2025-06-14 23:09:20Rain hammered against the windshield, as if trying to break through.
Damien Cross didn’t flinch. He never did. Behind the wheel of a matte-black SUV, he could feel the engine hum beneath him as he zeroed in on the blinking red light across the street. Two stories up, second window from the lefttarget confirmed.
Sophia Reed.
She was thirty-two, owned a bookstore, and had a clean slate criminal record, no known enemies. But Adrian Vale didn’t hire Damien just to shield innocent women from threats that didn’t exist.
No, he called Damien when things were about to get messy.
The comm in Damien’s ear crackled to life.
“Target’s still inside,” said Reed from Logistics. “She’s reading a paperback and hasn’t moved in twenty minutes. You think this job’s worth it?”
Damien didn’t respond. He didn’t owe rookies an explanation. This contract came straight from Vale’s encrypted line, high priority, eyes only. Protect the girl. No questions asked.
That told him one thing: Vale was scared.
And when a guy like Adrian Vale got scared, people ended up dead.
Damien stepped out of the SUV, boots splashing in the puddles. The rain soaked through his black field jacket, and he pulled the collar up to shield his face. A passerby glanced his way. Their eyes met, then quickly dropped. Smart move.
He crossed the street quickly, stopping just outside the glass door of the bookstore. A bell hung above it, hand-painted with fading flowers. Willow Books, the sign read. So quaint it made him suspicious.
Of course, the door was unlocked.
He pushed it open, ringing the bell. The warmth hit him first, followed by the scent of old paper, fresh coffee, and a hint of lavender. He scanned the room instinctively: no cameras, one exit out front, another stairwell behind the counter. Empty, except for her.
Sophia Reed sat behind the counter, completely absorbed in a worn copy of Wuthering Heights. She wore a gray cardigan and dark jeans, her hair twisted into a messy knot. She didn’t look up. That meant she had no idea.
No idea Vale had flagged her as a “Level Three Live Asset.”
No clue someone had tried to breach her back-door server at 2:03 a.m.
No idea Damien had spotted a guy tailing her two nights ago, and that same guy was now unconscious in the trunk of Damien’s other vehicle, thumbs broken.
She was completely exposed.
“Excuse me?” she said, glancing up. “We’re closed.”
Damien stepped closer. “Not here to shop.”
Now she was looking at cautious green eyes flicking from his face to the Glock partially visible under his coat. She stood slowly but didn’t back away.
“I think you have the wrong place.”
“Nope,” Damien replied. “I’m exactly where I need to be.”
He reached into his coatnot for the gun, but for the ID card Vale had issued. He placed it on the counter. Her eyes dropped to it.
Then narrowed.
“Vale Industries? What the hell does Vale want with me?”
Damien kept his voice steady. “It’s a precaution.”
“What kind of precaution sends a… trench coat hitman into my store without warning?”
He didn’t smile. “The kind that keeps you breathing.”
Sophia took a step back. “If this is a threat”
“It’s protection. Your name came up on a list. I’m here to make sure you don’t get killed.”
“List?” she echoed. “What list?”
Damien hasn’t answered yet. He moved toward the front door, locked it with a firm click, then flipped the sign to Closed. The store fell into silence.
“This is insane,” she muttered, rounding the counter to grab her phone. “I’m calling the police.”
“You won’t get a signal.”
Sophia froze, her thumb hovering over her screen. “Excuse me?”
“There’s a jamming radius active,” Damien stated flatly. “Started two blocks back. No signals in or out for the next twenty minutes.”
Her face drained of color. “Who the hell are you?”
He held her gaze. “The guy keeping you alive.”
Then, a sharp crack split the air.
Glass.
The front window shattered in a clean, practiced circle.
Damien tackled Sophia just as a bullet whizzed past where her head had been. They hit the floor harder gasp, his grunt, the sound of a stool crashing into the bookcase behind them.
Another shot. It missed, but a wood splintered near her ear.
Damien rolled, pulled out his
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The Architect’s Echo
Sophia barged through the door, practically tripping into the light. And this wasn’t just any light—no classic golden glow, no sterile hospital white. It was a brain-melting, headache-inducing brightness, like someone had turned all her half-finished thoughts into pure shine.Took her a second to get her bearings. It turns out that it wasn’t some grand chamber, and it was not even close. A corridor, endless and weirdly alive, stretched out ahead. The walls? Flickering panels, each one pulsing with memories except not directly hers. More like, remixes. She caught herself at ten, doodling spirals on a battered school desk. Then, twenty years older, screaming at some ghost in a lab that probably never existed.And then man, the real trip possible futures. Somewhere she didn’t even make it past the first recursion. Somewhere she ditched Ash and Damien. Somewhere she wasn’t even Sophia anymore, at least not in any way she’d recognize.She barely got her voice working. “What is this place?”
when the Abyss calls your name
The abyss surged in, bringing a physical presence and a flood of ideas shadows that felt alive, whispering secrets about every failure the four friends had tried so hard to bury.Sophia knelt there, shaking, her mind under siege. The abyss kept calling her name, over and over, like a toxic love song.Sophia. You’ve always been the fragile one. You masked it with sharp words and a facade of control, but you’ve always felt empty deep down. That’s why you created recursion, right? To escape from yourself.Her shield shattered like glass.Without hesitating, Damien stepped in front of her, his blade humming with energy. But when he swung, the abyss caught it between two fingers, snapping it like chalk. The sound echoed, heavy and final.Ash erupted in flames, bursts of fire pouring from his chest, so hot they scorched the walls. For a brief moment, the abyss pulled back. But even as Ash poured everything he had into the fire, the shadow swallowed the light, leaving only drifting embers in
The Rest of Me
The chamber’s scream was deafening. Every crack in the stone widened; every seam gaped open like a mouth, spewing shadows into the air. The ground buckled and split beneath their feet.Sophia stumbled, her shield wavering as the floor broke apart. Damien caught her arm, yanking her back just as a jagged rift yawned open where she’d been standing.The abyss self hovered above the chaos, its form dissolving into threads of smoke that danced into the widening cracks overhead. Its golden eyes shone like lanterns in a storm.You thought this was me?it whispered, its voice booming from every wall, no longer confined to a single throat. This was only a fragment.Ash cursed and swung flames at the crawling shadow husks, burning through them in handfuls, but they kept coming. For every one he took down, two more emerged from the stone, shrieking with half-formed mouths. Sweat dripped down his brow, and his flames sputtered dangerously.Not sustainable, he muttered through clenched teeth. We ca
When Shadows Bite Back
The chamber felt like it was closing in, like the walls had become jaws ready to snap. Shards of black stone rose from the ground, floating like jagged wings. The abyss was alive now, restless and hungry.The abyss self wasn’t smiling anymore. His face was sharper, colder stripped of any human kindness.You think this ends with words? he said, his voice rough like steel scraping against stone. No. This ends with survival.Suddenly, the ground split between them, and fireless lightning crackled across the cracks.Lena pushed Sophia back. Ash rushed to Damien’s side. Weapons ignited steel, flame, grit but the shadow was faster.He didn’t hit with fists or blades. He attacked with memory.In an instant, Damien wasn’t in the chamber anymore. He was back in the ruins of the first recursion field, ash falling like snow, bodies scattered around. The smell of burning filled the air, and he could hear the screams. And there, right in front of him, was a younger version of himself weak, despera
Reflections That Bleed
The abyss shifted. What had felt like an endless drop suddenly solidified beneath their feet. They stood on a cracked glass floor, stretching out into nothingness, each fracture glowing softly like light veins. Above them? There was no sky, just an infinite void.On that glass plain stood their reflections. Four against four. Perfect mirrors, yet so wrong. Sophia’s reflection wore a cruel smirk. Damien looked hollow, the darkness in his eyes swallowing everything but the gold. Ash showed scars he never had. Lena reflected someone who had given up hope long ago.Sophia’s breath caught in her throat. They weren't just enemies; they were possibilitiesAsh spoke first, his voice tight. These aren’t echoes. These are… what we could’ve been.Lena snarled, her blade raised. Or what we still might become.Then, the glass beneath them pulsed like a heartbeat. Words appeared in the fractures, not written but felt deep in their bones:Only truth defines the survivor. Only choice defines the line
Into the Rift
The chamber crumbled around them, shaking with a roar and filling the air with dust. Ash grabbed Lena's arm and pulled her forward just as stones shattered at their feet. Sophia was the last to follow, her eyes glued not to the chaos behind them but to a faint shimmer of light lingering in the air where Damien had disappeared.They barreled through a collapsing archway just as the floor beneath them gave way. The moment they got through, the ruin behind them vanished not just rubble, but nothing was like a hole that devoured everything, as if it had never existed.Lena whirled around, her blade snapping into action. That’s not a normal collapse.Ash swore under his breath. You don't need to be a genius to see that.Sophia halted mid-step, her breath catching in her throat. In the void where the chamber had been, something was taking shape.A figure.But it wasn’t Damien.The outline felt all wrong taller, sharper, with movements that defied the laws of physics. The thing emerged from
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