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    64 Results in the "Burned Cover" category


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      05 – i – Daniel King

      05 – i – Daniel King Cover
      by Tower Curator “I don’t think we’re getting anywhere on this one,” Daniel said, snapping a book on ancient death cults closed. It joined the stack of dead-end books, leaving him with only one last book to skim through. But he knew that if he didn’t find something relevant, their search would go nowhere, and he hated feeling helpless. Bethany, leaning back on the rear two legs of her chair, absently balanced herself as she scrolled down her phone. “Maybe you should figure out what you’re looking…
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      04 – A Breath of Fresh Air

      04 – A Breath of Fresh Air Cover
      by Tower Curator Erika woke with a sudden gasp, confused and disoriented. She sat on her side, just as she had been ten seconds ago. The room around her was no longer The Castle’s operating theater. The last thing she saw was The Orderly, warning her that she would feel a burning sensation in her arm as she added some anesthetic to Erika’s IV line. Erika distinctly recalled feeling a heat in her wrist. She opened her mouth to comment on it, then… The recovery room didn’t look much different from the room Erika…
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      03 – The Castle at Large

      03 – The Castle at Large Cover
      by Tower Curator The Butler towered over Erika as she guided the way through the long, empty corridors of The Castle’s asylum. Erika couldn’t be certain, but it felt like The Butler was even taller than the last time she ran into the woman. “I am sorry for not contacting you,” The Butler said, breaking a silence that had lasted since leaving the operating theater. “It wasn’t that I deliberately ignored you, just that The Director doesn’t typically bring in outsiders.” “That’s… fine? I guess?”…
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      02 – Preferential Treatment

      02 – Preferential Treatment Cover
      by Tower Curator Erika winced and grimaced every time she heard the bone saw whir. Holding a meeting over an operating table was… an experience to be sure, one that Erika didn’t feel like she ever needed. Leah had wanted her to be a doctor once upon a time, and Erika actually considered it before getting her GED, but watching The Doctor hack into Anna killed any lingering interest in the idea. It took effort to hold back her nausea. Erika forced her focus on The Director. “I trust I have you to thank for…
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      01 – A Dazed Awakening

      01 – A Dazed Awakening Cover
      by Tower Curator Erika rolled over and puked straight onto the floor for her first conscious action. The motion of rolling made her head swim and warble, intensifying the welling nausea in her stomach. She vomited again. The second time seemed to help a little, as if her nausea splattered over the old-fashioned tiles on the floor just as much as everything else in her stomach did. Slowly, Erika sat upright, trying to keep from jostling her poor, sick mind. That proved to be a mistake. Spikes of pain coursed…
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      31 – i – The Daughter

      31 – i – The Daughter Cover
      by Tower Curator Delilah staggered through the door to her apartment quarters, following after her mother. The air around them was a noxious cloud that smelled of acrid incense with a metallic aftertaste, clinging to them like a sticky, slimy film. Her shoes left burgundy stains with every step, and she couldn’t bring herself to care. “I’m taking a shower,” Delilah said. “We’re not supposed to use hot water after ten.” Delilah trudged past her mother, grinding the heels of her shoes into the frayed…
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      30 – A Surprise Visit from an Unwelcome Guest

      30 – A Surprise Visit from an Unwelcome Guest Cover
      by Tower Curator Erika checked her watch, mentally counting how long each second took to pass. Normally, time moved at a fairly regular pace of one second per second, but her watch accelerated after she broke things. Starting four hours behind real time, she had until the watch caught up to the current hour before the ripples of her power would propagate, thus becoming detectable to The Mummy. The tests with the cubes had gone on for an hour, breaking all five of the cubes during that time. She had also performed a few…
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      29 – Curse Breaking and Ghost Busting

      29 – Curse Breaking and Ghost Busting Cover
      by Tower Curator “How, exactly, do you break curses?” Erika’s eyes lingered on the scenery flying past Rick’s van as she considered her response. In truth, she did not know how she broke anything. The exploit was there, a flaw in reality that she—and she alone—could perceive. Physical things were the easiest and most obvious things she could break; Erika had stumbled across her ability to break things like security, both digital and otherwise, as well as break the more metaphysical connections between…
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      28 – Neutrality is a Difficult Path to Walk

      28 – Neutrality is a Difficult Path to Walk Cover
      by Tower Curator “Hey, Danny, think fast.” With a light, underhand toss, the small metal cube sailed from Erika’s gloved hand through the air, right to a startled Daniel, who, as reflexes dictated, scrambled to catch the flying object. His hands clasped around it, leaving him sighing in relief. For one brief moment, he started to inspect it, only to pause and look up with a frown on his face. He rubbed at one ear while looking around, turning to Rick, then to Anna. “Can you—” he started, speaking louder…
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      27 – A New Life on Lease

      27 – A New Life on Lease Cover
      by Tower Curator “Wait… we can’t spend the ten million? What the fuck?” Erika stared daggers at the duffel bag now sitting on the Walker rental home dining table. The whole ride back, Erika had been more excited about that than the whole deal with the devil, thinking it was their ticket to buying a real house again, not having to rob ATMs, and maybe slipping a few thousand to Rick until he could get the arcade up and making money—assuming it ever made money. “The money belongs to Harriet Lavender,” The…
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