Personal Best
5 stories
 ​SYMPHONY OF SILENCE  "THE GHOST IN THE ARCHITECTURE" by donaldraycoates
donaldraycoates
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​The Architect is dead. The Man is gone. But the void remains. ​Six months after the catastrophic explosion at the Austin power hub, the world believes the reign of Julian Vance has ended. Detective Elias Thorne has retreated into a quiet, haunted retirement, and the Symmetry Division-a specialized unit tasked with cleaning up the "system errors" Julian left behind-thinks they are dealing with nothing more than isolated copycats. ​They are wrong. ​The psyche of the killer did not terminate; it fractured. Released from the physical constraints of Julian's mortal form, "The Monster"-a savage, depraved entity of pure, unadulterated violence-now haunts the city as a digital and psychological virus. It has no face, no set routine, and no mercy. It is a ghost in the machine, jumping from host to host, leaving a trail of carnage that defies all logic. ​Trapped within this dark new entity is the vestige of Julian Vance himself-a prisoner of his own creation. Forced to watch as The Monster hunts the very people he once loved, the Architect must now fight a desperate internal war to prevent his successor from dismantling the city. ​In this season of Symphony of Silence, the line between man and machine, sanity and savagery, is erased. To stop the code from completing its final, deadly reboot, the team must delve into the most dangerous territory of all: the shattered mind of a killer who refuses to stay deleted. ​The symphony has ended. Now, it is time for the scream. ​Season 2 of Symphony of Silence is a high-octane descent into psychological and visceral horror. It is the story of a man whose brain has become a digital prison, and a city that is being systematically hunted by a ghost. ​ ​"The Architect wanted a symphony. The Monster wants a scream. And the only way to silence the scream is to delete the composer." ​ ​Will the team succeed in pulling Julian back from the edge, or will the "system" finally achieve its perfect, brutal reboot?
 The Artisan of Absence SYMPHONY OF SILENCE by donaldraycoates
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​Julian Vance is not a killer of impulse; he is an architect of expiration. A disgraced doctor with a PhD in psychology and a mastery of telecommunications, Julian navigates the world as a ghost in a bespoke suit. To the residents of his current city, he is the neighbor who remembers your mother's birthday and the man who helps you jump-start your car in the rain. To his victims, he is the final, agonizing realization that they were never truly known, only studied. ​The story follows Julian as he moves from city to city, weaving himself into the fabric of tightly knit communities. His method is a terrifying blend of science and art: he doesn't just hunt; he deconstructs. Using his deep understanding of behavioral patterns, he isolates his targets, eroding their support systems, dismantling their confidence, and turning their own secrets against them before orchestrating their "exit." ​But the game shifts when he settles in a town where the local homicide detective, Elias Thorne, is too tired to ignore the statistical anomalies Julian leaves in his wake, and a young journalist, Chloe St. Clair, accidentally becomes the variable Julian cannot calculate. Julian isn't running from the law; he is testing the limits of how much horror a "perfect" man can commit before the world stops seeing the mask and starts seeing the void beneath it. To stop the nightmare, they'll have to answer one terrifying question: How do you catch a man whose greatest weapon isn't violence... but trust? Evil rarely announces itself. Sometimes it wears a warm smile, remembers your birthday, helps your elderly neighbor carry groceries, and waves good morning before disappearing into another town. Because the scariest monsters aren't the ones hiding in the shadows. They're the ones everyone believes they already know.
The Fold of Ash and Iron - Book Two: Crossings by donaldraycoates
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The road north was supposed to mean freedom. Instead, it opened the gates to something far older. After surviving the horrors of Louisiana-the Hollow Man, the Rougarou, Le Sangvor, and the burning hatred of men who feared change more than death itself-Tyler Kingston-Coates and his growing band of runaways, outcasts, immigrants, and spirits-on-the-run press deeper into a fractured America racing toward Civil War. But the deeper they travel... the stranger the country becomes. In the mountains of Tennessee and the blood-soaked forests of Alabama, whispers spread faster than truth. Southern newspapers now speak of a monster called The Devil of Alabama-a giant black man who cannot die, followed by ghosts, wolves, witches, and creatures older than the nation itself. Some call him a demon. Others call him freedom. As Tyler struggles to control the terrifying power of the Five-Five blood awakening inside him, the people around him begin changing too. Love forms in impossible places. Ancient magic stirs across forgotten roads. New allies emerge from every corner of the world-Irish dockworkers, African warriors, Houma spirit-guides, runaway soldiers, witches of the old South, and escaped slaves carrying scars deeper than chains. Meanwhile, hidden forces move behind the coming war. Secret abolitionist networks. Southern militias preparing for rebellion. Slave catchers turning into armies. And somewhere beyond the smoke and blood waits a man known only as Kingston-a ghost from Tyler's bloodline tied to secrets powerful enough to reshape the past itself. But as the group journeys farther north, one terrifying question begins haunting them all: Did Tyler travel into history... or was history always waiting for him? In a world where monsters are real, spirits answer fear, and belief itself holds power- crossing state lines may be the least dangerous thing they do. There is no such place as home.
Power by donaldraycoates
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At Blackridge High, there is one rule every student learns on the first day: Knowledge means nothing. Popularity means nothing. Only Power matters. Blackridge isn't just typical a school - it's a social battlefield where every clique operates like its own gang, complete with hierarchy, territory, and a ruthless captain who rules their group with strength, influence, or fear. Teachers pretend not to see it. Administrators pretend it doesn't exist. Because everyone knows the truth: At Blackridge... only the strong survive. Every clique has its own leader - and every leader is fighting to control the school. Leon starts as the weakest student in the school. But he has two advantages: Speed Adaptability He watches every fight. He studies every clique. And slowly... quietly... He learns. As Leon grows stronger, he begins climbing the brutal hierarchy of Blackridge High. First the bullies. Then the clique lieutenants. Eventually... The captains. But the deeper he climbs, the more he learns the truth: Each clique controls a piece of the school. And if someone defeats them all... They become something new. Not a captain. Not a student. But the Ruler of Blackridge. Power vs intelligence Social hierarchy and survival Strategy vs brute force The cost of dominance Identity and transformation Can a skinny nerd become the most powerful fighter in the school? Or will Blackridge break him like it has broken everyone else? Because in this school... Power is the only language anyone understands.
The Fold of Ash and Iron by donaldraycoates
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When U.S. Army soldier Tyler Craig Kingston volunteers for a classified quantum teleportation experiment, he expects danger-but not the kind that rewrites history. Under the guidance of brilliant physicist Dr. Liza Dubois, a groundbreaking device designed to fold space and eliminate distance instead fractures something far more volatile: time itself. In an instant, Tyler is torn from 2026 and thrown into West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana-August 3, 1859, just two years before the Civil War. Stranded in a world where slavery is law and freedom is a privilege denied to people who look like him, Tyler must navigate a brutal reality that clashes violently with everything he knows-and everything he is. Armed with modern combat training, fragmented communication with the present, and knowledge of a future that hasn't happened yet, Tyler faces an impossible choice: stay hidden and survive long enough to find a way home... or step into the fire and challenge a system built on oppression. But changing the past comes with consequences. Every life he saves, every battle he fights, every idea he plants could reshape the future-or erase it entirely. As whispers of rebellion begin to spread and his presence draws dangerous attention, Tyler must decide what kind of man he truly is: a soldier bound by orders, or a leader willing to risk time itself for justice. Because in a world where history is already written... one man out of time may become the story no one was meant to remember.