Ep 3 - Amy Falls to Death

Amy of Earth the Serial

Author’s notes - this episode has been through a round of beta read edits and was updated on Dec 17, 2024.

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Amy blinked as the glittery rainbow licked at the air like a flame, bits of it dripping away to flutter back down to its starting point, sizzling as chunks of light began to melt into shapes until all that remained of the flame was a delicate stained-glass scene. A knight atop a black stallion confronting an ant-like creature in a kilt, a whip coiled high over its head.

Amy stared down into the pit as the scent of sweat and peaches flooded her nose. Marcus. She felt his lips on her ear. “Don’t. Move.”

She didn’t answer. Couldn’t. She was hypnotized by the symbols around the doorway. They’d become holographic.

A bright red version of each floating up from the stone wall before dissolving into nothing. Then reappearing moments later to float up again.

Red was a warning, right? Red sky at morning, sailor take warning. Red touches yellow, kill a fellow. Red holographic symbols on a stone house...she had no clue. Maybe an exit? But to where? As she watched, the holograms began to move faster. Lifting up, dissolving. Doing it again.

“How?” Amy barely got out the word.

“I’m going to push us back.”

“The symbols,” she whispered.

Marcus shifted his weight. The railing wobbled and both he and Amy gasped.

“It’ll fall forward,” he insisted. “We’ll fall back.”

“Wait.”

Where was the guard? No, he’d gone to get water. The tent! It was full of people. They’d turned on the light, right? They come save them.

“From three...” Marcus whispered. His body tense against hers.

“Wait!” What if the light came back? The general. Oh, God. She’d been sliced into a million pieces.

“Two....”

“No, they’ll save....”

“One.”

He got the word out as the railing broke free of its anchor and fell into the pit. For a moment they teetered on the cliff and Amy was sure that a hand would grab her jacket and they’d be saved. And then her backpack shifted and a shriek clawed its way out of her throat as she fell.

There was nothing but air and her screams and she was tumbling toward the stained-glass ant fighting the Knight. She crashed through the scene but there wasn't a crash. No broken glass. No cuts.

Just blood as she landed on the body. She shrieked and rolled off, hitting a carpet of thick moss as she scrambled to her feet. Was it Marcus? No. In the silvery blue moonlight the naked, blood-splattered body was face down, its skin a shade lighter than the lime colored vines haphazardly clinging to its head and torso. Amy turned away and doubled over to heave at the spongy ground beneath her feet. When the spasms were gone, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, took a step, caught her foot on a vine, and fell.

Tumbling and rolling down a moss covered hill, she ended up at the bottom, flat on her back gazing up at a patchwork of stars visible through tall leafless branches. She groaned, spit out a mouthful of vegetation, and pushed herself up into a seated position. She was at the bottom of a moss covered trench between two banks of trees. The air light with perfume from unseen flowers. And she was alone. Where was Marcus? He’d fallen with her, right?

She cupped her palms around her mouth and shouted his name. And waited desperately for an answer. But the forest around her was oddly quiet. No chirps of insects. Croaks of frogs. Or snaps of branches from unseen critters foraging in the night.

“Which is a good thing, you idiot” she told herself. Climbing to her feet, she rubbed at a spot on her neck. “That’s gonna hurt tomorrow.”

She did a slow spin. There was only one way out. She grabbed a handful of moss, dug her foot into the hill and began to climb. When she reached the top, she dropped onto her knees. What the hell was going on? She’d fallen into the pit. How had she ended up in a forest?

The stone house!

She climbed to her feet and twisted around to see it there. Behind her. Perched at an angle on the side of a hill. And then it was gone. Like it had never existed. “What the fu....”

Movement caught her eye and she threw herself to the ground as an enormous black horse leaped over her head. The rider dismounted and Amy gazed up at the real life version of the ant from the stained glass window.

~~~~

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Ep 4 (Nov 27, 2024)