Lilith Murphy || Writer

@lilithwrites.bsky.social

476 Followers 206 Following

27 || She/They || 📍 Boston Writer of psychological thriller, horror, and things that go bump in the night. Autistic, queer, and going nowhere 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🚫 No AI 🚫

An agent’s guide to "Dissonance" An adult psychological thriller (Work In Progress) by Lilith Murphy
An agent’s guide to "Dissonance" An adult psychological thriller (Work In Progress) by Lilith Murphy
"Shifting the still-warm papers to her left arm, Alex registers movement in her peripheral vision. A shiver rolls like wind down her spine, an age-old instinct warning her to danger. She can’t hear a thing; the usually quiet ringing in her ears overpowers everything else in the silence of the library. But she’s certain that she saw a shadow move. 'Who’s there?!' She hisses, eyes darting rapidly around the stacks. Her vision was a messy blur of book titles and colors, but it was as if the shadow had vanished completely. Whatever she saw, it was gone now, leaving Alex only with the dread that clings to her lungs, making it hard to breathe. Palms search for purchase at the edge of the wooden table, the rapid swiveling of her head having brought on a wave of vertigo that spins the room around. The ancient screws squeal under her weight, but do not give. The adrenaline, which had hit her so fast, recedes like a tide on the shore. It leaves in its wake a discomfort so overwhelming that, all at once, Alex scrambles to pull her papers back into her arms. Careful not to let them flutter away in her haste, she rushes out of the library, offering only one final goodbye over her shoulder."
A collage: Row one (left to right): A woman with white skin crying as mascara runs down her face; a girl in a blue dress holding a smaller girl in a white shirt and skirt; a woman with brown hair looking into a broken mirror. Row two: Two hands, covered in blood; a black box with the words "If you hurt my sister I'll kill you with my bare hands" written in white text; a black-and-white photo of two women with their arms around each other and facing away from the camera. Row three: A silhouette of a woman with a knife; two hands forming a pinky promise against a cloudy sky; a cropped photo of a woman, only showing her disheveled hair and blood on her face/body.
An agent’s guide to "Dissonance" An adult psychological thriller (Work In Progress) by Lilith Murphy
A collage of dark images with an overall gray overtone. It conveys themes of gritty survival, love for a sister, paranoia, and poking through great secrets.
An agent’s guide to "Dissonance" An adult psychological thriller (Work In Progress) by Lilith Murphy
An agent's guide to "Dissonance," an adult psychological thriller by Lilith Murphy
A portrait photo of three white peacock butterflies laying on leaves. The green is almost camouflaged with the green.
An agent's guide to "Dissonance," an adult psychological thriller by Lilith Murphy
An agent's guide to "Dissonance," an adult psychological thriller by Lilith Murphy
Dr. Scott offers an encouraging tilt of her head as Alex picks a spot on the wall behind the other’s head to fix her gaze. 4, 5, 6. 4, 5, 6. Her chest wheezes as it expands and a lingering pain is left behind as it contracts. She does it once, twice, three times before her mouth parts to speak. It doesn’t take much time for Alex to slip back into the murky static; her imagination opening its maw. “It’s humid and raining,” She begins, stumbling once more from the wreckage, “my leg hurts, too. I had to squeeze out of the car, and it scraped on something. I’m on the floor, I think.” The scar on the back of her leg tingles. “What do you hear?” “I can hear the horn.” Alex turns to the driver’s seat, where her father’s head rests against the steering wheel. She’s reminded of the times he’d fall asleep on the couch while they watched movies. “Just the horn?” “No, there are people too. Someone’s on the phone, and a lady is trying to get my attention.” The brown-haired stranger cradles Alex’s head into her lap. Her voice is too muffled to understand, so Alex distracts herself by focusing on the pretty shade of lipstick she wore. The glossy sheen reflected the light of the streetlamps, twinkling like stars. “You’re doing a great job, Alex.” “Wait—oh God—Charlie.”
Distantly, voices yell out, trying to stop her. Alex doesn’t listen, instead recklessly propelling herself toward the heat. The blaze is taller than she is, but only toward the back of the car. Her eyes flit to the front seat. Her mother’s neck has been broken, and her eyes stare wide and empty at her through the window. Grief lances through her, fingernails digging into the palms of her hands as she tears her eyes away. The backseat door is stuck, only slightly ajar to let Charlie’s screams out. If the firemen were here, they could pry it open or break the glass. She remembered seeing it on the news, a mother cradling her child as the burly men tore her door to pieces. Now, there was no such jaw to pry her sister to safety. There was only her and the few seconds she had before she lost the only family she had left.
Leaning over the sink, she begins to pry pieces of glass from her fingers. They clatter against the surface, one by one, until all that remains are mangled knuckles. The concentration lets her mind drift away, to focus on only one thing. Her shuddered wheezes melt into even breaths, and the shaking of her shoulders falls away. Before she can finish, an unfamiliar ringtone wrenches Alex from her tentative calm. The burner phone rumbles in her pocket. She does not care for the blood that smears her clothes as she fishes for it, answering the call and practically shouting into the receiver.
An agent’s guide to "Dissonance." An adult psychological thriller by Lilith Murphy
Excerpt “Before we do the press conference, I need to go somewhere.” “Where?” “Montgomery.” Zack’s head tilts downward, shadows casting over his eyes. “To talk to that teacher?” His tone probes at her, and even though it was a question, it feels much more like a threat. “You’re not investigating, are you? You know how dangerous that is, right?” She expected nothing less from him. After all these years, he was still their protector. Alex leans close to him, palms resting flat over her thighs and holding on desperately. “Please,” it strains her to hold eye contact, skin tingling, but she persists in boring her gaze into Zack’s. She begs, she challenges. Do not fuck with me. Please give me mercy. “Just take me?” His stare holds just as firm. Where Alex is a scrappy, determined thing, Zack has looked into the maw of something darker. His irises are inky and he uses it to barb through her. She blinks first.
An agent’s guide to... Dissonance An adult psychological thriller by Lilith Murphy