Unburden Book Novels & Stories

I hovered at the bathroom doorway, watching Simon freeze in place. His face went from pale to ashen gray, his lips parting and pursing without making a single sound. The once unstoppable Alpha now seemed drained of every ounce of strength as he leaned against the doorframe just to stay upright. Connor's voice pulled him back to reality. "Alpha…" Simon staggered forward, one step after another, until he finally sank to his knees by the bathtub. He reached into the murky water, then drew out a fragment of white bone.

Two hours later, Celeste opened the door and came out of her room. She was holding a teddy bear, and her eyes were all swollen. The teddy bear was the only gift James had ever given her. Celeste treasured it more than any of her other possessions. "Mom, I don't want this anymore." Celeste held out the bear, pretending to smile as she pushed it into Naomi's hands. "Mr. James only has two chances left." "Okay." Naomi didn't know how to comfort her.

That night, Mom packed everything and returned to the basement where we used to live. She retrieved my body from the authorities. After the cremation, the small, fragile version of me became something even smaller, sealed inside a simple urn. She placed it carefully into a sturdy backpack, along with the heavy wish book, and left the city. No one knew where she went. Maybe she found a real forest somewhere far away. Maybe she stood by the edge of a vast ocean. She moved like a wounded bird, carrying scars that would never heal and a promise too heavy to bear, disappearing into the crowd.

He picked up the paperback. Turned it over. A novel he didn’t know. Not important. A paperback with a cracked spine and the specific softness of a much loved book. He opened it to the turned down page. She’d underlined something. One sentence. In pencil. Faint. The pencil of someone who underlined things carefully. Not aggressively. Just marking something worth returning to. He read it. The things we carry for others are never really burdens, they’re the proof that someone trusted us with their weight.

Our college days. Back then, Nash was not the untouchable "Mr. Smith." His mother had raised two kids on her own, barely scraping by. Nash never had more than a few wrinkled bills in his pocket. Even buying a meal felt like a risk. I remember it clearly. He wore that old shirt with the frayed collar, holding the study materials I had saved up to buy for him. His voice was so soft it was almost a whisper. "Jeannie… I don't want to keep being a burden to you."

But somewhere, deep down, I’d been waiting, stuck in the unfinished edges of a story that hadn’t yet closed. Now, it had. And for the first time, I knew I could be his completely. Open. Unburdened. Ready to move forward without the past trailing behind me.

"I can't accept that. We nearly killed you a few days ago. I'm grateful already that you didn't press charges. I can't take your property." "No, you should. This started because I lent the car to my sister-in-law. I owe you that much." I wouldn't take no for an answer and had my company set up a small shop under Charles's name. It was a small way to make amends to their family. As for Vanessa, word got around that her household caused trouble, so neighbors avoided her. One night, she slipped in the bath and broke her leg. Richard was always at the worksite and couldn't look after her.

Golden sunlight was streaming down to the earth in radiant beams through the thick blanket of clouds. Suddenly, I understood. That was exactly what I was feeling. The sky had cleared. The storm had passed, and the chapter of my past was finally over.

Jonathan frowned, trying to pull his leg free. "Mrs. Woodburn, please compose yourself. The chain of evidence is quite complete." "What evidence?!" Stephanie rushed in, clutching a thick notebook. It was my physics problem book, crammed with dense formulas. "Look at this!" She flipped to the last page and pointed to a single line written in red ink. [Goal: Tonnereine University, Department of Physics. Starting next Monday, quit gaming and go all-in!]