Bleach: Can't Fear Your Own World Novels & Stories

"I remember." Fire poured from my hands into the blade. Not to destroy it. To claim it. *My blood. My pain. My choice.* The Soul Reaper screamed. High and wrong. Silas's eyes went wide. "That's impossible." "Nothing's impossible," I said, "when you stop being afraid." The blade shattered. Pieces falling like black snow.

Please God let me unsee that. I feel like scrubbing my eyes clean with bleach. I get into the Elevator and puts the buttons with trembling fingers. Shaking my head it can’t be true, No Niko, Not my Niko. “He’s a monster” With blood everywhere dripping down his face, coating his fingers, in his hair, he throws his head back and he laughs. I had never see such gruesome killing in my life before, the screams, the terror. never imagined that someone could do this. Be so mad with bloodlust. In a world of his own. High from spilling blood. I blink repeatedly hoping the sight in front of me would somehow disappear.

Not once. I had never known what it was to be loved like that, or to love like that. To live in fear of losing someone because they were your whole world. For a moment, I wondered what it must be like. A small smile curved my lips. “I guess,” I whispered, “I’m not afraid of that.” My hand tightened, and the metal storm obeyed, hovering at its apex. “Release,” I muttered. The sound rippled through the hall. Then, they began to scream.

"Or I'll come back over there. And you won't like what happens then." The threat was crystal clear in his eyes. I grabbed the brush with shaking hands, nearly dropped it because my fingers wouldn't work properly. I poured bleach directly onto the stone where the dark stain spread. The fumes hit immediately, sharp and chemical and burning. They seared my eyes, my nose, my already raw throat. Made my lungs seize up until I couldn't breathe at all. I started scrubbing anyway because I had no choice. "Harder," Carmina snapped, her voice sharp as a whip.

I didn't even know she cared that much. “I... I'm not sure, Haven. One thing is for sure though, I'm scared too. That mate bond, it's already very powerful. I am terrified of how it will be after my birthday. And hers isn't until November. And I'm still not sure...” Despite his words, he couldn't get her face out of his head.

To disappear. Maybe then I wouldn’t feel anything. No pain. No fear. No shame. A muffled thud freezes the blood in my veins. Heavy footsteps. I know who it is. The monster wearing my father’s face. My breath turns shallow, ragged. My eyes dart frantically across the room. I need something. Anything. Something to protect myself. The door swings open with a bang, slamming against the wall. I jolt violently. I force my body to move, to stand, to do something—anything—to not look helpless.

"Both of us." "I know." "What if you lose control again? What if next time there's no Kael to save me?" I had no answer. Because she was right. Kael's hand found mine. "Sophia. Look at your hands." I did. They were glowing. But not silver like Moonbane. Ice-blue like the Tear. "You're losing it again," he said quietly. "The Tear is responding to your fear. Your guilt. You need to calm down." "I can't!"

“Blame yourself. You did this to him, to me, to everyone you’ve ever used and thrown away.” Adrian blinks, thrown off by my tone. “You think the world owes you because you can’t stand what you became,” I continue, heat burning through my words. “You talk about monsters, Adrian? You built your own cage.” The room is silent now, hundreds of eyes on us. “And I’m done being afraid of you.”

I shouted, taking a step forward. The glass bridge beneath my feet cracked. A spiderweb of white lines spread out from my toes. "Careful now," Damon mocked, holding up a finger. "This bridge is made of your memories. Every step you take requires a happy thought. If you let the fear in, the glass shatters, and you fall into the ink. And trust me, nothing ever comes out of that water." I froze. I looked down at the dark water. I could see faces in the waves—faces of the people I had lost, people who had been "erased" by the Council. They were reaching for me, their mouths open in silent screams.

My heartbeat was a frantic, syncopated rhythm that Kael surely felt through the link. Kael leaned his head against a quartz pillar, his breathing a wet, rattling countdown. He looked at the sky through the archway, where the ancient aurora signal was beginning to pulse with a low-frequency hum. "They think observation is control," I said, a cold laugh ripping from my throat. I looked at the horizon where the lights of the Fear faction were tiny flickers of impending slaughter. "They haven't seen what a free wolf can do." I tightened my hold on Leo, the abrasive hum of the fragments pulsing in my marrow.