. I should be saying some prayers about now, but I don’t know what they would be. In fact, I hardly ever go to temple, so rather than try to make something up which could screw this up worse than it already is, we’ll just get on with it.

  “Your spirit might not know eternal peace, Marty. It might leave your body and go deep into the earth where it will reside with the spirits who seek sin and debauchery, who reject God and embrace the ways of Satan. While your pussy—or cunt, as you often call it—will never again know the pleasures of penises and tongues, it will live forever in the minds that follow your chosen path. Whenever a Monarch butterfly opens and closes its wings as it flies or draws sustenance from a flower, those who see it will know your spirit is in that butterfly and their minds will enter your world. They’ll imagine their tongues and penises are inside you, and their minds will embrace your free spirit. I don’t know where your spirit will go. I can only proceed as my voices instruct me. As your voices dictated your behaviors, mine ordain what I do.”

  He could feel Marty’s shock as she struggled violently to free herself, but to no avail.

  David smiled and chuckled to himself as he watched Marty writhe in her agonizing horror. After she’d exhausted herself, he explained the procedure he would use to murder her.

  “I want you to understand the elegant procedure for the sacrifice. I’ll slit your jugular first. It’s humane and painless. You’ll barely feel it. Your blood will drain onto the hay bales. I will give you a little push after I slit your throat, so you’ll feel a swinging sensation. You’ll become dizzy as you bleed out. Your blood will sprinkle on the hay, which the animals will eat. Death will be very peaceful. You should appreciate the irony of swinging upside down while you bleed out. After all, you are a swinger.”

  David let out a much louder guffaw as he looked into the terrified upside-down eyes of his victim. “Then,” he continued, “I’ll eviscerate your corpse and remove your gut pile. The gut pile is not part of the sacrifice, so I’ll feed it to the pigs. You might get a little laugh out of this, Marty. I extended the names of Gut and Pile to Guta and Pileo, so they wouldn’t feel diminished by being referred to as Gut Pile.”

  David laughed out loud in maddening, self-absorbed hysteria when he caught Marty’s barely audible plea to God as she begged for David to have a heart attack or get hit by a lightning bolt.

  David caught his breath and resumed the narrative of his concocted ritual.

  “Guta and Pileo are my two biggest pigs. The smaller one I called Scraps. He’ll get what Guta and Pileo leave for him. After eviscerating your corpse, I’ll render your flesh into oversized buckets, and then I’ll take your bodily parts up to the altar in the house. I’ll put you to good use, Marty. Your flesh will roast as I pray for atonement to God. Your flesh, including your glorious pussy, will be chopped into small portions and fed to my dogs and pigs. Your bones will be ground into fine powder and small chips by my wood chipper. They’ll be used as fertilizer for the roses in the gardens around my house.

  “The roses will thrive on your bones, Marty. Just think how exciting that is! Bob once told me he loved a girl named Rose when he was in high school. He mentioned that you resembled her. It will be fitting and beautiful for the garden roses to draw their nutrients from your bones, Marty. When Bob sees those roses reaching for the sun, I’m sure he’ll recognize their beauty. Maybe he’ll even relate them to you somehow. I’ll smash your teeth with a hammer after I saw them from your jawbones. I’ll scatter your little tooth fragments in the pen where I keep the guinea hens. They’ll store them in their crops until they are worn away from grinding the grains they eat.

  “I promise I’ll keep our sacrifice a secret, Marty. Don’t worry. I’ve processed other bodies before. I’ve already planned how I’ll dispose of your car. It’s not likely that anyone will think you came here to repent and join me in a sacrificial ritual, but in case someone does, they won’t find any proof. You can rest easy about your clothes and the hay. The goats will devour your clothing and your shoes, and the sheep will eat the hay. Your necklaces will go back to my safe deposit box where they came from. They were gifts Dad gave to Mother, so they belong on my side of our family. I’m sure you’ll agree that’s fair.

  “Finally, Marty, I sincerely thank you for your exceptional service to UGGA. You helped build the company and never complained about your duties. You did everything I asked of you and more. No firm ever had a more dedicated, loyal employee. Your efforts were deeply appreciated. Oh, and Marty, try not to worry about dying. Nothing we do matters as long as our wealth ends up glorifying God and Israel. Our souls and our assets all go to the same place in the end. Nothing else matters. What you are doing is good and noble.” David laughed while he delivered his mock compliments and honor.

  Marty became delirious from blood loss, quickly succumbing to her hopeless situation and resigning herself to her fate. Then Marty stopped hearing David’s laughter and instead heard the voices that guided her past behaviors.

  “Do not bemoan your fate, Marty,” said Miss Promiscuity. “Your spirit will join with ours and tempt many young girls to follow your example. They’ll wear the Monarch tattoo as their badge of debauchery, as you did. They’ll seduce many boys and husbands, and your beautiful spirit will guide millions of mortal souls.”

  “Yes,” Miss Iniquity chimed in. “You’ll dance and romp with us, your spirit sisters, in the thought realms of many femmes. We’ll instruct them in temptation’s ways. We’ll nibble their nipples with our tickles of pleasure. We’ll fill their titillated twats with consensual cocks and teasing tongues of the men they seduce. Together with us they’ll feel the nirvanas of countless orgasms. Our egos will radiate in the glories of their seductions, and we’ll revel in the havocs they unleash. You’ll see human behaviors you never before thought possible. Lovers will betray their betrothed. Some will even murder their mates to free themselves to come and dance with us. You’ll see! Death is just the beginning of your merriment. Your body was but one of many we succored with pleasure’s nourishment. Our debauchery is ecumenical and eternal. Satan loves us, and all who wish to join us are welcome. He’s in our DNA. We are his eternal spirits. Place your thoughts with us and our pleasures as your body dies. Come away with us and be loved by us.”

  Marty waved her hand as if to shoo her imaginary friends away, her mind spinning. But I don’t want that life anymore, even in death. I’ve lived it. I am wretched because of it, and I am posse
ssed by lusts I want to control but cannot. Go away. Stay out of my mind now. Be gone, all of you.

  In advanced delirium, she mouthed incoherent thoughts as her brain struggled with its loss of blood. Bob, know I love you with my whole heart. I hold you in my arms, my love. I know what love is now.

  Her mind short-circuited and wandered. Where’s my floppy-eared rabbit? I want to hug my bunny. How can I save fifteen percent or more on my car insurance? Life and death seem irrelevant to anything. Nothing matters anymore. Why does that black sheep stand upside down looking at me?

  The last thoughts Marty had as her weakened bloodstream pulsed her life onto the hay bales were of her and Bob, lying in their pup tent in Shenandoah Park and looking up at the stars. She prayed silently. Somehow let me meet Bob again, and let me have a monogamous life with him. Forgive me, God, for all the marriages I’ve destroyed. I am sorry for everyone I’ve hurt.

  David, now thinking Marty dead, undid the duct tape from her mouth and freed her arms, only to tie them in front of her torso. He placed the hook of the block and tackle lift under the arm tie and lifted Marty’s body for rendering. As if by some miracle, she was not yet dead. David placed his ear next to her mouth to hear the barely audible words she whispered with her dying breath.

  “Bob, darling, I pray for your happiness as my soul goes away. I will love you forever after death and for eternity. Live, Bob! Live and love again. Go to Barbara. Find her and love her with all your heart because she loves you so much. I was wrong to take you from her. I could not help who I was. Forgive my body. My soul will find yours and we will be together again someday, I swear it. Good-bye, my love.” Marty embraced monogamy in the moment of her death.

  David stared vacantly at the barn wall while he pulled on the rope and lifted Marty’s body. Each pull reminded him that no one had ever loved him, furthering his loathing of those who experienced the emotion. As Marty peacefully expired, a small white butterfly came and rested on her earlobe. It stayed for a while with its head poised over her ear canal, sharing its magical secret with Marty’s still-conscious brain.

  “Marty, do not despair. You will not die—not now, not ever. I am the voice of the Eternal Spirit, and I am here with the Spirit’s message of comfort to help you pass through your moment of distress. As soon as your body on Earth dies, your spirit and all your loving goodness and sensuality will instantly reawaken in a new body in a new place in a new world. In your new life, you will have a mother and father who love and nurture you. You will have the identical appearance and will experience the same identical emotions that you now have in your present body, and in your new body and new world you will reunite with Bob. He will be with you. He will always hold you. He’ll be forever in love with you, married with you, and you will have two beautiful children.

  “Your new body and your new life will extend far longer than life on Earth. You will be sexually active for five thousand years in your new universe, and you will experience inter-universal travels and pleasures you cannot imagine. You will live the meaning of the word nirvana, and your sexuality will experience endless gratification from Bob. Your family will adore you. Your happiness will be their source of happiness as well. There is no sin in your new universe, no violence, nothing to covet, no reason to bear falsehoods, and a benevolent god to worship. You will be the loving goddess of goodness of your new planet. Your surroundings will be identical to Earth’s because you will live in a parallel universe to Earth. In your new world, you will discover happiness beyond anything here. From your next universe, you will go on to countless other universes and you will never die. Come away with me now, Marty. Trust my message from the Spirit and trust in the magic of the butterflies. Be not afraid. Let go.”

  “I’m coming with you now. I am ready to leave Earth. I am unafraid. Oh, Bob, my dearest love, hold me close and never let me go.” Marty mouthed her last words on earth as the little butterfly fluttered away.

  After David disposed of Marty’s corpse and he’d prayed for atonement of their sins, he donned one of his late mother’s dresses, flat shoes, and a wig made to look like Marty’s hair. He drove her car to a park-and-ride lot and from there rode a courtesy bus to the airport, carrying a garish accessory handbag. At the airport, he walked into the terminal and kept walking from the north-side to the south-side terminal doors where he exited. He took a cab to a gas station near his farm, where he walked into the ladies’ room and walked out dressed as a man. The women’s clothes and handbag were now stuffed into a large shopping bag from a sporting goods store. David walked home from the gas station, took the women’s clothes and bag to the barnyard, and fed his dress, the large bag, and Marty’s edible attire to his goats.

  Walking to the house from the barnyard he was joined by Dolly, his favorite sheep.

  “Today was busy, Dolly,” he said to the animal. “We accomplished a lot, and we concluded the Marty episode. She did her job of distracting Bob from corporate finance deals. All his old contacts are stale now. Don’t let today’s events upset you. She was only a goy. Her mother is a goy so she was a goy. Dad made a mistake bringing her into the world. I only corrected his error.

  “We need to stay true to our Khazarian heritage, Dolly. We disguised our goal and who we really are. We tricked the slut into working for us, just like Dad duped Susan, only we weren’t stupid. Dad fell in love with a goyish girl. I didn’t. Marty no longer had a purpose. Like all goyim, she was only here to serve us. It was time to throw the used-up goy girl away. We’re selling nationally now, Dolly. We can’t build a national firm on the back of a single whore. UGGA has very high ethical standards, and we needed to keep up our outstanding corporate image. Just don’t tell Bob what you saw today. It’s our secret.”

  Dolly stood there, chewing grass.

  “We also need to keep our secret from the rabbis. If one of them comes into the barnyard, don’t say anything to him. Our ritual flunked kosher. I didn’t use a clean sharp knife, and I kind of sawed on her neck instead of doing a clean cut. That’s why Marty struggled for a while before she died. I didn’t use a healthy heifer either. No rabbi would approve of using a human being instead of an animal. The tribe doesn’t do sacrifices anymore. I’m not a qualified kosher slaughterer either. I’ve never done a kosher killing. I’ve never even seen one or studied it. I’m not sure I did it correctly. Also, I don’t think there’s anything in the Torah where you’re permitted to feed a sacrificed human to barnyard animals. In fact, I know we’re not allowed to sacrifice people in the first place. This would really upset a rabbi, so mum’s the word, okay?”

  Dolly stood there, chewing her grass.

  “What else could I do with her, Dolly? I figured since the business needed to get rid of her and since she and I were both sinners, it would be a neat idea to sacrifice her and bless her soul, even though I’m not a rabbi. I kind of killed two birds with one stone. I remembered to ask God for forgiveness for my sins and for screwing up the sacrifice by using a human being instead of an animal, so we might be forgiven for what we did. Hopefully we’ll get lucky with God. I’ll pray again next time on Yom Kippur to make doubly sure God isn’t too upset with us. Hopefully God will understand I tried my best. Actually, what we did was probably some kind of first. We might have made history. Just promise that you will never breathe a word of this to a rabbi, Dolly. I don’t think any of them would be happy about this, and that wouldn’t be good.”

  Dolly stood there, chewing grass. David knelt beside the animal, put his arms around her neck, and began sobbing. He buried his face in her wool and smelled her musty scent.

  “Don’t look at me that way, Dolly. It had nothing to do with you. I’m not going to sacrifice you. I had to get rid of her. Don’t be upset with me,” David pleaded with the sheep for understanding. “Her mother would have nagged me to hire her back at the firm because of the deal we have, but I didn’t want her anymore. I think she had a personality disorder, Dolly, and possibly some mental issues,” he said as he touched the si
de of his head with his index finger. “People who work for UGGA need to be in tip-top mental health. Her mind was upside down, especially today. Ha-ha! Can’t you see that’s funny, Dolly? I made a joke. That completes the first part of my plan. Now it’s time to move on. I did my best for her and always treated her first-class. I prayed for her future in the world of the spirits, I prayed to God for the forgiveness of her sins, and I thanked her for her service. I did for her what every good employer would do for a trusted and valuable employee.”

  David’s chest heaved as tears rolled down his cheeks onto the ground. “I’m not a bad boy, Dolly, honest. I’m good. Sometimes I hurt people and it feels good, but afterward I know I did something wrong. But I can’t help it. I love you, Dolly. You understand me.” He kissed Dolly’s forehead and stood up.

  Dolly stood there, chewing grass.

  “Please don’t be upset, sweetheart. I only pretended to fuck her. She needed to think the whole experience was believable. You saw me use Muscle Boy in my stead. I didn’t do anything with her. She meant nothing to me, honest. I never cared for her as I do for you. I apologize if the scene upset you.”