The Book Leaves Novels & Stories

I muttered, rocking Jodie. I had to let Flavia focus, so I stepped away from her and let my eyes roam around the section, hoping I would find a few books myself. Despite the countless eye-catching books with captivating covers in that section, I couldn’t shift my gaze off one particular book because it stood out to me. “Of course, it does,” Liya grunted as we both looked at the dirty and half-torn small book. “Anyone would have missed that because it is insignificant, but not you, Haylee.”

Willow bumped into Jeffrey in the parking lot. Jeffrey seemed surprised to see her. He thought for a short while before walking over toward her. His eyes were deep as he asked, "Are you really leaving Nebula?" Willow hummed softly. "Yes. I'm leaving." She threw the box into the boot of her car and closed it. Then, she turned around and said faintly, "Thanks for your help the other night." Jeffrey looked closely at Willow's face. There was a faraway look in her eyes that concealed everything and revealed nothing. This was the Willow that he knew. Her fragile beauty that night had been nothing but a dream.

“A key.” Leora’s breath hitched. “To what?” Vael didn’t answer. Instead, she reached into the structured leather satchel at her side and withdrew a small black book. It looked older than anything Leora had ever held—its leather worn smooth, edges frayed, and a silver clasp shaped like a fang glinting under the lamplight. Vael extended it, wordlessly. Leora hesitated, then took it in both hands. “Her final entries,” Vael said. “Before she was... erased. The family forbade it from leaving the archive, but circumstances are shifting. The wind is turning. And the truth has claws.”

He gently grabbed my sleeve and asked if he would ever see me in the future. I shook my head. I turned and walked away quickly, not once looking back at him. So that day, one went up the mountain and the other took the route by the river. That’s how we said goodbye, and hoped that our paths never crossed again.

"Take a look." The book was covered in heavy, embossed leather and in the center, in script, was the letter K. What the hell was this? A scrapbook? What kind of scrapbook could Dusty have been keeping? He continued eating in silence, preparing himself for whatever he was going to see, while Marliss and Lou gave him what he called the deadeye stare. Finally, he pushed his plate away, wiped his mouth, and opened the book.

That night, fireworks for our anniversary lit up the sky above Wildrose Estate. Beneath that starry sky, the place was alive with voices and clinking glasses. But I dragged my suitcase through security and into the boarding gate without looking back. When the plane took off, the seat prepared for me in the Wildrose Estate remained empty.

he muttered, prying it open just enough to reach inside. His fingers brushed against something thick. He pulled it out. A large, leather-bound book. Adam stood up slowly, turning it over in his hands. The cover was worn but solid, darker than the dust-covered room around him, like it had been hidden on purpose. Protected. “Who leaves something like this behind?” he said under his breath. For a moment, he considered tossing it aside. It wasn’t his business but curiosity had already taken hold. He leaned back against the counter, flipping the cover open.

The ones that had survived every version of him and every place he'd lived. Her finger stopped on a dark green spine, the gold lettering almost entirely rubbed away. She tilted it toward her. Walt Whitman. *Leaves of Grass.* The most worn book on the shelf — the cover soft with handling, the corners rounded, the spine held together by old glue and what appeared to be sheer stubbornness. She pulled it out carefully and it fell open in her hands the way books fall open to the pages they've visited most, the paper remembering where it's been taken before.

When I was almost done looking through the variety of books, my fingers hesitated on a black book with a weird symbol. I couldn’t make out the symbol, as it was worn out, but it looked as if it was possibly a dragon or some serpent wrapped around what looked like a blade. As I pulled the book from the shelf, I had a feeling that this was what I was looking for. As I held it in my hands, it almost felt as if I was connected to the book. “Can we leave now?” Ace whimpered again. “Yeah.” I said as I left the room, closing the door behind me.

Celea landed again and show her brother the book she had found It had a black cover with absolutely nothing written on it and that wasn't even the weird thing about this book. The pages inside were also blank