"I remember when this all began, it was a couple years ago.  I was lying in bed, the crickets were chirping outside my window.  When I heard the rustling I assumed it was the mice that would occasionally nest in the woodwork.  But then a years passed, and I heard it no matter where I went.  Through all my adventures, my perils, it was there.  It was annoying at first, I'll admit.  Annoying became accepted, and accepted became...well, I guess it became a friend."

I frowned, perplexed yet amused in a way.

"I didn't realize that the page noise might distract you, or else I would have been quieter.  Or at least try to, anyway."

He grinned up at me, all mischief and exuberance.  Somehow I just knew that his eyes were twinkling, although the text didn't say it, I knew.  I knew everything about him.  And he knew me.

"But if you had made it quieter, I never would have met you.  We wouldn't be having this discussion.  Now be quiet and let me finish."

I swallowed my comments and just observed the words as they appeared on the page.

"The day that the first laugh happened, I was in the middle of the market-place, arguing with a donkey.  I'm sure you remember, you were the one who laughed at it.  A year before that I might of thought that it was someone in the market itself, but I knew better by then.  I fled from the civilization, away from all people, and did something ridiculous.  I think I blocked the memory, I don't remember what I did."

I interrupted at this point, grinning to myself.

"You acted like a madman, and danced like a monkey.  I thought it was the funniest thing."

I chuckled lightly at the fond memory.  He responded in kind, eyes lighting up happily.

"It worked, did it not?  You laughed, and it was the prettiest sound I ever heard, in all my travels.  And it still is."

Heat flooded my face, and for once I was glad that he could not see me.  That feeling left as soon as it came though; I would always long for him to be able to see me, and for me to see him.

"So then I knew that someone up in the sky knew who I was.  I shouted up at the heavens, and you answered me."

I took up the story at that point.

"I replied, against all odds, and we started to talk.  I already knew it was a magical book, after all what other book writes itself right before your very eyes?  And so we started to talk, to understand this strange relationship, and strangers turned to friends, and friends turned to lovers."

"What a strange fate for a character in a book, yes?"

"Yes, this is no ordinary fate."  I answered his query, looking at the amount of pages left with trepidation.

How can there be so few?  I asked myself with bitterness.

Somehow he picked up on my thoughts, somehow he understood.

"I will be nothing but a memory soon."  It wasn't a question, but I answered it anyway.

"Yes.  In two pages time, you will be no more."

he seemed so solemn now, so different from before.  We remained in silence for a moment, as the description took up the pages until there was one left.  Our words had been said, there was but one thing more to mention before our end.

"I love you."  He said to me.

"And I love you."  I said to him.

And thus ended the book.  I felt tears form, though they did not escape my eyes.  I tried to turn back, to see if I could at least reread our story, but as I turned the pages, the words just disappeared.  I flipped forward again, but they didn't return.  Then, and only then, did the tears escape me.  I shut the cover, ended that portion of my life.  In my grief I threw it out of the window, and it flew away into the stars to find its next victim.  The next person to give its heartbreak to.  And I lived on in agony, my heart forever tied to the one I could not have.