shadowarchives

[shadowarchives]

Station Madness

The ride to the city was like most, — dull.

Despite the little ' goodbye party ' I was thrown, filled with freshly baked treats, sharing revived tales by the fire, and even Leo gifting me a sunshine amulet embedded in silver, delicately carved to be shaped like the sun, it all felt surreal, as thiugh I was experiencing the life of another, or all this was simply a dream.

Yet it wasn't. I was sitting g in the back of the van, Brent's head on my lap, and my gaze out the window, vision blurry as it passed over Sicily's endless fields, imprinting the moment onto my memory — unreliable as it may be.

“ I thought this day would never come. ” Nonna muttered. Was she saying that out of joy? Was she happy I was leaving her? Perhaps not, maybe, she was dreading this day as much as I was.

The only difference — was that she tried to sugar coat it with false optimism, where as I took it in as it was offered.

“ Me too...” I sighed, petting the Collie. “ Oh don't be such a downer dear. The world may pull you from this little house but I trust you'll find your way back to yourself. ” I tried to smile, “ What if I don't? ”

She laughed gently, “ You have that necklace on for a reason no? ” I raised an eyebrow, what did that mean? “ Does it have some sort of tracker in it? ” I questioned with concern.

She shook her head “ Not exactly, but when the time comes. It's purpose will reveal itself. ” She earned a sigh from me for that. Why do elders always have to be so secretive about things? That might be a reason I may never know.

My vision then skimmed over to the window once more. We were entering the high way now, accompanied by endless heards of vehicles.

And that's when I was pulled back to reality, harshly at that. It seemed as though all my senses were at its maximum; the sweat on my hands, the texture of my jeans, the itching of my scarf as though the cloth held a dagger against my throat, the hissing of the tires as it scraped against the roads, the golfing, roaring, and near animalistic sounds created by the metal machines on the road.

It was too much, too real, too sudden. Was this an aftershock? Why can't I open my mouth? Why can't I move? Am I breathing? Why am I here?

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

“ YUUSHEN ICARUS ACCARDI! ” The van door flung open before my heart had a chance to settle. I flinched so hard I hearty hit my head. My eyes blinked against the sudden light. A carpark. Already?

“ Y-yeah? ” I croaked as I climbed out of the van, unsteady on my feet, like a fawn. “ My boy, you're sweating like a goat in a greenhouse! ” Nonna tutted, bustling towards the trunk like a woman on a mission. “ I warned you, that scarf would strangle you alive! But nooo, ' E por la nonna fashion! ' you whined. ”

She was already yanking my suitcase out of the tank with one hand and shoving a thermos in the other. “ Drink, Ginger-lime, it'll ground you. ” I stared at the thermos blankly. She didn't wait for me to respond.

“ Train's not gonna wait for you to finish having your little episode darling ” she added more softly “ and nether will life. But I will. Always. ”

She gave my scarf a quick tug — not to scold, just enough to loosen it — then smoothed it down with maternal protection. Her fingers were warm. Her hands smelled like lavender and garlic.

The train station doors slid open with a mechanical sigh, letting a cold gust of air slap my senses.

My eyes dropped to the dimamon-checkerdd floors. Keep moving. Just follow the pattern: left, right, left, right.

Brent trotted beside me with rhythmic loyalty, tail swishing against my leg now and then— a silent anchor.

Why does he stick around.

I've never given him a reason to trust me; I'm a mess. Shaky. Self absorbed. An unreliable narrator of my own life.

But he follows. He always does.

Nonna was already five steps ahead, spinning around with the kind of flair you'd expect from a theatre dropout. “ Well? Don't just stand there like a confused turnip — this way! ” She chilled, marching toward what looks like a maintenance hallway tucked beside the information desk.

“ Uh...Nonna? ” I glanced at the actual ticket booth, the normal people queuing with their normal tickets for normal destinations. “ Non e sabalingato —”

“ Ho chiesto un commento, Icarro? ” she snapped without turning around. Her fish-tail braids swinging like a pendelum of judgement. “ Keep up, or the gate seals without you. E no, c' é rimborso per la crisi esistenziale. ”

Brent snarled at her tone, like he knew something I didn't.

I clutched my thermos & stumbled after her, the air growing colder with each step. The scent changed too, — less lavender & metal...more...ozone. Copper.

“ Done stiamando amando? ” I asked.

“ Done dovnesti essere. ” She replied.

“ Non è confortante. ”

“ Non doneva essere così. ”

The corridor curved doward, swallowing the fluorescent lighting above us and replacing it with dim pulses of blue along he floor — like veins. Like the place itself was alive.

I opened my mouth to ask another question but she held up a finger without looking back.

“ Capirari presto, tesoro. E quando lo capirari cerca di non urlare. O fallo. Ad alcuni piace così. ”

Headers by these two sweethearts: @cursed-carmine , @dollywons

Tag list!: @braindeadgrl @osmantiswine @blood-bitten-pages

Thank you for reading! 𖹭

[shadowarchives]

U.N.A

Yusshen PoV;

I don’t remember packing. Only that my hands kept moving, folding things I no longer recognized as mine—shirts, a coat that hadn’t fit since last winter, a book I thought I’d burned.

The suitcase opened like a mouth waiting to devour pieces of me, and I fed it blindly.

Allegra hummed in the kitchen. The same song she always sang when she fried eggs, only there were no eggs, and it wasn’t morning.

She’d cried when the letter came, then smiled, then cried again. “Your future,” she kept saying, like the word alone could sanctify the unknown.

I nodded, because it made her happy. Her hands trembled when she touched my cheek, so I let mine tremble too, just to match.

I should’ve felt proud. Maybe I did. But somewhere beneath the warmth, something cold shifted.

“They don’t accept just anyone into Umbra Notics,” she beamed, patting my shoulder with a little too much force. “They see something in you.”

Yes. They see something. That’s what frightened me.

I could feel it already—the watching. As if the moment I crossed into Noctis, I’d be seen in ways I hadn’t been before. Peeled open. Measured. Disassembled.

Allegra said I’d be safe there, but the word meant nothing. Safety is just another way of saying someone else is in control.

A voice in my head—my own, I think—whispered that it was a mistake. That I never applied. That the letter wasn’t addressed to me.

But the suitcase was full, and the shuttle would arrive soon, and my memory… well, memory is a soft thing. Easy to fold. Easy to forget.

Yelena's PoV;

My memories in Moscow were amazing, but sadly, I now have to leave them in order to make more.

Бабушка (babuska) began to pack immediately after getting the email, going on and on about how she had contacted ' Allegra ' and get everything ready. It felt strange, I felt strange, fir the first time in my life I didn't know what to do, or what was going happen once I left.

I felt...lost.

And lost wasn't a good feeling. It meant something was out of my control. Something that didn't have an easy solution was occurring and I could do nothing of it.

Time froze for me as I stood in the centre of our living room, the clock on the wall ticking, the breeze from the cracked window gently creeping in.

But for my grandma, it couldn't have moved any quicker. She was making phone calls, picking out outfits, ironing uniforms, packing suit cases and all the usual works of organising to move.

Her hands, though textured like prunes, were moving briskly as thiugh she wasn't a day over eighty. Even though she insisted on working independently, I couldn't feel like I needed to help her.

And using her psychic abilities — I'm convinced of her having — she muttered “ Just put the clothes you want in the Чёрный suitcase. ”

I nodded, heading upstairs into my room. While I was choosing outfits, my phone buzzed.

Maybe it was another message from the academy? My assumptions however, were dead wrong as I saw who it was from:

Я снаружи, открой дверь

I'm outside, open the door

“ Mari...” I sighed, placing my outfit aside before trotting down the stairs. I passed the messy living room, & the kitchen before opening the door.

Only to be met with a short, brunette girl pouncing on me with utmost joy.

“ Lena! I'm so happy for you!! ” Marian squealed. She was like a peacock, flamboyant and loud.

“ Смасибо. But about what exactly? ” I enquired.

“ Your acceptance into Umbra Noctis of course. ”her older brother responded as he walked right in. He was a splitting image of his sister; brunette hair, flawless skin, and alluring grey eyes. He was taller than me, where as his sister was a few inches shorter.

Despite being similar in apperance, their personalities were a striking contrast. Mari was a flamboyant peacock, and Malcom preferred to bask in silence much like an elegant swan.

As I always expected of course, we all grew up together, attended the same schools, & shared the same lives, the only difference other than appearances, was our family. Theylived with their parents, and I lived with my grandmother.

“ Тётенька called our parents during game night. ” He added as both of them took off their footwear and luxurious coats.

Бабушка came running down the stairs, holding two large suitcases. “ Ana! I thought I told you to empty out your closet? We're leaving first thing in the morning, get ready. ” She busily complained.

“ I know, I know. I just came to great Mari & Malcom. ” I explained, “ Тётенька, you do know that legal guardians aren't allowed to stay right? ” Malcom spoke as he took the suit cases from her hands.

“ Of course I know that Конфетка. But I'm going only for a short while. ”

“ Now, rest those by the coat rack, they won't go into the car till the morning. ” she responded, walking off to do who else knows what.

Malcom sighed, resting the bags down at their designated resting place before our long journey tomorrow.

“ I really wished you didn't have to go...” Mari pouted. “ Yeah, I mean, you're leaving me here with her! ” Malcom dramatically added, earning a reasonable punch in the gut from his sibling.

I laughed, “ Well, you wouldn't be completely alone, you guys are bound to find some new friends at your new school. ” I explained. “ Yeah, but they aren't you. ” Mari continued to complain with tears in her eyes.

I sighed, departing with a loved one certainly isn't for the weak. “ Why not spend the rest of the day with me? ” I enquired.

Her eyes lit up once more, jumping with glee, she cheered “ Yes! Yes! Yes! Of course I will. ” Her sibling shook his head, giving me a more laid back response. “ We'd love to Lena. ”

“ We? ” Бабушка asked, “ I do hope you're joking Malcum, I don't feel comfortable letting my granddaughter have a ' sleep over ' with a boy.”

“ Пожалуйста, бабушка только один раз. Это последний раз, когда я увижу их НАВСПЛА !! ”

Please, Grandma only once. This is the last time I see them in FORVER!!

I practically begged, “ It's not gonna be forever, stop being so melodramatic. ” she sighed, rubbing her aged temples as she spoke, “ Fine, but no funny business. ”

“ Yayyy!! ” Mari squealed, running upstairs. “ Funny business? ” Malcum questioned, his cheeks dusted with a maroon hue. I smiled, my gaze averting as I placed my weight on my heels, to my toes, & my heels again, trying to rock away the awkward tension.

“ Don't worry about it...”

Headers by these two sweethearts: @cursed-carmine , @ianrkives

Tag list! : @braindeadgrl @osmantiswine @blood-bitten-pages

Thank you for reading! 𖹭

[shadowarchives]

Coordinates

The night hummed low and steady, each raindrop tapping at my window like time moving backwards.

I sat up in bed, blanket wrapped around my shoulders, heart beating in that strange, suspended rhythm—the one that only comes when you’re waiting for something that might never arrive.

Somewhere out there, far from the city lights and the slow pulse of the rain, was Umbra Notics Academy.

A place that didn’t quite exist on maps, only in the margins of books and the whispers between scholars. A school for transformation. For unraveling. For truth.

Sapphire lifted her head from her nest of blankets, eyes gleaming blue in the dark. Almost too blue. Almost human. She meowed once, softly, like she knew something I didn’t.

I reached for my tablet on the nightstand. The glow lit up the room in cold silver. I checked my inbox again.

Still nothing.

No reply.

I sighed and leaned back against the headboard, my eyes wandering to the fog-blurred streetlamps outside. The halos around them looked like they belonged to another world. There’s something haunting about waiting—something holy. Like the universe had paused mid-sentence, and I was trapped inside the comma.

Tap.

I froze.

That wasn’t the rain.

Another tap. Sharper this time. Intentional.

I turned slowly, eyes snapping to the window. But there was nothing—only mist curling through the night and the gleam of distant traffic.

Still, I got up. The floor was cool beneath my feet, grounding. I moved to the window, every step an echo.

For a breath, I thought I saw a shape—something shifting just beyond the edge of sight. But when I pressed my palm to the glass, there was only a single crow on the power line, feathers slick and black against the stormlight.

It stared straight at me.

I stared back.

Then I returned to bed, uneasy but tired. The quiet returned. And, eventually, so did sleep.

I woke to light and vibration.

The morning arrived in a symphony of emails, buzzing phones, and the scent of rain lingering in the curtains. My phone shook against the nightstand like it had something urgent to say.

Sapphire growled at it.

I grabbed it blindly, still half-asleep, and blinked at the subject line:

Umbra Notics Academy – Application Status.

My breath hitched. Time seemed to pause. The tap of rain stopped, the city stilled.

I opened the message with trembling fingers.

Dear Yelena Ekaterina,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into Umbra Notics Academy for the upcoming academic year…

I didn’t read the rest right away. The words blurred. My chest rose, fell, rose again. Accepted.

I had been accepted.

Sapphire leapt onto the windowsill without a sound, tail twitching as she watched something I couldn’t see. My heartbeat was too loud to ignore, but beneath the joy and disbelief, there was something else.

A shadow of unease. A silence beneath the celebration.

This wasn’t just a letter.

It was a door.

I scrolled to the bottom of the email, expecting a location, a brochure, some sort of mundane attachment.

There was only a set of coordinates.

No explanation. No directions. Just numbers.

And a single line beneath them:

You were chosen. Do not be late.

Headers by these two sweethearts: @cursed-carmine , @anitalenia

Tag list! : @braindeadgrl @osmantiswine @blood-bitten-pages

Thank you for reading! 𖹭

[shadowarchives]

Silver Light, Quiet Lies

It was a cold night. The kind that presses against the windows like a memory you don’t want to remember.

The moon hung above the grasslands in her elegant indifference, spilling silver across the fields like spilled thoughts.

I sat by the window, knees to chest, staring out at nothing. Or maybe everything. I don’t know. It’s hard to tell these days.

“You think they’ll take me, Brent?” I asked the collie curled beside me, all warmth and silence and loyalty I didn’t deserve.

He gave a soft wag, followed by a low woof—half-hearted, like he didn’t quite believe it either.

Umbra Noctics Academy. The name sounded like a whisper from a dream I once had and forgot. Prestigious, elusive, probably a little unhinged. I wouldn’t have applied if my grandmother hadn’t insisted.

“You’ve got a sharp mind, tesoro. You can’t let it rot in the soil like old onion bulbs.”

She meant well. She always did. But I didn’t want to leave. Not really. Not because of the school, but because of her.

Eighty years old, hands like withered bark, spine bent from decades of wrestling goats and gravity. She lived alone on this forgotten farm, stubborn as winter.

I helped when I could—fed the livestock, worked at the restaurant down the hill, avoided eye contact with the daughter of the owners, who allegedly liked me.

They said she had a soft spot for me. I assumed it was pity.

Who would want a twitchy, underfed farm boy with a tangle of nerves for a brain?

But none of that mattered, not tonight. What mattered was the slow, sick twist in my gut—the one that whispered: If they say yes, it’s over. She’ll be alone. And alone people disappear.

No, crime wasn’t common here. But strangers passed through. And strangers weren’t common either. That made them worse.

I was probably just paranoid. Probably. But that word never helped.

“Make friends,” Allegra said once. “Try to get over the idea that bad things happen all the time.”

She might as well have asked me to stop breathing.

At 9:00 PM, I shut the window, drew the curtains tight, and curled into bed with Brent pressed against my ribs. “You staying here tonight?” I whispered. He let out a low whine and shifted closer.

I fell asleep with his heartbeat beneath my hand and the taste of dread on my tongue.

The next morning arrived like a whisper wrapped in frost.

I carried the goats out to graze, wandered the fields with Brent trailing behind me like a second shadow. The sun crept up, golden and slow, while the last traces of the moon dissolved into the pale blue above. Morning and night shared the sky for a breath or two—an uneasy truce.

There was peace in the silence. A stillness I didn’t trust.

I could have stayed there. Maybe forever. But Allegra’s voice called me back like gravity.

Brent and I raced to the house, skidding into the kitchen where two plates waited—toast and jam for me, raw duck and kibble for him.

“Did you sleep well, amore mio?” Allegra asked, her eyes soft and weathered.

I nodded, chewing through a mouthful of bread. “Mhm.” She chuckled, brushing flour off her apron.

That’s when I saw it.

A white van, slow and deliberate, turning into the long gravel path that led to us. My breath caught.

I knew that van.

“Be right back!” I called, already halfway out the door.

The mailman grinned like he’d been let in on some great secret. “Got something big for you today, kid.” He handed me a black envelope, sealed with golden wax. I stared at it like it might hiss or bite.

White cursive etched across the front read:

From: Umbra Noctics Academy

To: Yuushen Icarus Accardi

I stopped breathing.

I stammered a thank-you and sprinted back inside, clutching the thing like it might vanish if I blinked.

“Nonna!” I shouted. “It’s them!”

Allegra looked up from her tea, unbothered. “Of course it is. They don’t waste time with indecision.” She shuffled to get her glasses from the ridiculous star-shaped shelf she insisted on keeping. “Now sit. Let’s read.”

We sat on the couch—me, shaking, her steady as bedrock. I broke the seal and unfolded the letter. The paper was thick. The ink smelled faintly metallic.

By the time I reached the bottom, my head felt full of fog.

“I… I actually got accepted,” I muttered.

Allegra rested a hand on my shoulder. “I told you. No need to doubt.”

But doubt was my native language.

I didn’t have time to respond. There was a knock at the door—loud, sudden, final.

I opened it to find Leo, Gabriella, and Mateo.

“You really kept us waiting,” Leo grinned.

Mateo let out a low whistle. “Umbra Noctics. That’s serious.”

Gabriella smiled, quiet and warm. “We’re proud of you.”

“How did you—” I started.

“Your Nonna’s been shouting it from the rooftops,” Mateo smirked.

I turned to see her sipping tea at the kitchen table like a cat who’d swallowed the sun. She winked.

Leo clapped me on the shoulder. “So. Goodbye party?”

“I haven’t even accepted yet—”

“Oh, please,” Mateo rolled his eyes. “Like you’re not going.”

Gabriella nodded. “This is your door, Yuushen. Don’t be afraid to walk through it.”

I looked down at the letter, at the neat rows of text that promised a new world.

And for the first time, I realized: I’d already left...

Headers by these two sweethearts: @cursed-carmine , @dollywons

Tag list! : @braindeadgrl @osmantiswine @blood-bitten-pages

Thank you for reading! 𖹭

[shadowarchives]

MASTERLIST

PLOT

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

[shadowarchives]

PLOT

In the year 2046, Sicily's olive groves whisper secrets under the moonlight—and Yuushen Accardi has always listened.

Quiet, dutiful, and haunted by dreams he can't explain, Yuushen is accepted into Umbra Notics Academy—a prestigious boarding school known for shaping the next generation of peacekeepers: the Exorvanes. These elite hunters are praised for protecting humanity from a mysterious species called Morpharions—creatures of shifting form and forgotten origin.

But when Yuushen stumbles upon a bleeding Morpharion in the academy’s forbidden wing—and it doesn't attack him—everything begins to unravel.

The deeper he digs, the more the truth bleeds through the cracks: the Exorvanes are not saviors, and the Morpharions may be more human than the ones who hunt them. Together with his sister, Yuushen sets out to prove that harmony is possible.

But peace has a price.

And Yuushen?

He’s not who he thought he was.

Not human.

Not innocent.

Not safe.

As reality twists and fractures, and voices whisper from the shadows of his mind, Yuushen must ask himself:

Can a monster save anything at all?

_________________

Tone & Genre Tags:

Dark Academia | Sci-fi Horror | Found Family | Slow Madness | Moral Dissonance | Tragedy | Slibling Bond | Hidden Powers | Betrayal | Whispers in the Walls

[shadowarchives]

𓏵┆☆𝐤𝐚𝐫𝐢 ⁞ 03:08 ˚. ᵎᵎ

𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐛𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭

“I understood the ugliness of the masses.”

AUTHOR BIO

Greetings, I’m Alucard Cipher, a young author with an unwavering passion for storytelling. 

Shadows of the Exorvanes is a project close to my heart—a reflection of many personal truths, dreams, and shadows. It’s more than just a book; it’s a shared creation, brought to life alongside my coauthor, Kelle Cipher, and a testament to the worlds we build when we dare to write them.

WHY ME, WHY THIS?

This is not a book. It is a mirror splintered by thought—a vessel for the noise I could not silence. It is a bleeding out of questions no one asked and truths no one wished to hear.

Cogito, ergo sum.

I think, therefore I am.

But what am I, when thought becomes a cage? When the mind, once sanctuary, turns upon itself?

I have always found solace in the madmen of literature—Dazai, Dostoevsky, Kafka.

Men who did not write for applause, but because their silence had grown unbearable. They did not dress their suffering in beauty—they let it rot in the open, and still, we called it profound.

This story is a shadow of that yearning.

A reflection of my fracturam internam—my inner fracture.

A place where fiction bleeds into memory, where every lie told by the narrator reveals a deeper truth in me.

I do not write for legacy. I write so that someone, somewhere, might read this and feel less alone in their unraveling.

If this book is forgotten, so be it. If it remains only in the fading minds of those who stood beside me—those who saw me—then I am content.

This is my wound.

This is my gift.

This is my truth, disguised in dreams.

Et tu, lector?

Cogitas? Ergo… es.

And you, reader?

Do you think?

Then perhaps—you, too, are real.

✦ @akaricipher