142 Results in the "Burned Cover" category
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Chapter
10 – Finding Motive Force
Erika ground her teeth as she circled the motel for the fifth—no, sixth—time. The neon vacancy sign flickered, casting a sickly red light across the empty parking lot, making the entire area feel somehow more ominous. She couldn’t tell what was going on inside. Her eyes scanned every shadow, every movement, and all the people still standing about watching; the cold sent most of the people away, either back to their cars or, the more daring of them, back to the neighboring motel rooms. A squad car…-
487.8 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
09 – Renegade
The door exploded inward, metal shrieking as it tore free from the frame. The tattooed woman stepped through the wreckage, her face split by a malevolent grin. Her eyes, ringed with thick, bar-like tattoos, locked onto Delilah. Erika didn’t hesitate. She surged forward, bat raised, aiming for the woman’s head. The bat struck just below the woman’s eye, and Erika heard a crack of bone, but the woman stumbled slightly, and didn’t look bothered beyond that. Her eyes swiveled in her head as her hand…-
487.8 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
09 – Positive Outlooks
The Adjustment kicked back, feet taking up the armrest of a small couch. “Glad to be out of that,” she said with a relieved sigh. “Thought I was going to have to treat my poor carapace for burn damage again halfway through.” Erika stood at the window, looking out over Chicago and the lake with a small smile on her face. “I did see a few sparks.” “Empy really managed to restrain herself.” The Adjustment barked a laugh. “I’ll have to pat her on the head later.” Impassive…-
487.8 K • Ongoing
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Finding a hotel in Chicago, even on short notice, wasn’t much of a trial. A few hundred hotels, motels, hostels, inns, and bed-and-breakfasts were scattered throughout the city. Erika had no particular preference, as long as the place was clean and discreet. The kind of place she could get into with cash and few questions asked. Cash was the important bit. Perhaps it was paranoia, but after having been in a massive archive that seemed to catalog everything, from street light patterns to the mayor’s…
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487.8 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
09 – i – The Strategist
“The Prescient’s abilities continue to perplex, and the nature of The Director’s genius remains shrouded in mystery.” The Strategist leaned back in his seat, ruminating on the report he had received. While it was true that The Stalker was not particularly adept at the art of writing reports—the entire thing was written as if it were a middle school book essay—her lack of practice had forced The Strategist to develop his own skills in reading between the lines. It took some effort to filter…-
487.8 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…-
487.8 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
08 – The Dragon and the Fire
“The Sears Tower?” Erika stared up at the tallest building in Chicago with a heavy frown on her face. Of course, the shadowy organization that ran the entire city made its headquarters in the most prominent building around. She should have guessed. Headed by someone who called herself The Emperor, Erika could just picture her standing with her arms clasped behind her back, staring out over her city. “The Willis Tower, technically,” The Art said, turning the large SUV down into a sub-level…-
487.8 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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487.8 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
08 – Precaution Upon Precaution
The Castle’s lounge looked every part the comfortable venue for a posh party in the late nineteen twenties. Dark wood panels climbed the walls, polished to a sheen in the flickering incandescent light. Large portraits filled empty space, their occupants staring down with grave expressions. A phonograph on a table set to low volume put a layer of swing under the heavy tension in the air. “I am so sorry.” Anna—the real Anna—folded her arms across her chest. She leaned back on a short sofa,…-
487.8 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…-
487.8 K • Ongoing
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