Note to self: If something bites you and your skeleton starts snapping like a bag of microwave popcorn, maybe don’t try to play hero afterward. Just sit down. Have some tea. Contemplate your life choices. Too bad I didn’t take that advice in time. It started, as most horrible things do, with pain. Not the stub your toe or break your arm kind. I’m talking soul ripping, bone melting, scream until you shatter your own vocal cords kind of pain. I was in the middle of the ruins of Sector 17, half a second away from being hollowed out by one of the freaks with a mouth like a bear trap and then? Boom. My entire body declared war on itself. First came the heat. Then the twitching. Then the sound snap-pop-snap as my spine decided it wanted to be a pretzel. My muscles pulsed like overcooked lasagna, twisting and rebuilding faster than I could think. Fur shot from my arms like I’d been injected with werewolf steroids. And my jaw? It cracked wide open like I was auditioning for a role in “Mon

If you’ve ever woken up after turning into a giant rage-beast and possibly tearing through an enemy facility like a biological bulldozer, let me give you some advice: Step one: Don’t look in the mirror. Seriously, you don’t want to see what your face looks like after sprouting claws and probably chewing on someone’s exoskeleton armor. Step two: Get your best friend out of a war zone. Step three: Figure out how not to lose your mind when the beast inside starts pacing again like it wants round two. So yeah. No pressure. Adrian and I barely made it out of the underground complex before it exploded into a chaos parfait. Smoke, gunfire, and the distant howling of Hollowed made for one of the worst mixtapes I’ve ever heard. We were sprinting down cracked streets, ducking under collapsed signs and skidding past burning cars like we were in some messed-up parkour challenge from hell. "Any idea where we're going?" I panted. Adrian threw me a look that was half grin, half panic. "Away f

If I had a dollar for every time I woke up in a strange place with a pounding headache and no memory of how I got there, I’d have… well, more dollars than I’d like to admit. This time, though, the situation was different. The air was thick with the scent of antiseptic and something else,something ancient and powerful. The walls were lined with strange symbols that pulsed with a faint blue light, casting eerie shadows that danced across the room. I tried to sit up, but my body protested with a chorus of aches and pains. My limbs felt like they’d been steamrolled, and my brain was doing somersaults trying to piece together the chaos from the night before. Memories flashed blood, screams, the metallic tang of fear, and me, not quite myself. I remembered the transformation, the loss of control, and the terrifying realization that I had become the very monster I swore to fight against. "You're awake," a voice said, smooth and unfamiliar. I turned my head, wincing at the movement, to see

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this whole mess, it’s that walking into your own origin story is a lot less cool than it sounds. Especially when the origin story involves bioengineered monsters, a morally bankrupt mega-corp, and a whole lot of lightning. We stood at the edge of the quarantine zone, the air thick with tension and the sharp scent of ozone. Thunder rolled overhead like the sky was warning us to turn back. The compound loomed beyond the fence, a twisted blend of high-tech science and post-apocalyptic decay. Lights flickered behind grimy windows. Something inside that place pulsed alive, watching, waiting. Adrian adjusted his gear, the straps on his tactical vest creaking under the strain. “You sure about this, Elias?” I nodded, though my stomach was doing Olympic-level gymnastics. “As sure as I am that this place holds the answers we need.” Lex tapped her tablet with rapid precision, her eyes scanning the encrypted schematics she’d hacked on the way here. “Secu

If you’ve ever had one of those mornings where the universe seems to have forgotten your existence, let me tell you mine had it beat by a landslide. My ribs ached like they’d been used as a battering ram. The sky looked like it had been scorched by a cosmic blowtorch, and my internal beast the one that wasn’t supposed to be real, let alone awake was pacing like a caged animal, itching to rip something apart. Again. But I wasn’t going to let that happen. Not this time. Adrian stood beside me, jaw clenched and eyes scanning the broken skyline ahead. Smoke billowed from collapsed towers, casting a gray haze that turned the sun into a dim orange eye glaring down at us. The air reeked of sulfur, charred metal, and something far worse blood. Lots of it. We weren’t just in a city under siege we were in the middle of a full-scale apocalypse. Yay. "How many do you think made it out?" I asked, trying to keep my voice level, even though my insides were doing gymnastics. Adrian didn’t answe