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Chapter 10 — Splinters in the Walls
Terakhir Diperbarui:
2025-04-16 21:23:00*Avery*
I wake to silence.
Not the comfortable kind, where the house is still and safe, but the other kind—the kind that comes before something breaks. The kind that holds its breath.
The air feels heavy, like I’m underwater. I blink against the morning light leaking through the curtains. I don’t remember falling asleep here on the couch. I don’t even remember trying to.
But I do remember the footprints outside my door.
I sit up slowly, heart ticking a little too fast, and notice something off in the room. The shadows are… wrong. Elongated in directions the sun doesn’t follow. And the scent in the air—damp earth and something iron-sweet—lingers like a warning.
I check my phone. Dead.
Of course.
I get up, blanket falling from my shoulders, and notice my feet are bare and cold against the hardwood floor. I walk down the hallway, pausing at the front door.
It&rs
Bab terkait
THE SHADOW BRIDE Chapter 11 — Beneath the Dust
*Avery*I don’t scream.I can’t. My throat locks up the moment the flashlight flickers out, sealing me in pitch-black silence. No light. No echo. Just a thick, pressing void that tightens around my skin like a second, unwelcome body.I should be panicking. I should be clawing up the stairs, pounding at the trapdoor, screaming for Elias. But none of that comes. The fear is too deep—older than me, older than this room. It’s not panic. It’s recognition.I feel it again. That presence. Watching me from the corner that shouldn’t be there. From the shadow that crawls just outside the edge of sense.You’re a return.Those words weren’t in my ears. They were in my bones.“Who are you?” I whisper.The shadows shift, and in the hush that follows, I don’t hear a voice—but I see something.A flicker of a memory. Not mine.A girl stands in this room. Maybe sixteen, maybe seventeen. Her dress is faded, her hands stained with dirt and blood. She looks like me—but she isn’t me. Her eyes are wide, too
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-22THE SHADOW BRIDE Chapter 12 – In Her Blood
I used to think my family had no legacy. That we were the footnotes in someone else’s story—the offshoots, the accidents. But now I’m starting to think we were erased on purpose.After that night in the cellar, I don’t sleep. I don’t eat much, either. Elias gives me space—probably out of guilt. Or fear. Maybe both. We barely speak, and when we do, it’s clipped, cold, transactional. Good.But I can’t sit still.I’ve been staring at the letters for hours, scattered across the bed like puzzle pieces made of ghosts. Elara Maddox. Ellis Maddox. The Watcher. The line between madness and legacy feels paper-thin.And then there’s the word from that dream—or whatever it was:You’re a return.Not just a bride. Not just a stand-in.A return.I don’t know what that means, but I can’t find the answer in
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-23THE SHADOW BRIDE Chapter 13 – The Hollow
I’ve heard of Gatlin Hollow. It’s one of those towns people whisper about. Not quite forgotten, but its name feels old, worn out by the years. The kind of place you drive through and forget about the second you cross the county line. If you ask anyone, they’ll tell you it’s full of people who are as twisted as their family trees. It’s all fire and ash and secrets buried deep in the ground.But I have to go there. I’m standing at the gas station just outside of town, staring at the road ahead. The tires of my car screech as I turn down a dirt road that winds through a forest of skeletal trees. The sun is setting, blood-red and heavy in the sky. It’s like the world knows I’m stepping into something I can’t turn back from.The address Ruth gave me was vague, just a name and a description: “spiritualist bookstore.” I’m starting to feel the weight of the whole town on my shoulders as I drive deeper into
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-24THE SHADOW BRIDE Chapter 14 – The Lake of Secrets
The fog has thickened by the time I arrive, the low mist curling around the trees, like it’s trying to hide the secrets that lie beneath the surface. My car comes to a stop at the edge of the lake, its waters black as oil, reflecting nothing. The moon is hidden behind the thick clouds, leaving everything in a dull, oppressive darkness.I can feel it—the pull, that invisible thread that ties me to this place, this water. There’s something here, something ancient, something I don’t understand but can’t escape. I leave the car running, its engine a steady hum behind me, and step out onto the soft, damp earth. My boots sink into the mud with each step, but I don’t care. I’m walking towards the water, towards the source of all this, and I can’t turn back.As I reach the shoreline, I stop. The air is cold, the kind of cold that cuts through you like a knife. It wraps around my chest and throat, tightening until I can’t br
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-24THE SHADOW BRIDE Chapter 15 – The Watcher’s Grasp
(Elias’s Point of View)I watch as Avery stares at the lake, her fingers trembling by her side, and I feel the knot in my chest tighten. It’s never easy to explain what the Watcher is, let alone why it’s still here, still watching. I should have stopped her the moment she came to this cursed place. Should have kept her away from this town, from this fate. But I didn’t. And now it’s too late.I’ve watched her since the day she walked into this house. She doesn’t know it, of course. She doesn’t know how closely I’ve been watching, how deeply this bloodline runs in her veins. But I know. I know what she is.More than that, I know what she’s about to become.The wind picks up again, whipping through the trees, pulling at her hair like invisible fingers. I want to warn her, want to tell her to stay away, but the words get stuck in my throat. The curse is relentless. I’ve learned th
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-25THE SHADOW BRIDE Chapter 1- The substitution
His grip on my arm is tight—not because he’s possessive, but like he’s afraid I might collapse. I’m not drunk, at least not anymore. After this week, alcohol has stopped numbing the ache. I only look up when we stop, and I feel the shift in the air—someone’s standing in front of us.My stepdad leans closer and murmurs, “Avery.”I lift my eyes slowly. It’s the first time I’ve seen this man. The expression on his face is unreadable, but behind it is grief—a kind I know too well. I don’t think he wants this. I think he wanted time to mourn his real bride…my sister.“Please… just do this for your mom,” my stepdad whispers, then gently places my hand into that of a stranger.The man’s hand is warm, solid, and reluctant. We turn to face the minister. He clears his throat, ready to start the ceremony. From this moment on, I’m not Avery Harper anymore. I’m stepping into the life my sister left behind. Her fiancé. Her future. Her fate. Mine is gone now—at twenty-four, I’ve buried it along with
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-08THE SHADOW BRIDE Chapter 2- The garden of unspoken griefs
The music’s too loud. Too happy. I sit at the edge of the table, my fingers tracing the rim of my glass. Elias hasn’t moved from his seat. He’s watching me—staring, really—but not in a way that feels like he sees me. It’s like I’m just another thing he’s been handed, another thing he has to endure. His jaw is still tight. He’s trying to keep the world out. Or maybe he’s trying to hold something in.The room buzzes with clinking glasses and forced laughter. I should be mingling, smiling, playing my part. But I can’t. The weight of everyone’s expectations presses down on me, heavy and suffocating. I shift in my seat, feeling like I’m about to drown in all of this.I notice someone approaching me—a woman with a tight smile and even tighter pearls. She’s one of Elias’s aunts, I think. I don’t know her name, but she’s too polished, too put together. She sits next to me without asking, like she’s entitled to the spot.“You’re doing well,” she says, her voice dripping with condescension. “It
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-08THE SHADOW BRIDE Chapter 3-Echoes of a cursed vow
The morning light cuts through the curtains, harsh and uninvited. I didn’t sleep. Not really. Not when every second of the night was filled with the heavy weight of his presence. Elias. My “husband,” the word still feeling foreign on my tongue. The bed is cold on my side, empty, but I know he’s just in the next room. I know because the house feels too quiet. Too still.I sit up and glance at the clock on the nightstand. It’s already late. The reception went on for hours, and by the time it ended, I was too exhausted to care about anything—too exhausted to do anything but collapse into bed, alone in a house that wasn’t mine.I hear footsteps in the hall. Heavy. Purposeful. My chest tightens instinctively.Elias.A knock sounds at the door, sharp and quick. My heart skips. It shouldn’t, but it does. I don’t know why. Maybe because, right now, there’s no escaping him.“Come in,” I call out, my voice sounding smaller than I intended.The door opens, and there he is, standing in the doorwa
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-08
Bab terbaru
THE SHADOW BRIDE Chapter 15 – The Watcher’s Grasp
(Elias’s Point of View)I watch as Avery stares at the lake, her fingers trembling by her side, and I feel the knot in my chest tighten. It’s never easy to explain what the Watcher is, let alone why it’s still here, still watching. I should have stopped her the moment she came to this cursed place. Should have kept her away from this town, from this fate. But I didn’t. And now it’s too late.I’ve watched her since the day she walked into this house. She doesn’t know it, of course. She doesn’t know how closely I’ve been watching, how deeply this bloodline runs in her veins. But I know. I know what she is.More than that, I know what she’s about to become.The wind picks up again, whipping through the trees, pulling at her hair like invisible fingers. I want to warn her, want to tell her to stay away, but the words get stuck in my throat. The curse is relentless. I’ve learned th
THE SHADOW BRIDE Chapter 14 – The Lake of Secrets
The fog has thickened by the time I arrive, the low mist curling around the trees, like it’s trying to hide the secrets that lie beneath the surface. My car comes to a stop at the edge of the lake, its waters black as oil, reflecting nothing. The moon is hidden behind the thick clouds, leaving everything in a dull, oppressive darkness.I can feel it—the pull, that invisible thread that ties me to this place, this water. There’s something here, something ancient, something I don’t understand but can’t escape. I leave the car running, its engine a steady hum behind me, and step out onto the soft, damp earth. My boots sink into the mud with each step, but I don’t care. I’m walking towards the water, towards the source of all this, and I can’t turn back.As I reach the shoreline, I stop. The air is cold, the kind of cold that cuts through you like a knife. It wraps around my chest and throat, tightening until I can’t br
THE SHADOW BRIDE Chapter 13 – The Hollow
I’ve heard of Gatlin Hollow. It’s one of those towns people whisper about. Not quite forgotten, but its name feels old, worn out by the years. The kind of place you drive through and forget about the second you cross the county line. If you ask anyone, they’ll tell you it’s full of people who are as twisted as their family trees. It’s all fire and ash and secrets buried deep in the ground.But I have to go there. I’m standing at the gas station just outside of town, staring at the road ahead. The tires of my car screech as I turn down a dirt road that winds through a forest of skeletal trees. The sun is setting, blood-red and heavy in the sky. It’s like the world knows I’m stepping into something I can’t turn back from.The address Ruth gave me was vague, just a name and a description: “spiritualist bookstore.” I’m starting to feel the weight of the whole town on my shoulders as I drive deeper into
THE SHADOW BRIDE Chapter 12 – In Her Blood
I used to think my family had no legacy. That we were the footnotes in someone else’s story—the offshoots, the accidents. But now I’m starting to think we were erased on purpose.After that night in the cellar, I don’t sleep. I don’t eat much, either. Elias gives me space—probably out of guilt. Or fear. Maybe both. We barely speak, and when we do, it’s clipped, cold, transactional. Good.But I can’t sit still.I’ve been staring at the letters for hours, scattered across the bed like puzzle pieces made of ghosts. Elara Maddox. Ellis Maddox. The Watcher. The line between madness and legacy feels paper-thin.And then there’s the word from that dream—or whatever it was:You’re a return.Not just a bride. Not just a stand-in.A return.I don’t know what that means, but I can’t find the answer in
THE SHADOW BRIDE Chapter 11 — Beneath the Dust
*Avery*I don’t scream.I can’t. My throat locks up the moment the flashlight flickers out, sealing me in pitch-black silence. No light. No echo. Just a thick, pressing void that tightens around my skin like a second, unwelcome body.I should be panicking. I should be clawing up the stairs, pounding at the trapdoor, screaming for Elias. But none of that comes. The fear is too deep—older than me, older than this room. It’s not panic. It’s recognition.I feel it again. That presence. Watching me from the corner that shouldn’t be there. From the shadow that crawls just outside the edge of sense.You’re a return.Those words weren’t in my ears. They were in my bones.“Who are you?” I whisper.The shadows shift, and in the hush that follows, I don’t hear a voice—but I see something.A flicker of a memory. Not mine.A girl stands in this room. Maybe sixteen, maybe seventeen. Her dress is faded, her hands stained with dirt and blood. She looks like me—but she isn’t me. Her eyes are wide, too
THE SHADOW BRIDE Chapter 10 — Splinters in the Walls
*Avery*I wake to silence.Not the comfortable kind, where the house is still and safe, but the other kind—the kind that comes before something breaks. The kind that holds its breath.The air feels heavy, like I’m underwater. I blink against the morning light leaking through the curtains. I don’t remember falling asleep here on the couch. I don’t even remember trying to.But I do remember the footprints outside my door.I sit up slowly, heart ticking a little too fast, and notice something off in the room. The shadows are… wrong. Elongated in directions the sun doesn’t follow. And the scent in the air—damp earth and something iron-sweet—lingers like a warning.I check my phone. Dead.Of course.I get up, blanket falling from my shoulders, and notice my feet are bare and cold against the hardwood floor. I walk down the hallway, pausing at the front door.It&rs
THE SHADOW BRIDE Chapter 9 — The Things We Bury
*Elias*I’ve heard the Watcher breathe.It doesn’t sound like a man. Not an animal, either. It’s more like the air around you turns heavy, and everything quiets—no wind, no birds, no heartbeat. It doesn’t sneak up. It waits. Watching. Always watching.I’ve known it was real since I was ten.That night, I’d followed my father down to the cellar—curious. He thought I was asleep, but I had a habit of trailing him when he got like that. The bottle in his hand, the vacant stare—those were signs. Warnings. I didn’t understand then what he was afraid of. Only that he was.There’s a room beneath the Maddox estate, hidden past the root cellar, behind a false wall. The family calls it The Quiet Room. Because no one talks about what’s down there. Not even the dead.I remember the smell. Earth and rust and something sweet gone rotten.And I remember what he did. My father knelt on the dirt floor, laid out photographs—some of us, some of my grandfather, some so old the faces had turned to ink blur
THE SHADOW BRIDE Chapter 8- Whispers in the Wood
Absolutely! Here’s a humanized, original version of Chapter 8 of The Shadow Bride, expanding on the mystery and deepening the emotional tension while maintaining your story’s tone and pacing. This chapter is rewritten from scratch to ensure it’s completely original and free of any plagiarism concerns.I didn’t sleep. Not really.After what happened in the woods—and Elias’s strange, abrupt silence—I spent most of the night lying stiffly in bed, every creak of the house feeding the sense that something wasn’t right. The shadows on the ceiling didn’t feel like shadows anymore. They felt like something watching me. Waiting.By the time pale morning light began to push through the gauzy curtains, I was already sitting upright, still in my wedding dress, half-draped in the blanket like I’d forgotten how to move. Maybe I had.I slip out of bed, peel the fabric from my body, and throw on the first thing I can find—jeans, a faded sweatshirt from my old job, something that still smells like norm
THE SHADOW BRIDE Chapter 7- The Man in the Forest
The dreams begin that night.Not the kind you forget by morning—the kind that root themselves deep in your chest like seeds, the kind that grow vines through your ribs and curl around your thoughts all day. The kind that feel like a memory.It starts in the woods. Moonlight cuts through the trees like pale blades. I’m barefoot, walking toward something I can’t see but feel. My dress is soaked, dragging against the forest floor like it’s trying to hold me back. Each step echoes like a warning.Something breathes behind me.Not the wind.Not the trees.Something alive.When I turn, there’s a figure standing at the tree line. Tall. Unmoving. Watching me with eyes that shimmer like the moon caught in water. Human-shaped. But not human. There’s something… ancient about the stillness. Something that makes my bones tighten in defense.It raises a hand.Not to wave.To point.At me.“You’re not her,” the thing says, its voice like a growl under gravel. “You don’t belong.”And then I wake up.
