PREVIOUSLY… ON ROOK VS THE KING-DOM”
Darkness.
A smile floating in the void.
Yellow teeth glowing like they’ve learned to shine in it.
Victer’s hum—soft, wrong, alive.
Lights explode on.
A metal room.
A straightjacketed man whose eyes scream danger even when his voice whispers gentleness.
The pill he never swallows.
The SLAP he never reacts to.
The tub of freezing water he treats like a warm bath.
Then—
SNAP. GRAB. TWIST.
Electricity devours a doctor.
Fear destroys another.
Victer steals a badge, steals a life, steals a disguise…
…and walks straight into society unnoticed.
⸻
VVV blends into the crowd like a wolf in a schoolyard.
A stranger bumps his shoulder.
Victer grins.
FLASH—gunshot.
FLASH—reality.
Then the knife.
Then the collapse.
Then he’s gone.
⸻
The rooftop. The hostages. The impossible choice.
VVV with one hostage.
Another gunman with another.
Two lives hanging on two triggers.
“GOOD evening, Rook!!
Short for rOoKiE?”
Rook fires.
VVV fires.
The gunman fires.
Three lives fall.
One of them Rook’s fiancée.
One of them their unborn child.
VVV escapes with a laugh and a ladder.
And above the chaos—
a comet-like sphere streaks the sky…
two beings inside.
Kyrathia whispering into Earth.
Rook sees it.
No one believes it.
⸻
The police storm in.
They see a killer—not an undercover agent.
Five officers beat him bloody.
He’s thrown down stairs—
walls breaking, bones shaking, vision static-filled.
Dragged outside.
Thrown into a cruiser.
Taken to federal custody.
⸻
The Cell.
The Giant.
The Birth of the BBU.
“PAPERS, BITCH.”
Rook’s answer?
BONG.
BONG.
UPPERCUT.
A giant falls.
A legend begins.
⸻
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THE SENTENCING.
Orange jumpsuit.
Handcuffs.
Bruised face.
Broken spirit.
“Zachary R. Jacobs…
sixteen years…
parole eligibility in nine.”
The gavel slams.
The sound echoes like a coffin lid closing.
A soft whisper from a guard:
“It’s gon’ be okay, baby… we got you.”
The cell door seals.
The buzzer shrieks.
Darkness.
Rook alone.
A leather-bound journal on his chest.
He closes his eyes.
Day 1 of 5,840.
Or maybe…
the day the King-Dom is born.
Hey, Matthew Wach. The story feels like a creepy, dark Psychological Thriller Crime story. There isn't a lot of worldbuilding.
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Maurice Vaughan Appreciate the read, my friend — and you nailed the tone.
This teaser focuses intentionally on the psychological thriller/crime layer.
The worldbuilding is there, just in shadows for now — two of the three worlds actually fuse in this scene. That “comet” moment is the first hint.
The final third brings the full scope into view.
I’ll share that next. Thanks for the eyes — feel free to fire any questions my way.
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You're welcome, Matthew Wach. "The worldbuilding is there, just in shadows for now." That works. Worldbuilding doesn't have to be big or happen all at once.
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Maurice Vaughan Exactly — and that shadow gets deeper.
Two other worlds are brushing against this one… characters like Kyler and Rathe will make that impossible to ignore when the time comes.