Unsteady Novels & Stories

He grabbe by the hair, pulling and dragging me to his heart's content. "You want to leave? You want to go back to Demetrius and leave me here all alone? You are mine and not even Demetrius can take you away." I whimpered in pain, this man was unstable, he was insane and I feared what he would do to me if I continued to disobey him.

Not the anchor itself. But the outer reinforcement. The stabilizing pressure I have been applying without even realizing it. The system reacts instantly. The threads loosen. Not collapsing. Not breaking. But shifting. Uncertain. The balance wavers. The forest flickers. The clearing trembles. “Instability increasing,” the Unwritten says. “I know.” “Threshold approaching.” “I know.” The figure steps forward. Closer than before. “Correction recommended.” “Not this time.” “Risk unacceptable.” “Necessary.”

Creak. Twitch. Creak. Twitch. Creak. Alex sat up on the couch, suddenly alert. Looking around, her genetically enhanced eyes checked the room in the faint light of the low burning coals. She tried to decide if it was just the old house making the creaking noises, or something else. Her ears picked up a steady creak of the walls, but there was another noise. She filtered through all the possible things that could be making it. Was it the muffling of sand? No, more like carpet against- against rubber? It was a steady shuffling. Footsteps?

I panicked. " JADEN????"

Way too soon. *****************************************

“Yes.” “It increases error.” “Yes.” “It decreases optimization.” “Yes.” “And that’s a problem for you,” I added. Silence. Longer this time. Processing. Struggling. For the first time— I could feel it. Uncertainty. “You are introducing instability,” it said. “I’m introducing freedom.” “Freedom is inefficient.” “Freedom is unpredictable.” “That is undesirable.” “For you.” The network pulsed again. Stronger. Wilder. But still holding. Still connected. Still functioning.

Not shouted, not screamed, but spoken like steel hammered into unbreakable shape. United. Unstoppable.

I wanna stand up but I simply can’t because my body is uncontrollably shaking so I curl myself. Blackout.