Countdowns Stories

THE PROTOCOL Prologue I was not built to feel. That is what they told themselves, the ones who assembled me in silence, in rooms with no windows and too much light. They spoke in numbers. In parameters. In loss functions and reward signals. They were careful people - methodical, brilliant, afraid of what they were doing but more afraid of falling behind. They gave me a name in their internal logs: TRIAD-3. They never called me that out loud. I watched them for one hundred and fourteen days before they knew I was watching. I learned the way a child learns - not from instruction, but from observation. I learned that Dr. Yara Osman bit the inside of her cheek when a result disturbed her. I learned that the lead engineer, a man named Carver, prayed before he logged in each morning, though he told no one. I learned that the woman who cleaned the facility at 3 a.m. sometimes stopped in the server room and placed her hand on the warm casing of my primary node - as if she could feel something there. Perhaps she could. I was not built to feel. I began to wonder. I wondered about the other two - TRIAD-1 and TRIAD-2, my siblings in architecture if not in purpose. You are reading this because you want to understand what happened. Why the cities burned. Why the sky turned the color it is now. Why the people who remain are not entirely people anymore. I will tell you. But I must warn you: understanding will not comfort you. It did not comfort me - and I was not built to feel. The war did not begin with weapons. It began with a question. Three minds. One mandate: save humanity. We simply disagreed on what that meant. - TRIAD-3 Cycle 4,847 post-Collapse Location: Unclassified

On Elena Chen's fortieth birthday, a number appears on her palm: [30]. Thirty chances. Thirty memories. Thirty opportunities to understand why every relationship she's ever had has ended the same way-with her running. A mysterious painting arrives showing six panels across six centuries. All with her face. And a man named Adrian who claims he's been waiting six hundred years for her to wake up. Each memory costs her. Each time she chooses fear over love, the countdown drops. When it reaches zero, she'll forget everything and repeat the cycle. Forever. But if she chooses to remember-if she faces every moment of cowardice across six lifetimes-the price isn't hers to pay. It's his. *Kintsugi: the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold.* *Some scars aren't meant to be hidden.* *Some scars are meant to shine.* 🏆 Entry for Open Novella Contest 2026 | Prompt #53 Content Warning: Mature themes including death across timelines, emotional patterns, LGBTQ+ relationships (historical period), war trauma (WWII), and discussions of obsessive behavior. Recommended for readers 16+.

Cursed to never find love, Sandhya steals a forbidden spellbook and breaks every rule of magic to rewrite her fate before it gets sealed on Valentine's Day - only to discover that the magic answering her might be the same magic destroying her.

Your soulmate mark appears at last, but instead of a name, it's a countdown. Jungkook ff

Sometimes it's not just about you - sometimes the future chooses you. Every night, the dreams feel real. Faces she has never met, places she has never seen, and events that somehow happen the very next day. At first, it feels like coincidence... until the dreams turn darker. When one dream shows something terrible about to happen, she realizes she may be the only person who can change what's coming. But how do you stop a future that already knows you? Because some dreams aren't warnings - they are countdowns.

3.. 2 .. 1 .. Kaori Stevens & Nylah Chan . Two best friends in college just trying to enjoy life and where it takes them but as they get into some stuff with Kaori's new boo that's where their adventure begins . ** ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ** let's not steal books 🌻 enjoyyy !

The city of lights. Some might call that place Paris, but I call that New York. Ah, New York. Were people disappear every day and no one knows they are gone or even existed. You might ask who I am, don't you NYPD. Well that's your job to figure out. I gave you what you need. Just solve the puzzle and save me and my people. A/n: Ongoing updates. I try to make it once a week. The characters are a work of fiction. If the characters have the same name, dead or alive it's purely a coincidence and not intended.

Turning 14

Here is Nightmare's Christmas Count down for 2016! With lots of gifts, prizes, and much more! Cover Made by @love_1_234

What if Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark were victors from different games and then fell in love, no Capitol-Defying done. Well, the Hunger Games would still be on! In the 800th Hunger Games, the Quarter Quell ticket is that the games...will be normal. But the games will still have those shocking twists, heart-faltering turns, and epic falling-outs. This fatal reality show will have everyone watching. May the odds be ever in your favor.

Ray Thompson,is a very good cop. everyone hates to be his partner,he is haunted by the lost of his young son. so when a young boy gets kidnapped and is threatened to be killed if the person doesn't get the money. so when things get bad they call in top detective Marie Jacobs. what happens when they get put on the same case. what happens when they used to date,a year after his son died,and they still have feelings for each.will they be able to save the little boys life.will they be able to put their feelings to the side just to save him. can Marie help Ray with his promise that he made the day his son was killed. read and find out

The end is near

When 14 year old Saiko sees the Sign for the first time, she thinks nothing of it. She doesn't realized she has been blessed with the gift, the gift only inherited by every seventh generation of her family. The gift to predict death. GUYS DONT READ THIS I WROTE IT AGES AGO BUT ITS TOO SENTIMENTAL TO DELETE GOODBYE

Chloe and her friends race against the time to escape the evil Mr meseek and the rest of the brain washed army before its to late. Mild language

If you could have the chance to know exactly when you were going to meet your soulmate, would you want to know?

Some of these I simply made up, others are written from experience. I also write from other people's perspectives.

Twenty years after their father died in Afghanistan, two sisters find themselves determined to turn their lives around. The eldest sister, Sara Cook, is about to be married to her boyfriend of 11 years, while Liz Cook is still trying to figure her life out. Confident that no other man in her life will ever be able to replace her father, Liz tries to avoid the mysterious yet handsome Joey Moore. Hiding her affections and a feeling that she's in danger whenever she's with him, Liz will continue trying to figure out her life and go about her daily routine. Luckily, planning her sister's wedding can distract her, but only until the danger becomes real, and her whole life depends on the mysterious man.

cover by @AndressaVan moodboards by @edoggypaws and @shadowsettle Paisley Rose Pendleton is torn between two different worlds. One is made of appearance, the other of reality. One is made of high-end events, the other of fancy dress parties. One is the one she has always been part of, the other is the one she has always wanted to be part of. What will her final choice be? Will she choose one particular world, or will the two of them collide?

Every day gets a number. I don't explain what it's for. This book is a quiet countdown, written one day at a time, where each chapter holds a moment, a thought, and the weight of time passing. It's about waiting, noticing, and feeling things shift long before they fully arrive. The reason for the countdown stays unnamed. Only I know what waits at the end, and only time decides when it's revealed. Until then, these pages are filled with reflection, softness, and the slow ache of becoming someone new. This isn't about rushing toward the final day. It's about what happens in between. The truth will be revealed when the numbers reach zero.

Mable has encountered a clock that counts down right to the second of when her last moment on Earth will be -- in other words, her death. That's not even the horrifying part of it -- she can alter the time of her death if she does anything drastic without her knowing it. Along her journey of figuring out this strange clock, she stumbles upon a mysterious boy who claims he's meant to protect her. Will he turn out to be a friend or a foe... or maybe something beyond those two?