The Salvation of Daniel (The Blue Butterfly)

An Angel visited me three times in my life. I would like to say that I deserved each visit, but we all know, I didn’t; in fact far from it. I didn’t even deserve to see the sun rise the day after I first saw Mae, an angel amongst the chaos of Satan who resided inside me. Her wide beautiful smile eclipsed everything else around me. I selfishly took that smile and I created a screaming hell with it. I took her dreams and I sculptured nightmares from them. The first time I was given a piece of Mae’s soul, death took it away and through the years that followed, I was only ever granted it twice again. The second was the day I met our daughter, the reflection of her mother. Annie was the angel formed from the sins of my own soul. Yet her light drown my dark, her smile broke my anger and her innocence massacred my past. The third time… well that is what you are about to witness. The third, and final piece granted was the last card played, the closing hand dealt. The definitive roll of the dice and the conclusion to my story. Would my angel grant me redemption against the sins I indulged, even in loving her? Was life and death the deliverance of resolution? And did my butterfly, soaring with the wings of an angel, award me forgiveness? I’m sure many of you will interpret this story in your own way, each of you as in Mae’s death, experiencing either a happy ever after, or an ending without hope or escape. And I have no doubt that you will all see the end to my own story in many different ways. But whichever way you go for, I, myself, know that I was granted the ending I feel I deserve. I earned. I am Daniel Shepherd, and this is the story of my Salvation.