116 Results in the "Burned Cover" category
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Story
Burned Cover
Erika Walker has a problem. Her mother isn’t who she says she is. An urban-fantasy set in supernatural Chicago. -
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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403.0 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
29 – i – Outside Context Problem
Reality fractured, splitting apart at the seams. It began at the macro level, with large, whole objects. The old motel’s walls shuddered as paint bubbled and peeled away in slow-motion waves. Windows melted like wax, glass pooling on the sills before the windowsills cracked and split into thousands of identical fragments. The bed elongated, stretching to fill the room even as the legs twisted and knotted together like tree roots seeking water. Light itself bent, creating pockets of blinding white…-
403.0 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
28 – That Which Cannot Die
The birds did not follow. The SUVs carried on down the new path The Emperor carved towards the mountainous terror bird, but none of the birds were interested in them anymore. They stayed clear, still dotting the red skies in the distance, back toward the bridge, but without approaching. On one hand, it meant they weren’t having to fight endless hordes off while driving. On the other, Erika wondered what they were wary of. Nya said they feared the Carrion Eater, but it hadn’t moved since…-
403.0 K • Ongoing
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“She’s still breathing—” “Get her inside, quickly!” “Rick, get me the first aid kit. Sofia, find clean towels.” “On it.” Leslie swept his arms over the table in Varn’s back room, knocking aside stuffed animals, party balloons, and packs of trading cards destined for the prize counter. Erika’s hands shook around Delilah’s shoulders as she helped Anna lift the girl up. The metal creaked under Delilah’s weight, and a few stray cards fluttered to the floor; Erika barely…
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403.0 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
27 – The Carrion Eater
The Emperor glassed four city blocks worth of the brier patch. Looking at the mountain of a bird glaring at them, Erika wasn’t sure it would be enough. It moved in a lethargic, sluggish manner, like footage captured on a slow-motion camera. Both wings rattled, shaking off more crusted remnants of rock and stone. The boulders rolled and tumbled down its feathers, cratering the ground where they landed around its feet. “Physics won’t let that thing fly, right?” “It’s a god, Rick,”…-
403.0 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
27 – Did It Work
Erika’s skin tingled and burned, rubbed raw from her scrubbing. The water running down her skin felt exquisite anyway, and yet it wasn’t enough. Two empty body wash bottles littered the floor along with three bottles of shampoo, but Erika could smell the bile and sludge. Some still circled the drain, sticking to the edges of the stream where the water pushed it aside; the stench was as strong as ever. “I think I got it up my nose,” Erika groaned, rubbing around the interior edges of her nose.…-
403.0 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
26 – The Brier Patch
Erika leaned out the window of the moving SUV, squinting through the violet glitter. She could almost see that deep red sun hanging over the distant mountain. Uncountable flickers of shadow soared over the bramble patch, doing their best to blot out the sun where the glitter failed. Armed with her bat in one hand and gun—loaded with regular bullets—in the other, Erika gnawed on the corner of her lip. “You can’t reapply this misty stuff? Cast the spell again?” she asked as she tried to figure…-
403.0 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
26 – The ______ of Maggots
“This is why I wanted napalm,” Erika hissed, staying well back from the opening. The Warrior pulled a card from her pocket, flung it toward the hole leading to what she assumed to be the Mother of Maggots, and snapped her fingers. It grew until its edges hit the walls, blocking off most of the hole. A few small gaps remained along the thinner ends of the playing card, but it would stop people from slipping and falling in. “I’m not sure I have the firepower to take out that,” she said,…-
403.0 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
25 – The Ziggurat
Black bile splattered across the steps of the ziggurat. Chunks of viscera arced through the air, flung from the end of Erika’s bat. Each turned into a projectile in its own right, splattering every maggot in the way. Grime coated every inch of her face. Erika opted for garbage clothes knowing she would end up getting dirty, but she hadn’t quite realized just how messy the night would become. Her hair felt tangled and greasy, a rat’s nest despite pinning it in a neat bun to keep it out of the way.…-
403.0 K • Ongoing
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