Tomas Eklund

Priya tugged my sleeve. "Forget the arrow. Let's just open the vault." We turned back to the steel door and worked the latch. It swung open onto a roo…

We crept into the open vault. A man crouched over a pile of gold, stuffing it into sacks. He spun around, blinded by our lights. "This is mine!" he sn…

We burst out behind the waterfall, soaked and gasping. The boots stopped at the cave mouth. A park ranger stepped into the light, furious. "This mine'…

We ignored the warning and pushed into the vault anyway. The treasure sat right there on a stone table, just out of reach across the trick floor. Marc…

Marco reached for the floating backpack. The second he touched it, the floor dropped away—a flooded shaft. He went under. I grabbed his jacket and Pri…

Behind the wall was a tiny chamber, and inside it, the real prize: a strongbox stuffed with gold and a deed to the whole mine. Priya grinned. "Finders…

We gave the woman our spare water and guided her up through the hidden passage. She knew the old tunnels and showed us a faster way out. At the top, b…

We read the journal by headlamp before leaving. Hennig hadn't just hidden the gold—he'd hidden it from robbers, and the last page warned the door was …

I bolt out of the room and slam the door behind me. Marrow stops right at my feet and sits, patient as ever. Down the hall, every other door swings op…

I take my hand off the knob. "No. You don't get to choose tonight. I do, and I choose to fight for you." Mr. Avery's eyes fill with tears. Outside, Ma…

Instead of guessing, I go into Room 14 myself. Mr. Avery is awake, propped up on his pillows. "You see him too, don't you," he says quietly. "The cat …

Marrow twists out of my arms and hits the floor running. He goes straight back to Room 14 and lies down across the doorway, like nothing happened. But…

I call Diane, the senior nurse who trained me. She picks up on the first ring even though it's 3 a.m. "Which room?" she asks. When I say 14, there's a…

I sit with Mr. Avery and hold his hand. I'll just stay until morning, I decide, so nothing happens. He talks about his late wife, his garden, his old …

Mara is tired of running blind. She walks into the laundromat itself, where the old owner, Dushku, folds towels at midnight every loop. He always nods…

At 11:52 a figure in a gray coat climbs the back stairs, moving like they've done it a hundred times. Mara steps out. 'Police! Hands!' The figure free…

Elias bolts. He thinks she's the killer come early. He shoves past her, sprints down the stairs, and runs out into the rain. Mara chases, shouting his…

They compare notes side by side. Same dates, same warnings. Elias points to one line: the loop always resets the instant he dies. 'What if I don't die…

Mirren slammed the chapel door and dropped the bar. Through the slats she watched the dead rise across the whole forest, a grey tide of soldiers stand…

Mirren read the cracked-out name by torchlight, sounding out the broken letters: GHERICK, the first to march, the one every other soldier had followed…

Mirren followed the child's hand and dug, gently, until she uncovered a small skull with a coin pressed in its teeth — an old toll for the dead, never…

Mirren knelt by Aldous. "Then teach me what you know, fast." The old warden smiled with cracked grey lips. "Good girl. First rule: the Briar doesn't k…

Mirren dug under the hawthorn root and found a flat stone with a name worn nearly smooth: GHERICK. She climbed to the bell, pressed her hand to the co…

Mirren cut the bell rope with her spade's edge. The tolling stopped mid-swing. For one breath the forest was silent. Then the risen soldiers below, ro…

Milo tells himself he imagined it. He goes to bed early and pulls the blanket over his head. But at 4:07 a.m. his phone lights up the whole room. New …

At the radio tower Milo finds a humming metal box bolted to the base, covered in blinking lights. A small screen reads: ADMIN ACCESS REQUIRED. Below i…

Priya grabs a flashlight and a notebook. 'If the sky has a seam, the world has edges,' she says. 'Let's go find one.' They head to where the highway u…

Priya finds one buried post from a user called ADMIN_GHOST. It says: 'World 07 isn't broken. It's being archived to make room. But an archive can be s…

Edda gets the fire chief to break the lock. Inside room 9 the air is cold and stale, like the fire skipped it on purpose. On the wall hangs a calendar…

Edda lifts the edge of the clean square and finds a photo slid under the desk pad, missed by whoever grabbed the rest. A young woman, laughing, arms a…