Young Writers Society

TW: Torture, kidnapping, abuse, and mentions of rape

On the same day, at the exact same moment, four strangers fell from the sky.

They crash landed in the woods, tumbling from the branches until spilling to the floor in a perfect square formation. And now they’re stuck here, in the dark ghost-infested forest with no home way and now way out.

Can they make fast friends and survive the fall, or are they doomed to fertilize the forest floor like a pile of dead leaves?

Estella Fay

Estella Fay was used to falling. She had practiced it many times, reaching the peak of flight before folding her wings against her back and plummeting. She’d catch herself before crashing to the floor and lifting herself back into the sky.

But this. This was different.

She opened her eyes only to see the sky growing further away. The wind screamed in her ears and tugged at her clothes. And her wings were heavy and unresponsive, nothing but weights on her back.

I’m going to crash to the ground and splinter every bone in my body. Estella Fay winced, squeezing her eyes shut for contact.

She hit the dirt, scattering twigs and leaves in her wake. Pain shot through her body like a gunshot, but there was no crunch of a broken bone or the white-hot agony of a fatal injury. So, Estella Fay lay there in the dirt, closing her eyes and thanking the sky for letting her live.


Heliodor Everett

Heliodor Everett had the pleasure of falling face first. Nausea surged in his stomach as the ground rushed at him, getting closer and closer to swallowing him whole. He closed his eyes, trying to will his wings to move, but they remained painfully still. Not that they’d be much use to him. He hadn’t moved his wings since he was a small child, and there was every chance they would snap off his back with the force of the wind.

So, this is how his life would end. Falling from the sky for reasons he couldn’t even begin to think of and crashing to the floor before he could even comprehend whether his life was worth dying for.

He crashed to the floor, the impact knocking the breath out of his lungs. He gasped sharply, opening his eyes to see a forest.

And someone he’d never met across from him.

Kyle | Zombie

Kyle wasn't used to falling, and didn't ever want to become used to the sensation. That would mean he was getting thrown in danger's way far more than he wanted to—his only goal in life was to just exist without any struggles whatsoever. He had been through enough already.

This falling came out of nowhere, but was surprisingly gentler when he landed than it should have been. Kyle laid there on the ground for a minute expecting broken bones or at least a little pained. Instead, all he felt was mildly stunned.

And he hadn't used his power, either.

Kyle sat up. He looked up and saw two winged strangers, who were undoubtedly mutants like him and the other person he did know. She was currently sitting up as well, unperturbed by the situation. It helped that, like him, they hadn't really had to worry about the fall. They had just used their power to make their skin more malleable to the impact.

"This isn't Mutopia," Jo, also known as TBD, also known as the perpetual thorn in Kyle's side, remarked as she sat up and surveyed the forest around them. "At least, I think I would have known—or you would have known—if Cybele had made a place like this, right? It's creepy."

Kyle, in response, groaned and immediately laid back down on the ground. He didn't have the energy for this right now.

Estella Fay

Estella Fay sat up, stretching out her wings and letting them hang loose from her shoulders. Trees surrounded the little group on all sides, but they weren’t trees Estella Fay was used to. They were gnarled with branches that almost seemed sharpened to a point. She shuddered, pushing herself to her feet.

She pulled a twig out of her buns. “So. Did we all just collectively fall out of the sky or-“ She turned and finally spotted Heliodor Everett, still sprawled out on the ground. “You!”

He looked up, face completely blank. “Oh, you’re here.”

Estella Fay groaned. She could not handle being stuck in this horror forest with him.


Heliodor Everett

Heliodor Everett sighed, letting his face fall back on the forest floor. He had clearly drawn the short straw by landing on his chest. He rolled over, wincing at the sticks scraping against his suit. It wouldn’t survive this trip.

“Estella Fay, if I may-“

“No! You may not.” Estella Fay marched over to him, angrily pulling him to his feet. “You sold me out!”

Heliodor Everett hummed. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

“Oh don’t be coy with me.” She shoved him. Heliodor Everett didn’t react except for a small stumble.

“Estella Fay, please.”

She shook her head. “No. You have no idea what you’ve done me. I don’t have to listen to your twisted explanation.”

Heliodor Everett sighed. This was going to be a long day.

Kyle | Zombie

Kyle got to his feet. As much as he wanted to avoid conflict and drama, he could tell that a potentially one-sided fight was on the verge of fully breaking out. He was no pacifist, but he didn't want a fight right now.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Jo said, popping up in between the two and pushing them away from each other. "I don't know who you two are, where are we, or how we even got here, but I think we might all be stuck together here—at least until we leave this part of the forest. So don't kill each other until we know how to get out of here, okay? I really don't want to be stuck here forever because we were supposed to use all of our powers or something to get out."

Jo eyed their wings. Even without them saying a word, Kyle knew that Jo was thinking that technically, since both of them appeared to have the same exact mutant power, they would probably only need one of the two if that was the case.

Estella Fay



Estella Fay huffed. “I’m not going to kill him.”

Heliodor Everett sighed. “I don’t know what you think I did to you, but I apologize if you’re correct.”

She crossed her arms. “Fine. Truce for now. Let’s focus on where we are and how we escape these woods.”

She took a deep breath, facing those she didn’t know. “Hello! I deeply apologize that you had to witness that. I usually don’t let my feelings get away from me. My name is Estella Fay. I’d say a pleasure to meet you, but that feels a little insensitive considering we just fell from the sky and landed in a haunted forest.”

Estella Fay nervously laughed, fiddling with gloves, trying not to cringe at the distant howl of feral animals.

Heliodor Everett:


“Lord Heliodor Everett Lee at your service.” He bowed. “I hope I can be of assistance on this journey.”

He straightened out his suit, taking a small lap around the clearing. “Seeing as there is no possible way that we’re in London, I have to ask you if you’re from here.”

He hummed. “How strange. These trees have aspen bark, but only maple leaves are on the ground.” He froze, pondering the forest moment. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we were in a new whole entirely.”

Jo stared when Heliodor introduced himself as a lord. Even back during the Dark Year, she hadn't heard someone refer to themselves with a noble title like that. It was weird.

"I'm Jo," Jo offered, "also known as TBD."

Before Kyle could give an introduction of his own, Jo slung their arm around his shoulder and pulled him close.

"And this is Kyle," Jo added, grinning. "His mutant name is Zombie, because he-"

"We're not from here," Kyle interrupted. He probably didn't like her sharing what his power was. He wasn't as fond of his as she was of hers, for obvious reasons.

Estella Fay leaned towards Heliodor Everett. “Mutant? Have you ever heard of that?”

Heliodor Everett shook his head. “No. Is it some American colloquialism?”

Estella Fay shrugged, turning towards Jo and Kyle. “I apologize. We’re not sure what a mutant is.”

“And why do you need a separate name for it?” Heliodor Everett brushed off dirt from his pant leg. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

Jo blinked. Even Kyle, who wasn't prone to showing his surprise, stared.

"You don't know what a mutant is?" Jo managed to get out, her shock very much evident in her voice. It was a little hard not to know what a mutant was. Ever since Chatterbox and the other Cute Mutants burst onto the scene a few years ago, everyone knew what a mutant was. It didn't matter what part of the world you lived in. Even Jo and Kyle, who weren't from New Zealand, had heard of what the Cute Mutants had done there. "But mutants are everywhere."

"Jo," Kyle suddenly said, "look at their clothes."

Jo didn't really see what the change in topic was for, but they did as requested. It was the first time that Jo had really looked at the two before them, past the wings and past all of the assumptions she had made within just a handful of seconds of seeing them.

Their clothes looked off. Like really off. Jo got the distinctive feeling that either Kyle and her or the two in front of them were out of place or out of time.

"Oh," Jo said. "I, uh, don't think we're from the same place?"

Estella Fay nodded. “Yes. You’re not English. What do our clothes have to do with anything?” She picked up her skirts. Her dress as a typical 1838 dark blue casual dress. “I mean, yours look wildly different, but that’s just location, right?”

Heliodor Everett shook his head. “I don’t believe it is. Not drastic differences like that. I’ve never seen that sort of material before.”

Estella Fay laughed nervously. “So what are you saying? Are we from different worlds? Like us and Ukayans?”

Heliodor Everett shrugged. “Possibly.”

"The what?" Jo said, eyes dark eyes wide and very much startled. Kyle also hadn't heard of Ukayans before, but was doing a far better job at handling this new information. Kyle had experienced so many new things in the past two years alone that he had become numb to strange happenings like this. There were mutants. There was Michael. There was Cybele. And there was the robot and alien pair that visited Mutopia ever so often, who theoretically shouldn't have been so welcome but of course were. The Cute Mutants, Kyle had determined, were fond of taking in as many outcasts as possible.

Not that Kyle had a problem with that.

"We're not from another world," Kyle said. "We're from another Earth, and from another time."

Jo gave Kyle a nervous look. "You sure they aren't from our past?"

"Have you ever heard of people with wings in the past?" Kyle asked, deadpan.

"Well, no," Jo awkwardly replied. They straightened a little. "But mutants were a thing before, too! We just forgot."

She said it all dramatically, as if she had actually been there and aware during said incident. Kyle had no idea what actual year it had happened in, but, at most, Jo would have been an oblivious baby.

Estella Fay blinked. “Another time?” She hummed. “I suppose that would make sense.” She ruffled her wings, Heliodor Everett averting his gaze. “Well, I can assure you we’re not mutants.” She paused. “Whatever those are. Heliodor Everett and I are alis. I’m a light alis myself.”

Heliodor Everett sighed. “I’m a fire alis.”

Estella Fay gasped. “Which means you can manipulate fire! I never thought about that.”

Heliodor Everett blankly stared at her. “Pardon?”

She shook her head. “Never mind! Ukayans are a race of people that came from the stars. They’re semi-aquatic.”

Jo's head spun as she tried to keep track of all this new information. They hadn't ever heard of alis or ukayans, and didn't really get the importance of Heliodor using fire. She blinked, glanced between the two, and pointed between them in an attempt to process everything that had just been said.

"We don't have alis or ukayans on our Earth," Kyle said. If Jo hadn't been so overwhelmed, they would have been impressed by how quickly he was adjusting to all this new information. "Jo and I are mutants. It means on some physiological level we're different than humans."

"Which is how I can do this," Jo said, too much of a performer to miss the opportunity to use her power. Her hair switched from its normal brown to Kyle's black. It was keeping things simple, for now, since Jo was smart enough to know that they should always keep a card or two up their sleeve.

Case in point: even though Kyle had been introduced as Zombie, Jo had decided he probably didn't want to reveal what his power was in case it turned out Estella and Heliodor weren't as friendly as they seemed.

Estella Fay gasped. “Oh, Malvis can do that! I’ve never met anyone else that could, though. In our world, they’re called Illusionists. They have control over almost every facet of their appearance.”

Heliodor Everett hummed, his face utterly blank as it had been the entire time. “The process of becoming an ‘Illusionist’ is extremely illegal. How did she manage that?”

Estella Fay shrugged. “I’ve never asked.” She shook her head. “Anyways! So, mutants are a separate species, then? Because we have plenty of those. Alis have been around since the first humans. Many speculate that we’re descendants of angels.”

“Which is most likely a baseless myth.”

Estella Fay laughed nervously. “Well, there are six races of alis. Wind, water, light, fire, earth, and lightning. Based on their race, that’s the natural element they can control!” She grinned.

Heliodor Everett shook his head. “Alis can’t control elements.”

Estella Fay frowned. “I don’t know what you’ve been taught, but that isn’t true.”

Jo wasn't sure what to make of the lore discrepancies these two had, so she decided it was best to ignore it for now. Instead, they opted to bring up the lore they did know—the mutant kind.

"Mutants have been around since some of the first humans, too," Jo said, grinning. She had no problems changing the topic. "I think we got our powers from Cybele or Lilith? I was too old for school by the time I got to Mutopia and became a mutant, so..."

Jo shrugged.

"We don't really have different classifications," Jo mused. "You're just human or mutant. Or robot or alien, I guess, but I'm still not entirely sure what's up with those two."

She sent a questioning look over at Kyle, who only shrugged in response. He knew more than they did about some of Mutopia's most unique occupants. They went to the garden, sometimes, when they thought no one else was there. Kyle had absolutely scared at least one of them once when he showed up with a pair of gardening scissors.