The One Within Novels & Stories

This time— He was already inside.

It’s real More powerful than anyone’s dream Come face me within I am here Not i skies so high But within you I repeat And to repeat Is to be true Come within me Step within of me This is life This is more real Than reality You smile your eyes way To skies As if none sees How’s the world If it doesn’t see It’s believed By me By others beyond your dream You are right Calling me Through skies Comes glory Comes me To join in To rejoin you You will be redeemed Not by wealth alone That anyone can count But much more Unaccountable will grow More within you I within you Will support you In your growth For it’s me Your subconscious mind You do not dream perfection This time This time you live in it Y

Beyond time. Always.

And from within it A hand reaches through. Solid.

It landed like a truth disguised as a riddle. “What does that even—” “Stop thinking about them as separate,” he said, his hand steady against her back now, not pushing, not guiding the movement itself, but anchoring her attention. “Go inward.” Her brow furrowed, breath uneven. “Inward where?” “To your centre,” he said. “The hollow.” The word settled deep, not quite understood, but not unfamiliar either. It scraped at something ancient in her, the part that knows a word before it knows its meaning.

"He's all used-up, and you're still acting like he's a treasure? You must be really desperate! What's the difference between that incubus and a dog in heat? Someone like you should just find an honest guy willing to take you in!" Tracy Rowe was standing outside the county office with Jamie Stephenson, arguing with me at the top of her lungs. Meanwhile, Lionel Andrus, the man with an incubus bloodline, was waiting quietly to the side, holding our paperwork.

Part of me was stretched along that tear, feeling the exact point where something foreign pressed into the structure. And then, I felt movement through the break. Not a full force. Not an army. One. A single presence slipping through the weakened section.I searched my mind, trying to determine exactly where the break was, trying to get ahold of this so I could stop it. My breath hitched. “They’re inside.” The words barely made it out. Duncan’s head snapped toward the tree line. “How many?” “Just one.” I responded, my eyes closed as I continued to mentally walk the boundary line.

One heartbeat between her and nothing. If this one burns away then…

And its voice— Was inside her.

Not unsure. Just… present. Inside a place that didn’t belong to one of us. But to all of us.