Novel & Cerita Burn Before Reading

The paper turned into barely crumpled, and there was no name on the front. She tore it open, her arms trembling. "Meet me the following day at night at the antique church. I recognize how that will help you – A buddy." Jenny’s breath caught in her throat. Who should this be? No one knew she had returned to Noah’s mansion besides Lewis, and he could have never risked sending a letter like this. MaryAnne leaned closer. “Do you think it's miles safe?” Jenny swallowed tough. “I do not realize. But I should discover.”

The sound of fire was distant and threatening, though no flames were visible. I turned around. Everything around me was ablaze. People were running, fleeing, screaming. Children ran inside houses—children who, like me, wore the same white uniform, marked with the same insignia. The uniform was no longer white; it was stained with blood. Merlin stood a few meters away, holding a burning torch. Her face was not angry. It was calm, eerily blank. — Why? — my voice was childlike, pleading. Merlin looked right through me and hurled the torch onto the porch. The fire devoured the wood with the hunger of a living beast.

They simply needed to see that she had survived—and that meant they could too. Behind her, Arthur readied the ceremonial fire. As twilight fell, he raised a torch to the great iron brazier. The flames caught quickly, dancing like a song across the wind. Michael stepped forward. “This fire does not burn to destroy,” he said, his voice carrying over the crowd. “It burns to warm. To light. To remind us that the truth, once ignited, will never sleep again.” The villagers began placing tokens into the flames—letters of past sorrows, strips of cloth from old uniforms, torn remnants of church propaganda. The fire accepted all.

Magic tightening like a net. He began to speak, chanting in an old tongue. But before the incantation could finish, the book burned. Flame shot up from the name — not wild, but deliberate. Purposeful. It didn’t destroy the page. It sealed it. The gold letters glowed red-hot before cooling into black glass. The Archivist stepped back, eyes wide. “The book has accepted her.” The woman Councilor snarled. “Then we’ll erase the page.” I stepped forward.

If she saw me zoning out one more time, she’d definitely start bugging me. We kept walking, and Veronica was her usual chatty self, typical Veronica, always rambling about milk tea and romance novels. She can stay up all night reading those love stories, but when it comes to our class textbooks? She’s already yawning by the first page. We were already inside the milk tea shop, I had my drink in hand, but Veronica was still at the counter, arguing with the server about the quality of the sugar used. A few more minutes passed before she finally wrapped things up and marched straight over to the table where I was sitting.

I took Ava and ran. We had seconds. Fire alarms screamed. Men shouted. The house went into a frenzy, and in that chaos we found the service exit we needed. Metal clanged. Feet pounded. I shoved Ava into the car and slammed the door. The engine roared. The shadow in the doorway watched us leave. Isabella lay on the floor, the files scattered like a cemetery. She looked up. The bullet had not killed her. It had cut deep. Her eyes were steady now. “Burn it,” she told me, voice thin. “Burn it all.”

The ending created by silly words lost its weight at this point. I hovered above the bookmark sign at the top right corner of the screen before clicking on it. The menu popped up, and I chose to delete the book from my homepage. A notification popped up at the center of the screen. [Are you sure you want to delete the book? This process is irreversible.] I clicked confirm. The progress bar completed in a flash, and the book vanished without a trace from my homepage. Ding! My phone lit up. I received a text. [Processing complete. You have received 10,000,000 dollars into your bank account for completing the S-Rank mission!]

Carla and Travis watched from the sidelines, hands clasped. “We did it,” Carla said, her voice steady. Travis nodded. “And we’re just getting started.” The scars remained, but they were no longer wounds. Dave, Carla, and the other victims were healing, not just surviving but thriving, their journeys a testament to resilience, love, and the unyielding power of talent reclaimed. ----- This marks the end of the Burning Embers: Scorching Tales of Desire. Compiled short story arcs now made their way to their ends. See you next time. There'll be more ahead. Thank you!

Tears filled her eyes as she whispered against his chest, “Then burn it down. Burn the book. Please.” But when he reached for the pages, the blood hissed back like flames resisting him. The book laughed—a sharp, broken sound akin to paper tearing apart: “You can’t burn her story, fox; you can only read it…and reading means obeying.” Camela’s scream caught in her throat as she muttered, “It spoke…” Vincent bared his teeth in defiance as his fire flared even higher. “Then I’ll silence it,” he said fiercely. He slammed his hand down, his fire blazing but the pages didn’t burn. Instead, they bled harder and thicker, flooding the floor until it reached their ankles.

why does my flame keep getting higher and it feels like I'm burning within dangerous desire? T O B E C O N T I N U E D...