Tag Archives: rough part of town

The acrid smell of chemicals burned Marcus’s nostrils as consciousness slowly returned. His head throbbed, and when he tried to move, cold metal bars pressed against his arms. Through bleary eyes, he saw Kira and Thane in similar cages beside him, their faces pale in the sickly green light that bathed the laboratory. Tubes snakedContinueContinue reading ““Laboratory Terror””

The smell of antiseptic and healing herbs couldn’t quite mask the underlying stench of fear that had settled into City Hospital’s stone walls. Dr. Lexand pressed his palm against the cold window of his office, watching the shadows dance in the courtyard below. Three weeks had passed since they brought him the witness—bloodied, broken, butContinueContinue reading ““Killer and Witness“”

The dusty floor of the abandoned arena shook with each thunderous cheer as Kael’s opponent hit the spikes below. Blood spattered the wooden barriers of the kill pit, and the Crocmores roared their approval from the ramshackle stands they’d built into the arena’s crumbling stone walls. “Next!” Caesar Croc’s voice boomed from his ridiculous throneContinueContinue reading ““Gangs on the Run””

The smoke from Scarrow Eck’s cigarette curled upward through the damp air of the sewer tunnels, disappearing into the shadows that clung to the mossy stone walls like old secrets. Kara watched the thief lord’s thin fingers drum against his wooden desk, a nervous rhythm that betrayed the anxiety beneath his easy confidence. “You wantContinueContinue reading ““To Steal from Death””

The smell hit Kara first—a nauseating blend of rotting paper, mothballs, and something else she couldn’t identify. Something wrong. She pulled her cloak tighter as she approached the weathered door of Maud’s Warehouse, its paint peeling like diseased skin. “Are you certain about this?” whispered Thorne, the young cleric beside her. His holy symbol seemedContinueContinue reading ““The Sickness from Hell””