Never Look Back Novels & Stories

Niamh stretched her neck, trying to get a better look through the windshield. "This is Corona, for god's sake! Mr. Snapp, who the hell's driving it?"

I followed the path that had been previously stipulated and once I was on the stage where there were other of my classmates who had been previously called, including Adrian, who looked at me in a strange way, I looked at him trying to understand what he was thinking, but it was impossible, not even that I could read people's minds, so I just tried not to be uncomfortable with his gaze. My phone started to vibrate, surely it was my boyfriend, Julian, who at this hour is supposed to be working and who, although it sounds very strange, should not be talking to me much? what I'm saying is that, since some months our relationship is not the same, we don't talk more than a few things, apart from s

“Because in my world, once you start fighting… there’s no going back.” Grace lifted her chin, her fear melting into a fragile but fierce determination. “Then maybe it’s time I stopped looking back.”

After all those years together, it was the first time Ryan had ever called out to me like that. I stared at him blankly. "What do you want?" His eyes held something close to pleading. "I came to take you back." I looked at him in confusion. "Back where? I live here." Ryan reached for me again, but I stepped out of reach. "I mean back to where you really belong." A bitter smile tugged at my lips. I remembered—crystal clear—the day he had once warned me, "Home? This will never be your home. Don't be stupid. My pack and villa have nothing to do with you."

But Chicago loomed now, a specter threatening to unravel it all. I stared at the city, its skyline a patchwork of glass and green, the Space Needle a distant pinprick. Shawn’s voice, his charm, had stirred something—laughter, a blush, a spark I hadn’t felt in years. But his request was a gamble, a step into a past I’d sealed shut.

“For real though. Don't look back, Celest. Be brave. Be who you truly want to be.” I chuckled through my tears, feeling relief in my chest for a short while. The tension that had been strangling me loosened as Jordan’s presence anchored me. “Alright, Mr. Motivational Speaker, what exactly do you mean by that? ‘Don’t look back. Be brave. Be who you truly want to be.’ Sounds like you’re talking to someone on the edge of making a huge mistake.”

she asks. He looks around. The coffee place. The rain. Her hand in his. "Small," he says. "From here it looks very small." "It always does," she says. "Once you're out." "How long does it take to stop looking back at it?" he says. She thinks about it. "You stop looking back when you're too interested in what's in front of you," she says. "It happens gradually and then completely." She holds his gaze. "You're already partway there."

For something I wasn’t ready to give. I told myself I’d never look back. But the truth was—I wanted to. Desperately. And that scared me more than anything.

“If you do this, there is no going back.” His eyes locked into mine, searching for any glimmer of hope. But I knew there was nothing left to salvage. “There is nothing to go back to,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

“And all that it holds.” Smiling, Sasha, Logan, and Willow lifted their glasses too. “To the future,” they each repeated. We smiled at one another. “And all that it holds.”