Novel & Cerita Burn Book: A Tech Love Story

A shriek of collapsing code and shattering loops, of feedback and static and the sound a story makes when you rip out the last page and set the whole book on fire. For an instant, I saw everything it was: Every bus. Every arena. Every “round” it had ever run. Every Author it had ever drained. Every small, defiant act they’d managed—little NOs scribbled in margins, tiny rewrites, glitches it had smoothed over. All of it flared, then began to burn. The screens buckled inward, glass warping, images melting into white. Pages curled and blackened, their neatly printed logs unreadable as the ink boiled away.

Love returned gradually, steady and deliberate, the embers of desire and trust building into a slow, enduring flame. And every night, when we lay together, I knew we were stronger, not in spite of the past, but because of it. Because we had chosen each other, and we were ready to face whatever came next, side by side. … On a cold Saturday, curiosity tugged at me like a quiet whisper. After days of staying mostly in the living room and kitchen, I realized I hadn’t seen much of the house. The apartment, or rather, the sprawling home Blackwood had insisted I stay in, was much larger than I had imagined.

Yet, she'd never once mentioned she had such a person in her life who required this level of coddling. My body grew heavier by the second, and the flames in front of me began to fracture into countless dark spots. My legs buckled, and I could only lean on the blazing-hot storage rack behind me to stay upright. I raised a trembling hand and pointed at the oxygen tank on Colin's back that was engraved with "For Emergency Use Only", desperately wanting to expose his lie. But I couldn't utter a sound. Nothing came out of my throat except for a hoarse wheeze.

He said it flat, almost rehearsed, like he'd practiced the sentence in the car on the way over so it wouldn't come out sounding as broken as it actually was. The apartment was quiet except for the sound of pages turning. Somewhere down the hall, I could hear the faint hum of the refrigerator, ordinary and out of place against the weight of what we were holding. George read over my shoulder, his jaw tightening with every page. "This isn't just leverage against you, Darian. This is a live confession of a crime. If this is accurate, Selena poisoned you deliberately, over years, and your mother buried it instead of reporting it."

When I opened my eyes, I realized the suffocating heatwave wasn't there. But I still remembered vividly the way I had died in my last life, drained of blood and strangled until I couldn't breathe. I turned and looked at Snowviper beside me, and a shiver ran down my spine. According to Beastfolk tradition, a beastfolk had to marry the person who saved their life. I was supposed to be with Blazewing. But because my sister, Raven Webster, thought Snowviper was too terrifying to look at, she stole Blazewing for herself.

I pushed myself out of the bed dragging the duvet along with me and wrapping myself with it tightly. I glanced through the library till my eyes fell on a big book and I squinted at it. The back cover design caught my attention. I didn't bother to know what it was and picked it, pausing as I beheld the front cover. I sighed. It was a Bible. I shook my head and attempted to return it. But I paused. Wait a second..... Maybe it's not such a bad idea. There has to be something in the Bible to help with this current uncontrollable addiction i was developing for my stepdad.

Her eyes brimmed with tears as she threw her arms around me, sobbing uncontrollably. "I don't care about any of that! I gave you my first time, and you have to take responsibility," she insisted, her voice muffled against my chest. Her scent and the softness of her embrace stirred something within me, but my conscience was clear. I could not let that happen. With a heavy heart, I gently pushed her away. "Winter, we can't do this anymore," I said firmly. Through her tears, she looked up at me with red, swollen eyes. "You said you wanted to add me on Messenger. I'm okay with it now, so do it," she urged, pulling out her phone and opening the app.

He burned it, or at least he thought he had. But the next day, against all reason and logic, the book was there again. It reappeared, untouched, beneath that very same tree. That’s when his desperation turned to madness. He didn’t just want the book gone—he wanted the tree that birthed it destroyed. He summoned flames so fierce they licked the heavens, engulfing the tree in a sea of fire. And yet, when the smoke cleared, the tree stood unharmed. Its bark was blackened but unbroken; the only change inflicted on the book and tree was that they were pure black since then.

And that is a story that will last forever. END OF BOOK

I was about to touch my chest to feel my heartbeat, but I remembered the slight burning sensation caused by the burn. I don't know why my heart is pounding so hard, like there are ten horses running in it. But I know one thing, and that is his presence is the reason for this. Damn. What is happening with me? And why the hell is he acting so weird? The last thing I checked, he was really angry with me, and so was I with him. So why? Why is he acting like this when it comes to me? Damn. This is making me insane. Before I go crazy, I approached the bucket filled with water to pour it over my chest, hoping that it would ease the burning sensation.