Booktok Lean Against Door Frame Novels & Stories

Sorry, Sun Tzu. It’s a slim tome, at least a hundred pages, I hope he wrote more about his sisters’ life, thumbing through the pages, the things I could learn, I turn to leave at the same time door slips open, my head snaps up and the book slams shut, “Z-Zayne” I inhaled as his large form fills the doorway. “I’ve been waiting for you” I announce, book forgotten. He enters the room and shuts the door behind him, then proceeds to lean against the door.

I was alone now, and that was exactly how I wanted it. I leaned my back against the door, exhaling a shaky breath. The weight of the book felt like a boulder in my hands, but the knowledge it contained was a siren's call. I tossed it onto my rumpled bed, and it landed with a quiet thump, the sound sounding almost ominous. I couldn't help but linger for a moment, staring at it as if it were a loaded gun, waiting for me to pull the trigger.

AXEL’S POV: The door creaked slightly as I pushed it open, revealing a modest bathroom. I clicked the door shut behind me and leaned heavily against it despite the sting in my legs. My chest heaved as I exhaled, eyes darting over the bathroom's simple layout.

Probably thinking I will bite his head off again. Snapping out of it, because I didn’t want to talk about it to any of them right now, I turned the door knob and we walked inside. It was just like I remembered it. Walking right up to the bookcase, I grabbed the book that was the secret latch. The bookcase squeaked as it moved open, causing fresh dust to fall off the shelves and to the floor. I looked back and Jaxson and Mason were standing there with their mouths open. Ted wasn’t in the room so I just assumed Jaxson told him to stay guard. I didn’t think much about it.

He remained, standing, heels in the aisle. As she noticed earlier, where the shelves in the outer, more public rooms overwhelmed with their size, these did not. The ceiling low, the books sat at eye level, beginning not on the floor, but right below her knees. The sconces at the door not tarnished but burnished bright. The room lit with nothing but their glow. She moved close, scanning the sallow spines, one looking much like the other. Raised a hand. Paused. “You fear not having a book in you, yes?” A gentle smile from the man watching from the door.

Barefoot and shirtless, sweat glistened on his chest as he leaned against the frame, his presence filling the doorway like a gathering storm. The room behind him was shrouded in darkness, carrying a strong scent of ash and pine as I stepped inside while he moved aside to let me pass. Inside, the room was stark and functional, with clean lines and dark wood furniture. A row of weathered books lined a high shelf, and a single golden ring hung from a nail by the window, catching the faint light. Crossing the room slowly, I paused beside the bed, my gaze drifting to the dense forest stretching beyond the compound’s walls.

Leo had locked the door from the outside and after he had left, I locked it from the inside and laid down on the bed with a book I had found in his nightstand. When I heard him try to unlock it, I looked up and smiled to myself complacently. "Ella, open the door," He said. "No thanks," I answered. He bumped his fist on the wood hard. "You know that I could break it down, right?" "But then you won't have a door." I had the upper hand this time. "If I have to, I will and when I get in there, I won't exactly be fucking delighted," He replied. "You aren't scaring me," I sung looking back down at the book which was about 12th century France and was oddly fascinating.

*Third POV* “Just open, JUST OPEN THE FREAKING DOOR!! Someone, please help! Please, I don't want to stay here. I don't want to!” falling on his knees with his head against the door. “I’m sorry Koishi! I’m sorry once again” pausing, turning around just to make his way upstairs. “I guess I can't help myself turning into a monster like him” a small laugh escapes from his lips reaching the top floor. Walking out through another door closing it right being him. Just then the bookshelves automatically close right in front of him.

It possessed a geometry that was too perfect for the rough, organic interior of the hut. It was a Door. The frame shimmered with a faint, violet luminescence, pulsing gently like a slow heartbeat. The center of the door was a swirling vortex of black, but deep within that blackness, Ressi could see faint glimmers, like distant galaxies spinning in a void. It looked deep—impossibly deep. The fire in the hearth seemed to shrink away from it. The temperature in the hut plummeted. Fear, cold and primal, washed over him. He scrambled backward until his back hit the reed door he had been about to open. "Mungu wangu," he whispered.

Lenas Pov The sound of the heavy oak door clicking shut felt like the final period at the end of a very long, very painful sentence. I leaned my back against the wood, my breath coming in broken hitches. I didn't lock it, Adrian would never force his way in but I turned the deadbolt anyway. I needed a barrier. I needed something solid between me and the man who had just admitted, through a deafening silence, that his lips had touched the woman who was trying to destroy us.