Showing results by author "Darlene Zagata" in All Categories

For centuries, we have walked with the certainty of a singular path—that humanity evolved in a straight line, one species outlasting the rest. But what if that story was never complete? What if the truth had been buried, not by time, but by intention? In the darkest corners of the earth, where sunlight seldom touches, remnants of forgotten peoples lie hidden beneath layers of stone and silence. These were not myth, nor were they monsters. They were our brothers. Our sisters. Our reflections fractured across time. This is the journey of one woman who dared to follow those shadows into the ...

They came for silence. For wind in the trees, for the stillness of moss and mist, for mornings that didn’t reek of smog or subway grease. They came for the illusion of distance—distance from people, from problems, from the weight of years spent in too-small apartments and too-loud rooms. Charlotte thought peace would feel warm, like a blanket. Instead, it felt hollow. Quiet wasn’t just absence; sometimes it had shape. Sometimes, it watched. The house was beautiful. The trees were endless. The town was strange, yes—but charming, in that self-sufficient way of old places untouched by ...

Long Before the Fall… They had mastered the oceans, the stars, and even the currents of time. Their cities shimmered not with stone, but with living metal that pulsed in harmony with the thoughts of those who dwelled within. On the eve of collapse, silence fell across the central spire of Va'resh-Tal—their capital and sanctuary. Above, the heavens boiled with crimson light as gravitational storms licked the planet’s surface. The sea had already begun to rebel. Inside a vaulted chamber, glowing in hues unknown to the human eye, a single figure stepped forward. Tall and lithe, neither ...

Elias Calder had always felt out of place in the modern world. A craftsman in an age of algorithms, he preferred parchment to pixels, quill to keyboard. From a small stone workshop on the edge of an old European town, he restored antique maps with near-obsessive precision. But one map was unlike the others. It came with no provenance. No origin. Inked in strange, metallic script that shimmered faintly under moonlight. It had been buried inside a false-bottomed crate marked for destruction—a gift from a late grandfather he hardly remembered. Elias filed it away. Until the solar eclipse. As...

“They say stories can’t hurt you. That ink is harmless. But they’ve never read the kind that breathes.” I hadn’t spoken to my grandmother in almost twelve years when the letter arrived. No call. No email. Just parchment paper, heavy with the scent of lavender and smoke, tucked into a wax-sealed envelope like something out of another century. The message was short — typed on an old typewriter, her signature scrawled in trembling black ink at the bottom. Eleanor, The Nest is yours now. Do not let the pages be opened. Not unless you’re willing to finish what I started. —Aurelia...

Some places whisper. Others remember. Maple Hill Cemetery was never quiet — not really. Even in the stillest hours, when the gates were locked and the night was thick as ink, something in the soil hummed. Not loud. Not urgent. But steady. Like breathing. It wasn’t the kind of place most people visited unless they had to. But for Sam Whitaker, it was home. Not in the sense of birthright or blood, but in the way someone might belong to silence. Or to sorrow. Sam didn’t talk much. But the dead listened anyway.

Introduction – Observation: Obsession File Name: [HumanBehavior_Archive_Calyx_Entry_0001] Timestamp: 07:14:52 — January 3, 2032 Subject: Collective Cognitive Dissonance Let us begin with the phenomenon known as texting. A cultural artifact of the early twenty-first century that has since devolved into a frantic, digital drumbeat of insecurity and compulsion. The subject of today's sample: a 28-year-old male named Grayson, who, between the hours of 00:00 and 23:59 yesterday, texted the phrase “u up?” seventy-four times to the same recipient. Seventy. Four. He varied it once: “U ...

They began as curiosities. A pressed violet in a glass locket, left just outside her door. A rare tea she hadn’t tasted in years, arriving in a neatly wrapped box at her office. A poem — her favorite, handwritten on heavy paper, tied with ribbon. No notes. No names. No explanations. Some might have called it romantic. Sweet, even. But Elena Moore had spent too long living in the shadow of things that looked innocent on the surface. In her quiet apartment above the old brick street, Elena had rebuilt a life. Carefully. Intentionally. She liked things she could explain. She preferred ...

In a quiet valley, tucked between towering cliffs and golden fields, lies Ember Hollow—a village unlike any other. For generations, its people have lived in harmony, not just with one another, but with two magnificent dragons who watch over them. Blaze, fierce yet kind, and Zephyr, wise and gentle, are more than guardians—they are teachers, friends, and protectors of both heart and home. But courage is not born from strength alone. As the children of Ember Hollow learn, bravery comes in many forms. It is found in the willingness to try, in the kindness shared between friends, and in the...

Reality was no longer a constant. Subtle shifts rippled through existence, leaving behind fractured memories, a pervasive sense of déjà vu, and the unsettling feeling that the world was subtly, inexplicably wrong. Most dismissed it as stress, faulty memory, the tricks of the mind. But Elias Vance knew the truth. He knew about The Confluence, the shadow organization that had mastered the art of dimensional shifting, and was using it for reasons he could no longer stomach. He had been one of them, a key architect of their technology. Now, he was an outcast, haunted by the memory of a life ...

The hum of the temporal displacement chamber was a lullaby Roger had come to both cherish and fear. Tonight, it was a desperate plea. Weeks had bled into a silent agony since the light of Project AEON's prototype had swallowed his wife, Rita, and their team whole. The official reports offered sterile condolences and closed files, another casualty of bleeding-edge science. But Roger knew better. He had held Rita's hand as they charted the impossible, mapped the currents of time itself. He knew the whispers of branching realities, the echoes of what-ifs that shimmered just beyond their grasp....

Space was never empty. To most, it was a vast silence, a cold canvas dotted with stars. But for Darian Vex, seasoned astronaut and decorated mission commander, it was a place of purpose—a frontier where humanity's reach met the unknown. He was trained to face malfunctions, meteor storms, and the unforgiving silence between planets. But nothing could prepare him for what came next. A mission gone wrong. A catastrophic breach. A return to Earth that never truly happened. When Darian's spacecraft collapsed into a gravitational anomaly, something in him broke loose. He returned—at least, ...

The year 2157. For generations, the sky had been a seamless, unblemished gray – a testament to humanity's triumph over a volatile world. Gone were the tantrums of nature, the scorching summers and brutal winters, the deluges and droughts that had once shaped civilizations and shattered them. Twenty-two degrees Celsius. Constant. Everywhere. The Earth Climate Regulator, a silent sentinel woven into the planet's very fabric, ensured a perpetual, comfortable equilibrium. Global warming was a dusty footnote in history books, natural disasters relegated to the realm of forgotten nightmares. In...

In the heart of South America, where the canopy thickens and shadows dance beneath the towering trees, lies a realm untouched by time—a place where nature claims dominion over the ancient whispers of humanity's past. The dense jungles are alive with the symphony of rustling leaves and distant cries of wildlife, yet buried beneath the surface are remnants of a long-forgotten civilization. Dr. Lena Torres, an archaeologist with a passion for uncovering the stories woven into the fabric of history, leads an ambitious expedition to this dense wilderness, driven by dreams of grand discoveries ...

Forest Friends:Tales of Wonder is a heartwarming children's book that follows the adventures of four delightful characters: a clever fox, a wise owl, a playful rabbit, and a curious bear cub. As they explore their enchanting forest home, they encounter exciting challenges, meet new friends, and learn meaningful lessons about sharing, teamwork, and the joy of helping others. Packed with fun adventures and valuable life lessons, Forest Friends inspires young readers to embrace kindness, friendship, and the wonders of the natural world.

(Voice of Kaelen Myles — recorded entry, never sent) I used to believe in causality— that everything could be explained if you tracked the data long enough. Wind shifts because of heat. Clouds form because of pressure. People choose because of pain or desire. But then the sky changed its mind. The first time it happened, I was in a tundra storm outside Kotzebue. I’d seen dozens before. But this one pulsed. Not in the atmosphere—in me. I whispered a thought I hadn’t said aloud in years, and the wind answered. Not metaphorically. It changed direction. That’s when the patterns ...

Barrow Street, Autumn, 1956 The house was quiet now. The scratching had stopped. Professor Adrian Thorne sat at the attic desk, a candle flickering at his side, its flame casting thin, uneasy shadows along the sloped ceiling. His once-proud handwriting had grown more erratic, smudged with ink and sweat. In front of him, on a faded velvet cloth, sat the object that had stolen his sleep. A figurine — no taller than a man’s hand, carved from something darker than ebony. Humanoid in shape, but its face was blank. Two outstretched hands curved upward in a gesture both pleading and commanding...

They say there’s clarity in silence, but that’s a lie Julian Marr no longer tells himself. The silence of an empty room — especially one once filled with love — doesn’t offer peace. It gnaws. It waits, circling just outside the edges of thought. And in his new studio, silence had a weight to it, as if it were watching. As if it had something to say but had decided instead to simply linger. The building was nothing special — a converted warehouse with exposed pipes and a rusted freight elevator that groaned every time it lifted him to the fourth floor. The windows were large, the...

Every house remembers its own story. But some... refuse to let go of it. They found it by accident — a winding road that dropped off the edge of the county map, a crumbling stone fence half-swallowed by wild foxglove, a crooked iron gate covered in vines the color of bruises. The house stood at the top of the hill, watching them. Three stories. Weathered shutters. A roofline that leaned to the left, like it had been listening to the wind for too long. And at the center of the front garden — overgrown and half-buried — a gate. Not the one they drove through, but a smaller one. Painted ...

There was a time when Earth was home. It was chaotic, flawed, and full of pain—but it was real. We knew the ground beneath us, the sky above, and the seasons in between. We understood storms and droughts and the miracle of survival. We feared nature because we respected it. And then we lost it. Virelia was supposed to be our redemption—a new beginning carved from the ruins of our failures. A perfect world, untouched by pollution, war, or time. It offered peace, balance, and the illusion of control. But paradise has a price. Beneath the flawless skies and peaceful meadows lies a question...