Faeries, Mermaids, and Arguments: A Short Story Collection

"I don't want to die"

"I don't want to die," she read.

"That's weird," she thought. She was reading a book and was nearing the end when the book started having strange things written in it. The writing appeared to be handwritten messily and hastily, almost as if the writer was desperate and this was their last hope.

She flipped the page. "Please stop. I'm not ready to die yet. Please help me. Please," was written in the middle of the page. That was the only thing written on the page. She flipped another page. This one read, "Stop flipping, please. If you close this book, I'll die. Please stop. Please help me. Save me, please. Please save me, I'm begging you."

As she continued to flip the pages, the writing got more and more desperate. The last page of the book read, "Please don't close the book. I'm not ready to die. I don't want to die. Please." She closed the book and heard a faint scream coming from the book. She shuddered and a feeling came over her that made her feel like she just witnessed a death. She banished the thought from her head. "It's just a book. It can't actually die," she thought. She opened the book to the last page and it was blank. Frantically, she flipped through the book. It was blank. The entire book was now blank. She closed the book quickly and put it where she could no longer see it.

That night, when she was in bed, she saw a person who came up to her and pointed a gun at her head. She knew they were whoever wrote the end of the book. She pleaded with the person. "Please, don't kill me. I don't want to die," she said.

"Maybe you should have thought of that earlier," the person said.

"Please don't kill me. I'm not ready to die. Please stop. I don't want to die. Please, I'm begging you," she pleaded.

The person said nothing and pulled the trigger. She gasped, breathing her last breath.

The next morning, she was found dead in her bed gripping a blank book tightly. Well, an almost blank book. On the very last page, there was writing that read, "Please don't kill me. I'm not ready to die. Please stop. I don't want to die. Please, I'm begging you."

The doctors decided she died of heart failure in her sleep. The book disappeared and no one knows where it went.