City In Ruins Novels & Stories

“Dri… baby, please. I’m so sorry. I fucked up. I can’t stop thinking about you. I’m drunk and miserable without you. Come back to me. I’ll do anything. I swear I’ll—” I hung up before he could finish, my hands trembling. A second later a video came through. I opened it before I could think. The footage was from my old apartment. Carter had broken in. He was smashing things, my favorite mug, the framed photo of my mother, tearing clothes out of my closet, throwing books across the room. His face was twisted with rage. “You think you can replace me?” he screamed at the camera. “I’ll burn everything you own. Come back to me or I swear I’ll find you and make you regret it.”

His chest heaves, then he nods. There’s no time. We step inside, immediately met with chaos. The music and celebration is gone. Everything that made this place feel alive minutes ago has been ripped apart and replaced with screams. Pack members are scattered in every direction, some shifting mid-run, bones snapping, fur bursting through skin. Others freeze, paralyzed by fear as shadows tear through the room. And the null-borns—They are worse up close.

Just saw this and thought of you. Attached was a photo of a stray cat huddled under a bus stop shelter, its fur soaked and spiky, looking thoroughly miserable but defiant. I bit my lip, suppressing a smile. I typed back quickly. Olivia: That cat looks like it's plotting revenge. Jax: 100%. Probably a former navy SEAL. Don't mess with him. Jax: Anyway, how are you? I hesitated. Leo was watching me, his spoon paused halfway to his mouth.

“The one where we actually get to build something instead of just excavating what everyone else buried.” “We will,” I said. “Once this is finished.” “You keep promising that.” “I intend to keep every version of it,” I said, and kissed her there on the rooftop, the city spread out gold and indifferent below us, both of us holding onto the quiet a little longer before we had to carry the weight of Talia’s shell entity and Gabriel’s father and twenty-two years of buried arrangement back down into the world waiting for us at street level.

At the sight of me staring, he smiled. "Morning." "Morning." "You slept at all?" I laughed softly. "Not really." "Same." His smile disappeared. We didn’t speak about the unspoken thought, too much was on our minds, and too much lay ahead of us. It wasn’t long before the rest of the group was awake as well. Matthew had begun examining the city down below. Ezekiel stood beside him, silently watching the old buildings spread across the valley. From up above, the ruins seemed even bigger than they had the previous night. Towers lay broken facing the sky. Crumbled walls all over the land, gigantic stone highways sliced the city, buried beneath vines.

Five Years Later Towering flames engulfed nearly a quarter of the city. Its once-beautiful skyline had become jagged and uneven and blackened with soot. Many of its tallest buildings had been turned into its largest piles of rubble instead. More critically, many of the city’s blocks had been utterly flattened by crashed warships. There was a cruiser, a handful of destroyers, and a dozen frigates all scattered everywhere. Each of them tore up massive swaths of the city and left huge craters and trenches wherever they fell.

Fires raged in the streets, and distant screams carried on the wind. Her breath caught in her throat. This was the world she had sworn to save. But at what cost? --- Descending into the city, Lena felt the overwhelming sense of despair emanating from its people. Around her, buildings collapsed, their foundations eroded by an invisible force. The once busy marketplace was now a cemetery of shuttered booths and dashed hopes, and the streets were covered with rubble. She went carefully, and the dispersed survivors hardly saw her. Their faces were gaunt, their eyes hollow.

“Grace Ruin is not their homeland.” Damien shook his head with a dark face. “I have heard about this place. It was once called the Graceland, a beautiful and fertile highland. Until the rogues took it and turned the whole city into ruins.” “So what do we do know?” Steven asked eagerly, “Shall we take our best men and go snatch the city back from that son of a bitch?” Aurora frowned with worry. She wasn’t hot on the idea of sending army out so soon.

It was a sprawling mass of stone and rubble, the remains of a once-great metropolis. Aric felt a sense of awe and wonder as they entered the city. He had never seen anything like it before, the massive stone buildings and intricate carvings testifying to the skill and artistry of the ancient civilization. But they didn't have much time to admire the city's beauty. They had to find the Sapphire Crown before Lady Danika and her warriors arrived. They searched every inch of the ruins, careful to avoid any traps or hidden dangers. They battled their way through fierce guardians and ancient defenses, using all their skills and cunning to survive.

The modern architecture that once graced the land before me was gone. "Zav..." I attempted to speak, only for my heart to shatter. As I stood there looking down on the remains of my city, I couldn't help but picture the devastation taking place. As people scattered from their homes in search of shelter. Screaming out for their pups as they tried to protect what they could as the city they once knew was destroyed.