For The Shattered Things Novels & Stories

My pulse thrummed, a war drum calling me deeper, pulling me toward Leo. The Crystal Society palace stretched ahead, a cavern of ruin where my grandfather once greeted the powerful and the damned. I stepped inside, boots grinding against shattered glass, and caught my reflection in the broken crystal mirror - a million jagged pieces staring back, each one a shard of me. My face splintered into chaos, eyes hollow, mouth twisted, as dilapidated as the walls around me. I pressed a hand to my chest, feeling the steady thud beneath my ribs, and wondered how something so whole could feel so fucking fractured.

He can’t even find a shoulder when he’s shattered, when he’s mourning. “I’m sorry," I said again, fighting back my tears… He frowns harder. “What the hell are you sorry for?” “For not seeing any of this before today.” I point at the bottles, at the frame, at him, but my hand feels slow, like it’s moving through water. “You look like complete shit, Steve. Not the normal tough-guy look you always have when you’re trying to scare people or fuck me. The real broken kind of shit.

she cried again. Her voice became a tether between them. He latched onto it, each cry fueling his will. The distance between them closed slowly, agonizingly. But Marcus was not finished. He stepped back toward the shard, placing his palm against its surface. The entire fortress shook as the shard unleashed a violent pulse. The floor cracked, the ceiling groaned, and shadows erupted like a flood. They filled the chamber, twisting into forms both monstrous and human, hollow-eyed figures with claws, faces frozen in eternal screams.

The crystal spreads to my fingertips-cold, beautiful, *dead*. "No." I tear free, shattering the shard. --- **The Shattering** The cavern collapses. Eden screams, the crystal fracturing, his scars reappearing as jagged wounds. The Keeper wails, her form dissolving into shards. "What did you do?!" Eden roars, clutching his bleeding arm. "Saved you," I say, pulling him into the chasm's void. We fall. --- **The Aftermath** We land in a desert of black sand, the sky a swirl of dying stars. Eden's scars are raw again, the melody in him a discordant wail. He doesn't look at me.

she snapped her fingers dramatically. “You’re already a problem, Lola. Just not the academic kind.” She flipped her braids like a diva. “Exactly. Balance is the key.” The fan above us groaned as it turned slowly, like it too was tired of this routine. I let my eyes scan the room. Desks were scattered with wrappers and books half-unpacked. Chalk dust floated through slanted sunlight. Everything looked familiar and slightly drained. Like we were all waiting for the real term to begin.

~ Liana ~ The café buzzed with its usual energy. The rich scent of freshly brewed coffee and warm pastries filled the air, but honestly, I barely noticed it anymore. It had been three weeks since my world had fallen apart. The scandal that once dominated the news had faded, slipping from the headlines. Yet, the whispers and sideways glances remained. People still recognized me. Customers would exchange quiet comments, thinking I was too preoccupied to hear. I put on a calm smile and focused on my work—pouring coffee, balancing trays, wiping down tables. Each movement was intentional, careful, and controlled.

"What? Do you think I'm making this up to scare you?" The warm light from above cast a slanted shadow on the edge of the table. He stared at me, and for once, didn't rush to deny anything. "You broke up with me…because of this?" I almost laughed. "Does it even matter now? Even if I were healthy, I never would have lasted long enough for you to finally turn around and look at me. I overheard your friends talking. Apparently, I wasn't even someone you'd be willing to settle for. I used to think we'd actually make it to the end."

Lucas shouted, his voice breaking through the confusion and chaos. But it was too late. The binding had failed. The altar cracked open completely, and from the shattered stone poured a wave of shadow, washing over Clara and the others. It was as though the very fabric of the world was tearing, and everything they had fought for was unraveling in an instant.

"…shattered. More than before." The raw vulnerability in her words, the fear laid bare, shattered something inside me. It wasn't anger. It was a profound, gut-wrenching understanding of the damage I'd done. The trust I'd annihilated. She was giving me everything, stepping off the cliff, and her only safety net was the terrifying belief that this time, I wouldn't let her fall.

He picked up his phone and hurled it at the wall so hard the screen shattered completely. Then he stood there in the wreckage, broken glass, broken mirror, broken phone , chest heaving, hands shaking. Then something shifted in his eyes. Not anger anymore. Something worse. He looked down at the broken mirror pieces scattered across the floor. Picked up one jagged shard slowly. Turned it over in his hand. The edge caught the light. He pressed it against his wrist. Not deep. Just enough to feel something real in a moment where everything else felt like it was dissolving.