103 Results in the "Burned Cover" category
-
Chapter
26 – Prison Break
“I doubt you got visitation approval on such short notice,” Erika said. It was a bit surreal to be seated in a restaurant in the middle of downtown Chicago, happily open on Christmas Eve, while just down the road stood a tall concrete skyscraper with narrow slits for windows—the Metropolitan Correctional Center - Chicago. She had driven past it at least a dozen times, probably more, and knew what it was, but it was still just odd to be sitting here, having a sandwich, while six hundred people were…-
362.6 K • Ongoing
-
-
“They were staring and snickering and Penelope looked at me like I was crazy for knowing so much about your… your… body.” “That’s rough buddy,” Erika said without a single note of sympathy in her tone. She sat in her pickup truck, dipping chicken nuggets into sweet and sour sauce while listening to her newest phone contact rant over speakerphone. The lights were out, the engine was off, and she was parked well down the road from her house. Just around the corner where most of her truck…
-
362.6 K • Ongoing
-
-
Erika Walker stared at the Red Hot Chili Peppers poster hanging from her ceiling. She noted the four strips of masking tape at each corner were peeling away from the ceiling, losing their adhesiveness at a glacial yet noticeable rate, reminding her that she needed to replace it soon. Otherwise, she would end up with the poster falling on her while she was sleeping. Or, it would if she ever managed to get some sleep. In the last five days, since becoming aware of her mother, Erika found it difficult…
-
362.6 K • Ongoing
-
-
He adjusted his necktie as he stood in the elevator, watching the floor indicator slowly increase. Even though the building was only ten floors, the aged elevator took its sweet time. He occupied the time by picking off small bits of lint or dust from his suit—most were probably imaginary specks, but a clean suit made for a clean mind. A single chime accompanied his arrival to the final floor. Picking up the long black case at his feet, he stepped out into the old Gilmore Building’s…
-
362.6 K • Ongoing
-
-
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…
-
362.6 K • Ongoing
-
-
“Hello!” Erika called out. “Anyone home?” The aged wooden door creaked, long and squeaky, as Erika pushed it open. A darkened foyer greeted her. One musty rug sat on the floor while massive webs clung to the corners. A grandfather’s clock, frozen in time, stood just in front of a set of stairs. A heavy scent of mold hung in the air, thankfully swept away by a sharp draft that blew in from behind Erika. She stepped inside, taking in the environment. It certainly gave off a perfect spooky…
-
362.6 K • Ongoing
-
-
Chapter
17 – i – The Stalker
The Stalker pulled a dress from her closet and looked it over. Black and lacy, transparent in all the right places to be enticing. Was it too much? She held it up to her chest as she turned to her mirror. It would certainly accentuate her curves, but… It was too flirty. This was a business meeting. She wasn’t sneaking off to meet The Hanged Man again. The Stalker tossed the dress aside, lumping it in the pile with all the other clothes. Why was everything she had so slutty? It was The Hanged…-
362.6 K • Ongoing
-
-
Chapter
12 – To Value the Time We Have
Erika sat at the kitchen counter of the Walker rental house. School was out, Thanksgiving was tomorrow, which left several days without her having to worry about pretending to care. She really should just stop going—having a GED meant she wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place—but it was a decent place to meet up with Daniel, hear gossip from Kassandra, and otherwise have some amount of normalcy in her life. She certainly wasn’t getting any normalcy here. Leah—and Erika was…-
362.6 K • Ongoing
-
-
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.…-
362.6 K • Ongoing
-
-
“Why didn’t you text?” “No signal in this place.” Rick did not look happy with that response. Erika wasn’t all that happy with it either. The whole reason she had come here was to get a better feel for these ghost hunters… and to help out and maybe see something interesting, she supposed. Mostly, it was for evaluation. The fact that they had been out here for almost an hour without checking in didn’t bode well. Erika wasn’t all that happy to disparage her gender, but Rick seemed…
-
362.6 K • Ongoing
-
- 1 2 … 10 Next