#1 jail #1 fight #1 criminal *** "Don't take it personal, I just like to play it safe, you know." He said, crouching down in front of me to tie each of my ankles to the chair. I couldn't move at all, especially after he duct taped even my waist to the chair. I watched him examine his work whilst he rubbed his beard and then a slow grin creeped onto his face. He bent down and put one end of the duct tape on my damn nipple, went around the chair again and ripped it off. He put the other end on my other nipple and I felt my cheeks heat up in humiliation. "Just to make sure you don't get cold again." He looked at me, his smirk slowly fading again. I gave him a hard stare. His hand reached out and fixed the glasses on my nose. Then he turned the chair so, that I was looking at the couch. He sat down, arms spread out on the back rest of the old leather couch, his eyes fixed on me again. "And now we're gonna talk." *** Belle Valery was a hardworking and rather unpopular law school student. She was almost done with school, had a structured daily schedule that consisted of waking up, going to school, going to the local library and study until she got a headache. She would walk home at night and go to sleep immediately. For almost three years that was all Belle knew and she was hoping to get her degree without further complications. But hope often differs from reality. Especially when her neighbourhood was suddenly on lockdown, because an escapee was on the loose. Belle didn't expect to one day wake up and find said escapee peacefully sleeping in her room. She didn't expect to scream and wake him up. And she didn't expect that morning to be the beginning of their incredible, yet a little complex love story. But life is always better unplanned and unexpected. "The ex jailbird and the lawyer, what a fucking pair."

Emmy's life is going just as she'd planned: She's living in her own apartment, dancing every day and is just leaps away from being named her company's next Prima ballerina. And she's only 17. But all of Emmy's plans come to a screeching halt when the FBI shows up at her door to let her know that she's being stalked by a serial killer. Suddenly, the safe, insulated world she created for herself is riddled with violence, fear...and a growing pile of dead bodies. At first Emmy wants nothing more than to forget her chilling new reality - but her admirer isn't finished with her yet, and before she knows it, Emmy's stuck in a nightmare she can't dance her way out of. Content and/or trigger warning: This story contains detailed scenes of murder, rape, torture, sex and stalking, which may be triggering for some readers. [[word count: 80,000-90,000 words]]

{Written for NaNo and Camp NaNo between 2020 and 2022.} How to study necromancy, accidentally start the zombie apocalypse, and discover the skeletons hidden in your family's closet: a guide by Abihira Sinistrah. (Or: why you should always read the fine print before raising the dead.) Cover by @KrystoKParris