The Ruins By Scott Smith Novels & Stories

Trees bent away from me, branches curling like they were trying to hide a scream. Ash rose in spirals from broken roots, from bones turned to cinders, from cities crumbled to dust. And above it all— The moon. Shattered. Its pale face cracked like a skull, silver fire spilling into a bruised sky. Every fracture pulsed as if it were alive and dead all at once. A wolf howled. Low. Guttural. Not mourning—furious. The stars blinked out. One by one. I stood barefoot in the ruins, clothed in nothing but fire and shadow.

And there Ruin goes, making me forget about my problems, if only for a second. *** Sitting in the back seat of the SUV, the memories of the afternoon in the meadow bring a smile to my face. Ruin, with his rough exterior and gentle heart, had a way of making me forget the world, forget the anxieties that lay waiting back at home. The warmth of the sun, the gentle breeze, his laughter mixing with mine—it was a respite I didn’t know I needed.

My muscles lock, the throbbing pain fading as I watch his finger dance over the trigger. “You’re wrong.” he looks at me. “Let’s say you did destroy all the rings, X. Let’s say you accomplished what you’ve set out to do. Do you honestly believe, for one second, it’ll stay that way? Ha! The second the dust settles, evil will already be rebuilding their empire, this time stronger and better than before.” he stares at me as if I'm delusional. “You'll never get rid of evil. Never.”

I muttered the words under my breath as I touched my face with a hand. It'd been over seven years since I was involved in that fire accident, however the burn had scarred my face. I tilted my face to the side to get a better look at the scar. It made my skin appear like a crumpled piece of paper. I'd tried to hide the scar by wearing a make-up, but it was still visible as though I did nothing. “Argh!” I yelled, and smashed the mirror on the tiled floor. It shattered. I leaned my back against the wall and buried my face in my palms as I began to sob. Before long, my mother stormed into my room.

“They’re useful for things like... math.” “Math is boring without a little chaos, Ethan. That’s your problem. You want everything to be a perfect 90-degree angle. But the world doesn't work in 90-degree angles. It curves. It breaks. It leans.” Liam leaned forward then, resting his elbows on the table. The space between them vanished. “You’re the structure,” Liam whispered, his voice cutting through the roar of the bar. “And I’m the light. You can build the strongest walls in the world, but without the light, it’s just a tomb.”

"Oh, Eleanor, you think you're so above it all, don't you? Mrs. Jackson, huh? Well, tonight, I'm going to shatter that image of yours! Let's see if Roman will still want you after he sees what a mess you've become!" I was flung onto the icy carpet of an empty room with a thud. One of the men snickered vilely as he started to unbuckle his belt. The thick smell of booze and body odor assaulted my senses. Despair washed over me like a dark, suffocating wave.

I can only hope she’s still alive. I force a smile that I have no doubt looks sad at Aunt Maerra. “I will make it out alive and come back to get you out of here. I promise.” “Focus on yourself and survive.” Her hand squeezes mine. — The auction room reeks of power and decay. I step inside and my stomach churns instantly. Omegas and slaves are lined up on a raised table- some naked, some barely covered, displayed like objects waiting to be claimed. Men in expensive suits circle them slowly, their eyes nothing short of predatory perusing.

My love is Eliot I will just bury in oblivion, because I know that no matter what I do I will still be defeated in the end, I do not want to hurt my heart again that long crushed. I also think to appreciate the love that cleopard gives me, I know, in the end cleopard will still be my end. I wiped the tears from my eyes before thinking of leaving this place, when I got out of that dark place I thought of not going back to the Hamilton mansion and just going back to the orphanage.

I walked away from the workstation, my boots echoing softly, and went to the large, grime-streaked window at the far end of the warehouse. Outside, the Ruins were a landscape of skeletal steel and broken glass, illuminated by the sickly orange glow of the city’s distant perimeter lights. Rain had begun to fall again, a fine mist that clung to the windowpane, blurring the jagged horizon. It was a world in pieces, much like the one we were standing in. I felt Dante’s presence before I heard him. The air behind me grew warmer, the scent of rain and iron and something uniquely him wrapping around me like a shroud. He didn't touch me, not yet. He just stood there, watching the same broken world I

"Oh, she did? sorry, I'm just throwing assumptions. I must've misheard her." Rachelia slightly frowned and was about to ask more, but then they arrived at the ruins deep inside Mt. Alnath. The ruins were well lit by magical amber lampposts, but it was too quiet when it should've been lively with mythfolks living there. The three Scions looked over and found the ruins were empty and its makeshift doors broken down. Mell scratched his beard and shook his head. "Man, look at this place. I could've make it a thousand times better had the Hymnchanter asked me to."