Read Online Book of Love by Abra Ebner - Free Book Online

saw me immediately, stunned to see another living
face.
    At first her brown eyes glittered with fear,
but after a while the fear began to subside. The freckles on her
cheek stood out against the pale rose of her skin, and it was here
that I noticed how much she resembled her father. I stopped,
watching her casually, the gentlest smile touching my lips. She
watched me in return, her features relaxing as time passed. The
bodies lay around us, the bodies of lost souls she didn’t know.
They were not dead as she expected, but rather dying, as they would
here for all eternity—lost in the in-between.
    I knew that when I saved
her, I’d made a mistake. She was stuck on Earth, but her heart was
here in the in-between. I cheated the rules of death to save her,
but if she had gone, I would have never seen her again. I couldn’t
risk losing what I’d longed to find. After all, I was stuck in the in-between, and
now she was too.
    She stepped toward me, and I stood tall. The
grass in the field filled the air with a soft rustle. She drew
close, drawn by curiosity and her own insatiable need to be near
me. Now standing a foot apart, she stopped. I tilted my head
slightly, my eyes scanning her face. She reached up to touch my
cheek, but her hand halted as she saw her fingers drip with blood.
Looking away from me, I saw the sting of shame in her eyes. I tried
to grab her hand before she began to disappear, but there was
little I could do to stop her from running.
    I’d lost her.

    Emily:

    I lay awake in the dark. A light came on
outside my window, the light from my sister’s room. I stood,
walking to the window, looking at the light as it hit Wes’s house
across the alley. I drew in a slow breath, sensing Jane. She was as
restless as I was.
    I bit my lip, the burden
of my secret weighing on my shoulders. I wanted to tell her about
the things I’d heard today, but I couldn’t. I never told Jane
anything. I saw movement behind Wes’s blinds. He was watching her,
like he always did. He thought no one could see him—that no one
knew how in love he was. But I could—I could hear him.
    I sighed. I liked Wes, and it pained me to
see Jane treat him the way she did when his thoughts were so full
of love for her. The truth was that I was angry. I was jealous that
she had people look upon her with adoration the way they did.
People respected Jane, but she seemed oblivious to their
affections, instead thinking that the whole world was against
her.
    I crept away from the window and fished
through my coat pocket from earlier today, finding the bottle of
pills I’d gotten from yet another willing senior. I went back to
bed, climbing under the covers where I dug a book from beneath. I
opened to a page that was blank and stared at it. They were all
blank.
    The book was old, a family heirloom I’d
found in the attic long ago. I wanted to use it as a journal, but
when a pen was placed on the page, it wouldn’t allow it to write.
The book was magick, I was convinced of that. How it got here was a
whole other question.
    I hugged the book to my chest. I was afraid
of the things I saw when I fell asleep, this world of life,
destruction, and the creatures there. This book linked me to it
somehow, but I could never figure out why. I shut it, pushing it
back under my pillow. I knew I was different, but I was afraid no
one would believe me. They’d tell me I’m schizophrenic and put me
in a hospital, drug me as I’d already done on my own.
    They wouldn’t understand.
To me, this was real.

    Sarah:

    “ Jane!”
    I heard thumping coming down the stairs.
“Mom, quit yelling. I got it.”
    Jane approached the kitchen. Her face was
tired and drawn. “Jane, are you alright?”
    She glanced at me. “Yeah, mom. I’m fine.”
She grabbed the garbage and opened the patio door, taking it
outside.
    I heard more thumping as
Emily came down the stairs. She entered the kitchen, her face as
equally drawn. I furrowed my brow. Emily refused to look at me,