Our Missing Hearts: A Novel Novels & Stories

Lani It was late at night, and I was starting to wonder if this was what madness felt like. The folder was burning against my skin like it had a pulse, like it was alive. I had shoved it under my mattress earlier, then yanked it out again, then stuffed it back. Every time I tried to sit still, it was like the leather called out to me, whispering what was inside. The contracts. The boardroom votes. The photographs of my family that the Caldwells had been keeping in neat, damning rows.

She looked alive here, in this dying arcade, surrounded by ghosts of the past and fragments of the present. The jukebox crackled to life suddenly, no one claiming responsibility. A grainy, melancholic tune from decades past echoed through the arcade, the singer's voice warping with age and failing speakers. It was a lullaby for the forgotten. Atlas leaned closer to Nova. "You think we’ll rot like the others?" She looked at him then, eyes the same stormy grey as the sky before rain. "Only if we let ourselves love." "What if we can’t help it?"

It felt like a shelf, a place to put the things people didn’t know what to do with. I sat alone for what felt like hours, though time had become slippery and unreliable. My heartbeat gradually lost its rhythm, stuttering at odd intervals as the adrenaline faded and thoughts rushed in to fill the void. Her mind circled one dread in an endless loop, struggling to accept the obvious truth staring right back at me as I stared blankly into space. It wasn’t over, I knew that for sure. Missing bodies didn’t stay missing. Men like Antonio didn’t slip into obscurity; they orchestrated their exits. And whatever force had taken him, whatever had reached into the collapsing darkness and stolen both him

I had thrown away my old bag, along with Jessica's stomach medicine and the emergency snacks I used to keep on hand for her. I fell silent and didn't say anything. "I don't know what's wrong with me," Jessica said, her voice hoarse. She let out a dry, bitter laugh. "Every time I think about you marrying Selena, being with her, kissing her, having kids… knowing that your life won't include me anymore, it feels like someone's tearing my heart out. It hurts so much I just want to curl up and disappear." She paused, then muttered, "I didn't feel that pain when Cameron disappeared. Not like this. Now I know, I'm nothing without you. Seb, it's been sixteen years since I met you…"

The sky over the ruins had changed. Where once it brooded with sullen clouds and the weight of ancestral memory, it now stretched wide and bare—blue as a wound freshly lanced. Yvette stood at the edge of the old courtyard, her boots kicking at loose stones, her hand instinctively drifting toward the necklace no longer around her neck. It was gone, as if it had never existed. Just like him. Just like Elias. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been standing there, but the sea breeze brought her back. It carried something unfamiliar now. Not decay. Not salt and iron and age.

“That’s because no matter where we are, no matter what happens next...our hearts will always meet in the same place.” She swallowed, her pulse unsteady. “And where is that?” His blue eyes burned into hers. “With each other.” Elena’s breath hitched. Because it was true. They had fought. They had bled. They had broken. But in the end, their hearts had always found their way back. And now, finally, they were exactly where they were meant to be. The End!

As we entered into the dimly lit club, I concluded to myself that maybe I do need a little distraction for tonight. Making my way to one of the bar stools, I ordered myself a glass of martini as Andy and Sophie disappeared almost immediately. So much for wanting me to have fun. Sophie worked the night shift at the Rebel Wolves club. While she served, Andy stood at the other end, acting like a protector. This was the kind of love story I envisioned for myself; a love where I finally felt secure, but I guess this kind of love was not reserved for people like me. At least not anymore, I am too broken for any kind of love. As the music blared through the speakers, my phone chimed with a text and

Holding tightly to her mother’s hand, Eliza started “Mama, again I would like to apologize to you and to you all of my folly when I was younger. You prided yourself on my being a sensible girl but I failed you when I fell for the despicable charms of two vain young women. Their tricks led me to a situation that nearly destroyed me. They brought me to a wedding where a predator of young children was attending and left me to fend for myself if not for Aunt Rosa shielding me. One day while walking home to school, he stalked me and almost cornered me and God knows what could have happened if my brother did not arrive on time. Only Aunt Rosa and godmother Claudia knew of this, but please do not b

No wind, no birdsong, no heartbeat beneath the soil. When she reached the edge of the main road, she felt it clearly. The Flow was gone. --- The City of Still Hearts The sign at the city gates read: Haven. But there was no haven here. The buildings were perfect, clean, orderly. Children played without smiles. Couples walked hand in hand but never touched eyes. Everything functioned.Nothing lived. Liora entered the central square, expecting at least one soul to look at her. None did. She spoke softly,

"It was terrible what happened to me then at Evergreen that caused me to lose the pack and I did not expect to be given another chance to live. I chose to live here so that I could protect the whole Evergreen even though in return it was my grief and longing for them." "You have no intention of showing up to them or letting them know that you are still alive? Even they are also saddened by losing you and they also miss you so if you are having a hard time they are the same, especially Elora and Endrich. You play a big part in them, so it is not easy what they went through when they lost you." I explained to her, that even though I didn’t ask how they felt I could see in their eyes the longin