The Bone Houses

One night a young boy unable to cultivate falls into a cave and changes his destiny forever. Orphaned, unable to cultivate, ridiculed by all, the boy who fought with bones has a bone to pick with all those who wronged him and a mystery to uncover.

"She was the girl they meant to execute. Now, she is the nightmare that will wear their crown." ​Lyra Vale was supposed to die beneath the execution blade. ​Branded a witch. Hunted as the last survivor of a disgraced bloodline... Lyra Vale was supposed to die beneath the execution blade. Branded a witch. Hunted as the last survivor of a disgraced bloodline. Dragged before the kingdom that slaughtered her family, she expects death—not the ancient magic buried inside her to awaken before the entire royal court. Then the prophecy arrives. The Bone Crown has chosen her. Now the kingdom fears her existence, the Church demands her execution, and the shadows beneath the capital are beginning to wake. Worst of all, Crown Prince Cassian Draeven refuses to let her go. Feared across the continent as the king’s ruthless heir, Cassian is as dangerous as the dark magic crawling through the kingdom’s walls. Cold. Violent. Untouchable. The kind of man people obey before he even speaks. And according to the prophecy, he is destined to destroy the world. Forced into the deadly heart of the royal palace, Lyra becomes trapped between assassins, forbidden magic, court betrayals, and a prince whose obsession with her grows more dangerous by the day. But the deeper Lyra falls into the secrets of the Bone Crown, the more horrifying the truth becomes: Her family was never executed for treason. They were murdered to hide what she really is. And the throne of Varethis was built over something ancient that should have never awakened.

Samantha Hale thought she had it all — a perfect marriage, a thriving career as a software engineer, and the kind of life that looked flawless from the outside. Until she discovers her husband is cheating on her… with her sister. And that her sister is pregnant. Betrayed. Homeless. Broke. One night, Samantha enters a radio contest on a whim — and wins an old Victorian mansion in a forgotten countryside town called Willow Creek. It’s supposed to be her new beginning. But the house has a secret buried deep beneath its foundations. When she unlocks the door to the basement, Samantha finds two stone coffins — and accidentally awakens Lucien Varyn, the long-lost King of Vampires, and his enigmatic right hand, Sebastian. Lucien is dark, magnetic, and far too dangerous. Sebastian is cold, calculating, and hiding something behind his icy loyalty. Both are bound to her by an ancient prophecy neither of them expected to come true. As strange events unfold and old powers stir, Samantha must decide who to trust — and who to love — before the house claims her soul… Because in Willow Creek, under the glow of the Blood Moon, the past isn’t dead. It’s just waiting to be awakened.

After years of running from her past, Lissa returns to the one place she never wanted to see again—her childhood home. The town hasn’t changed, but Lissa has. Now a mother, a wife, and a survivor, she’s trying to rebuild a life while standing on the crumbling foundation of her trauma. Just a few months. Just until she finds her footing. But the house doesn’t let go so easily. It smells of mildew and memory. Dust covers more than furniture—it coats every secret Lissa tried to bury. As she navigates motherhood, old friendships, and a strained relationship with her sister, Lissa discovers more than ghosts in the attic. A photograph violently scribbled out. A letter from someone she hoped was lost to time. And a journal that brings her back to the girl she used to be. Her husband, Colt, tries to be her anchor. Her son, Lucas, is her reason to fight. But a single name—just one letter, T—is all it takes to fracture her resolve. The past isn’t dead. It’s waiting in the basement. In a letter tucked behind old receipts. In the quiet corners of her memory where no one else can go. As the days pass, the house begins to feel like a trap.Lissa must decide if she’s strong enough to dig through the wreckage of her past… or if some secrets are better left buried. Told with raw emotion and atmospheric suspense, House of Quiet Screams is a story of trauma, resilience, and the silent strength it takes to confront what once felt un faceable. For Lissa, surviving was never the end of the story—facing what comes after might be the beginning.

At the Halloween Carnival, my younger brother and I got separated. Not long after, the headless body of a teenage boy was found in an alley. My father was consumed with rage—he blamed me entirely. He locked me in the chapel and forced me to chant prayers and light candles for my brother's soul for eighty-one days and nights. After that, he had me sold to a brothel in the city's red-light district, so I could spend the rest of my life atoning for my brother. He instructed the brothel manager there to give me only the most depraved clients—and to make sure I was left barely breathing. The brothel manager, paid to follow orders, assigned me to women with twisted tastes. Night after night, I was tormented. When I came down with consumption, I was denied any care. The hands I'd once used to turn pages—the hands of a scholar—were deliberately broken, crushing whatever hope I had left for the future. Eventually, one client went too far, and I died on the bed. The brothel manager had my body rolled up in a straw mat and dumped in a mass grave outside town. A year later, on New Year's Eve, my brother came back.

There are monsters in this world. And they used to be us. Now it's time to euthanize to survive in a hospice where Emily, a woman haunted by her past, only wants to do her job and be the best mother possible. Post-infection Chicago. Christmas. Inside The Hospice, Emily and her fellow nurses do their rounds. Here, men and women live out their final days in comfort, segregated from society, and are then humanely terminated before fate turns them into marrow-craving monsters known as ‘Smilers.’ Outside these imposing walls, rabid protesters swarm with signs, caught up in the heat of their hatred. Emily, a woman haunted by her past, only wants to do her job and be the best mother possible. But in a world where mortality means nothing, where guns are drawn in fear and nobody seems safe anymore – at what cost will this pursuit come? And through it all, the soon to be dead remain silent, ever smiling. Such is their curse. It won't be long before that snow-speckled ground will be salted by blood. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing