

ISBN:
Registration in Progress
Kim J. Estem
Gunshots, Heartbeats
Gunshots | Heartbeats is a novella of 18,600 words that blends gay romance with psychological thriller and surreal horror. It follows two childhood friends—one quiet and guarded, the other bright and untouchable—as they navigate the aching space between first love and an impossible nightmare. Set in the suffocating heat of a Nevada high school and the pine-scented forests of Oregon, this is a story about the words we leave unspoken, the trauma that reshapes us, and the question of whether love can survive the end of the world.
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Noah has been in love with Danny for three years. He's watched him across classrooms, memorized the way his dark hair catches the light, carried the weight of a confession he's too afraid to speak. When a tragedy shatters their senior year, Noah hides in a staff room while Danny watches their friend raise a gun to his own head. The words Noah never said become a ghost that haunts him for six years.
Now, in present-day Washington, Noah has built a fragile normalcy. But when Danny reappears, older and guarded, the feelings Noah buried surge back with devastating force. As they uncover the truth behind the shooting—binaural frequencies, telekinetic powers, a friend who was never what she seemed—Noah finds himself trapped in a time loop that forces him to relive the tragedy again and again.
But the loop breaks. Noah wakes to discover the truth: the shooting was never real. It was a nightmare—a psychological prison designed to keep him from speaking the words he was always too afraid to say. Now, with the nightmare behind him, Noah must finally confess his love before Danny disappears forever. Will Danny remember? And when the loop finally shatters, will love be enough to hold them together?
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This is a love story. A survival story. It's for anyone who has ever carried a secret too heavy to speak, who has watched the world fall apart and wondered if they could ever put it back together. With its blend of supernatural mystery, raw emotional ache, and a romance that refuses to die, Gunshots | Heartbeats will make you believe that some bonds can survive anything—even the end of reality itself.
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