All Chapters of Lucid Curse: Chapter 1 - Chapter 7

“SELENA COLLINS! WHERE ARE THE DOCUMENTS?!” The walls of Vermillion Cyberspace trembled like they'd heard the voice of the apocalypse. An apocalypse wearing a black suit, brooding intensity, and enough passive-aggressive rage to power a small country. Inside his glass-walled office, CEO Theo van Gogh. Yes, that van Gogh—no, not the painter, but equally dramatic. He stood like an avenging spirit of corporate efficiency. Papers rustled in fear. Coffee machines in the break room paused mid-brew. Somewhere on the 11th floor, an intern dropped his mug and whispered, “He’s summoning her again.” Cue the flustered arrival of Selena Collins—overworked, underpaid, and currently balancing exactly nine folders, two iced coffees, and the crushing weight of capitalism on her narrow shoulders. “I—I’ve got them!” she gasped, bursting through the doors like a tornado of paper cuts and caffeine. A folder instantly betrayed her, exploding in a blizzard of quarterly reports across the polished

Selena stared at her computer screen like it was slowly unraveling her will to live. The data wasn't making sense. The report was half-corrupted. Her email client refused to open unless offered blood or human sacrifice. But wors was the strange, slithering pressure blooming behind her forehead. Like a whisper made of static. Like something ancient knocking softly inside her skull. Her stomach twisted. Her chest tightened like an invisible hand was squeezing around her ribs. She blinked and gripped the desk. “Selena? Are you okay?” Nezumi’s voice floated in, concerned. Selena didn’t look up. “I’m… just lightheaded. I think the break room coffee is finally retaliating.” “Sit down and breathe,” Ericka muttered, glancing at her sideways. “We can’t have another incident. HR is already pretending to care.” Selena inhaled sharply and forced herself to stand, grabbing a thick stack of documents. She sighed. “No time. His Broodiness called for these again.” Nezumi winced. “Di

"W-Why are you here?!" Selena swallowed, her voice brittle with confusion and disbelief. Theo only blinked in response—slowly, deliberately—as though the act of acknowledging her existence required tremendous effort. She could see it plainly now: the war going on behind his eyes. His body was rigid, posture tense, like a tightly wound spring threatening to snap at any moment. Every muscle in his frame screamed that he wanted to bolt from the room, and yet… he didn’t. He stayed. And he looked so strained sitting beside her, as though invisible chains were coiled around his limbs, binding him to that awful hospital chair like some cursed penitent. His jaw was clenched. His arms were crossed too tightly. His gaze drifted to the floor, then to the IV stand, then anywhere but her face. Selena was about to ask more—demand something, maybe—when a glint of color caught her peripheral vision. She turned her head slowly, carefully, and her breath caught. Beside the bed, the table was drown

Selena didn’t know how long it had been since Theo, with all the grace of a gremlin godparent, grabbed her by the arm and hurled her face-first through a magical door like he was tossing a sack of mildly cursed potatoes. Now here she was—cheek smushed against the dusty, mossy floor of what looked like a half-abandoned temple from a low-budget horror film. Her dignity had clearly been left behind somewhere between the ER and whatever cursed GPS coordinates this shrine belonged to. “Make this shrine beautiful when I get back,” Theo had declared earlier, hands on his hips like a self-righteous homeowner handing renovation duties to a stray cat. He gave the collapsing pillars and rain-leaking roof a once-over with a face that screamed yikes. “This used to be a magical shrine. That was before Nexus went AWOL. His power maintained this whole place, and now that you’re almost officially the land god, you must do your job like Nexus did.” And just like that—poof—he vanished. Mid-s