Paula Wolf: Chapter 2
Just before noon, Paula steps outside her apartment in a modest yellow dress and matching sun hat. Taking a breath of the fresh morning air, she wonders when the last time she put any effort into her looks was? Thankfully Debra was there to help, and...
Making things right (Final)
“So, this is what you've always seen?" Yuki asked, her voice soft as her gaze swept across the forest. Her left eye remained shut, relying entirely on mine to perceive the world around her. A small chuckle escaped me. “Feels empty, doesn't it? At...
Welcome to Heat Street: C4 - Feedback Loop
Kaari didn't normally try this hard. Clothes were just another layer — something to drape across her coat so the world wouldn't gawk at the wrong time. She dressed for comfort, efficiency, maybe a hint of ass if she felt like it. But not today. Today,...
Emotional Support Human: Chapter 2
It had been nearly a week since I was assigned to Ookami-san as her ESH (Emotional Support Human). Our progress in helping her with her anxiety had been slow but steady, taking small steps toward her well-being. During this time, we got to know each...
Welcome to Heat Street: C6 - Signal Loss
Vetra pulled Elliot straight into her chest with one arm, beer still in the other, grin wide across her face like she'd just won a prize she hadn't even tried that hard to win. “C'mere," she said. “You're way too stiff for a night off." He didn't...
Welcome to Heat Street: C2 - Smile behind the teeth
Elliot knocked twice on the door to apartment 3B, then stepped back exactly one meter. The tray in his hands was neatly wrapped in parchment, with a small card tucked beneath the twine: Welcome to The Perch — High-protein, low-sugar,...
Loveless Incantation: Chapter 22
They did exactly as Jessy had told them. Once the generals and Alex's party joined hands, they awoke on the battlefield behind Alex. The transformation was immediate, their senses heightened, their bodies lighter, as if they had been released from the...
Welcome to Heat Street: C3 - Repeating Patterns
By the end of his third week on Heat Street, Elliot had sorted his life into something stable: three grocery runs, two laundry days, and one Kaari favor roughly every seventy-two hours. That one was harder to track — her sense of timing wasn't measured...
Emotional Support Human: Chapter 3
I knew this moment would come sooner or later, but like a ticking bomb, I could only wait for it to go off. That brings us to why I'm standing before the bathroom door, as the muffled sobs of Ookami-san echo within. Around this time, when we would...
Loveless Incantation: Final
Azure and I collide, fist to fist, the shockwave splitting the clouds apart like shattered glass. The force rolls through my body, a tangible hum in my bones, but I don't waver. She meets my gaze—sharp, wild, unrelenting. Neither of us gives an...
Welcome to Heat Street: C7 - Function and Form
Elliot arrived seven minutes early. The directions were clear enough: take the stairs, not the elevator (the elevator might “squeal like it's in pain," according to the memo), proceed to the third floor, and report to “Feather & Frame Studio" for a...
Welcome to Heat Street: C9 - Overflow State
Elliot arrived exactly when the timestamp told him to. The address brought him to a low, square building set quietly between two taller ones — a clinic on one side, and what looked like a residential sublease on the other. No digital display. No...