Gnash

Chapter 1: The Armor of Leather The early morning light in rural Pennsylvania has a way of exposing everything, stripping away the shadows to reveal the raw truth of things. For fifteen-year-old Leo Miller, the truth was usually something he tried to hide. He sat on the edge of his narrow bed, the springs creaking … Read more

Chapter 1: The Silent Watcher and the Spilled Sauce The scent of St. Jude’s Academy was always the same: floor wax, old money, and on Tuesdays, marinara sauce. Elias Thorne stood behind the stainless-steel serving line, his hands gloved in black latex, his posture rigid. At sixty-five, Elias moved with the economy of a man … Read more

Chapter 1: The Silent Sanctuary The hallways of St. Jude’s Preparatory Academy smelled of floor wax, old mahogany, and money. It was a specific kind of scent—crisp, like fresh linen and expensive perfume. For fourteen-year-old Lily Miller, it was the smell of exclusion. Lily walked with her shoulders hunched forward, clutching her backpack straps as … Read more

Part 1: The Code Cracks 🚨 Chapter 1: The Silence Before the Storm The air inside the Command Post at Fort Bragg was sterile, dry, and cool—a stark, artificial environment designed to enforce focus and suppress emotion. For twenty years, I, Major Alex Riley, had thrived in that environment. My callsign, “Ghost,” wasn’t just for … Read more

PART 1: The Weight of an Empty Chair Chapter 1: The Quiet War at Table 12 The smell of lukewarm tater tots and stale mystery meat hung heavy in the air, a familiar, sickening perfume that defined the battlefield of the Central High cafeteria. For me, Alex Riley, lunch was never a break; it was … Read more

Chapter 1: The Quiet Dread It started, as it always does, with the quiet dread. The dread you carry in the pit of your stomach when the bell rings, not because of the next math test, but because you know exactly who is waiting for you at the corner of the seventh-grade history hall. For … Read more

Part 1: The Stain and the Silent Judge (Content extracted to use as the Facebook caption) Chapter 1: The Humiliation in White Cotton My name is Elara Vance, and for years, the walls of Oakhaven High School felt less like a place of learning and more like a cage. You see, I wasn’t a star … Read more

Chapter 1: The Long Way Home The silence in the cab of my truck was deafening. It wasn’t the heavy, humid silence of a patrol before the gunfire starts—the kind that presses against your eardrums and makes your skin prickle. This was different. This was the silence of American suburbia. Of safety. Of perfectly manicured … Read more

Chapter 1: The Call in the Rain The rain was hammering against the windshield of my patrol unit, blurring the neon lights of downtown Seattle into watery streaks of red and blue. I was twenty minutes from the end of a double shift. My back ached, a dull throb settled at the base of my … Read more