90 Results in the "Burned Cover" category
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Erika’s good mood did not last long. As if attracted by the fight with the pale-tattooed man, flocks of metallic birds swarmed overhead. If there had been a sun in this place, they would have blotted it out. As it was, Erika didn’t know why she could see with no obvious source of light and, frankly, did not care. “Reload!” Erika shouted, passing her spent gun to one cultist whose name she still had not learned. They took it from her and passed her a loaded gun in return, which Erika snatched up,…-
321.4 K • Ongoing
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Erika Walker is a young woman with a bit of an odd family. Her little brother can coax minutes to stretch or snap like rubber bands and Erika has yet to come across something she cannot break. Erika has never seen her father before and her mother… Well, her mother isn’t exactly her mother anymore. The woman looks like Leah, sounds like her, but…
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Chapter
01 – Flipping the Narrative
“I’m standing here live in Millennium Park, where crowds have gathered behind police barricades around The Bean. This is one of several locations in Chicago and its surrounding area where what can only be described as enormous, metallic-feathered birds have taken up a perch.” Erika paused, dropping a heavy weight, as she watched the camera pan off the reporter. The curved chrome of The Bean reflected dozens of people gathered around the artistic sculpture, all holding phones up to record. As the…-
321.4 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…-
321.4 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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321.4 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,…-
321.4 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.…-
321.4 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
24 – The Maggots of Myrk
It only took six hours before things went to shit. “That’s the twelfth cop car that’s gone in the opposite direction from us,” Daniel commented as Leslie pulled his oversized truck off to the side of the road, making way for the emergency vehicles. “Thirteenth… fourteenth,” he added as two more blazed through an intersection ahead of them. Erika watched them go, eyes drifting up to the turbulent column of smoke stretching up to the clouds. Leslie started pulling back into the street,…-
321.4 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
23 – i – The Hermit
Tucked away in the heart of Hyde Park, concealed behind a nondescript brick façade, Ren lounged in her small slice of paradise within the otherwise chaotic city of Chicago. To the uninitiated, it appeared as little more than an aging townhouse, but to those with the right eyes—or the right introductions—it opened a door to a whole other world. The heavy scent of incense hung in the air, mixing with the violet smoke that wafted from her long pipe. Carefully cultivated flowerpots hung throughout the…-
321.4 K • Ongoing
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Layer by layer, sense by sense, Erika felt herself peeled apart. Sound went first: the gunfire, the shouts, the screech of metal birds all stretched and warped, then snapped into a cacophonous silence. The bridge, the van, and her allies smeared into streaks of color, then into impossible geometries—shapes that hurt to look at, their colors did not exist. Smell and taste followed, but not quietly. The spiciest curry paled compared to the taste of reality. A violent explosion of every taste at once…
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321.4 K • Ongoing
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