Loose Ends Novel Novels & Stories

"They always arrive before the ending." The notebook on the desk suddenly burst open. Words raced across every page. Not one story. Thousands. Millions. Each page showed a different ending. In one... Adrian sacrificed himself. In another... the White Tree burned forever. In another... the Final Reader destroyed every world. Then... the pages stopped. Only one remained blank. The Pen of Endings began shaking inside Adrian's hand. It refused to point toward the notebook. Instead... it pointed toward the boy. Adrian stared at him.

⸻ “Someone has stolen the ending.” The library shook violently. ⸻ Books began falling from endless shelves. 📖💥📖 ⸻ And somewhere in the deepest section of the library… A dark figure slowly closed a stolen book. 🖤 ⸻ A book titled: THE END OF REALITY ⸻ The figure smiled. ⸻ Then whispered: ⸻ “Let’s see how your story ends now.” ⸻ 🌌📖🖤 ⸻

He asked me not to be so paranoid and petty. It was the first time he and I had a cold war. It lasted for a whole month and ended with him giving in to me. He promised to stop favoring Ruby and to keep his distance from her. However, it still bothered me. Ruby's existence was like a sword hanging over my head, and it had finally fallen! Coming back to my senses from the memories, I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes and pondered, 'This is a good thing. Be decisive. I will never be hurt by love again. I will be my parents' little princess again once I return to the prairie.'

“Then don’t. But know this—if you don’t give the story its ending… I will.” Behind the girl, the bookshelves ignited, burning with letters that had never been allowed to finish forming. Screams rose—not of pain, but of unfinished names. Elthara reached for the gold thread that still looped around her wrist, but it frayed at her touch. The narrative was shifting again, too many versions of herself now bleeding into one another. And just before the fire consumed the last title, the girl reached into Elthara’s chest and pulled out a page—and it was blank

The whole Lloyd family survived on the allowance that Noah sent home every month. And if that wasn't enough, there was still me, the fool that I was, emptying my wedding gifts to help support them. My heart sank as I stood outside the door, listening to Jonah's scheme. I didn't know whether Adele could survive without her husband, but I knew I would die without my husband. In my previous life, I was deceived by the news of his death. I was so stricken with grief that I passed out. When I woke up again, I found the house completely emptied by thieves.

A comment about the novel featured there, something about the author having gotten the ending wrong in a way that was somehow more honest than a correct ending would have been. And I had laughed. A real laugh. The kind that came up before I could shape it. The kind that reached my eyes. I had not thought about Solis. I had not thought about the second report or the clear photograph that had not yet been obtained. I had thought only about the book and the wrong ending and Harry standing on a sidewalk in a plain dark jacket saying something funny in the specific way only very precise observations are funny. Thirty-seven seconds. That was how long we had stood there.

We leaned in. Text unfurled: KEY AUTHOR INTRODUCED AS ANOMALOUS VARIABLE TO INCREASE RATINGS. TRAGIC POTENTIAL: HIGH. IDEAL ENDING: AUTHOR CORE MERGE OR PUBLIC EXECUTION. My hands curled around the edge of the book until the paper creased. “‘Ideal ending,’” I repeated. I flipped to the back. A whole section was devoted to “OUTCOME PROJECTIONS,” each with a neat label: STANDARD TRAGIC ENDING: AUTHOR DIES SAVING OTHERS. SYSTEM CONTINUES.

After flipping it open, I only read the first line. "To my dearest beloved Sela Wheatley". I didn't read the rest. Instead, I let the letter be buried forever in that torrential summer downpour of this coastal city. From then on, our paths would never cross again. Whatever love and hate remained would drift away with the wind.

Forever. End of book 36