Unholy Trinity: Wicked Amber by Niko Lapidus

Our church worships at the altar of the Unholy Trinity. Its gospels are delivered as a trio of dark drabbles, linked so that Three become One. All hail the power of the Three.

 

I.

 

It was amber that caused it. A yellow stone, formed of sap of a tree from a deep and dark forest. When the amber was found in Utah, nobody knew what it really was. But like true amber, it held something. Not an insect or leaf, but a presence. Something old and hateful, with hands that reached and eyes that stared. The amber seeped into the ground, and it seeped into minds. Told folks to do bad things. Flies eating people. People eating people. People eating themselves. The amber took them slow, like a tumor. All because of that amber.

 

II.

 

I ate the berries, just like we all did. It wasn’t my fault, what I did. I didn’t know. What I did to Ma and Pa and baby Paul, it wasn’t my fault. They would’ve been the same anyway ‘cause they ate the berries too. None of us knew. We had seen papers, heard what happened with that yellow stuff over in Utah. We even saw the odd yellow patches on the berries, but we were hungry. Baby Paul was weeping with hunger. So we ate them, and by the time we all knew, the amber made me eat them.

 

III.

 

They called my vessel amber, but I was more than that, more than they could ever imagine. I had fallen from the stars, dripping from the trunk of a squirming black tree beyond mortal comprehension. I saw the world of humanity, and it was ugly to my many staring eyes. In their infinite stupidity, they thought me just a mere stone. But soon they learned. With cities and minds ablaze, they learned the true power of the amber that held my will and flesh. I took them like they took me, with tumors and boils and their own rotting hands.

 

Niko Lapidus

I’m Niko Lapidus, a 14 year old fantasy and horror writer. I’m from Berkeley, CA, and currently working on my debut novel, Voidbreaker. I’m also a stand-up comedian, and you can check my work out on spotify.