Countdown To My Death Novels & Stories

“The Council has reached its decision.” My heart thuds in my chest. “You will be executed publicly,” Adam declares. My heart shatters. My teary eyes look up at Zane, and his eyes are reddened. I swear it looks like he wants to cry for me, but he’s fighting to hold it back. I catch my breath. “How long do I have?” “Only tonight,” he reveals. “You’ll be dead by morning.” I feel like I’ve just swallowed a bitter pill. “I’d like to speak with Zane alone.”

It was then that the countdown reached the final ten seconds. [Time Remaining Until Death: 10, 9, 8…] I collapsed onto the carpet beside the couch as a stabbing agony ripped through my organs like a dozen blades cutting through them. I curled up from the pain and coughed up a mouthful of necrotic blood, instantly staining the pure white rug Samuel loved. [3, 2, 1. Destruction protocol executed.] I could feel an irresistible, violent force ripping my soul from my body the moment the system's mechanical voice dropped. Following the agonizing pain, my consciousness plunged into infinite darkness, and my soul completely vanished.

I took a slow, deep breath, letting the cool air fill my lungs. Vivian Vance is dead, I reminded myself. She is rotting in a cell. You are Baroness Veronica Vance. I looked down at the encrypted phone tucked safely inside my gold clutch bag. The red countdown numbers burned into my mind: 97:20:15:34. The clock was ticking. I couldn't afford a single mistake.

A billionaire titan, surrounded by unparalleled luxury, yet completely and utterly alone. I stare at my left wrist. The number under my skin is exactly 100. Eight months have gone by since I opened my eyes and saw myself standing at the altar where Daniel and I first said ‘I do’ before he and my family planned my death. I have three months and a few days left. Will I be able to escape death this time? Will I be able to live on as every normal person? Or would death eventually find me once the number on my wrist hits 0?

"Ms. Griffin, are you the one who scheduled the death care service?" I nodded and pointed weakly at a cardboard box nearby. "After I pass away, please play everything in this box at my funeral." After I finished speaking, my hand dropped to my side. I heard the man sigh beside me. "Ms. Griffin, you've been through a lot in this life. Leave the rest to me."

Get out–" I cut the call before the nurse finished. I had not had my fun yet. Let her hear the news. The color drained from Diana's face. The fearless look she had before vanished in an instant. "Dead? She… she is not. "That's not possible. That's not possible." She muttered to herself. I lifted the phone and smashed it against the corner of the table. The other phones, set out together, went the same way. "You hear that? Your protection just expired."

A piercing alarm echoed through the ICU as my sign of life dropped to zero. The moment my life ended, the System inside Ethan’s mind began screaming frantically. System: [Warning! Warning! The Female Protagonist has died!] [World self-destruction protocol activated! The twenty-four-hour countdown to total annihilation has begun.]

A serial killer who had been on the run for five years kidnapped my son, Fraser Robertson. A time bomb was strapped to his body. With only ten minutes left, the kidnapper gave us a final warning. "Get your forensic pathologist husband here now, or I'll blow up your only son." My mother, Daphne Vanderbilt, used every connection she had to send the city's SWAT team to the scene, ready to storm the building. My husband's parents, Walter and Helen Robertson, offered up their entire fortune to negotiate with the kidnapper and buy Fraser's freedom. I desperately called my husband, Sebastian Robertson, over and over. It took more than a dozen calls before he finally answered. But after hearing what

I clutched his jacket, sobbing so hard that I could barely breathe. “He was right there,” I cried. “I came for him. I told him I was coming, and he waited for me.” Damien held me against his chest, keeping his body between me and the infected. “I know,” he whispered. “He was only behind that door. He was so close to getting inside.” My eyes found Ethan through the glass. He was still standing there. Vanessa was behind him, and his hand remained on the lock. He had watched my father die.

They might even close the gap the old Penny’s years of indifference had left between us. But as I climbed into the rented truck, I hesitated. I knew the world was ending in five days and I shouldn’t care what anyone thought. Still, I didn’t want to embarrass him by pulling up to the Zane Group’s lobby in a rental box truck. So I drove back to Riverdale, pulled into the garage, and called Lucas’s Hummer out of my space. The sleek black armored beast appeared beside me with a soft flash of light. It was a far better entrance.