"Shut up.
Shut up.
Shut the fuck—
I fisted my hair, pulling at the strands.
Everything hurt.
Sick.
I was getting—"

One night.
A man in withdrawal, chasing a fix across the city.
It ends on a balcony.

The Fall is Sebastian Holt's story, told from inside it. A dark literary short story from the Holt Universe. No romance, no rescue, no comfort. No prior Holt Universe knowledge required to enjoy.

Thank you for requesting The Fall.

The Fall is a 5,300 word short story. It is not a romance. There is no love interest, no HEA, and no relief. It is a single night inside a
single mind, told from the point of view of a man in active opioid addiction, and it does not look away.

It runs alongside the final days of Terms of Surrender, Book 1 of the Terms series. It stands completely on its own and requires no knowledge of the series. Readers who have not read Terms of Surrender should know
that this story reveals how that book ends.

Content warnings:
Active opioid addiction and withdrawal, on page and sustained
Drug use and overdose, on page
Drug induced psychosis, hallucination, and dissociation
Explicit sexual content between characters in active addiction,
deliberately not romantic
Sexual coercion, on page
Sexual assault, on page, witnessed by the narrator and not intervened in
Child abuse and domestic violence in flashback, including graphic depiction of blood
Passive suicidal ideation
Degrading and dehumanizing internal narration toward women

If addiction has touched your life, please take care of yourself here. This may be one to skip, and that is completely okay.

The narration is unreliable by design. Hallucinations are presented as fact so that the reader shares the narrator's broken reality. Sentence fragmentation and non standard verb
forms are deliberate craft choices, not proofing errors.

Reviews are most helpful by October 8, 2026. Amazon, Goodreads, and your own platforms are all appreciated.

Always,
Nicole