After The Altar Falls Novels & Stories

Sideways. Her heel met empty air. The world dropped. The altar edge flashed past. Stone. Then nothing. The Chasm opened beneath. The offering pit. A dark mouth in the bones of the cathedral. Stories had called it symbolic. She didn’t anymore. The faces above shrank as she fell. Dimitri was the last one she saw. Standing at the edge. Looking down. Then he was gone. Now. Air punched at her from every side. Tears squeezed from the corners of her eyes.

Now, he opened all his broad and dashing wings. "Are you all right, Anggi?" asked Dimas very worriedly and helped me up. Apparently, I was unknowingly startled and fell to the ground. "It's fine. I just fell down." I took his outstretched hand and stood up. Then I noticed that several whirlwinds were reaching the ceiling outside the altar. "We'd better get back to the surface. I have a bad feeling." "Good idea!" Dimas and I rushed out of the altar and into the hallway where we came from. It was pretty far from the altar. I had to cross a vast plain to get there. As soon as I reached the field's middle, my body shuddered in horror.

Each holding something different in their arms: a book, a blade, a child. I reached the altar. My body bowed without command. Hands folded in front of me. And then— I heard the final verse of the song: > “The bride must break. The bride must bleed. The bride must bind the line in need.” And with that— My knees buckled. The stone beneath me cracked. And the floor gave way. --- I fell. Down, down—through black air and red mist. I didn’t scream. Because some part of me remembered this.

Dylan called, his voice strained. Nicola’s voice rose, the final words of the counterspell echoing through the clearing. The altar’s runes flared brightly before shattering like glass. The stone cracked, and a deafening roar filled the air as the altar collapsed. The creatures recoiled, their bodies disintegrating into ash as the altar’s magic faded. Nicola collapsed to her knees, her energy drained. Dylan was at her side in an instant, his hands steadying her. “You did it.” Damien and Dean approached, their weapons stained but their expressions triumphant. “Second down,” Damien said. “How many more to go?”

Ajal spoke those words sadly, and strangely enough… I felt a sudden wave of regret, frustration, and sharp pain rushing through my own heart just from hearing about it, as if I were feeling the echoes of their suffering myself. "What exactly happened to them?" I asked unconsciously, the question slipping out before I could stop it. He moved closer and placed his arm gently around my shoulder, looking down at the city lights below us before speaking again. "That angel paid the highest price possible for his disobedience and his love," he recounted slowly. "His beautiful wings… they were cut off completely, severed from his body as a punishment. He was rejected from the kingdom of light and th

The sender was anonymous. I guessed it was probably a former colleague still bitter about Trehill, or someone wanting to see Daniel humiliated. I stared at the photo for a few seconds. There was no satisfaction or pity, only a near-calm indifference. The mountain that once crushed me had long since eroded into a heap of dust by the roadside, unnoticed. And I had crossed that mountain, now seeing a wider world beyond. I hit delete and blocked the number. Some images aren’t worth keeping, just like how some people didn’t deserve space in memory.

I didn't have a room. "Skylar!" Hearing his voice had my heart racing with fear, I walked down the stairs to meet him in the hallway. There was a door under the stairs, probably to the basement which is where they made me sleep last time. My step-father stood there with the door open. Suddenly he shoved me and I slipped, falling down each step. Rolo barked and growled at him, earning a kick for himself before he too got locked in the basement with me. I swear I heard him lock it with a key. There were three lights down here, they were fairly dim, the floor had been carpeted thankfully, a single mattress lay in one corner of the room no bedframe, a dog bed next to it with the dogs food and wa

It felt like something I had to remember how to do. Then the nurse stepped out. And the door closed. There was a loaded silence this time. It’s the exact moment before something serious that cannot be reversed happens. I looked down at my hands again. My fingers were shaking slightly now. Just enough to notice. I didn’t speak. No one did. Even Clara stopped whispering. Even Daniel stopped shifting. Even Maya stopped moving. We were all just waiting. For the same thing. The door opened again. And I felt it immediately.

"I would rather throw my food away than feed him my cooking. He hurt you because he is jealous of you. I wish I could just stab him!" My heart felt as if it were being violently torn apart as a bitter tang spread across my tongue. I couldn't believe that Natalie actually wanted me dead. I guess she'd just struck gold because I was dead as she wished. My soul drifted out from that boiling pot. I turned back to give my final resting place one last look and saw that the surroundings of the pot were overflowing with blood foam. There was also a huge metal weight pressing on the lid. Apparently, they had taken steps to prevent me from climbing out.

Jenefer ignored that feeling, telling herself that she should be enjoying instead of worrying, but by the time they went on their separate ways, that feeling worsened, to the point that it made Jenefer uncomfortable. She was walking along an alleyway towards her house when she doubled over, the feeling that followed was the strangest of all, it felt like all the living daylights were fading off from her as she fell and the ground grew closer and closer. And by the time she was on the ground, she was already a goner. - Camera shutters were heard from left and right as flashes lit up the night. The police were bustling around, trying to keep the onlookers and the journalists at bay and to prev