To Shatter The Night Novels & Stories

I moved. Not toward her. Toward the remote. I knocked it from her hand as I surged forward. It hit the floor hard, skidding across the tiles. Aurora screamed in frustration, diving for it, but I was faster. My foot came down. Plastic shattered. A sharp crack echoed through the room. The screen flickered, then went black. Everything was gone, even the video. Everything I’d held over Kylie. Every threat. Destroyed. I stood there, breathing hard, staring at the broken pieces like they might reassemble themselves if I willed it.

"Leslie, the Sanders family is on the verge of collapse. I hope you can acquire the Sanders Group. As long as you give me some shares, I'll sell it to you at the lowest price!" As he spoke, Adam rubbed his hands together, the scheming in his eyes evident. I rolled my eyes, feeling incredulous. "Get lost!" Just as I was about to close the door, Adam shouted, "Leslie, you'll definitely love this gift!" "Honey, I'm really sorry! Will you give me another chance?" Wendy suddenly appeared and tried to throw herself into my arms. I quickly turned aside to avoid her, and Wendy missed. She stared at me, looking somewhat resentful.

Stella was never the type to suffer in silence—especially not when Charles turned against her for my sake. With a flash of fury, she downed her glass of red wine in one gulp and hurled it toward him. She hadn't expected the glass to shatter against the pianist's hand—the pianist the organizers had poured a fortune into inviting for the evening's grand finale. With that one reckless move, Stella humiliated the entire hosting committee. The original composition meant to close the evening now lay untouchable. No one dared step forward to play it.

And I had let her die. I started drinking. Brandy, whiskey, vodka—anything to numb the inferno in my soul. But the alcohol did nothing. I took a shard of broken glass and dragged it across my forearm. The sting of it was a relief, a different kind of pain to focus on. "Boss! What are you doing?" Carlo burst in, snatching the glass away. "Let me die!" I struggled against him. "Let me go to her!" "What about the family? Your men?"

A shadow breaks free from the darkness, moving fast, furious, the kind of presence that makes my stomach drop. And just like that, the air shatters again.

"Can it not wait? Whatever it is, it will still be there tomorrow. Now, we celebrate." He held the glass out to me. I slapped it aside. The glass flew from his hand and shattered against the wall. Whiskey dripped down the wood paneling, and shards of glass scattered across the floor. The music stopped. The women stopped dancing. The men stopped laughing. The room went silent, and everyone turned to look at us. Carson stared at the broken glass, then at me. His expression shifted from surprise to something harder. "What has gotten into you? What brought you into such a bad mood?"

How jinxed could I possibly be. I reach underneath me and take off the heels and throw it to the corner, my legs feel like Jell-O. I stagger to my front and pick up a sandal. I sit on a chair by a makeup table and begin to remove the makeup off my face with a wipe. The girl staring back at me in the mirror looks so beaten and emotionally broken, I feel like a shadow of myself. When will it stop, when would all the misery end. I wish I could go back a month, when my life was still good, when I had not heard about the death of my brother or when I had not met Thelma.

The echoes of his disappointment resonate in the now-desolate space, turning what was meant to be a haven of love into a realm of heartache and shattered expectations. The soft strains of music play in the background, a haunting melody that seems to mock the romantic intentions behind it. Unable to bear the melancholic tunes, Shane, driven by a surge of frustration, rips the speaker wires, forcefully silencing the cruel reminder of what was lost. "Our song, our moment, everything has turned into a nightmare," he cries out, the pain of heartbreak etched in every tear-streaked movement.

‘Soft the drowsy hours are creeping, Hill and dale in slumber sleeping, I my loved ones' watch am keeping, All through the night.’ Listening to the soft, loving voice, Nox finally stopped fighting his tiredness. “Goodnight, my love.”

Pulling one of the frame pieces out of the mess, I heaved it with all my strength and shattered the glass. I could get in now, but the snake could also get out. It dropped to the ground and headed for the opening, then shied back, moving slowly and gingerly. The broken glass cut at its scales. It was so desperate for food, it came at me anyway and let the glass slice it to ribbons. That gave me an idea. I picked up a particularly large shard of glass and waited.