Failure Frame Light Novels & Stories

He shoved his hand into his pocket, but I saw it—the skin of his palm was reddened, a thermal burn in the shape of the silver thread that had ignited on my chest. A squad of Morton security guards burst in, rifles leveled. "Master Morton!" the lead guard shouted, his flashlight sweeping the wreckage. "The power spike—we lost the Argus feed." Damian stepped in front of me, his broad shoulders obscuring my trembling form. He stood in the center of the broken glass, his navy shirt singed, his face a mask of unapproachable ice. "A faulty nitrogen regulator," Damian said, his voice flat. "The safety valve blew and took out the light. Get Dr. Vane in here to stabilize her. And tell Sarah to bring

My questions only made his face turn darker as he responded in a harsh voice, "A major fire broke out in the old district last night. It's all over the news, so don't tell me you don't know anything about it, Lieutenant Latham." Eyes wide with shock, I exclaimed in horror, "How could something like this happen? I really had no idea! You said I'm being suspected of arson. Are you saying that you think I'm the one responsible for the fire in the old district? I'm innocent! Last night, I was—"

"Pain spikes at extension." "So don't extend it. Rest it." "I cannot rest. The storm is escalating." As if on cue, the lights flickered. Once. Twice. Then they died. The house plunged into grey gloom. The refrigerator hum stopped. The electric heater clicked off. "Power failure," Cale said in the dark. "The grid is compromised." "It's a tree branch," Elion said calmly. "It happens out here. Mrs. Higgins told us. The lines are old."

The footage changed. A road. Dark. Something on the shoulder and she looked at it and her brain was slow, too slow, taking too long to build the image into something she recognized. A car. Black. The roof pressed completely flat on the driver's side. The front end destroyed. Emergency lights sweeping the wet road in long slow strokes. Red and blue. Red and blue. People in vests. A stretcher moving at the edge of the frame. She made herself look at the words at the bottom of the screen.

He pointed towards the photograph. "But the build looked similar." "Was anyone else inside the car?" "I think so." "You think?" "I saw movement in the back seat." Every muscle in my body tensed. "A child?" "I couldn't tell." The mechanic looked apologetic. "But there was definitely someone back there." "Anything else?" He thought for another moment. "The rear light." "What about it?" "It was broken." Mason immediately wrote the description down. Within minutes it had been sent to every patrol unit, traffic officer and member of the private security team.

A low, subterranean rumble vibrated through the asphalt beneath her body. Valerie blinked, forcing her heavy eyelids open. A quarter mile down the straightaway, a single, blinding point of white light pierced through the heavy curtain of rain. Then another. Then ten more. Hey! Watch the lane! There's debris on the blacktop! a gruff, amplified voice roared through a comms unit, the sound cutting through the thunder. That's not debris! Brake! Brake hard! another voice yelled, the sound of heavy duty air brakes hissing violently as a massive row of steel frames rounded the corner.

There are fractures now. Cracks that let light through.​

The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, casting everything in a harsh, unforgiving glow that made Maya's face look pale and Turner's jaw look carved from stone. I opened the file. The footage was grainy, typical traffic camera quality, but clear enough. The timestamp read 7:23 PM—the night someone had cut my brakes. I watched Turner's careful driving, the car moving faster than it should have been, no brake lights flashing when there should have been. "There." Turner's voice was tight, strained. He was watching himself drive that night, watching the moment he'd realized we were going to die. "That's when I knew the brakes were gone. See how the car's not slowing for the light?"

"How is that possible? I took all the cameras. How could anything leak online? "Where is the auction? Tell me!" The two men were clearly only spectators. They shook their heads again and again. "We heard the location won't be announced until seven tonight. The venue is random." Julian could only grit his teeth and warn them. "If I find out either of you went, I'll make you regret it." When he loosened his grip, the two men fled in panic. Only then did Julian clearly see that the livestream photos showed me being assaulted by men.

Tamara finally gripped the tiny button and pressed down on it. “Hurry!” A tiny beep sounded and Tamara stared at the audio transmitter in horror. Was that a— “F*ck! WHY DIDN’T YOU GET ONE WITHOUT A LIGHT!!!” Tamara whisper yelled as she tried to see just how visible the beeping red light would be to David when he sat in his seat. “I did! I told Axel to get one without a light,” Marco groaned. “Well, maybe you should stop getting Axel to do important stuff like this!” Tamara huffed.