The Plan - Chapter 11
“Peace means nothing
until the world tries to take it away.”
The Storm
It starts with a whisper —
a news alert, a red ticker, a sudden drop.
Valentine leans forward.
The charts flash red, fast and merciless.
The hum of his laptop feels louder than the storm outside.
Crypto collapses. Stocks tumble.
Forums fill with panic.
He scrolls — hundreds of messages flooding in.
“What’s happening?”
“Sell now!”
“This is it — it’s over!”
The same storm he’s seen before —
only this time, he’s not inside it.
He’s watching it from the eye.
“Illustrations created with AI. Story written and produced for Steemit Originals.”
Impact
He checks his positions.
One is down — hard.
Old instincts whisper: React. Save it. Fight it.
But he doesn’t.
Instead, he opens his notebook.
Page after page of calm handwriting.
Rules. Reflections. Lessons.
He flips to the last one and reads aloud:
“The plan doesn’t protect you from chaos.
It prepares you to walk through it.”
He breathes.
He waits.
The market keeps falling.
And still — he doesn’t move.
The Aftermath
Morning comes.
The world feels quieter.
Newsfeeds cool down.
His portfolio?
Bruised, but alive.
His peace?
Untouched.
Valentine writes one more line:
“You can’t control the storm.
But you can become the calm inside it.”
He closes the book and looks out at the sky.
The clouds still move —
but so does he.