The Long Road Novel Novels & Stories

The nanny got to work, collecting every photo album and frame, then stacking them on the lawn. Jessica uncorked several bottles of Anthony's prized red wine, dousing the memories in scarlet. She poured a glass for herself and one for the nanny. Their glasses met with a hollow clink, the echo of a five-year love breaking apart. Jessica flicked the lighter and tossed it into the heap, watching the past go up in flames. Flickering flames cast a warm glow as Jessica tipped back her glass, the last of the wine mingling with the tears that traced a path down her cheeks.

For a long moment, nobody moved. The last line of Hollows disappeared into the trees, leaving the highway exposed beneath the gray morning light. The road looked wounded, cracked, and littered with the bones of the old world, but it was open. For almost three years, that road had belonged to the dead. Now it was empty? Victor slowly stepped forward. He still couldn't believe what just happened. He couldn't speak immediately. None of his soldiers did. They simply stared at the road as though it might vanish if they blinked too fast.

Snow fell heavily that night, and he watched as the last light in the villa went out. In the end, he never caught a glimpse of me. … The snow fell for three days, and Luke and I lost ourselves in each other the entire time. At the same time, Nathan also stayed outside for three solid days. On the fourth day, the snow finally cleared. When Luke took me out for fresh air, Nathan stepped right in front of the car. His face was deathly pale, and even his voice trembled. "Willow, please come home with me." There was more emotion in his voice than I had ever heard, more so than when he found out that Lily was coming back.

"We've been sent to this home by the church's pastor, through your chief, to collect and take someone called Osayo who is said to be mentally ill and with him his wife to the church." "Okay. We're pleased to meet you. My name is Odalo and I am Osayo's closest friend and an elder in this clan. How did you know this place, and how did you manage to ride your wagons through the twiggy forest?" "We've been directed by a number of people. Actually, we'd have come along with the chief were he not scheduled for a meeting this afternoon," replied the other man who was called Andrew. "We used the Gem route, it's much open these days."

James wanted to register their marriage in Jelaston. Having grown up there, he had a special attachment to the city. At his insistence, he chartered a plane for Jessica. “There’s no need to be so nervous. I feel fine,” said Jessica, walking ahead with a relaxed stride while James followed closely behind, pushing their luggage with a tense expression. By the time their vehicle left the airport, night had fallen. Snowflakes began drifting down from the sky. The car’s heater was on high, but Jessica suddenly felt stuffy and cracked the window slightly to let in some fresh air.

ELOISE The journey was long. Long in the sense that I was now certain it wasn't going to take place in Ashlake. The path he took implied we were leaving town. Most probably, another one way ticket to Marblefay but Matthan surprised me when he took a completely different route from the one sure to take us to Marblefay. The path his vehicle waltzed into was almost narrow and crooked. It implied it was old and barely used. But there was a definite set of tracks he followed. This wasn't his first time here but the further the car went, the more obvious the signs became that this was not a shortcut to Marblefay. My theory didn't linger on the fact that the road had probably been abandoned for dec

After My Journey: It was a cold, snowy night, and I was afraid, shivering, and shaking. My car has broken down on a deserted dark road. There was no cell service, and I was stranded for over an hour until a black car appeared. A tall man stepped out of his vehicle wearing a long black trench coat. From afar, his headlights only reflected a pair of icy blue eyes staring at me. Did he come to save me? Or will he force himself upon my body and leave me alone afterward? Or will he take me by force and make me his own?

And then Nell talks for two hours. The Long Yard sits eleven miles north of the stone bridge on the old drovers’ road, in the bottom of a valley with a spring in it. It’s low, and it’s long, exactly as she said, and it isn’t one building but three, joined by covered runs so nothing has to be walked outdoors. The wall is on the inside because the outside of it is meant to look like a stock farm, and it does, and there are actual cattle in the western field which are actually sold at actual markets by a man who actually pays tax.

I nodded. However, the faint unease in my heart did not fully fade. The next morning, when I woke up, Charlie was already gone. On the nightstand sat a glass of warm water and a note. Urgent matter at the office. I'll come back at noon to have lunch with you. The handwriting was neat and precise–just like him. I took a sip of water and picked up my phone. Our group chat was exploding. Rachel: [Holy shit! Have you seen the trending topic?!]

Below, a dirt road cut east to west unpaved, unmarked, the kind that didn't appear on official territory maps because it predated most of the current pack boundaries by a generation or more. She had known it would be here. She had found it in a hand-drawn map tucked inside the back cover of a decommissioned pack archive text. The kind of book that sat on a library shelf for decades because it was old enough to seem irrelevant. She had read it cover to cover. Twice. She waited at the valley edge for forty minutes before she heard it. Wheels on the dirt road. A single vehicle, moving without hurry an old cargo truck, the kind that carried goods between border settlements and asked very few que