"When will it rain next, Niko?", she asked, staring emptily at the ceiling, her bleeding head resting in Niko's lap.

Niko looked at the window. The sky was grey.

"I don't know, Yulia", he answered, solemnly.

The cigarettes were on the table, too far from his reach and he didn't want to move Yulia.

"I dreamed about a very very big bird yesterday", she went on deliriously, her mouth curved into a fading smile, "It flew above my head with such...HUGE wings. Every time the bird flapped his wings, it sent waves and waves of storms all around it. I must have gotten swept away, that's why I woke up."

Niko sat silently staring at her forehead. His thigh was soaked with her blood.

"Niko?"

"Yes, Yulia?"

"When will...this end?"

"I don't know, Yulia."

"Why did he die like that?", she murmured.

Niko pursed his lips. His face shifted into some form of loneliness, some indescribable sadness. He wished he had an answer.

"Why does nothing change? Why won't something happen?", she went on muttering.

They'd spent their entire lives waiting for something to happen. But it was always the mundane, the pointless happenings that could easily blend in with their suffocating lives. Like that man who they couldn't save. They needed a canvas that hadn't been drenched by so many strokes.

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"It was a butterfly", Niko spoke after a long pause, staring out the window at the apartment on the other side of the complex. He couldn't see clearly, he'd lost his glasses.

"What?", for one, Yulia's attention was all on him.

"That you dreamed of. It wasn't any huge bird, Yulia. You dreamed of a butterfly. When a butterfly flaps its wings in one corner of the world, it sends a tornado to the other corner. That's how the world works."

"Is that true?", her eyes opened in surprise.

Niko looked down at her.

"Yes", he nodded.

"Then let's...", Yulia began as Niko lifted his head to look outside the window, noticing a figure moving in the opposite balcony, "Let's do that!"

"Do what?", he looked back at her.

"Let's find a butterfly. Then we can make a change. Then, I'm sure...something will happen", Yulia was excited for the first time in her life.

Niko stared at her face, wide-eyed. The numbing feeling in his leg and the blood soaked trousers eluded him for a minute. He looked back up at the figure in the opposite apartment, going about its business, unaware of their existence.

That day they decided that when their actions in the world made a difference for that woman who lived in the opposite apartment, that's when they'd have succeeded in making something happen.

***************************

The sun woke them up that late morning. For once, the woman in the opposite apartment had awoken before either of them. Niko's rumpled clothes that had been soaked in rain the day prior were beginning to give off an unbearable odor. They'd both gone to sleep, staring at the ceiling.

Niko pulled himself up and stretched his neck. Noticing the light in the room, he hurried up and grabbed the binoculars.

"She's up already", he murmured.

Yulia smiled coyly. He looked her way. Both had an unsaid understanding between them. They were out of time.

Niko dragged himself to the door. The bag of food awaited him like everyday. He picked it up and brought it inside.

It was a meat bun and some garlic bread today. He served it up on some cardboard plates and put it before Yulia.

He then darted into the bathroom.

Yulia emptily stared at the food. She looked up, a butterfly was circling her head. She stared at it for a while before reaching out to grab it. But the butterfly slipped through her hands like a phantom. She tried to catch it several times before giving up. It wasn't hurting her, after all.

Niko got out, cleaned up and changed. He threw the laundry into one corner of the room and picked up the binoculars, while the laptop booted.

He looked at his phone. No message. He picked up a cigarette, lighted it, placed it between Yulia's lips, took another one out and lit it up for himself.

The two smoked in silence for a while, until the smoke ran out.

A buzz caught Niko's attention. It was a message from Zhang.

"Still running away? What are you afraid of? Haven't you done enough?"

Niko read it once, twice, over and over. It was as if Zhang's scornful smirk was staring him in the face out of that 2.4 inch screen.

Yulia stared at him silently, perfectly aware of the butterfly above her head.

Niko took out the last of his fancy suits from the Chinese wardrobe. His eyes met Yulia's. She was awaiting an answer.

"I'll try. One more time", he murmured, before he went towards the bathroom.

He didn't mind the blood now that it was all dried up.

Yulia began to nibble at the food slowly, looking at the butterfly above her head. Niko couldn't see it.