Nora was very intrigued by this story. The plot twists, the fear, the excitement of dying to know what's coming next. She couldn't wait to find out what would happen next with the Barnhill sisters and the Martins. Would they escape from the dungeon? She turned the page excitedly, hoping to find the next chapter, but she was astonished to see that the next two pages were blank.
Nora's heart dropped when she saw this. It couldn't be the end already, could it?
It can't be over, Nora told herself, I bet she just accidentally skipped a page. Nora turned the page again, but those ones were blank, too. She flipped through the rest of the book, but there was no more writing at all.
"No!" Nora cried. "No! No! No!"
Her mother, Angie, opened the door to see what was going on. "Nora? Are you okay? Why are you yelling, 'No! No! No! No!'?"
"It's this book." Nora showed the old leather book to her mother. "Grandma gave it to me to read. Aunt Ivy wrote it."
"Aunt Ivy?" Angie repeated.
"You know, Grandma's sister who died when they were kids."
"I know who she is," Angie said. "I just didn't know she wrote a book."
"She never got it published," Nora explained. "I found it in the attic today and grandma said I could bring it home to read."
Angie nodded. "I see...and what exactly is wrong with this book?"
"It's not finished!" Nora complained. "It was on a HUGE cliffhanger when she died, so now I'll never know what happened!"
"Well, maybe you can think of an ending. But let's get to bed now, it's almost eleven and you're going swimming with Abby and Taylor tomorrow." Angie set the book down on Nora's nightstand, then turned the light off and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.
Nora grumbled something, then flopped down on her pillow.
She fell asleep within ten minutes.
