Brass Monkeys

''Je n’aurais jamais dû croiser son chemin. Un seul regard, et ma vie a basculé dans un monde de passion interdite, de secrets dangereux et de choix impossibles. Maintenant, il ne me reste qu’une seule certitude : il m’embrassera… ou il me tuera. Je m'appelle Émilie Moretti. Je pensais mener une vie paisible, loin des affaires sombres de mon père. Mais tout bascule lorsque je suis enlevée par Vittorio Romano, un mafieux déterminé à venger la mort de sa famille… causée par le clan Moretti. Entre haine et désir, notre lien devient un mélange dangereux de passion et de trahison. Vittorio lutte entre son besoin de vengeance et l’amour naissant qu’il éprouve pour moi, la fille de son ennemi. Quant à moi, je vais devoir choisir : suivre mon cœur, ou renoncer à l’homme qui pourrait me sauver… ou me détruire. Quand la passion devient plus forte que la mort, l’amour devient une arme. 🔥

J'avais oublié de ramener la maîtresse de mon compagnon, la laissant seule dans la nature pendant trois heures. Fou de rage, il m'a jetée dans un vieux puits abandonné, en pleine campagne. « Toi aussi, tu dois goûter à la souffrance qu'a endurée Ria. » Le puits, profond et étroit, m'obligeait à me recroqueviller sous ma forme de louve. L'air me manquait. Je lui ai demandé pardon, j'ai supplié qu'il me sorte de là — mais tout ce que j'ai obtenu, ce sont ses reproches indifférents. « Repens-toi comme il faut. Il faut que tu comprennes, une bonne fois pour toutes, les responsabilités d'une Luna. » Il a ordonné qu'on scelle l'ouverture du puits avec une lourde pierre. J'ai hurlé, désespérée. Encore et encore, j'ai essayé de grimper, mais chaque fois je retombais. La paroi du puits s'est couverte de traces de mes griffes, témoins de ma lutte acharnée. Jusqu'à ce que ma gorge, brûlante de soif, ne puisse plus émettre le moindre son. Deux semaines plus tard, en découvrant le cadeau d'anniversaire que j'avais commandé pour lui, son cœur a flanché. Pris d'un élan de remords, il a décidé d'enlever ma punition. Mais il ne savait pas qu'au fond du puits, mon cadavre, déjà dévoré par les vers et les serpents, n'avait plus rien d'humain.

In June of 1975, Ryan Baxter's mom moves him and his brother, Matt, to the small seaside town of Bayport, MA to escape their abusive father. For an eleven-year-old, spending lazy days hanging out at the beach and the arcades sounds like a dream.When he meets Leah and she agrees to be his girlfriend, Ryan is happier than he's been in his young life. Then the "Sea Monkeys" knock-off he bought from the back of a comic book starts to grow...and grow and grow.©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Just when things have been doing good for Hailey, her life is changed by single gunfire. It was the night after the top of the criminal organization jumped from a building, and because of this, the top brass of the criminal organization have been scattered in different parts of Manila. Hailey just happened to walk past by a convenience store when she saw a short-haired man in a three-way suit killed someone by simply being on their way. Since Hailey is a witness, the man whom she saw murdered someone cannot just let her go, and the next thing she knew, she was lying down in a king-size bed and as she looks around the room, a long-haired man is sitting right across her direction while siping at the glass of bourbon he was holding as he reads the newspaper with a gun as his reading pointer.

` It was a cool, breezy and stormy night. Rain came down in sheets, as a dark figure stood before a house. The house was pretty ordinary, white with blue shutters; it didn't have more than two bedrooms. It looked like a cozy little family home with flowers and shrubs lining the front lawn, and then the smell from the pellet stove smoke invaded his nostrils. He took a deep breath and pulled out an old, rusted compass from his black trench coat. It looked like it could have been from the 14th century, the small, brass disc was dented and the Victorian designs were faded. He studied it as it pointed east, towards the small house. He looked the house over carefully, looking for the best entrance, before proceeding towards the side to gaze into the window. Inside you can see the small kitchen; the brand new, all black appliances off set the linoleum floor. Cabinets filled almost every wall of the small space that made it look more crowded than it should have been. The kitchen opened to a larger room which seemed to be used as a living room and a dining room all at once. The whole house looked crowded, with the furniture in the living room all touching except for a small gap to walk through and the dining room was so close to the sofa, it could have been sitting on it. He stepped back into the shadows as he watched a young couple enter the kitchen. The wife was tall and slender, had strawberry blond hair formed around her face accenting her jaw-line and her deep blue eyes stopped your heart as you got lost in them. Her fair complexion was silky and complimented her soft face.

The Rowan estate has stood for centuries, its walls bearing witness to generations of triumph, tragedy, and a quiet, inescapable weight. Known for influence and misfortune, the Rowans guard a secret: the house is a memory vessel, absorbing the emotions and events of its inhabitants. Only one child per generation—“the one who carries it”—feels its imprint. For Jace Rowan, that child is him. Haunted by flashes of his brother Elias’s mysterious death in the sealed west wing, Jace lives with hallucination-like memories, déjà vu, and a physical sensitivity to the house’s presence. When Ava arrives at the estate, the house takes notice. Her father’s disappearance connects her unknowingly to the Rowans, and her grief fuels an emotional resonance the house cannot ignore. Objects from her past—her father’s watch, sketches of the west wing, and a brass key—materialize mysteriously before her, drawing Ava deeper into the estate’s labyrinth of memory. Jace knows the danger: the west wing reacts to emotion, and Ava’s connection could awaken truths meant to remain buried. As tension mounts, Ava and Jace confront both the house’s power and their own growing fears. The west wing does not seek to harm but to claim understanding—feeding on memory, fear, and revelation. In the shadows, a presence lingers, one that Jace fears is connected to Ava’s father. Bound by fear, curiosity, and an unspoken attraction, Ava and Jace must navigate a house that remembers, reacts, and judges, uncovering secrets about Elias’s death, Ava’s father, and the legacy of the Rowan family itself. In a world where emotion is power and the past is never truly gone, the house holds its breath—and waits to see who will survive its memory.