Cyberpunk Flashlight Novels & Stories

"She knows your here and she's coming! She's worse than the darkness--she is the darkness!" I stumbled to a halt when his unnerving voice had all but faded into oblivion. Even though the flashlight was more trouble than it was worth, that small trickle of light was my courage. Even if it was a small piece, it broke off a chunk of the darkness. I smacked the thing against my hand a few times, hearing the batteries rattle inside. I had nearly cried out in joy when the damn thing flickered on, but the sound couldn't make it past my lips. As I took another step forwards, my vision shifted violently.

It popped free of its socket and I dropped it into the open bag at my feet. I squinted, the eye scorching light from the other bulbs making the pools of shadow beside us difficult to see. Host-less Shades stayed hidden during the lighter hours, even beneath their violet sky, but that didn't mean you wouldn't come across the occasional desperado, willing to risk everything for a shot at owning human flesh. I dropped the piece of clothing that protected the new bulb into the bag and paused, frozen by the shiver running down my spine. "What's wrong?" Aaron called from the front.

I FEEL HIS- Suddenly, the door opens. I jerk back instantly in the dak, breaking away from him just as a harsh beam of light floods the room, blinding me. “Here you are!” Evee’s voice cuts through the silence, filled with relief. “The power’s out in the entire city—we need candles.” She turns her flashlight on us. I blink rapidly, throwing a hand up to shield my eyes. “Okay,” I manage, my voice still uneven. “I think we only have a few left.” The flashlight lowers, but my vision is still spotty, shadows dancing across the room as I try to regain focus. I blink rapidly.

I scan the empty parking lot. At the other end of the room a man dressed in black comes into the light. He looks like any other man, except for the eyes. As they catch the light they glow bright gold, reflecting the light back like the eyes of a cat. The streetlight above him starts to flicker and die. Then the next one. And the next. I tap on Faye’s shoulder and that is when we see that his eyes are still glowing, even in the dark. In his hands he holds a crossbow made of light. And it is pointing right at us.

They looked like vein patterns, pulsing with a rhythmic, low-frequency light. "It’s not just in our phones," Chalida whispered, horror dawning on her face. "It’s in the infrastructure. It’s in the building." "It’s everywhere," Pim realized, the cold reality washing over her. "The entire city is the server." Suddenly, the garage lights flared, blinding them with an intense, sterile white. The hum of the ventilation system rose to a piercing whine, vibrating in their teeth. The car’s doors locked with a heavy, final thud.

When I had had my fill, my fingers edged towards the glamoured guard and I let go of the energy completely. Sharp green light filled the cramped space of my bedroom, it lit the room and pushed against the wall threatening to shatter everything in its path as it made its way to its victim like a fork of lightning. It went straight through the glamoured guard and caused him to gleam like an angler fish and shortly after, Lydia Nightshade dropped to the floor like a puppet whose strings were scraped off.

Her voice was brave, but I could hear a sharp, nervous edge to it that she couldn't quite hide. We stepped out into the freezing city rain. It felt like needles against my skin. I reached into the back seat and grabbed a heavy industrial flashlight and the iron poker I’d managed to smuggle out of the Sanctuary. I looked at the poker in my hand and felt a wave of dark humor. It was ridiculous—the heir to the Wolfe empire and a high-level Calder accountant storming a haunted skyscraper with a piece of fireplace equipment. But then again, our entire lives had been a long series of expensive absurdities.

I shouted, my eyes flashing a bright, electric purple. The silver-violet lightning shot from my hand into the machine, traveling down the silver wires straight into the open vats. The moment my Priestess light touched their network, the green tech inside the three fake wolves began to scream with a high-pitched whine. The raw voltage fried their electrical systems instantly, their massive bodies stiffening mid-step before collapsing onto the floor panels like broken machinery.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐝𝐞 The red light on the flash drive pulsed with the steady, rhythmic cadence of a slow heartbeat. It wasn't a standard storage device. The moment Valerie’s fingers had abandoned it on the dark mahogany, the silver casing had retracted its outer shell, revealing a sleek, military-grade micro-display embedded directly into the metal frame.

Leyland, gobbled his down while Sol kept her eyes on a Tea shop that was swarming with activity. Customers walked in and out as casual as it went, completely uncaring of the Triad gangsters in their midst. The 14K hung out on the outside, talking by their modded cars, sporting dragon tattoos and gang insignias on necks. Some of the members were cyborgs, modifications varied but nearly everyone had a brain CPU implant or some external augmented reality glass stuck to the side of their heads. All this was as clear as day to Sol, courtesy of her enhanced cybernetic eyes capable of zooming in at targets roughly at 100 feet.