A Tattered Web Novels & Stories

It wasn't like the zipper would listen to me anyway. "Everything alright in there?" I could hear it. He was amused and slightly intrigued. It would take this, to get his attention. "Perfectly fine," I snapped and groaned when another failed tug left me with a skirt still intact. This was my karma for touching my butt. Now my skirt was attached to my bottom and didn't want to get off me. Suddenly the blinds tugged aside and a huge frame fits himself in the small little dressing room. I jerked away, staring at Kade through the mirror's reflection. He was really tall.

They’d been trying to erase this place. I shifted back into my human form. The others followed. Roman slowly walked toward one of the burned trees. “This wasn’t natural.” “No,” I agreed quietly. I crouched near the remains of a massive web. The silk had melted into black strands. Someone had burned everything they could reach. Raiden stepped around what looked like the remains of one of the giant spiders. Its body had long since dried into little more than a brittle shell. “There aren’t many left,” he said.

"The remaining eight fragments are trapped in corrupted worlds I can no longer access. My clearance expired when I ceased being a player." They stopped before a wall of flickering orbs. Unlike the others, which pulsed with steady, preserved light, these trembled at their edges like wounded animals. Within each, a world in decay—code bleeding into static, hazards spiraling into incoherent chaos, landscapes dissolving into ones and zeroes at the margins.

*Tanner* The acrid smell of smoke mixed with the scent of charred wood hung heavily in the air, clinging to my lungs like a dense fog. The pack grounds were unrecognizable. Once a vibrant hub filled with laughter and life lies in ruins, silhouetted against the pale morning sky, an ash-covered graveyard of memories. I stood at the edge of what used to be the central meeting hall, a gaping maw of darkness where laughter once echoed. The flames had devoured it, leaving mere skeletal remnants that told a story of destruction far deeper than mere buildings.

The sight of it felt like falling under the deepest hole where escaping was nearly impossible. The man smirked. He raised his almost intangible hands, dark mists surrounding them. As the web glided toward him, a sorrowful tune orchestrated, its vibration dancing in circles around Z’s body till she sat upright, her eyes still closed, both her hands raised. When the web touched the man’s hand, the silver thread knotted in the air, its thickness smashing to the mirror. Cracks slithered from it and a dark beam flashed through. It took a moment for the cracks to fill each of the gaps. The moment it did so, the sound of breaking glass echoed as its fragments exploded in the room, its sliver stabbi

​The world vanished. ​He wasn't in the Shallows anymore. He was standing in a field of grey ash. In the distance, he could see the "Symphony"—a massive, beautiful web of golden threads stretching across the sky. But the threads were being choked by violet vines that pulsed like veins. ​At the center of the web stood Cyrus, a giant made of flickering code and ancient Sterling pride. ​"You've come to play the hero again," Cyrus’s voice boomed from the sky. "But look at your threads, Kael. They’re so thin. So fragile."

"The 'Creditor' didn't just infect the grid. It left 'Hard-Anchors' in the physical architecture of the city. There are 'Pockets of the Past' that refuse to 'Sync' with the 'Spring'." Avery Vane-Thorne walked to the desk, her indigo-silk robes trailing like a river of twilight across the Persian rug. She didn't look at the key. She looked at Dominic’s hands. The "Resonance-Scars" on his knuckles were glowing with a sharp, agitated amber.

The filthy floor was stained with dark, dried blood, and the walls were lined with deep scratch marks, as if someone had unleashed their agony there. Dylan couldn’t begin to imagine it. The former Todd heiress, once accustomed to a life of privilege, was now living in such conditions. It was like the air got sucked out of him, and he struggled to breathe. Tammy tried to stop Dylan, but it was too late. She hung her head low in guilt. When Sarah was brought back to the house, Dylan had given Tammy specific instructions. “Sarah will always matter most to me. She deserves respect.” Overcome with rage, Dylan gripped Tammy’s wrist.

I could nearly hear the eulogy now: Artemis Vincent, dead at 22 because she was too virtuous to swipe a watch left behind by some rich guy. A bitter laugh escaped my lips. Of course, with therapy, that would be nice; if only that were an option when the bills needed paying. One last glance, and I swiped the watch, pushing it deep into my pocket. "Good job, Artemis," I muttered under my breath, "You've earned yourself a burger—Starbucks, here I come—” "THIEF!"

Hello readers, thank you for following the story so far. The plot is about to take a dark and intense turn. I made an effort to incorporate the elements of a dark romance, danger, suspense, and maybe a bit of romance. Keep in mind that the title of this book is “TAINTED LOVE” (A Dark Mafia Romance). What is the first thing that comes to your mind? If you believed the book was dark in the previous chapters, well, it has just intensified. LOL.