Chapter Text
Is this…sand?
Rudo grabs a fistful of red sand watching as it trickles down his gloves.
This wasn’t exactly what Rudo had expected to be the pit. Is it some kind of infinity deserted land? And the air—the air! It made his nose and throat burn like crazy , the wind picked up more sand making it practically impossible for Rudo to see anything.
Shit the more I stay here I might die! That’s no way in hell I’m kicking it here , not when Regtos killer is still in the city.
Rudo clenches his fists in anger. The thought of his fathers death only made his will to keep going stronger.
With fiercer determination Rudo picks himself , there has to be a living person down here…maybe a tribesfolk managed to survive the fall before me…there has to be!
Rudo tries to stand up only to fall back down onto the sandy ground , after all that had happened he’d forgotten just how tired he was.
“Huff…” he spits out blood , the longer he stays here Rudo fears just the air will kill him. He can’t….he can’t get up.
Regto.
Am I really gonna die here?
“Hello there!” The sound of a girl's voice enters his ear. He looks up to see a young girl with long black hair with orange tips wearing big chunky boots.
Pretty…
A living person?
Is she…from the city too?
The girl smiles, kneeling down to his level.
“Are you an angel?”
Amo looks out the giant hole in her tower , the sky’s clouds open up, a flash of white speeds down as a wave of sand explodes into the air , when it makes impact to the ground.
Amo gasps , she thinks for a moment—could it be another angel? Or maybe even one of the angels that had visited her tower before?
Either way the thought excites her very much! Her and the angel can be friends and Amo will let them live in her tower together!
They’ll talk about the kinds of boys and girls they like…have sweets …play dress up together… read stories to each other about princesses and knights …and have sleepovers !
Amo smiles, humming to herself as she hurries down the stairs with the lantern. She can’t wait to meet the angel and get to know what kind of person they are! She can’t wait to get to know how they smell too.
Amo hopes they have a nice strong smell.
The stone door creaks open when Amo pushes it. The angel isn’t too far from here from where she saw them. Amo hates walking so much ! But in return she'll have a new friend to talk with so she’s willing to make the journey.
Amo finally sniffs out the angel and it’s not quite what she expected.
The angel is sitting on the ground hacking gross blood all over the sand , wearing thick white clothing and a head of white fluffy hair with grey tips.
“Hello there ! “ Amo calls out , the angels gets startled, they must have not noticed she was there! She can be pretty sneaky when she wants to be , like a cute little mouse.
“Gah!” The angel looks up at her with bright red eyes that remind her of rubies on a princess's crown.
“Who—who are you? Do …you live here?” The angel speaks! Not like the other angel she had met before and he wasn’t wearing a mask either .
“My name is Amo ! Are you an angel? I saw you fly down here.”
She stares at the blood stains on his white clothes, did he get injured while landing? Maybe it’s because he’s a young angel , he has trouble flying…
The angel stands up wobbly coughing into his gloves. “Angel? I’m not—“
BOOM!!
Amo recognizes that sound all too well . “Uh oh! You should follow Amo to her house! The angry trash beasts are starting to awaken.” She ushers him to let her guide him.
“Just what the hell are those things?! What even is this place!?” What a loud angel!
“Listen Mr. Angel, you have to follow Amo if you want to get away from them! Amo’s tower is super safe , promise.”
“What is this place ? Are there more people that live here?” The angel continues to ask more and more questions.
“Amo can answer all your questions if you just come with her—“
“And why is the air so unbearable?! It feels like I’m gonna puke my guts out!”
“Amo—“ the angel cuts her off again.
“Do you know how to get back to the city? I need to get back—!”
“Be quiet ! Stop interrupting Amo !” She screams at the angel who pauses at her outbursts.
“..uh…sorry…” the angel lowers his head , well the angel is cute enough so Amo will forgive him!
“That’s ok~ , Amo forgives you so let’s go to her house so these trash beasts don’t eat us!”
“Eat?!”
She grabs his hands leading him to her tower , he makes a noise as the two hurry towards Amo’s place. She can’t wait to give him a grand tour!
Amo opens her doors as she waves to the angel to come in , she giggles looking at his star struck face.
“This place is huge…is this whole place really just yours?” Rudo follows her in , she picks up a lantern guiding him up the stairs.
“Hmm-mm! This is Amo’s home ! She can’t wait to show you around. Are you hungry Mr. Angel? “
The angel's stomach growls ironically at the same time she asks. “Yeah I guess I am kinda hungry ..but—“ the angel looks like he wants to ask her more about the ground and Amo isn’t in the mood to give a boring history lesson so she quickly changes the subject.
“How about sweets?”
Amo watches the angel's face . “I’ve never really said sweets before…”
Amo gasps she could never imagine a life without sweets! “ You’ve never had sweets before ? Well Amo has to fix this.” She opens the door to her main room letting the angel enter.
Amo sets an assortment of cookies , cupcakes , candy , macrons , and chocolates on a large plate. The angel drools at the sight , vibrating in his spot.
The angel grabs a cookie slowly bringing it to his mouth before chomping down.
He makes a small noise before screaming devouring more and more sweet . “This stuff is amazing! What the hell!”
“Amo is so glad you like them! But please, leave some for her too!” Amo fears the angel would eat the entire plate!
Amo sits on the ground taking out a tiny aid kit with bandages and rubbing alcohol, the angel , Rudo , told her his name and that he had been kicked off the city . Or in other words the Sphere in the sky. The floating city.
“Also I’m not an angel. I don’t got wings or anything like that.” Rudo groans as he applies another bandage to his bruised back. His big blood stained sweater tossed aside.
“Amo is so sorry Rudo was blamed for something he didn’t do. Amo would be very sad if someone hurt her mama.”
Rudo finished with the kit placing back all the unused items in. “Yeah , that’s why I gotta get back to the city as soon as possible. My dad’s killer is still up there. Damned bastard is gonna get it.”
Amo has no idea how a normal person can get to the Sphere without dying. The angels who had visited her tower before had one with a pair of wings and that’s how they made it up.
It’s selfish, she knows it. Amo wants Rudo to stay here. It’s been months since anyone has come to see her. Amo won’t let go of Rudo so easily.
“Amo doesn’t know how to get you back up. So that means you have to stay here until then! Amo will tell you as much as she can about the ground though. “
She offers , that’s another reason he’ll have to stay.
Rudo's face contorts . “You don’t? Shit…then I need to go out and find someone who might have information on getting to the city.”
What?
Amo watches as Rudo picks himself up putting on his thick sweater.
No , no , no!
“Thanks for helping me uh—Amo. I gotta go—!”
Rudo makes his way to the door , he can’t go now ! He has to stay with Amo , he has to stay here , he has too!
Amo grabs onto Rudo, stopping him.
“You can’t leave.”
Rudo needs to find a way back up , even if he has to crawl through a ferocious desert. He’ll do whatever it takes!
The Amo girl charges at him stopping him in his tracks.
“No , no , no! You have to stay.” Amo yells, clinging onto Rudo’s clothes.
“What the—let go of me!”
The boy tries to shove her off , but he doesn’t want to throw her on the ground or anything! But she’s totally acting crazy.
“It’s too dangerous out there! You have to stay here with Amo. All those trash beasts—you couldn't possibly fight them on your own. And—and plus! The closest town to here is hundreds of miles away; you'd have to get a car just to make it in a day!”
She lowers her head , hands still tightly gripping his sweater. “Please , please stay with Amo. She lives here all by herself. It's been so long since Amo’s been visited before.”
The way her lips tremble, tears threatening to spill from her big eyes reminds Rudo too much of Chiwa.
He can’t bring himself to say no or yes.
“I…”
“Amo is…lonely. When people do come here sometimes…they are not very nice to Amo. She gets scared because the only thing protecting Amo from bad people is this tower.”
The memories of the Apostles attacking tribesfolk , abusing their power , sending them down to their deaths , and shooting him just for trying to survive and make a living flood his mind.
“You have to stay.”
What kind of person would Rudo be ? To leave a vulnerable girl here ? Alone just like him .
Just like when Regto took him in when he was alone . Regto didn't need to take him in; it didn't benefit him at all but he still did. Cuz’ it was the right thing to do.
Also the fact he’s realized this place is crawling with monsters that look like they’ve emerged from hell. He’d get himself killed out there.
He knows next to nothing about the Pit. He didn't know there was life here and there is! The best decision for him is to stay. Stay here with Amo and maybe the both of them could find a way out here together?
“Alright, fine. I’ll stay here with you. If any assholes try to come here and hurt you I’ll punch them in the face.”
Amo giggles jumping in her spot. Geez , her mood changed pretty quick…“Yes , yes! You will be like Amos knight and shining armor! Amo is so happy you’ll stay! We’ll have lots of fun together , promise.”
Rudo’s taken back by her words. “Knight and shining armor…? I guess you could put it like that.” If it means getting to live here rent free without getting murk by a trash monster , then Rudo’s ok with being called whatever by this girl.
Then again…it’s hard to say no to a cute girl.
“Also there’s a trash storm coming up , she can smell it coming.”
Trash storm?
“What’s that?”
“The Sphere —what you call the city , dumps all the trash down here and it falls like rain.”
Rudo felt like an idiot for forgetting that. Of course all that trash the rich folk constantly threw away wouldn’t just disappear!
Did they even know real people lived down here ? Or was it they just didn't care? It’s not hard to believe the rich folk don’t care. Then again they could just be ignorant.
“But don’t worry Rudo. As long as we stay inside Amos tower we will be super same!”
Amo grabs Rudo's hand , clasping them with hers.
“Guh!”
“C’mon , Amo wants to give you a grand tour .”
Okay…maybe staying here for awhile with her won’t be so bad.