First Stoplight Novels & Stories

He was gasping for breath and looked exhausted. The crowd heard some sort of crackling sound as the obsidian started to light up which made the crowd's eyes widen in awe. “One light! Two lights!” The lights paused for nine seconds before turning off. The first light dimmed one second before the third light would light up meaning that the young man’s result was two lights at nine seconds. One second more and he would have qualified for the test.

My tires lost grip for a split second, and the back end of the car fishtailed before catching traction again. I didn’t slow down. I couldn’t. I gritted my teeth, eyes stinging. I was breathing hard, not even realizing I was crying. Then— A flash of red ahead. A stoplight. I hadn’t seen it until it was too late. A delivery truck crossed the intersection. I saw the side of it appear like a wall, way too close. I slammed both feet on the brake, tires screeching, the car screaming in protest. Time slowed. My headlights lit up the side of the truck.

Suddenly I just was not scared and sad anymore but instead, I started to feel relieved as if I know for sure that I've really got this. "Thanks, Dad," I said, with a smile that screamed nothing but gladness. Not for his advice but for him. "I didn't do anything. It's you that made yourself believe that you can do this. But now, please do me a favour by going inside and calling your mother and your brother. We are running late. Virginia is two hours away and we have to reach there by one latest and it is already nine fifty-five."

No wonder I had given up entirely and walked away. He could not bring himself to go home. He was afraid that the moment he stepped inside, he would see me on that stretcher again, covered in blood. Every corner of that house was soaked in guilt. He sat alone at a bar and drank until he could not see straight. Meanwhile, I had landed overseas with my son Adam and immediately contacted a lawyer. I transferred the shares that Jasper's grandfather had left in trust to my own name and hired a nanny and a nutritionist for Adam.

He was lost in his thoughts when he suddenly noticed that it might be taking a little longer than normal. He blinked a couple of times to pull himself out of his daydream and looked at the traffic light, which was still glowing red, bright and unmoving. Minutes began to pass, but the light didn’t go away—it didn’t change. Maybe the light was broken. So he prepared to move forward, but a motorcycle stopped beside him by the driver’s door, and another pulled ahead and cut across in front of his truck.

We didn't let the darkness win. END OF VOLUME ONE

I set the photo on fire with a lighter, and I watched in silence as it turned to ash. ... In the days that followed, I kept my tears and tantrums to myself. Slowly but surely, I let out the news and proof of my dad ditching his first love. Seeing him run around like a headless chicken gave me a twisted sense of satisfaction. By the time I left Cascade City, Rebecca and Nash's world had crumbled. The day before I took off, Calvin showed up at the Smiths'. "Heard you're heading to Zephyr City," he said, his voice so flat I could not read him.

Megan replied. "Ohh, but you won't even shift before I can rip you apart" he replied He went in for the first strike but Megan immediately blocked his blow. James who had already shifted came out of nowhere and tried to get a shot at her but just as planned, I defended her by deflecting his attack. I shifted and threw him back about 5 feet. He landed on top of one of the poles surrounding the stadium and was impaled. Unfortunately for him, the tips of all the poles were coated with wolfsbane. He died immediately.

They carefully loaded James into a waiting ambulance, Alex monitoring his vital signs, May scanning the surroundings for any sign of danger. As they pulled out of the garage, the digital world around them seemed to be unraveling. Streetlights flickered erratically, plunging entire blocks into darkness, then blazing back to life with blinding intensity. Traffic signals blinked red in all directions, creating a cacophony of honking and near-misses. The city was descending into chaos, a digital puppet show orchestrated by Zero's malevolent hand.

I spontaneously turn to the traffic light. “Aubrey, stop! It’s not green yet!!” I shout at her. She stops in the middle of the road and turns around. “Why do you care?!” I can’t quite hear her because of the loud blaring noise from the honks. When I see a car running towards her, my body reflexively lunge to her direction. After that, everything turns black. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable