He didn’t realize the old book he picked up from the consignment shop was a ghost until he brought it home. But that night he was kept awake by the sounds of creaking leather bindings and rustling yellow pages.
A story lives when it is told, and can leave a ghost behind when it’s forgotten.
He couldn’t bring himself to destroy a book, so he tried to dump it in a free little library. The book was back on his shelf the next day.
He realized the story wasn’t malevolent, just lonely. So he built an archive for it instead.

“book” by Daniel Wehner is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Everyday Drabbles © 2025 by Hugh J. O’Donnell is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.‘

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