Season 2, Episode 9: "Through the Vein"
🌫️ SCENE 1: SILENCE AFTER THE STORM
The rain had stopped.
The world was eerily still. Not quiet—hollow—as if sound had been drained from the forest.
The trees surrounding the camp stood too still, their bark slick with moss and ichor. Strange spores pulsed from the soil, breathing like lungs.
Nova walked a slow perimeter, bow in hand, but her eyes kept drifting back to Amira's still body.
"She's not dead," she muttered to herself. "She saved us… she saved us…"
But in the pit of her stomach, fear twisted like a knife.
Zeke stood nearby, arms crossed, jaw clenched. His flames no longer flickered naturally—they sputtered, turning black at the tips.
"We don't know what she is. Not anymore."
Kara knelt beside Mira, who was curled in fetal position, her nails caked with dirt and blood.
"Her veins," Kara whispered. "They're not hers anymore."
Rael sat at Amira's side, holding her limp hand.
His voice was barely audible.
"Please wake up. Please…"
🩸 SCENE 2: MIRA'S MIND FRACTURES
Inside Mira's mind, it was night.
Always night.
She stood in a replica of the forest—but the trees were whispering her name in broken Latin.
A voice—her voice but not hers—echoed through the canopy.
"They think you're sick. They think they can fix you."
"But I am your cure."
She turned.
A version of herself—dripping, decayed,
smiling with too many teeth—stood in front of her.
"Let me in, Mira."
She screamed.
Her body convulsed violently in the real world. Kara screamed, holding her down. Nova rushed over, horrified.
"Her eyes—Kara, her eyes!"
Mira's irises had turned completely white.
🔥 SCENE 3: AMIRA'S AWAKENING
Amira's breath caught.
Her chest heaved once. Twice.
Rael cried out, clutching her hand.
Her eyes fluttered open.
But they were glowing.
"Amira…?"
She sat up fast, gasping like she'd been drowning. Her spine arched. Her back glowed with Dominion sigils burned into her skin.
"They're coming," she rasped. "Through me. Through her. It's all connected."
Zeke pulled Rael back.
"That's not her voice!"
Amira clutched her head.
"It's me—I'm still here—but I saw it. Dominion… they were using me to listen. To her. To the Entity."
She pointed to Mira, now shrieking in Kara's arms.
"She's the door. And I'm the key they made."
🌲 SCENE 4: THE FOREST MOVES
Suddenly, the trees groaned.
A low, organic moan that came from deep underground.
Nova whipped around. "We need to move. Now."
But the ground pulsed, and roots shot up like spears.
One wrapped around Zeke's ankle and yanked him off his feet.
He screamed, flames erupting around his body.
"Get it off me! Get it the—!"
Rael slashed the root with a broken pipe, freeing him. Black sap oozed out, sizzling on contact with Zeke's fire.
The group scrambled to form a circle.
"We're surrounded," Nova growled. "By the Zone itself."
Amira stood, staggering toward the heart of the roots.
"It's underneath. It's waiting. It wants Mira
to open."
SCENE 5: DIALOGUE IN THE DARK
The group found shelter in the remains of a shattered Dominion watchtower.
Inside, the walls were covered in scratch marks—some human, some not.
A blood-scrawled message read:
"She walks in veins. The forest is her body."
Zeke pressed Mira against the wall, furious.
"You brought this thing into us. What the hell is inside you?!"
Mira, weak but conscious, looked up slowly. Her voice was layered—hers, and something older beneath it.
"She isn't inside me."
"She is me."
Everyone stepped back.
Rael stared at her. "Mira… please… fight it."
Mira smiled, faintly.
"You always saw the good in broken things."
"That's why you'll be the first to die."
SCENE 6: THROUGH THE VEIN
At night, no one slept.
They took turns watching Mira. But her body twisted in unnatural ways, as though the bones were softening. Her joints bent too far. Her teeth sharpened.
Outside, the sky turned crimson.
Rael climbed to the watchtower roof and looked out.
The trees… were moving. Forming a spiral.
Leading somewhere.
"It's a ritual," Kara whispered behind him. "A birth canal."
"Something is trying to come through her."
Amira appeared, eyes bloodshot.
"Then we have to cut the connection."
Nova stepped up. "We kill her?"
A heavy silence.
Rael's voice cracked.
"No. We go in."
Everyone turned.
"Into her mind." Rael said. "We find what's inside. And we rip it out."
Amira nodded slowly.
"I can guide you. But if you fail… we'll all be trapped in her forever."
🎬 END OF EPISODE 9