Within You Or Without You Novels & Stories

My hands trembled as I exited the group. I went straight to Nocturne. When I reached the entrance of the private room, I saw Ronan inside wearing nothing but his underwear. Brynn was dressed just as revealing in nothing but a bra and panties, like a makeshift bikini. She looked annoyed. "My luck sucks tonight. I keep losing. If this keeps up, I’ll be completely naked." She walked over and slapped his backside. "Good thing my obedient son is here to keep me company. Daddy doesn’t have to humiliate herself alone."

Before she turned her back on us as though we did not exist. Tightening my hold on the fabric, I could feel an intense rage bubble up inside of me, burning hot. I despised that memory. I despised how much it controlled me. ...Sis? Lyra sounded far away. As though her voice had to travel through several dimensions to reach me. Aubrey? Nothing. Aubrey... Aub— She nudged me softly. And just like that, the spell broke. I snapped out of it. "Hmm?" You must have been thinking of her, she whispered.

In that instance, his words became a bridge between our inner worlds, a bridge that allowed the unspoken to flourish and the depths of our souls to intertwine. The enigmatic statement hung in the air, shrouded in mystery, much like the enigmatic allure he exuded. Confusion etched across my features, a puzzle he seemed determined to solve. With a sigh, he resumed his verbal dance, unraveling the labyrinthine thoughts that lingered in his mind, "I don't suppose I've ever contemplated what my existence would resemble without your presence. It's only in the tapestry of moments woven alongside you that I've unearthed the true essence of life."

A human who desired love and happiness but found the sensations repulsive. "How long are you going to stand there without saying anything to me?" The question was so direct and abrupt that it caught me off guard. I looked into his insipid eyes. I cracked a grin. "And how long were you going to pretend you did not notice when I walked in?"

“I have been living inside a version of it since I arrived in this pack.” “You seem certain,” she said, and it was not a challenge but a genuine observation. “I seem it more than I feel it,” I said. “There is a version of certainty that you produce for the room because the room needs it and you have learned that you are capable of producing it, and there is another version that is actually internal and those two things are not always the same.” I looked at her steadily. “The internal version is built more slowly.” She nodded once and I continued.

He tried hard to shake these thoughts out of his head, but the image of them refused to come out of his head. (No, no, this is not possible. She is the age of my daughter. How do I think of her in this way? I just love Somaya, yes, but I adore her. It's over, oh my God, I have to get rid of this matter. I can't stop myself from her. That girl is driving me crazy, since I came here and took her picture. It does not leave my memory, but why oh my God. Well, I will ignore it. I will only meet with her at the dining table. I will never come into contact with her. I will control myself. This is an honesty to me. I should not think of it in this way. He goes to the bathroom and takes a shower to r

It was… open. Infinitely. My chest rose slowly. Then fell. “This is different,” I said. No response. Not even an echo. Because there was nothing here to carry sound. Nothing to reflect it. For the first time. I wasn’t inside something. I wasn’t outside something. I wasn’t between. I just… was. That realization hit deeper than anything before. No system. No observer. No opposing force. Nothing to react to. Nothing to resist. Nothing to define me. And that.

𝙊𝙣𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣'𝙩 𝙝𝙞𝙙𝙚 - 𝙞𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 𝙘𝙧𝙞𝙥𝙥𝙡𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚.

It just… wasn’t. I wrapped my arms around myself and bowed my head, my chin tucked to my collarbone, hair falling forward like a veil. My body felt hollowed. Like something sacred had been scooped out to make room for something else—and I hadn’t decided yet whether that something was mine. What am I without it? No tether. No spiral fire. No voice in the blood. No excuse. Just this. Just me. Just breath and bruises and too much silence. I shifted, dragging in a breath that scraped the inside of my ribs, and adjusted until I sat with my legs crossed, elbows on my knees, spine bowed with the weight of something I couldn’t name yet. Something not grief. Not hope.

"I am saying it leads somewhere I cannot take you." "What is the difference?" I looked at him. "The difference is that I am not nothing to you and you are not nothing to me. We just cannot be anything that exists outside of this room. That is not the same as nothing." He looked at me for a long moment. Then he sat back down.