Novels by RichAuthor

The hound’s leap was a blur of gray leather and frost-rimmed muscle. It didn't just move; it glitched through the air, skipping frames of reality until it collided with the rafters. Sofia let out a choked gasp, her fingers scrabbling against the slick, icy steel of the support beam, but the beast’s momentum was too great. She plummeted, her body a silhouette against the flickering blue abyss of the mall atrium."Sofia!" Henrique roared, his voice cracking.She hit the railing of the lower mezzanine, the impact audible—a sickening, hollow thud—before she tumbled backward into the darkness below."No, not like this!" Henrique screamed. His vision ignited in a kaleidoscope of spinning, grinding gears. The agony of his second year lost flared in his chest, a deep, necrotic ache that felt like his soul was being slowly pried from his ribs.Rewind.The air turned to pressurized glass. The sound of the hound’s screech stretched into a mile-long groan, and then, the world shattered.Clack.He

The golden light beneath the floorboards hummed with a resonance that felt like a tuning fork vibrating against Henrique’s marrow. He pulled his hand back as if burned, his breath hitching as the light flickered, casting long, frantic shadows against the basement walls."Henrique, what are you doing?" Sofia’s voice was a jagged blade, cutting through the silence of the cellar. She didn't move toward the opening, her hand resting firmly on the hilt of her ice-pick. "That doesn't look like an exit. That looks like a core.""It’s a connection," Henrique replied, his voice strained. He stood up, his knees popping—a sharp, stinging reminder of the years he had already traded away. He winced, forcing himself to stand tall. "It’s not where we go, but it’s what we use to get there. Come on. If we don't gear up, the cold will kill us before the storm even has a chance to rewrite us."Sofia peered into the golden glow, then back at him, her expression hardening into that familiar, flinty resolv

The steel door of the maintenance room didn't just rattle; it shrieked as the scavengers slammed against it, their voices a discordant chorus of greed."I’m not playing, Henrique!" Sofia hissed, her eyes darting between the door and the shadows of the tunnel. "If you’re seeing things, if you’ve gone off the deep end, tell me now so I can decide if I need to leave you here!"Henrique didn't turn around. He held his knife like an extension of his own arm, his gaze fixed on the hinges. "They’re three seconds from breaching. When they do, the one with the goggles will step left. The leader will try to blind us with a flare. We don't engage. We sprint for the secondary ventilation shaft.""How are you doing this?" Sofia demanded, her voice rising."Trust me," Henrique snapped. "Three. Two. One."BOOM.The door buckled, metal tearing away from concrete in a shower of sparks. As predicted, the lead scavenger with the oversized thermal goggles instinctively sidestepped the debris, and the lea

The steel door groaned under the impact of a heavy boot, the frame shuddering as the locking mechanism—a pathetic sliver of rusted iron—began to warp."I know you’re in there, sweetheart," a voice rasped from the other side, dripping with a oily, aggressive familiarity. "We picked up the hum on the frequency tracker. Don't make us peel this door back like a sardine can."Sofia pressed her back against the wall, her ice-pick gripped so tightly her knuckles were translucent. She looked at Henrique, her eyes wide and frantic, gesturing toward the shadowed crawlspace behind a stack of rotting crates."They have a gun, Henrique," she whispered, her voice barely a breath. "If they get that door open, we’re dead. Get to the vent. I’ll distract them.""No," Henrique hissed, his jaw tight. "They want the resonance. They want me. If I run, they’ll just hunt you down next.""Listen to me!" Sofia shoved him, her fingers digging into his jacket. "You have no combat experience! You're a civilian! I

The roar from above grew into a sustained, deafening scream, the sound of concrete being pulverized into diamond dust. Henrique scrambled down the stairs, his boots slipping on the slick, frost-coated tiles of the subway platform. Behind them, the ceiling of the station entrance groaned, a massive fissure spider-webbing across the support beams.Sofia didn't look back. She grabbed his arm, her grip like iron, and shoved him toward a narrow maintenance tunnel hidden behind a collapsed newsstand."Move! Don't look at the light, just look at the floor!" she barked."What is that noise?" Henrique gasped, his chest heaving as he stumbled into the dark tunnel. "It sounds like the whole city is being shredded!""That’s the Pulse," Sofia said, her voice strained as she kicked a heavy steel door shut behind them, sliding a rusted bolt into place. The sound of the wind outside was instantly dampened, replaced by a low, vibrating hum that set Henrique’s teeth on edge. "It’s a kinetic sweep. Anyt

The window frame groaned, protesting as Henrique hurled his weight against it. The blue ice, once solid as granite, shivered under the impact, spider-webbing with a sound like a thousand wine glasses shattering at once. With one final, desperate shove, the pane buckled outward.Henrique didn't wait to see it shatter. He tumbled forward into the void, the freezing air biting at his exposed skin like needles. He hit the rusted metal grate of the fire escape, the impact jarring his teeth, and scrambled to his feet. Above him, the apartment wall collapsed inward, the weight of the encroaching ice finally finding purchase, dragging the interior of his life into the maw of the void.He didn't look back. He scrambled down the icy, slick rungs of the fire escape, his boots slipping on the frozen metal. When he hit the alleyway, the ground was a crust of frozen slush. The city was a mausoleum of blue-tinted stillness. Cars were frozen mid-collision, their headlights dimmed to a dull, haunting