Category: Uncategorized
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A Quiet Loneliness
The city had been dressed for the holidays like it was trying too hard—lights strung between buildings, wreaths taped to office doors, music spilling from stores onto the sidewalks. From the outside, it looked warm. From inside her chest, it felt hollow. She had spent the afternoon with coworkers because it was easier than going…
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Rapture-Phase One
In the bustling streets of New York City, life hummed on as it always had—or so it seemed. Sarah Thompson, a barista at a corner café, wiped down the counter, glancing at the empty stool where Mr. Jenkins usually sat every morning at 7:15 sharp. He’d been coming for years, ordering his black coffee with…
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The House by Lake Eversong
Everyone in the town of Eversong Bay knew the lake.Bright summers were spent diving off the rock ledge, splashing each other until their parents hollered from the shore. Winters froze the water into a glassy mirror kids skated across. It was the backdrop of childhood—sunsets, secrets, and safety.Except for the house.It sat half-hidden in the…
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Transportation Corruption
THE WEIGHT OF THE LOADPART I — THE SMOKE TRAILChapter One: The Terminal at NightThe Ridgeway Logistics terminal looked peaceful from the outside—rows of tractors sleeping under sodium lights, the faint hiss of air lines settling into silence. But Marcus Hale knew that corruption rarely shouted. It whispered. It hid in the shadows of paperwork…
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What Lies Beneath Silver Peak Resort
THE INVESTIGATION — WHAT LAY BENEATHWhen the storm lifted and state investigators finally reached Silver Peak, they expected a routine missing person’s case.What they found instead was a chain of evidence that rewrote the entire history of the mountain.
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Whiteout at Silver Peak
The storm arrived faster than anyone expected.By the time the last ski lift shut down at Silver Peak Resort, the world outside had turned into a wall of white. Winds screamed against the timber walls, rattling windows and burying doors beneath drifts taller than the snowcats. No one was leaving—not tonight, not tomorrow, and probably…
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The Town of Stillwater Gap
The Town of Stillwater Gap Emma and Caleb had been hiking the Appalachian Trail for almost three weeks. They were seasoned hikers, but this trek felt different—longer, harder, and strangely quieter. Every night, they heard far-off echoes in the woods, almost like footsteps shadowing them. But whenever they stopped to listen, there was only silence.…
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The Department of Placement
The Department of PlacementFor nearly a year, 23-year-old Maren Collins had been living in a loop—wake up, check job boards, send applications, wait for rejection. She tried everything: revising her résumé a dozen times, rewriting cover letters until the words went blurry, pleading with hiring managers, applying for positions far outside anything she studied.Yet her…
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The Space Between Footsteps
Most people think being invisible would feel like freedom.They imagine slipping through crowds unnoticed, eavesdropping without consequence, moving through the world untouched by judgment.For me, it felt like disappearing from myself.I didn’t wake up invisible one morning. There was no spark of light, no magic spell. It happened slowly — a fading. A soft erasing.…
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Murder in a Small Town
In the beginning, the town said it wasn’t a murder.They said it was a terrible accident, a drunken fall in the river, a misstep on loose rock near the old mill back behind the feed store. They said the river was flooded and fast this season and any of them could’ve slipped. Except they all…
Saturday Afternoon 