77 Results in the "Burned Cover" category
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Erika held fast to the handrail of the subway car, watching the sparse lights outside the windows fly past. People sat around her, occupying the seats and, occasionally, standing off to the sides. They talked among themselves, listened to music with their earbuds, and generally just lived. It had been a week since that ‘gas leak’ shut down the subway, and everyone was already perfectly willing to trust that everything had been taken care of. To be fair, everything had been taken care of. Erika knew…-
279.2 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
08 – Unpressed Charges
“Yep… dragged us off to the station and read us our rights,” Rick grumbled as he sat in the back room of Varn’s, typing away on his laptop. “Good thing Leslie wasn’t there. He’s got a family to worry about.” “Excuse me?” Anna said, narrowing her eyes. “I have a mother to take care of. Leslie’s family can take care of themselves—” “It isn’t a competition, Anna. And you know Leslie would help your mom out if something happened to you.” Anna stared at the back of…-
279.2 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
08 – Uninvited Interference
Erika peered out the motel window, eyeing the cars as they moved up and down the street. This motel was a dump. The door next to hers looked like it had been in a fight with a battering ram and had only survived thanks to someone bolting a metal plate over a gaping hole. Mold clung to the air, thick and sour, around the entire block, while her room smelled of smoke. There were burn marks in the small table next to the bed—too big for cigarettes, more like the calling card of a heroin junkie. The…-
279.2 K • Ongoing
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Erika followed the navigation on her phone, turning down one of the seedier streets in Chicago. It was up north, pretty much the opposite side of the city from where Erika and Daniel lived. It was, nonetheless, the street he had given her over the phone. She drove down, frowning at every building she passed: a video rental place that looked sketchy as shit next to a store advertising clothes, shoes, erotic toys, and lingerie; a hookah lounge; and two separate tattoo parlors with signs so faded they were…
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279.2 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
07 – The Way We Deal
Erika sat in her truck, eating a sub sandwich at a parking lot just outside Chicago’s downtown. Heavy metal music blasted from the speakers, vibrating the windows and drowning out the noises of the city. It didn’t seem to matter how much she turned it up; the music still wasn’t loud enough to quash her own thoughts. Rick had sent her a text earlier—Anna was awake, though not quite ready to leave just yet. Erika couldn’t decide if she should visit. Showing up with a ‘Sorry you died, get well…-
279.2 K • Ongoing
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It was some small consolation that there was next to no traffic or pedestrians in the area of the Old St. Patrick’s Church at three in the morning. Erika didn’t want to look too suspicious as she stalked around the church, but even a priest would get an odd side-glance walking around at this hour. That said, Erika wasn’t one for subtlety. That nun was in some way associated with this church. Maybe finding Friar Tuck inside would be an acceptable alternative. If Erika could ask a question or…
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279.2 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
07 – i – The Art
What a mess. First, The Castle and The Puppet. Now this? The Art surveyed the subway utility tunnel with a vacant expression. The doll-like porcelain face she wore couldn’t emote. If it could, she imagined it would have been twisted in a disgusted snarl. At the very least, her nose would have wrinkled from the foul stench lingering in the air. Like rancid sewer pipes. The Art didn’t find it all that unpleasant, if she were being honest. It was almost… fragrant. Her senses and…-
279.2 K • Ongoing
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Varn’s felt different without anybody around. Erika spent all of a Tuesday morning tidying up around the old arcade, cleaning a few of the neglected cabinets, organizing the stock of tokens that would replace quarters, and setting out the prizes. The boarded-up windows had been replaced with proper glass, though they were shuttered at the moment; between the light coming in through the windows and the new lights throughout the arcade, more dust than ever was visible on nearly every surface. The King…
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279.2 K • Ongoing
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Erika did not panic. “The Analyst and I appreciate The Eclipse’s cooperation with this matter.” She wasn’t sure if she could panic. There was a moment, right when she heard the word stop, that she felt that spike of adrenaline. But it was gone now. “Of course. The Emperor was most invested in this project. She will be pleased to hear it turned out well.” The Hanged Man and the worn-out accountant were talking. Erika couldn’t turn her head, but neither had moved out of her view. At…
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279.2 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
06 – A Proper Investigation
“So, I call you on a Friday, and you can just come right out and hang?” Daniel shifted in the passenger seat of the old pickup, looking uncomfortable. “Sorry,” Erika said, not taking her eyes off the road. “Didn’t mean to imply that you had nothing better to do. But… did you not have anything better to do?” “My… family likes to go out on Friday nights,” he said, still looking distinctly uncomfortable. It was probably the worn seats—though the passenger seat wasn’t half as…-
279.2 K • Ongoing
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