Tunnels

Tunnels deconstructs the individual’s Romantic fascination with ‘love’ or the grammaticality of beauty. Ideally, the ‘tunnels’ in the collection are subterranean love poems from the suburban imaginary. These seemingly syntactic tunnels travel through one’s literary imagination or heterotopic dreamscapes, and while αγάπη (Greek for ‘love’) inspires these rhizomic tunnels to navigate the abysmal ‘meta-spectacle’ of gesture, language or moment of poemness, the mind like the many-colored jeepneys of Manila, where driving past roast goose restaurants in Shek Kip Mei or spotting stilt houses in Kampong Kleang, attempt to explore the transgeneric textualities of the everyday, alongside the unstructurality of time and space, the littoral and the liminal.

"Daisy Louise Harmony Thompson" is actually Marabelle Daisy Graystone, the sole survivor of the Blue Moon pack's destruction, living under witness protection. Working at Sneakz Burger Emporium under her uncle Mateo's watchful eye, her carefully constructed life begins to unravel when mysterious customers recognize her true identity. The story reveals that Viktor Bloodmoon, a rogue Alpha who once visited her family's pack, has been hunting Marabelle for years. After failing to challenge his father for pack leadership, Viktor murdered him and was exiled, but built his own rogue pack. His obsession with Marabelle stems from a potential arranged mating that was discussed between their fathers before her family was killed. When Viktor's agents find her at the restaurant, Marabelle escapes through secret tunnels with Alpha Maison of the Moon Diamond pack, who has been coldly watching over her for years. During their escape, Maison reveals the shocking truth: his wolf recognizes her as his mate, but he kept his distance to protect her identity. Further revelations show that Marabelle has been taking wolf suppressants that have been slowly poisoning her wolf spirit—a plan implemented by Alpha Logan (Maison's father) and administered by Uncle Mateo. As Viktor's forces attack, Marabelle and Maison reach the Moon Diamond pack house where they learn that as the last Graystone, she carries territorial rights to her ancestral pack lands—making her a valuable target for Viktor's power grab. The story culminates with injured Beta Dean returning to the pack house while others are still fighting, his expression showing an unsettling mixture of fury and triumph, suggesting further betrayal may be unfolding.

Elara Nightingale has a secret—she can see everyone's emotions as colorful auras. Everyone except Cain Blackwood, the mysterious man who returns to their small coastal town after ten years away. When Cain's mother starts making threats about an upcoming event called "the Convergence," Elara discovers her quiet life running the family bookstore has been built on lies. Her parents weren't just booksellers—they were magical guardians protecting the town from a darkness that emerges every 93 years when the barrier between worlds thins. Now that darkness is returning, stronger than ever. And according to town librarian Mrs. Holloway, only Elara and Cain can stop it. As magical attacks force them into hiding, Elara and Cain must learn to control their complementary powers—her ability to see beyond normal perception and his power to create protective shields. Their families have been performing a ritual for generations that temporarily contains the darkness, but it comes with a terrible price: binding their life forces together permanently. Elara's parents died trying to find another way. Now she and Cain must finish what they started—a purification ritual using a mysterious crystal called the Lens. While training together in a remote cabin, their initial distrust turns to friendship, then to something deeper. But Cain's power-hungry mother is determined to perform the traditional ritual, even if it means killing Elara. As the Convergence approaches and strange phenomena plague the town, Elara and Cain must race to decipher hidden clues, navigate secret tunnels beneath the town, and prepare for a magical showdown in the chamber beneath the lighthouse. When the stars finally align, they'll face a choice: follow tradition and be bound forever by duty, or risk everything on a new path—one where they choose each other freely, transforming darkness into light through the most powerful magic of all.