thanh.nguyenhoang.1403@gmail.com
Stories
14
Chapters
126
Words
171.5 K
Comments
0
Reading
14 h, 17 m
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Drop. One. Two. Three. Four. Drop. I count the seconds between the hollow echoes of water hitting the stone. It is the only metric of time I have left. In this absolute, suffocating darkness, seconds bleed into minutes, minutes into hours, or perhaps days. The subterranean dampness clings to my skin like a second layer of clothing, chilling me down to the marrow. I press my spine against the rough, freezing granite wall, grounding myself in the physical pain of the jagged edges digging into my shoulder…-
11.2 K • Completed
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The cold is a living entity down here. It has fangs. It gnaws at the tips of my fingers, chews through the thin soles of my slippers, and burrows deep into the marrow of my bones. I am a shivering, violently shaking mass curled into a tight ball on the wet stone. Every breath exhales as a trembling plume I can feel brushing against my lips but cannot see. Blindness forces my other senses to overcompensate in the void. I hear the microscopic scuttle of something unseen in the corner. I smell the heavy rot…
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11.2 K • Completed
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The iron key sits on the damp stone, mocking me. It is merely a foot away, gleaming dully in the absence of the candlelight Silas took with him to the doorway. I can feel his gaze boring into the back of my skull, a heavy, suffocating weight waiting for my surrender. The cold is a violent tremor racking my entire frame. My lips are cracked and bleeding, my breath coming in shallow, ragged gasps that barely fill my lungs. If I reach for it, I concede. If I crawl to him, I become exactly what he wants—a…
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11.2 K • Completed
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Time has dissolved into a hallucinatory haze. Without the anchor of sunlight or the rhythm of a passing day, my mind begins to invent its own chaotic variables. I see erratic, bleeding bursts of violet behind my tightly shut eyelids. I hear the phantom rustle of silk skirts, the heavy clatter of silver coins, the muted, mocking laughter of my father echoing from the damp corners of the ceiling. The cellar walls seem to breathe, expanding and contracting like the ribcage of a dying behemoth. Sleep is…
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11.2 K • Completed
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When the heavy iron door finally closed again, sealing me back into the sensory deprivation of the crypt, I did not scream. I did not thrash, and I did not weep. I lay flat on the freezing stone slab, staring blindly up into the suffocating black, my chest still heaving from the ghost of Silas's crushing weight. My mind, previously fractured and chaotic, suddenly crystallized into a terrifying, singular clarity. Silas was not a force of nature. He was not a god, despite the sermons he whispered into my…
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11.2 K • Completed
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The damp, freezing cellar vanishes, consumed entirely by the violent, suffocating friction of our bodies. There is no longer a sanctum above us, nor a world outside these four lightless walls. There is only the rough, unyielding granite beneath my spine, the heavy iron cuffs biting into my wrists, and the immense, burning weight of Silas Thorne pressing the remaining breath from my lungs. Every movement is a collision of desperation and ruin. The ascetic priest, who had preached of divine isolation and…
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11.2 K • Completed
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The silence that follows our ruin is no longer the suffocating, isolating void of a tomb. It is a cocoon, heavy with the scent of copper, sweat, and absolute, irreversible desecration. We remain tangled together on the freezing stone floor, his massive frame shielding me from the subterranean cold. I trace the deep, bruising marks his fingers left on my hips, my mind unnervingly quiet. The righteous, defiant girl who was dragged down these stairs days ago is dead. In her place is a creature forged in the…
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11.2 K • Completed
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The relentless, deafening boom of heavy iron striking iron reverberates through the subterranean vault, shaking the ancient dust from the vaulted ceiling. Outside the heavy cellar door, the frantic screams of the Sanctum elders dissolve into a chaotic, indistinct roar of fury. They are battering the thick oak and iron with sledgehammers and crowbars, desperately trying to breach the tomb. But the deadbolt holds. The architecture built to guarantee a prisoner could never escape is now the impenetrable…
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11.2 K • Completed
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The safehouse is located on the forty-second floor of an unfinished skyscraper in the financial district. It is a hollowed-out shell of concrete and exposed steel, stripped of all warmth. Perfect for a war room. I stand at the center of the space, the harsh blue glow of a holographic projector illuminating the dust motes dancing in the air. Suspended before me is a three-dimensional render of the Aegis compound. It is a fortress disguised as a luxury estate, housing the diamond exchange where our target…-
12.1 K • Completed
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The Aegis Diamond Exchange gala smells like crushed orchids, ozone, and predatory wealth. The grand atrium is a cathedral of glass and steel, awash in the blinding, fractured light of a thousand crystal chandeliers. I step off the grand staircase, every muscle in my body coiled tight beneath the fluid drape of my crimson silk gown. The fabric is a second skin, completely backless, designed to draw the eye and distract the mind. The ambient noise of the room—the clinking of champagne flutes, the low hum…
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12.1 K • Completed
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