October Challenge - "The alarm wasn't supposed to go off yet."

Public Relations professional and favorite auntie Shan is awakened by a middle-of-the-night phone call that makes her rethink some of her life choices.

"The alarm wasn't supposed to go off yet. That's what Sebastian thought when the sharp sound cut through the air. He still had time. He was sure he still had more than enough minutes left. Sebastian blinked a few times at a rapid speed. He pinched himself in his left arm to ensure he wasn't imagining this like you would in dreams. He was pulled out of his slum by the sound that declared the end of this all. How could it be that the timer already had run out? What would happen to him now? He didn’t know the answer. He had never felt so small all his life.

If only he had known this when he got that message on Monday, all this would never have happened. If he had just blocked the number, then his younger brother would still be alive."

A BDSM session gone way wrong, but was it intended go this far off course?

Taz cannot imagine his life without Brailey in it.

But it is starting to seem like he will have to if he and his sister Judith don't navigate the dank corridors of the enemy's fortress in time to find her.

This is the story about a man who finds a way to go through life's hardship by doing what he can to survive and ends up meeting someone who might change his life forever.

You do not know anyone. Not more than they want you to know them. You don't know what happens behind closed doors, whilst not a soul is watching. You don't know, and maybe you never will.

Mara Córdova moves into a new apartment, only to be haunted by an alarm that chimes every night at precisely 3:32 a.m., pulling her into unsettling dreams of endless hallways, forgotten relics, and shadowed figures. Her search for answers leads her to the story of Rosa and Eva Castillo, the last victims of an ancient curse that traps souls one by one, feeding off those who stray too far into the darkness. As Mara unravels the curse’s secrets, she realizes too late that her fate is sealed—forever bound to the shadows that claimed the Castillos before her.

A man fails to escape a botched robbery. Shame that it was never meant to go well

This is one dream put into words. A story about a girl who lost so much, trying to work it out and deal with the situation. Yearning for the truth but never being close enough. Wishing things played out differently.

Little sad and heavy.

Angela always knew what would happen when she wakes up each day. Her alarm went off at the same time each day, the amount of orange in the sky shifting with the seasons. She would get dressed and have a simple breakfast. Go to work, come home. The same thing each day, each week, just the way she like it. Until today.