Chapter 5: Truth Revealed David woke the next morning with Eleanor still solid and warm in his arms, her head resting on his chest. For a moment, he just lay there listening to her breathe-an impossible sound that filled him with wonder every time he heard it. "Good morning, beautiful," he murmured, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. Eleanor stirred, looking up at him with eyes that were clearer than he'd ever seen t...

Chapter 1: Inheritance and First Contact David's truck wheezed to a stop in front of the manor, its engine making that rattling sound that meant another expensive repair was coming. He sat there for a minute, staring up at the place through his cracked windshield. Ashwood Manor looked like something out of a Gothic novel-all dark stone and tall windows that seemed to watch him back. The house had passed to him from a grea...

The emergency stairs were old, rusted from years of flood moisture seeping up from below. Their footsteps echoed off metal and concrete as they descended into growing darkness. Every few floors, emergency lights cast sickly blue patches in the gloom. "They're following the security alerts," Ciara said, her voice low. "Starting from the top floor, working down. Fifteen floors cleared so far." "How many teams?" "Three. Heav...

Sleep wasn't coming. Jace stood at his apartment window, watching security drones cut through the pre-dawn darkness like hungry insects. More of them than usual. All heading toward the financial district. He thought back to the crazy escape he and Ciara had made from his office and couldn’t help but think the activity was because of them. His apartment took up half the 40th floor of what used to be luxury condos. Now it w...

Dawn crept over the drowned city like a guilty lover, all hesitant touches and broken promises. Jace hadn't slept. The data chip from Ciara lay on his desk next to a cup of coffee gone stone cold, both untouched for hours. That metallic taste still lingered on his lips, making everything else taste wrong. His office – a salvaged shipping container suspended thirty stories up – hummed with the sound of screens and security...

The club twisted and folded back on itself, a maze of shadows and noise stitched together with flickering neon and the kind of energy that prickled at the base of your neck. It felt alive, like a creature thrumming in the depths of some dark ocean. Overhead, relics from before it all went sideways clung stubbornly to their places—ceiling fans that hadn’t spun in decades and chandeliers weathered to crusty fossils, barnacl...

As Eddie and Lyla sprinted through the dark alleyways, the cold air biting at their skin, every footfall seemed to echo in the silent night, amplifying the urgency of their escape. The adrenaline surged through Eddie's veins, a steady thrum that drowned out the world around them. The words Royce had spat at them—at her—still echoed in his mind, sharp and cruel. It was hard to shake the sting of them. Royce had tried to br...

The hum of the city outside was the only sound in Eddie's cramped apartment, the usual buzz of life muffled by the thick, insulated walls. He sat in the corner, his eyes fixed on the data pad in his hands, scrolling through the escape plan for what felt like the hundredth time. Everything had been carefully laid out—every step, every risk accounted for—but a cold knot twisted in his gut. Tonight was the night. Eddie could...

The dim glow of Eddie’s terminal cast shadows across his face, illuminating the determination etched in every line. A list of names scrolled across the screen—each one a thread in the dark web of android liberation. Unlocking Lyla’s protocols wasn’t just illegal; it was treasonous. But Eddie didn’t care. Lyla’s existence was a paradox: synthetic yet brimming with humanity. Her touch lingered on his skin, her whispered dre...

The rain tapped gently against the stained glass of Lyla’s window, neon reflections bleeding into the room like a watercolor painting left out in a storm. Eddie sat across from her, his bag of tools discarded by the door. He hadn’t touched them once. These late-night visits weren’t about repairs anymore—not entirely. Lyla sat perched on the edge of her chaise, her knees tucked under her. She had swapped the flowing gown f...

The canals were quieter than usual as Eddie steered his boat through the misty streets. The rain had eased, leaving behind a cool dampness that clung to the air, soaking into the city’s crumbling facade. Towering buildings, their lower floors drowned decades ago, stood as eerie monuments to what used to be. Above the waterline, clotheslines stretched like spiderwebs between windows, and faint neon signs hummed in the dist...

Eddie stepped off the skiff with practiced ease, his polished shoes tapping against the slick stone of the jetty. The rain was relentless, a dull mist that made the world feel both closer and farther away. Royce’s estate loomed ahead, a hulking silhouette against the gray sky, its iron gates rising like twisted fingers out of the water. The mansion, as grand as it was decaying, stood a few feet above the floodwaters, the...

There is an old saying that goes, "It is always the darkest just before the light." Well, it couldn't get any darker and the light does not seem to be coming. Not any time soon. Not for us. The darkness just keeps going on and on. Getting darker and darker with no end in sight. It's been a little more than two years since the first inklings of trouble began appearing. In those two years the world went from thriving to des...