Serial Micro Fiction: Zamy and Landric – Part 2

Landric took a few steps forward and was stopped by a tiny hand on his arm.

“Landric, you stay away from that hole! It could be dangerous.”

“Come on, Zamy. We’ll be careful. Aren’t you at all curious why it’s here?”

“No, I’m not. It’s probably filled with wild animals who will tear us to bits as soon as we step inside.”

“Oh Zamy, you’re being a scaredy-cat. That hole is way too big for some animals.”

Somehow that logic made no sense to Zamy. She figured that the bigger the hole, the more ferocious animals could fit inside, or bigger animals. Her shoulders slumped as she tossed her head back, looking up at the sky in the most dramatic eyeroll ever. Landric smiled slightly, knowing by her reaction that she was in.

“I’m only going to make sure that you’re safe. But for the record, I don’t like this idea one bit.”

“Noted!” he exclaimed, flashing her a crooked smile that had come to mean the world to her. It wasn’t any kind of romantic love; they were too young to be interested in that sort of thing. It was the feeling that reminded her that as long as he was smiling everything would be okay.

Landric pulled the lower branches of the bush away and lay on the ground, putting his head inside. “Hello!” he called, listening to an echo that suggested a much larger space than he had expected. His hand grabbed a stick from the ground beside him and he dropped it in, hearing it hit the ground after a short fall.

“It’s not far to the bottom,” he explained, sitting up and sitting on the edge, his legs dangling into the unknown. “Lower me down,” he said as he held his hand out to her.

The two grasped each other’s wrists and she positioned herself close enough to lower him in. He felt the cool, slightly clammy touch of her hands and it gave him comfort. Looking down, she saw the stick on the ground about four feet below.

“Goodbye, Landric,” she said in her creepiest, singsong voice. She let go and he began to fall, a moment of panic overtaking him until his feet hit the dirt about two seconds later. He looked up at her.

“Very funny,” he said with no humor in his voice.

“I know,” she cheerfully replied, sitting on the edge and dropping herself in to fall beside him.