Home / Other / MARCH 17TH / The Bartender
The Bartender
last update2025-08-13 03:01:17

The photo was a gut-punch. Victor's breath hitched, and a cold dread seized his heart. The masked man, the one who worked for Tariq, stood over Shanny's unconscious body, her face pale against the dark fabric of the couch. The message was a clear and terrifying ultimatum.

"He's using her as a shield," Sophia said, her voice trembling. "He knows you won't go to the police now."

A profound moral conflict tore through Victor. Shanny had betrayed him in the cruelest way, but he couldn't leave her to face this. His love for her, once a beautiful garden, had become a graveyard of pain, but a small part of him, a part he couldn't deny, still wanted to save her.

"We have to find her," he said, his voice a low, gravelly whisper.

Sophia nodded, her fear giving way to a fierce resolve. "Give me the phone."

She didn't waste a second. Her fingers flew across the screen, pulling up the photo's metadata. "The location tag has been removed, but the background... look at the window reflection," she sa
Continue to read this book for free
Scan the code to download the app

Latest Chapter

  • The Unraveling Score

    The chamber no longer pulsed—it writhed.The shard’s light fractured across the stone like a score torn down the middle, its rhythm unraveling into jagged intervals. Chains lashed without pattern, some limp, others striking with feral spasms, their timing clashing against one another like musicians who had lost their conductor.Sophia’s sword shook with every impact, each clash ringing in her arms like discordant notes struck too hard on a warped instrument. Her ears ached. The noise wasn’t just sound anymore—it was pressure, pushing into her bones, making her thoughts stumble.Victor pressed his fists against a chain, shoving it backward with a roar. The sound reverberated around him, an ugly harmony of steel, voice, and stone. His face was pale, lips cracked, but his eyes burned with defiance. “It’s… tearing itself apart.”Abby clung to the wall for balance, one hand pressed against her temple. Her shards trembled in the air around her, each vibrating with the shard’s dissonant hum.

  • The Shattered Choir

    The silence did not hold.It broke in a rush of sound so jagged, so unnatural, that it felt less like a noise than a wound tearing open in the air. The shard pulsed again, light splintering into discordant flashes, its rhythm collapsing into something fractured, uneven. Where once it had been hunger given form, now it was cacophony given voice.Sophia staggered as the pressure returned, not steady this time but lurching—like a song played too fast, then too slow, notes missing, chords inverted. Her sword thrummed in her hand as if resisting the very air.Victor braced himself, sweat running in rivulets. The force pressing on his chest rose and fell unpredictably, making his breath stumble in ragged syncopation. “It’s lost the beat—but it’s still fighting.”Elroy raised his hammer, eyes narrowing as chains twitched in stuttering spasms around them. Sparks still lingered on the metal, but their glow flickered, unstable. “Then we smash the choir it’s trying to rebuild.”Abby’s gaze was f

  • Dissonance Made Flesh

    The silence between pulses was worse than the roar. It throbbed like the pause in a broken melody, a measure missing from a song that had no end. The shard hovered, flickering, its light jagged and erratic, painting the chamber in fractured flashes of brilliance and shadow.Sophia felt the weight of that silence pressing on her chest, heavier than any chain. Her blade trembled in her grip, not from weakness but from the strain of forcing her will into every movement. The shard had learned hunger; now it was being forced to learn discord.Victor stepped closer, pale fists clenched so tightly his knuckles blanched. Sweat streaked the dust on his face, his breath ragged, uneven. “It’s hesitating again. Its rhythm is breaking.”Abby’s voice cut through the suffocating air, sharp as a plucked string out of tune. “Then we strike—not in unison. We stagger it. Force it to split its attention.”Elroy’s hammer came down like a cymbal crash. Sparks burst as links cracked, fragments of glowing me

  • Breaching the Heart

    The chamber pulsed with anticipation, every stone, every fragment of metal trembling under the shard’s wounded hunger. The chains still writhed, snapping in jerky, hesitant motions. The group’s coordinated resistance had forced the first fracture in the cage. Now, they would press it.Sophia tightened her grip on her sword, eyes narrowing. “We’ve made it hesitate. Now we make it act on our terms. We strike together—fast, precise, and without mercy.”Victor flexed his fireless hands, fists pale but resolute. “Every chain it throws… we bend. Every shadow it sends… we anticipate. It’s learning—but we’re teaching it chaos.”Elroy hefted his hammer, muscles coiled and ready. Sparks from previous clashes still lingered on the metal’s surface. “Time to see if it can actually adapt faster than we can think.”Abby pressed herself against the wall, scanning the shard’s erratic pulses. “We move on its hesitation. Every time it falters, we strike. Not random strikes—calculated, coordinated, preci

  • The Cage Unraveled

    The chamber trembled as the shard pulsed violently, its wounded hunger radiating like a living storm. Shadows quivered across broken stone and bloodied metal. The chains writhed, faster now, lashing and snapping with renewed purpose—but this time, they were hesitant. Every coil seemed to pause, calculating, learning from the humans’ defiance.Sophia crouched low, scanning the chains’ movements. “We’ve forced it to think,” she whispered. “Every hesitation we create… we exploit.”Victor picked up a fragment of shattered stone, hefting it like a weapon. “Then we keep forcing it. One step, one strike at a time.”Elroy tightened his grip on the hammer, muscles straining as he twisted and pinned coils. “It’s reacting, adapting… but not fast enough. We control the pace.”Abby’s eyes were fixed on the shard’s glow, reading its pulses, anticipating its intent. “We move together. Every action must be synchronized. Don’t let it predict us.”Indhabhire’s hands rose, bloodied palms commanding the

  • Threads of Defiance

    The faint echo of metal against stone grew, a deliberate rhythm threading through the chamber like a warning heartbeat. Sophia’s gaze snapped toward the shadows, sword ready. Victor followed, hands trembling but fists tight. Every sense screamed that the shard had not forgotten. Every shadow seemed alive, poised to strike.Elroy tightened his grip on the hammer, muscles coiled like springs. “It’s testing us,” he muttered. “Every step, every movement—it’s learning.”Abby pressed against the wall, eyes scanning for patterns in the shadows. “Then we use that,” she whispered, voice barely audible. “We make it think we’re weak, then we strike where it doesn’t expect.”Indhabhire’s bloodied hands rose, palms open. The whispers of the dead swelled around them, a cold chorus that bent the edges of the chains’ advance. “The Architect’s Hand and the heart—they are connected. The shard reacts to her will… but hesitation is its weakness. Exploit it. Push it to choose.”The chamber shifted as the

More Chapter
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on MegaNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
Scan code to read on App