RavenMRoberts
Dedicated to my wife, Jen and my daughter, Meladie.
A Ruins & Relics Media Release
"The dark is no longer a hiding place. It's just where we meet."
By day, Lenore is the untouchable "Goth Queen" barista at The Alchemist's Grind. Armed with sharp black lace cuffs, an icy monotone, and a flawless wall of clinical detachment, she has never let a single customer-or coworker-breach her armor. But at midnight, behind a glowing laptop screen, she becomes Cara Vela-the anonymous, rising star author of a wildly popular dark fantasy web serial. In the dark, she can bleed her soul onto the page. In the dark, she is safe.
Enter Riley Vance.
Riley is a storm of chaotic energy, smudged glasses, and brilliant artistic talent who just stepped into a cashier shift at the shop. He's completely fascinated by the guarded girl behind the till, but every playful attempt to crack her veneer is met with freezing silence. Frustrated and seeking an escape, he loses himself online, baring his own artistic frustrations to his favorite internet author, Cara Vela-totally unaware that the writer holding his heart in her digital hands is the exact same woman who hands him his espresso sleeves every morning.
When Riley admits to Cara that he's dangerously obsessed with both his online confidante and the untouchable girl at work, Lenore faces a terrifying choice. Protect her fortress with a lie, or use her manuscript to hand him a map to her heart.
What starts as a secret language of darkwave music recommendations left on the breakroom whiteboard quickly spirals into an agonizing, face-to-face psychological siege. But as the digital masks begin to burn away under the heat of real-world proximity, the music stops-and they are forced to face the raw, heavy intensity of a midnight confession.
Track Four playlist on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2Uz45m5nxpaPIPcvAW1dvy?si=8qiqgPF-RYGPXTyd4cuoHQ&pi=0eUIlL5yStWrm