The man leaned against the chipped edge of the breakroom table, glancing at the clock. Lunch break was ticking by, and his childhood best friend was late—same old Jake, always running on his own time. They’d been inseparable since kindergarten, classmates through college, two sides of a coin. But life …

His arms encircled her neck, his forehead pressed against hers. Up close, his eyes searched hers, as if pleading to find the same desire mirrored back. I don’t love him, she thought, does he even realize?

He didn’t. His lips found hers, insistent, hungry. She kissed him back, but it …

Ethan nearly dropped his coffee when he saw him.

Across the café, a man sat alone, flipping through a book with the same lazy concentration Ethan had. Same sharp jawline, same unruly dark curls. Even the same nervous habit—tapping his fingers against the table in a steady rhythm.

It was …

The elevator doors slid shut with a soft chime. Lisa exhaled sharply, wiping a tear before it could smudge her mascara. She had just ended things with Jake, and her heart still pounded from the argument. She tapped the button for the lobby, ready to leave it all behind.

Then, …

Ethan folded his arms as the psychic, an older woman draped in violet silk, traced circles over a worn deck of tarot cards. The air smelled of incense and something older—like dust and secrets.

“This is nonsense,” he muttered, but curiosity kept him in his chair.

Madame Celeste only smiled, …

Eliza felt the sun caress her hair, turning the silver strands into gold. She smiled as she hung the silk lanterns on the porch, their soft light reflecting the warmth in Michael's eyes. He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her neck. "You look beautiful, my love," he …

Anya felt a pang of loneliness as she watched the couple walk by. They were holding hands, smiling, and laughing, oblivious to the world around them. They looked so happy, so in love.

They were not human.

They were Synths, hyper-realistic humanoid robots that had taken over the role of …

The Betrayal

Tom and Lisa walked home from school, their backpacks heavy with books. Tom had a list of groceries to buy for their mother, who had given him some money in the morning. Lisa, his younger sister, had a different idea.

"Tom, can we buy some ice cream? Please, …

I didn't expect this feeling to hit me like a dodgeball to the gut during Mr. Johnson's epic history lecture on, like, the bubonic plague or something. Jessica, who usually doodles unicorns with butterfly wings in her notebook, was taking actual notes. And for some reason, the way the light …

She found the letter in her mailbox. It was written on a fine paper, with a delicate handwriting. It was addressed to her, but it had no name or stamp. It was a love letter.

She read it with curiosity and wonder. It was full of compliments and confessions. It …

Lila had always admired the faded beauty of her grandmother’s antique carpet, a sprawling Persian masterpiece that covered the floor of the living room like a forgotten treasure. She had never thought much of it beyond its intricate patterns and the warmth it brought to the otherwise sterile space. But …

The air hung thick with the smell of wet earth and gunpowder as Private Samuel Hayes knelt in the mud, his musket trembling in his hands. Dawn was still a suggestion on the horizon, its faint light blurring the silhouettes of General Jackson’s earthworks and the dark mass of British …

Adi stood on the edge of the empty mine, the vast crater stretching before him like an open wound. Dust clung to his boots and his hands, even though it had been months since the machines stopped roaring. The silence felt unnatural.

For thirty years, he had worked these …

Tariq tightened his grip on the bag of potatoes, his knuckles white against the coarse burlap. Around him, the market buzzed with desperation. Sellers shouted prices that changed by the hour, their voices tinged with panic. Buyers haggled with a fierceness born of necessity. Everyone’s eyes carried the same shadow: …

Aria's fingers itched for her confiscated tablet. Its smooth surface had been her world—an endless stream of data, escape, and connection. Now, it was just an empty memory, like the rest of the tech outlawed after The Blackout.

She sat on the porch of her grandparents' weathered farmhouse, staring at …