Winona State Library Novels & Stories

In order to prevent the employees from slacking off at their jobs, the HR department of my company has established a strict check-in policy. We're requested to check-in with the company once per ten minutes. On top of that, we have to follow the HR employee, Felicia Lane's instructions in striking poses. Otherwise, the system will list us to have skipped work for the day. After failing to check-in with the company for the eighth time, I head to the HR department immediately. "Ms. Lane, your check-in policy is far too strict to the sales department! We have to travel everywhere just to make sales and strike business deals with clients! There's no way we can keep returning to the company!" But Felicia just scowls at me disdainfully. "Since you're working at the company, you're meant to follow the company's rules. Why else are you even here, in the first place? If checking in with the company affects your sales performance that much, that just means you don't have any capabilities to begin with. You should reflect on your own work performance instead!" When I recall the number of contributions I've made for the company, I try to seek out my boss to take my side. But he just tells me, "Since this is a rule, you might as well follow it. What's the use in seeking me out?" Later on, I choose not to do anything related to my job just so I can follow the check-in policy very strictly. But the rest of the company flies into a state of panic because of me.

"Runaway BillionaireWhat happens when two sets of parents decide their thirty-something offspring need to get married? To each other. The problem? Neither one wants wedded bliss, and they don’t even know each other. Kyle Montgomery is happy with his single state and the excitement of running the Montgomery Hotel Corporation. Pepper Thornton is just as happy running the family B&B, the Hibiscus Inn. What started out as a fun ploy suddenly turns into something much more—until reality pokes up its head and nearly destroys it all.Touch of MagicMaddie Woodward is in a pickle. The last person she expects to see when she returns to the family ranch for one last Christmas is her former lover, Zach Brennan. He’s hotter as he ever was, all male and determined to get her naked. She’s just as determined to show him she’s over him—until she ends up in his bed, enjoying the wildest sex of her life. A night of uncontrolled, erotic sex shows her that Zach is far from out of her life. Now if she can just get him to help her convince her sisters not to sell the ranch—or sell it to the two of them.Wet HeatIt was supposed to be a month in a cottage by the lake in Maine. For Peyton Gerard it was time to recover from not one but three disastrous breakups and try to find her muse again. A successful romance novelist needed to believe in romance to write about it believably, and Peyton had lost her faith in it.All About Love is created by Desiree Holt, an EGlobal Creative Publishing signed author."

Hunter Webster is the Alpha's son; the next Alpha in line once he turns 18 but to humans, he's just the mayor's son, a bad boy and an embodiment of trouble. Hunter has a secret; his bad-boy attitude was just a cover-up for the grave sin he's committing until a girl from his past came into the picture, ready to win over his heart and unravel his darkest secrets.Babara Arnold attracts trouble everywhere she gets to, even if it is at school or home. She meets Hunter Webster after several years and in the process of trying to avoid the bad boy, she keeps on getting thrown into his hands. "What are you doing here?" I asked. I could hear murmuring around us."Eating, just like you three" he replied"You can't sit here," I warned."Why?" "You're trouble," I replied."Is that surprising? You see me in leather jackets, bikes and I have tattoos as well. Isn't that enough to let you know that boys like that are usually trouble? You don't have to state the obvious, Babe" He answered. "You need to leave" "If you want your cousin to be safe, you'll sit like the good girl that you are and have breakfast" He warned.I turned to look at Pinky and I could see the discomfort on her face. The guys with her waved at me to my disgust."Sit Babara. Don't make me hurt somebody else today? Yesterday was enough for me," He growled in an inhuman manner.

Susan is a human girl who was blessed with the gift of prophesies. In the state of Kansas, it was believed that everyone who was born with this gift was possessed by a demon. When her family figured out her reality, they sold her to Father Antoine of the Catholic division. It was believed that whoever was sold to a reverend father for a period of seven years, would end up being free from the demonic spirit. This was so strange, and many of the gullible has been sold over. Susan Theodore will be a part of this circle. She carted off her things, and went to stay with Father Antoine. Things were really good. She was allowed to do so many things kids her age did. And she didn’t miss her parents all that much. To Susan, it was like a home away from home. Things changed exactly three months later. Susan had a dream as real as breathing. She saw the Father having sex with a woman called Lily Wolfe. Susan remembered seeing her at a time. She was so pretty. And, always seemed in a hurry. She couldn’t keep the affair in her head, owing to the fact that the Father had informed her to always tell him about her dreams. It will make it easier to deliver her from evil spirits. So, after the confessions on a cold Saturday morning, she summoned up the courage to talk to the Father. Father Antoine was wrath. For the first time, he saw what her family had been complaining about. This girl was truly possessed. In his rage, he striped her of the respect she had been accorded, and made her nothing but a slave.

Katherine De’Cheney had a life she felt was perfect. She had a job she loved working at the New York Museum as a Conservator. She was engaged to the love of her life. One day she comes home early to find him tangled in their bed sheets with his paralegal. Shattered and broken, she crumbles in hopelessness. In her grieving state she passes out. Opening her eyes she feels transported into another realm. Standing in front of her is her grandmother’s house which stands in front of a looming property that she dare not go near. The “LeFleur” mansion. A place that haunts her dreams. Something continues to call her spirit like a piece of her is locked inside waiting to reclaim her. Suddenly from behind, a Shadow of a man, shrouded in night. He reaches for her hand beckoning her to come. She jerks back and tries to run. “You cannot continue resisting me my dove” he says in silky voice with an old German accent. “Come home to me”. She feels her body relishing in his voice, his touch, and a hidden desire about him she does not know. The more she tries to pull away, the more she feels a pull towards him. Something kept nagging her. ‘What was drawing her back there?’ ‘Who was the sinister looking man she saw in the window as a child before the wolves came from nowhere to attack her. She shuddered, trying not to remember. What darkness was connected to that decaying old house? Why did she feel like something is calling her to return?

"t-they will k-kill me , pl-please save me . Please" She begged in front of him and almost fell on his knee he kept on Looking at her and inhaling on the cigar for a longer time. Red eyed fixed on her teary ones as he smoked out the nicotine stick . He scoffed at her pathetic state , so weak !! Too much innocent but that's the exact thing he hated the most . He hates weak people . "P-please , I ...I beg y-you" she started sobbing hard Looking down while he throws the cigar on his feet and stepped on it ... "She must be somewhere here , get her" they heard someone , clear as crystal . His eyes looked on the direction , of the source of sound . And her eyes got widen in horror . They are coming to kill her and there will be no one to protect her . "Come on Wifey , isn't this what married couple supposed to do on their wedding night?" Timothy said as his lips were ghosting on her neck . Every inch of her skin were shivering and hands trembling in fear. The fear which she faced years ago , when her dignity were ripping apart . Loud scream , yelling for help , when the monster was biting and feasting her like a meal . Layla tighten her lips and cleanched the bedsheets , Hoping this will end soon . "I never admire your beauty Darling , you're so beautiful . Damn I was blind all the time looking at those whores when I already have the most beautiful girl on earth. Join the journey of Laila Davis and Timothy Salvatore .

The love that has a huge gap and like heaven and earth. That's how Hershey Mae Mendoza describes her second love, Frich Yuan Lim Guerrero, the cousin of her ex-boyfriend-Alex. Hershey's family is just an ordinary family lives in the Province of Cavite. Yuan's family comes from a well known family of Billionaire's in China, so his family strongly objected to the love between the two. For Yuan's parent, he should also stay with a rich woman which is contrary to Hershey's state of life, so it became a big obstacles for them. The story of Hershey and Yuan began when Hershey had the opportunity to study in De La Salle University-Dasmariñas, one of the most famous school in the Philippines that only the rich can afford to study. Hershey thought that Alex was his true love but she felt very sad and disappointed when she suffered a heart attack and chose to leave her and leave the country for his treatment. They separated and there She met Yuan, Alex's cousin who was disappointed with her former love, Hani. Hershey's and Yuan's path crossed unexpectedly. They leaned on each other and  their love healed her broken hearts. But the relationship that gradually developed only caused so many obstacles. Time and time again, fate made the two face the gap in their life status. When the time passed, people and tragedy test the love they hold onto. What if the love from the past suddenly return and ready to fight the present? Will they fight for their love? Will they continue to cling to a kind of love that is forbidden? Or they will just let each other have fun in the company of others?

Snowie Walton, the belle of the class, claimed she could hear my thoughts. When a classmate gained weight from hormone medications, she pointed at me and shouted, "Why did you call Eva a disgusting fat pig? Do you think you'll never be ill in your life?" The others believed her right away. They surrounded me, relentlessly demanding that I apologize publicly. From that day onward, I was isolated by the entire class. Later, during a lesson, the teacher mentioned her family. Snowie suddenly turned on me again. "What do you mean that our teacher only got this job through connections and that she has no capabilities at all? Show some respect!" I desperately explained that I had never thought such things, but the teacher didn't believe me. Not only was I written up for disciplinary action, but my scholarship was also revoked. Then, confidential documents from the school labs were stolen. Once again, Snowie blamed me. "How could you sell those files to foreigners and say that they were only worth a hundred thousand?" I was arrested by the police and convicted of leaking state secrets. I was sentenced to life imprisonment. In the end, I died in prison, consumed by depression. When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the very day Snowie accused me of insulting Eva. By this time, she didn't know that I had uncovered her secret behind her so-called ability to hear my thoughts.

Three days before my blood oath ceremony, someone planted a silver crucifix in the bridal shop and set it ablaze while I was inside trying on my ceremonial gown. My fiancé — Vampire Lord Damien — had the arsonist thrown into the silver prison, sentencing them to the harshest punishment our laws allowed. I lay in the healing chamber, my body covered in severe burns, refusing to wake fully as the reality of my disfigurement sank in. In my semi-conscious state, I heard Damien speaking with the coven's apothecary. "My Lord, we can still heal her completely with the ancient blood rites. If we wait any longer, Serena will bear these scars for life! You just want Miss Vivienne to be your Consort at the blood oath ceremony. This is cruel beyond measure!" "Let her keep the scars. I'll provide for her for the rest of her life, but if she's healed, she'll definitely cause trouble at the ceremony." "I promised Vivienne that her child would be welcomed into the coven with full honors. Only when Serena is completely disfigured will she be grateful enough to raise Vivienne's child as her own. The scars are necessary - at least this way, she won't dare mistreat the boy." In the corner of the room, where no one was watching, a tear slid down my burned cheek. So this was the truth. The blood oath ceremony I'd dreamed of was nothing but a lie. The blood bond I longed for would be my death sentence. If that's how it had to be, I would give him what he wanted.

Three years after I died, my mother sent me twenty dollars for living expenses. Three years before that—the first time I ever asked my family for money—she said to me, offhand, "Sometimes I think you're just putting on an act. What's so unsanitary about a thirty-cent boxed meal? And why can't you wear a five-dollar down jacket? Face it, you're just more high-maintenance than your little brother." Later, when I needed twenty dollars to buy some cheap medicine for my stomachache, she blocked me immediately and cut off all contact—along with every relative we had. "Don't contact me anymore. I'm clearly not a good mother. I can't afford to give my son a life of luxury." But for my younger brother, who had just started high school, she spared no expense—renting him a three-bedroom apartment. Even the family dog got its own room. In the end, on the day my brother became the top scorer in the state, she finally remembered me. She took me off her block list and transferred twenty dollars. "It's only twenty dollars. Was it really worth giving your family the silent treatment for three whole years?" What she never knew was this— On the night my stomach ruptured, three years ago, I had already died. I couldn't afford to go to the hospital. I froze to death in the snow.