Before Midnight Novels & Stories

All four of them snap their heads toward the walls. Callum’s voice drops into command. “It’s starting.” My stomach drops. “What’s starting?” Jaxon meets my gaze with something like awe and fear tangled together. “Your shift.” I swallow thickly. “But it’s—what time is it?” Seth glances at his watch. “Six-fifteen.” Six-fifteen. The shift isn’t until midnight. Rory’s voice softens. “It’s building early.” My heart pounds. “Is that normal?”

I smiled, relaxing under his hand. Then my eyes snapped open when I remembered that by Twelve in midnight is a new day and a new year. “Is it almost midnight?” I asked, “I don't know but we should be close to midnight” Gideon answered, I pulled away quickly. I and Rylee’s new year ritual, staying on face time until midnight. “What happened? Where are you going?” He asked when he stepped out of the tub. “I have to face Rylee right now,” I said, rushing towards the shower. Gideon leaned against the wall, watching me scrub my body. While fidgeting, “Pass me the towel” I said, but he didn't answer.

It was well past midnight when Nadia stumbled into the hospital, her legs heavy with exhaustion. She had just finished her third job of the day, cleaning offices long after everyone else had gone home. Her hair was a mess, her clothes wrinkled, and her eyes bore dark circles from countless sleepless nights. The clock by the reception desk read 2:03 AM, and the hospital was eerily quiet, save for the hum of fluorescent lights and the occasional murmur from the nurses’ station.

I needed time to think, to plan my next move. “I’ll call you back,” I said, my voice cold. “Take your time,” he replied smoothly. “But don’t take too long. You have until midnight.” And with that, he hung up. The silence that followed was deafening. I lowered the phone from my ear, my hand trembling. Midnight. That gave me a few hours to figure out how to handle this without giving in to his disgusting demand.

I just hoped no one in the class would notice this or we’d be in some serious trouble. “Well everyone, it looks like our time for the day is over. I’ll be seeing you all tomorrow. I want those assignments passed in by the end of day, into my inbox. Midnight is the cut-off. If they arrive later than midnight they get an automatic zero. That means no later than midnight on the dot. 12:01 am means it’s late and an automatic zero.”

That thought was quickly tossed aside because if that was the case, the noises I made by kicking in a window aloud with my own cries and outburst from dressing my wounds would undoubtedly have been heard. Curled up between the two chairs with my face barely sticking out of my sleeping bag, my eyelids feel weighted with exhaustion and the comfort of finally being warm. The small LED lantern is in the dimmest mode, sitting on the table beside me casting a soft warm light. I usually sleep best in pitch black darkness, but am not brave or crazy enough to sleep without a light turned on while I'm inside this abandoned building at night. The last thing I remember doing before passing out for the n

I gripped her hips and fucked her with the steady, relentless rhythm of a man who had already decided the rest of the world could burn as long as this stayed his. When I finally came it was with a low groan against her spine, filling her again while her fingers white-knuckled the far edge of the desk. We stayed like that until our breathing slowed. Outside the study windows the afternoon light was already fading toward early winter dark. Elena straightened slowly. Cum ran down the inside of one thigh. She didn’t wipe it away. “Midnight,” she said quietly. “He gave us until midnight.” I tucked myself back into my jeans and looked at the clock on the mantel. 5:48 p.m.

he said. "I am tired," I said. "I am so tired of this house having another thing in it." He crossed to where I was standing and put his arms around me and I let him and stood there with my face against his shoulder and the clock on the wall ticking toward midnight. At eleven fifty nine he said quietly, "It is about to run." "I know," I said. "It is going to be fine," he said. "I know that too," I said. Midnight arrived.

The way she wouldn’t meet his eyes until he hooked a knuckle under her chin and lifted. “Midnight’s over,” he said. “It’s three-fifteen.”

“United, we shall cut into them. We’ll assemble and let them come to us. I think they will be spoiling for a fight before sundown.” Malitus looked up at him. “Why do you say that?” “Because Lammas is near, a holiday for them. I’m sure they will want to be bare assed and drunk by midnight.” Laughter chattered among the officers as the General nodded. Ralta yawned. “There’s the chance they won’t want to engage us at all.” “True,” Malitus agreed. “But I have a feeling, call it a sensation or an inkling they are going to attack.”