Booktok Box Advent Calendar Novels & Stories

A lock on the front. She pulled out the key. Her hands were already warm. She put the key in the lock and turned it. The box opened. Inside wrapped in cloth folded with careful deliberate hands was a book. Small. Dark cover. Worn smooth at the corners from hands that had held it often. The same symbol from the necklace stamped into the leather. She lifted it out. Opened it. The first page had one line written at the top. Third of March. Grimwall is colder than I expected.

Peace closed the door behind her and walked into the diabetes shop. Ada played around with her fingers for ten solid minutes until she saw Peace walk out of the ship with three baby pink boxes decorated with flower patterns. They were very pleasing to the eyes but Ada frowned, as Peace opened up the back door and placed the boxes on the seat. “What? Are we celebrating our loss by eating cakes?” Ada sarcastically spoke. “No! You are not but I am,” she chuckled and sat back in the driver's seat. “We have one more thing to buy and then we are good to go.

It’s clearly heavy, his arm muscles tense as he sets it down carefully in front of me. For a split second, my brain betrays me. He looks… ridiculously hot doing something this simple. I clear my throat and shake the thought away. Focus, Melissa. Blake exhales and smiles. “Okay,” he says. “This part is for Zaiden.” Then he taps the rest of the box. “And this is for you. For your birthday next week.” My brows knit together instantly. “My birthday?” I freeze, mentally counting dates. Today is the twenty-eighth of September.

“Is 7 okay. Is box closed. Is 3 PM tomorrow. Is… always.” _Silence. Bedroom. 11:50 PM._ Adrian got up. Walked over. Picked Alex up. 6 years old. Barely fits. For now. “7’s okay,” Adrian said. To Alex. To 581 days. To Reese. Dead. To _R_. In box. To always. “Box is closed. 3 PM is tomorrow. And always is always. Merry Christmas, buddy.” _Thump-thump. Thump-thump._

“What for? Medicine? It’s not here—I left it outside. Move over; I’ll get it.” Calvin’s eyes, thick with desire, fixed on her like a starved lion. “Not medicine. It’s a paper box. Feel for it.” Adriana bit her lip and reached out her hand. Just as she turned to look, Calvin’s fingers clamped gently around her chin. “What’s that for? Can’t you look while you’re searching?” “There’s only one thing inside,” he insisted. “You won’t grab the wrong one.” Grumbling inwardly, Adriana felt her way to the drawer. Her fingers brushed a small, hard paper box wrapped in plastic. “What is it? Doesn’t seem like cigarettes…”

She knew that one more second of thinking about it would lead to inappropriate things she shouldn’t be thinking about at all. Alice finally had the courage to open the box and see several books inside. The one on the very top was a new copy of the book that he had taken back when he attacked her and fed on her. "It’s the collector’s item edition…" She mumbled and checked the other books. Alice wasn’t expecting to accept a gift from Elijah as well. On one side, she found another small box. This time, she didn’t hesitate to open it, now sure that there wasn’t a bomb anywhere in her room.

He never saw the boxes and boxes of books and merchandise. The bookmarks, stickers, postcards, and the boxes of books for her book signing needed her signature. Then there were the giveaway packages Beckett and Julie packed with the help this time of Ms. Higgins. These went out to almost fifty readers and Julie didn’t want anyone thinking they’d received a raw deal, so she researched packaging and ways to pack the boxes decoratively to survive the mail system, look good and impress her readers without being overly bulky. By the end of the day, her office looked like it had exploded.

I said and he laughed while kissing my throat. "Great! Now for my gift!" He took a small box from the bag beside him. "What is this?" "I hope you like it and that it becomes special." I undid the bow and opened the little box. Inside was a bracelet, one of those where you can add themed charms. This one had a heart charm with the letter "A" hanging from it, a charm with a square root symbol and an "X", a book charm, and a charm with a cake and the number seventeen.

Instantly, I realized I was going through Celeste’s childhood memory. I decided to close it back, but just when I was about to, something peculiar caught my eye. Every other thing in the box seemed old and worn out, but this Book, or whatever it was with the shape of a book, looked new. Like it has been placed there only recently. I wouldn’t have gone through it, but it felt so wrong to close the box without taking a look at it. It spoke to me, it breathed, it looked alive. Slowly, I reached in and pulled it out from the very end of the box.

ASTRID. The room feels chilly all of a sudden. My eyes search around, my room looks tighter now, something panging at the base of my heart. Sweat trickled down my forehead as I opened the top of the box. I dump the contents on the table, there are a few notes, and some pictures, stickers, books and sorts, and I open the bulky book, my eyes swiping through the content. It’s a spell book, the words written in another language I can’t even read.