Fact or Fiction?

Most of the day, I spent cataloguing and looking over the transactions from the last five months. We were doing great with sales and I knew most of it was thanks to Lucy. I was flipping through a manuscript when Lucy knocked on my door.

“Lunch time,” she sang. “You hungry?”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course I am. I’m up to my ears in manuscripts, though. Can you bring me something back?”

She winked at me. “You got it, boss.”

I smiled and looked back at the manuscript. So far it wasn’t so great but I wanted to get to the end. When I did, I closed my eyes wearily.

There was a $100 bill paper clipped to it.

I shook my head and put it in the reject pile, attaching a Post-It to it reminding me to let them know that was not the way to get published.

Lucy brought back Subway and I told her about the bribe.

She scoffed, wiping mustard off her mouth. “Sounds like someone’s desperate.”

“They probably have been rejected by everyone and I was their last resort.”

She made an angry noise but I shrugged. It wasn’t the first time that had happened to me. Upcoming authors were desperate; especially if they had been rejected several times. I didn’t feel angry anymore about bribes. Mostly I felt pity for them that they felt the need for that. So, in each letter, I sent them the money back and added in some more advice than normal about the manuscript.

“Welp, looks like things are going to be slow today,” Lucy said, glancing out the door again.

“Go ahead and leave,” I said.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. I want to look through our duplicates. We need to get those sold,” I mumbled to myself, leaving my office.

“Okiedokes,” she said. “See you tomorrow morning.”

“Be safe.”

I wandered among the bookshelves with a clipboard and pen, writing down the books that we had more than two copies of. I didn’t like having duplicates. I was more than happy to order books for customers, but duplicates meant too much space taken up.

I was halfway through the non-fiction section when I remembered the mysterious book in the back. I bit my lower lip and glanced at my watch. It was getting close to five. I normally closed at 6:30 but I was too curious about that book.

So I flipped the open sign off and picked up the book bag. After locking every door and setting my alarm, I walked out into the cold night air. I whistled as I walked, this time slower so I wouldn’t knock any other poor person over.

Halloween decorations adorned shop windows and I felt giddy with excitement. My store was known for me going all out with my decorations. Since I had the money to spare, I bought a shit load of full size candy bars for the trick-or-treaters. It was a fun time of the year for me and I started making plans in my mind.

When I got to my house, I paused at the mailbox. There were a few envelopes and what looked like junk mail.

I flipped on the lights and sighed, looking around my front room before disarming my alarm. Even though they had been dead for a while, the house still felt empty without my parents. I turned on some music on my stereo while I made a quick dinner. While I ate, I sorted through the mail.

The three envelopes were all bills and I stuck my tongue out at them. While I was away on tour, Charles was responsible for forwarding the important mail to me. Most of my bills were payable online but some of the companies, like the water bill, were still doing it through check. It was annoying and time consuming.

There were two fliers. One was for some sale a grocery store was having. I was going to toss it then saw a coupon for $3 off a large box of candy. I tucked it in with the envelopes and bit my lip at the final flier.

There was a picture of Zackary Hamilton leaning against a bookcase. Underneath it was his name and it mentioned how he was new. I flipped it over but it was just one sided. I studied his features more now that I wasn’t looking him right in the face.

I had never seen such hazel eyes before. His black bangs fell into them, a style that was coming back from the 90s. He was very toned underneath that business shirt and had brilliant white teeth. In the picture, he was crossing his arms but his left hand was visible.

There wasn’t a ring on his finger…. Of course, that never means anything but it was kind of encouraging. My phone buzzed with a text.

It’s a sign! I rolled my eyes at Lucy’s text. Call him! I know you got the flier, too!

“Good night, Lucy,” I said as I texted her back.

Party pooper :p

I smiled and cleaned up from eating. I wasn’t going to bed, though. I turned the music off and grabbed my book bag. I sat at my desk where I did all of my bills and random writing and undid the clasps.

As I suspected, the pages were blank.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” I muttered to myself.

I gasped.

On the first page, in curly writing:

Don’t judge a book by its cover.

I bit my lip. Slowly, it began to fade. I touched where it was timidly but it felt just as dry as normal. There wasn’t any residue.

“What are you?” I whispered.

I had been reminded of that scene in the second Harry Potter movie but there wasn’t an answer. The words didn’t even appear on the paper.

“Hmm…. Do you not write everything?” I said and it remained blank. I cleared my throat. “My name is Ophelia Ramsey.”

The words appeared on the paper but, this time, they didn’t fade. I turned the page but there wasn’t an indentation from the words being written. When I flipped it back, I gasped.

Confused, Ophelia turned the page. Nothing was there. What was this book and how did it come to her?

“Are you writing my life?” I breathed.

I screamed as the book slammed shut and the clasps relocked themselves. It glowed brilliant gold and I shielded my eyes. When it stopped, everything in me told me to just leave it be but I couldn’t resist and I opened it immediately.

The front page was blank again!

“What the hell are you?”