Charlotte loved wandering through bookshops on rainy afternoons, losing herself among the pages. She flipped through the paperbacks,breathing in the scent of fresh pages. She arched her neck and stretched only to see it was nearly night. However, she noticed a discreet door tucked between the ‘Murder’ and ‘Romance’, marked only by a small, handwritten sign: "The Book Club – New Members Welcome." in an hurried scrawl, Intrigued by the new addition to Barns and Loyals, she pushed open the door.
Inside, the room was dimly lit, the scent of dust hanging thick in the air. A circle of people sat in worn leather chairs, each holding a book. They turned as Charlotte entered, their eyes unnervingly still, as if they’d been waiting for her.
“Ah,” said a woman with sharp features and silver hair, “a new reader joins us.”
Charlotte smiled awkwardly. “I just stumbled in. Is this a book club?”
The group exchanged glances. “Yes,” the woman answered slowly. “But this isn’t like other clubs. We read books… no one else is allowed to read. Books that must stay hidden.”
Curiosity gave way to unease. Charlotte noticed the books they held had no titles, just blank covers with strange, swirling patterns. A thin, bespectacled man leaned forward. “Once you start, you can’t leave. The stories—” his voice dropped to an eerie whisper, “—become part of you.”
Charlotte’s stomach twisted. The group was watching her too intently, their smiles stretched just a little too wide. Something was off. She backed toward the door.
“You can’t leave now,” the silver-haired woman said, her voice low and insistent. “You’ve seen too much.”
Panic surged through Charlotte’s veins. She turned and bolted, the sound of chairs scraping the floor and feet pounding after her. The air behind her seemed to shift, like the books were alive, whispering her name.
She burst through the door into the night, her heart hammering. As she ran, she knew—this was no ordinary book club. And if they found her again, she’d become part of a story she couldn’t escape.