0 With A Line Through It Novels & Stories

My body still felt weak, heavy. The sharp buzz of his phone broke through the silence. Unknown number. His jaw clenched and I could almost see his eyes flash with anger, but he swiped the screen anyway. I couldn’t hear anything on the other end but I could tell it wasn’t good, from the way Ciro’s body tensed. I wondered who it was. He removed the phone from his ear and made to hang up butt then he caught sight of me, curled up weakly in the armchair by the fire, wrapped in one of his shirts. My head tilted, eyes hazy with fatigue but drawn by the sound.

I moved faster. On the far side, a thin spray of black fir needles had been scattered in a pattern that was not wind-made. Five lines, then a cross. A child’s drawing of a crown. Or a warning. “Someone marked it,” Joss whispered. “Or something,” Lera said.

My breathing stops for a moment. Slowly, I force myself to look at it. For several seconds, my brain refuses to understand what I am seeing. Then it does. Two lines. Positive. “ No,” I shake my head. The words cut through the room. I wish it were true, but what I'm seeing suggests otherwise. I grab the instructions again. Positive. I compare them; it remains the same. I do it again, and again. Maybe I'm reading it wrong. Maybe this brand uses a different symbol.

The year I started middle school, my parents solemnly handed my sister and me each a bank card. "This is your college fund. There's 100,000 dollars in each one. The password is your birthday. Don't touch it unless it's truly an emergency." I listened. I treated that card like a treasure. I never bought a single new piece of clothing. Even my worn-out canvas shoes got patched with glue and worn again. I thought that if I was just responsible enough, I'd live up to my parents' idea of "fairness." Then, after the SATs ended, I wanted to use the money on the card for a graduation trip with my classmates. Instead, the ATM screen flashed a number that burned my eyes: [Balance: $0.00]. At th

I had paid him well in advance to make sure the video played all the way through. One by one, the photos appeared on screen. Every single one showed Jasper and Fiona living it up abroad. Then, the final few slides hit. They were hospital consent forms for emergency surgery and an amniotic fluid embolism report, and on every document, the signature line for next of kin was blank. The last image was a photo of me, drenched in blood, lying on a stretcher as I was rushed into emergency surgery. The montage ended with a written statement that was over a thousand words long. It was my full account of every trip, every hotel booking, every time Jasper had snuck off with Fiona behind my back over th

Zoe walked towards the table and all Dale could do was a prayer of safety and a power of invisibility but nevertheless she was determined not to go down without a fight. Dale sensed objects dropping above her. First a steel sound, and then a slammed paper and a heavy sound of a shotgun. She thought correctly. She then looked deeper at her fair laps decorated in tattoo pictures of dragons, the infinity sign and a big illustration of Lady Zoe and her toes with fixed nails painted red.

Ruby tried explaining-but with the way things were, nick looked totally confused. "Ok, boy. That's enough. However, I actually came here to warn you. You have three supernatural powers which you inherited from me. I am a very great grandma of yours. I'm in the seventeenth line of your family generation. I know you may not understand. But however, your powers are: one-the ability to see ghosts. Two- you have a special word which you can say anytime to get out of trouble but you will later get to know the word as you grow. And three- I wouldn't tell you now. You might disclose it to other people. And like I said, you will get to know it as you grow."

Aiden can't carry the team alone. All I'm able to do is glare from the sideline and watch Pittsburgh put points on the board. Terrible towels twirl through the air and cheers go up when they score again, making it seventeen zero. Aiden jogs out slowly after the kickoff and I know something is injured, maybe his knee. The second quarter begins and we finally have the ball in enemy territory.

Jasmine threatened and turned off the phone. Brave looked at the dark phone screen and wanted to scream loudly: "Okay, I quit, I won't do it anymore." Unfortunately, that was just his heart of words. In fact, his expression was as gloomy as a family, thinking to himself: "Life is so boring.” He did not know that his misfortune had just begun. His wife - Bright in a pink apron, with a cute bear print on her chest, holding the long big chopsticks, angry bullet-shaped eyes looking at him questioningly.

I dialed it the second and third time, but she busied her line. And in all her history, anytime she ever busies her line, means she's with a guy and didn't want to be disturbed. "What the hell. This is just what I needed, on her best friends special day and she's out making out with some tout," I said throwing the phone furiously on the car floor.