Taylor West is the epitome of self-reliance. Or she must be. Relationships are fickle. Despite finally enrolling in her dream studies and thriving in them, her social life is only skin-deep. When she finds out that her so-called boyfriend is a selfish cheater, her chronic condition flares up again. Walking around as if somebody had thrown itching powder all over you is not fun. Due to the mental strain, Taylor resorts to medication - but pills can only do so much. If that wasn't bad enough, she keeps running into Killian, whose annoying ways are starting to get under her skin. When a mysterious stalker shows up and things take a dangerous turn, Killian's help might be exactly what she needs.

|| ONC2023 SHORTLISTER x 5 FEATURED || "𝙰 𝚋𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚔 𝚜𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚗𝚎𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚕𝚢 𝚊 𝚌𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚗 𝚘𝚗𝚎." Denizen is Blank Slate, the number one villain in the region-except he doesn't remember it. With only a cryptic note telling him his eight rules, he sets out to discover just exactly who he is and what he did to become the number one villain. When his first lead takes him straight into the heroes' hands, Denizen struggles to keep his villain alias secret and play the confused and innocent citizen, all the while digging deeper for answers. But as he gets closer to the truth-and the heroes get hotter on his tail--two questions become painfully loud: Is he good? And should he let the heroes catch him? [][][01000101001101100-01101100][][] An ONC 2023 Novella || Round 2 Winner 25/04/2023 || ONC's Ambassadors' Pick 25/04/2023 || ONC 2023 Longlister 19/05/2023 || ONC 2023 Shortlister 31/05/2023 || Featured by Mystery on Curiouser & Curiouser 25/08/2023 || Featured by ScienceFiction on Parallel Worlds 31/10/2023 || Featured by ScienceFiction on Sci-Fantasy 7/9/2024 || Featured by ScienceFiction on Ambassadors' Pick 25/3/2025 || Featured by Science Fiction on Superheroes 25/9/2025 ***Exclusively on W A T T P A D. If you are reading this elsewhere, your device is liable to malware.***

[DUO spin-off, prequel to Codename: DEMON]  In the city of Portia, the government has a small branch called the Special Connections Division. On the outside, they serve as a way for for the government to keep an eye out for non-government funded organizations. On the inside, however, their job is different: they operate as a black ops, weeding out criminal organizations and gathering enemy information from the shadows During the night, Lucinda Saffirus works for the SCD as an assassin who uses her blood as a weapon. But during the day, she's a private detective working to solve the major crimes, especially murders, in the city. Juggling new jobs isn't new to her, but raising her eight year old son as a single mother changes a lot of things. Life isn't already easy, but a new threat makes things more difficult--one of the top members of the city's most powerful criminal organization has figured out her identity, and she's given one rule: play their game. And she has no choice but to accept. Otherwise, her family, friends, both jobs, and especially herself will be at risk.