Clara Read Novels & Stories

⸻ Clara’s Discovery: The Tether Broken Hours passed before Clara’s fingers trembled as they turned the brittle pages of the ancient text she had unearthed from the ruins beneath Hollow Hill. She was no closer to understanding the full scope of the threat—but with each passage, each fragment of truth she pieced together, the situation grew grimmer.

The walls were lined with framed letters, thank-you notes from people around the world whose lives had changed because of the Institute. One letter, framed in gold, still drew her eye every time, Priya Sharma’s. Emelda traced the edge of the frame with her fingertips and smiled. Then she turned as the door creaked open. Clara padded in quietly, clutching her favorite storybook. “Mommy, will you read to me?” Emelda lifted her onto her lap. “Just one chapter. It’s late.” “Okay,” Clara said, snuggling close. They read for a while, the soft rhythm of words filling the quiet. When they finished, Clara yawned and looked up at her mother. “Mommy?”

“Elena.” “Don’t.” The paper was damp at the corners, but the writing had been pressed hard into the page. She wore your clothes before she wore the ring. Elena read it once. Then again. The words didn’t make sense at first. Then, slowly, they did. Not fully, but enough to make her stomach tighten. She looked up. “Clara wasn’t like Natalie, was she?” Adrian’s face closed. That was answer enough. Elena lowered the note. “She worked here.”

She looked up to find Alaina waiting for her to speak up with a slight smile. "Oh! I forgot." That girl said as she pressed her palm with her forehead. Alaina found that gesture a sweet one. She was cute. "I am Clara. I wanted a book Nectar of Pain." She at last told her demand as Alaina gave her that book and made her library card with Clara's constant staring. Alaina didn't know why she was staring at her like that with her big blue eyes. Alaina's eyes were too blue but with a little shade of grey making her enticingly beautiful. Alaina handed her the book as she was getting confused with her constant staring.

Richard said, and he came down from the bed and entered the bathroom, baths and dressed up, and he left home for office while Clara was at home watching television Inside the bedroom, Clara went to the public market with Isaac and the driver, and she bought different types of foodstuff and other different things for her cousins, and they returned home, and she told them to leave It inside the car boot” Clara said and she walked into the house while the driver and Isaac the butler was watching her”

Simon’s eyes gleamed with interest as he looked at her. Clara stretched her lips and took a deep breath. After working in the PR industry for years, she had encountered various clients who had requested strange things. Reading the contract aloud wasn’t too big of a deal. With that in mind, Clara moved a little closer while making sure she stayed a safe distance from Simon. Then, she cleared her throat and began reading. Her eyes were fixed on the document, but she could feel his gaze on her. It made her shiver. However, Clara stood tall and tried to concentrate on what she was reading.

What actually happened was more interesting and more generative than that. Clara moved through the material the way she moved through the property — not systematically, not linearly, but with the instinct of someone following what was alive in the thing rather than following a predetermined path. She would be working on a specific section and then suddenly say: here, read me this part out loud. And Anya would read it and the reading-aloud would reveal what the silent reading hadn’t. The place where the voice tightened. The place where the prose was doing something slightly different from what it thought it was doing.

Nimue patted Clara on her shoulder before elegantly strolling out of the library. Clara sucked in a deep breath, suddenly regretting her decision of coming back. She eyed the place which Nimue had disappeared from before picking up one of the books and flipped the front page and started reading through the pages. Her curiosity and interest piqued as she continued to read pages after pages. Learning new things and Information about herself and her people.

Instead, it strengthened them. Emelia makes a beeline for her, and Clara gets up, ‘Young lady,’ she gasps. The likeness was so uncanny that Emelia could not stop but stare at her, ‘I’m sorry,’ she said shakily, ‘if I scared you.’ Clara stuttered, ‘I.. no.. don’t…,’ she cleared her throat, tears brimming in her eyes. It was now or never, ‘Would you and your husband mind sitting down with me..us, and hear me out before you leave?’