Beneath The Neon Book Novels & Stories

I cannot find my way out the moment the visor is lowered and I merge with the simulation. Ellie has played me into a nightmare. Everything around me is dark and distant, as if I’m floating in space, suspended in time. I try to find my hand, but no matter how far I reach, my body is unmoving. Fear clogs my throat. My self detaches slowly until all that remains is a void. Silence and pitch blackness. ****** AIDEN I monitor the shaman’s improvement by keeping in close contact with Rheanon. I am delighted to hear that the two of them get along well, and that the shaman is pleased to have her company.

kitchen—if it could be called that—was sparse. A three-legged table, chipped chairs, a tired stove, and a fridge clinging to half-spoiled cans. Gloom seemed permanent here. Even the sunlight felt weary. I warmed a can of beans and some processed meat over the last dregs of gas while Keli whined, pawing his empty bowl. His whimpers broke something in me. This wasn't a life. It was survival, at best. Hiding, grieving, remembering. I wasn't even sure what I was holding on for. The Nortons had taken everything. They called themselves protectors—guardians of the nation—but their uniforms were soaked in blood and greed. My parents were just two more names erased in their path. We used to live on

POV: Akayda It was finally sunday night. My last night here. The neon lights flickered against the hallway walls, causing the whole place to glow purple and blue as I tightened the straps of my heels. I couldn’t believe it—after today, after a few more hours of forcing a smile, after one last climb on that pole, I would finally be done. No more Jade Firefly. No more late nights dancing. No more fake flirting with drunken men. Just… Akayda Jordan. A secretary at Knight Enterprises.

"It's alright… Just let me go, my beloved… I'm happy I can be with you in my last days…" As Anna trailed off, her sniffles muffled, and there was soon silence… No words were spoken, but there was labored breathing and bodies bumping against each other… I quietly sat in the darkness beside the window, my fingers brushing against the wolf fang necklace unknowingly. Souleater Vine? Wouldn't survive for three months? There were way too many coincidences. My eyes calm, even cold, I turned to look at the skies that were brightening outside.

He restrained his thoughts before it became a distraction until something urged him to stop. He raised his fist upwards and glanced from left to right. The storefronts around them looked weird. Of all the stores, one in particular was not barricaded. He studied it and noticed swirling darkness beneath, as if a black smog or a murky water filled it from the inside. He took two steps towards it when the glass that kept it from the outside world shattered, along with the other storefronts around and behind them. Elongated shadows streaked from the stores. Lukas noticed the white porcelain faces on the top of the six entities. He raised his aim and fired at the face of the entity near him.

Jake's Pov The chlorine smell hit me before I even opened the back gate. My stomach twisted, not because of my nerves but this particular moment. I'd been thinking about this moment for three years. Three years of Devon's dad existing as this forbidden fantasy I'd shoved into the back corner of my mind, only pulling it out late at night when I was alone. Marcus Chen. God, even his name made my skin prickle. "Yo, birthday boy!" Devon's voice cut through my thoughts as I stepped onto the stone patio. He was already in the pool with his girlfriend Emma draped over his shoulders like a wet towel. "Finally! Thought you were gonna bail."

His silence was its own kind of defiance. I, on the other hand, felt like my chest was caving in. The cold air bit at my skin, the gravel dug into my feet, but all I could focus on was how close the nearest gun was. One wrong move and— “She’s watching, you know,” Neon said suddenly, his gaze flicking to me. “She’s seeing the truth for herself. The truth you’ve been trying to hide.” Liam’s jaw clenched. “Shut your mouth.” But Neon ignored him, speaking directly to me now. “You found the book, didn’t you?”

"I should have caught you in my arms shouldn't I? "Well, I am sorry. That shit only happens in fiction." "Just stop talking already." She walked to let the curtains down after clearing her desk. It was past nine and she was still at the office. Just what happens when the book is too good. And well, when you're hopelessly waiting to see someone again. Fuck the powerful lights in here. One could be here all day and won't realize that it's late. Just like a mall. She stared at the beautiful city below which has been illuminated by the various lights for a while. It was really night and she is in here with Wilhelm.

​The "Great Hunt" had turned the surface of Neo-Tokyo into a neon-lit slaughterhouse. Above ground, the "Bounty-App" was chirping in the pockets of millions, a digital siren song of greed. But three hundred feet below the Ginza district, Leo Vane was leading a ragged procession of two hundred "Marked" shifters through a space that shouldn't have existed.

Something in him that had been carefully managed had eased a fraction when Noah had simply handed him a book and said this one has better botanical cross sections and treated his presence as a given rather than a concession. Small things. But small things were how large things started. "Go," I said to Damian. "I will handle the morning here. Call me when you have spoken to him." He looked at me for a moment with the expression he reserved for situations where gratitude was insufficient and he knew it. "Elena," he said. "Go," I said again, softer. He went. --- Noah's POV I found Sophia on the balcony at ten in the morning. She was not drawing. She was standing at the railing looking at the ci