Them's The Breaks Novels & Stories

She recalled claws on the edge of the examining table, the nod to no one, her own head's lethargy after someone else's battle. And out on the street now, she knew: if she stayed, she would lose it. Not today, maybe tomorrow, but the Blackwoods would have taken from her even this last piece of it. She was catching a glimpse of tears welling up in her eyes, but not for hopelessness now. For clarity. Rain swelled in waves down the street around her. Cold crept up her back. She spoke to the emptiness, her voice unbroken: "They broke me. But they will not break you."

"As long as it takes." "Takes for what?" Ethan asked. He was using his careful voice, the one that meant he was trying to get information without making the grown-ups mad. "For things to be fixed," Mommy said. "Things that got broken because of people who don't understand."

Fighting the instant spike of our connection. “Some things can’t be fixed Sai,” I take his face in my hands. Making him look me in the eye. To hear what I’m asking. “Some things just have to break. So please,” I beg, running my lips over his before I breathe the request that will change, possibly save my life as I know it. “Break me…” 31: Ayame - Break Me

Never Again 🌷 “Don't break me again I am delicate Please, don't break my heart Trust me I've been broken before…” -Ali Gatie, It's You ~•~ "It works like this, your daddy says you need to have soup, so here's the deal, every time you have a spoon of soup, you get a bonus card with a surprise in it which you can receive when you get better." I smiled, and his eyes shone in excitement while looking at his father for permission.

(Her POV, with limited His POV) It doesn’t break loudly. That’s what surprises everyone. There’s no explosion, no dramatic exit, no message that begins with We need to talk. What breaks does so quietly—through accumulation. A decision made too fast. An assumption left unexamined. A tension noticed but not named soon enough. By the time anyone realizes something is wrong, the fracture has already traveled. I hear about it secondhand. Not through urgency—but confusion. A message comes in late one evening.

The silver storm froze. Every version of Emma suspended mid-integration. The End whispered one final warning. IF YOU DO THIS… YOU BREAK EVERYTHING. Emma closed her eyes. “I already am broken.” A pause. Then softly: “But maybe I don’t have to stay that way.” The storm shattered outward. Not collapse. Not completion. Something new. Something undefined. And the moment it happened— The void beyond reality cracked open violently. The First Ones screamed. The Observer staggered backward. The Mother turned sharply.

Somewhere between my second cup of coffee and his third whiskey, the distance between us disappeared. After a while, I leaned back, sighing. “You ever think maybe we’re all just… broken people who met at the wrong time?” Tomas chuckled. “That’s the most poetic shit I’ve heard in weeks.” “I’m serious.” “So am I,” he said. “But maybe that’s what makes it work. Broken recognizes broken.” That line stuck in my chest. He wasn’t wrong. I smiled, small but genuine. “You know what? For someone who works for a mob family, you’re not half bad.”

She broke off, sobbing into her hands. Dominic clenched his fists at his sides, his nails biting into his palms. The sight of her broken and battered filled him with a rage he couldn’t place—at the men who’d done this, at himself for putting her in harm’s way, and at the entire situation as he saw his life spiral out of control. A soft knock on the door interrupted the moment, and a doctor entered, her expression sad. “Mr. Hale, Mrs. Hale, I’m sorry, but I must speak with my patient.

Fast, unexpected and brutal. “Are you alright?” Tiane asks from the bathroom door, but I can’t talk, can hardly breathe. No wonder she reacted the way she did. I broke something in her, I saw it in her eyes, and now I understand it. I keep hurting her, making stupid decisions in moments of panic. Reckless, that is what the media calls me, and for the first time, I can fully agree with them.

Her breath caught. “But breaking doesn’t always mean ending,” I continued, my voice gentler now, steadier as I managed to sniff in my snort. “Sometimes it just means we come back… differently.” She stared at me like she was trying to hold onto every word, like they might slip away if she didn’t. “There’s a saying,” I added, reaching up to wipe a tear from her cheek, my thumb lingering there for just a second, “pieces broken beyond repair that come back together can’t be broken again.”