One Last Stop Novels & Stories

“Jenna, please let me explain. Last night, I…” I did not slow down or look at him. I simply walked around him and headed for the bus stop nearby. Behind me, he kept calling my name in a panic. I ignored him. I got on the bus heading toward Willow Lane. The bus was nearly empty. I took out the torn recipe from my bag and turned it over. On the back, my mother had written an address before she died: The corner of Willow Lane, Rosie’s Pasta Kitchen. The bus swayed through two stops before I got off near Willow Lane. Following the address, I found an old pasta place. There was a paper sign taped to the glass door.

The train finally slowed, and through the curtain, I could see city lights blurring past the windows. We were arriving. Caleb sat up, reaching for his clothes. The longer I watched him dress, the more I wanted more of that dick I just had. And I knew with certainty that this might not be the end. "Where are we?" I asked. "Toledo." He buttoned his shirt. "Last stop before the end of the line." I sat up, the sheet pooling around my waist. "What happens now?" He turned to look at me, his grey eyes sweeping over my face, bare shoulders and tangled hair. His lips tipped into a smirk

The Final Movement The man stepped back toward the door. Slowly. Deliberately. “You’ve already been observed,” he said. A pause. “Now you’ve been recorded.” The door opened behind him. The Final Line Before he left, he looked at me one last time. Not cold. Not warm. Certain. “And Rosette…” he said quietly, “…the system doesn’t stop once it starts reviewing.” A pause. “It finishes.”

“Mom, I am giving you one last chance. Stop the car.” Morgan hung up. She told me to pull out the SIM card and throw it out the window. “Hold on tight.” She turned her head and looked at me with a deep, steady gaze. “Mira, I have not done much good in this life. Let this be the one good thing.” The engine let out a rough roar. Morgan pressed the gas pedal to the floor. The battered sedan shook as it surged forward. In the rearview mirror, the black SUV suddenly accelerated and closed in behind us.

Nolan held her close as I was petting my hair. My love, we will build it again. Come, I will carry you. I picked up the backpacks, and we left. We end up on the road again. The last pack settlement was behind us in the darkness.

Rose Murdock's POV By the time I came back to my senses and quickly hung up the phone, I had already heard more than enough. There was a sheet of paper lying on the carpet. I picked it up—it was a medical report. The diagnosis read end-stage heart failure. In the patient column, the name written there was Adrian Sanders, the same one I had just heard on the phone. That was when I remembered the recent news regarding the leader of the pack's most powerful mercenary corps, Orion. He had suddenly announced that he would hand over his authority to his deputy.

He simply smiled with a look of relief. The apple rolled to the ground, picking up dirt. From the start, Zach had been provoking Jessica on purpose. I looked at the blood spreading on the ground and at Zach's collapsed body, then at the frail and blind Jessica. I understood it all. This was Zach seeking redemption using Jessica. At the very end, Zach seemed to see me. His eyes were pleading. "Annie, now that I did this, will this make you feel any better?" As my own body faded, I realized this might be the last thing I would ever say. I looked right at him and gave a cold, cruel smile.

Rowan: “Colleges can wait. The world can wait. We’ve got one more summer to burn the sky down right.” Above us, the Milky Way shifts. The stars rearrange themselves into one quiet, blazing sentence: YOU WERE NEVER LEAVING. We stay on the field until dawn, laughing, crying, planning a year that belongs to no campus, no kingdom, no prophecy. Just us. Four days left of summer? Good. We’re going to need every second. The Last Night of Summer August 31, 2029 – 11:59 p.m., the ridge above Hot Springs

Although, if anyone finds it out here, dead and deserted on the side of this long, barren stretch of road, they can have it. About a mile back, I spotted an old, dusty, rusted-out sign for the Last Chance Motel. I cracked a joke as I flew past laughing. Something about how no one in their right mind would stay at such a high-end establishment. All sarcasm as the place looked like it was one dust storm away from toppling. That happened an entire mile of confidence ago. Now it looks like the Last Chance Motel might be my actual last chast. There hasn't been cell service for the last fifty miles.

This is the end of us both. ******