[ WP ] There 's a paperback on the clearance rack . On a whim your character picks it up and finds that it details their life thus far ... How does the book end ?

Martin had been alone his whole life. Homeless, broken, and abandoned this tortured soul wandered into a bookstore. He had no money to purchase books with, but he enjoyed browsing the stacks. Reading about other people, with better lives. Happy lives. 
 
 On this day, Martin came across a paperback as worn and dirty as he was. Thinking it could use a little care, he gently eased it off the rack, taking care that none of the barely attached pages fell off. He blew across the spine, revealing only the word *Martin* emblazoned in depressing grey. 
 
 He opened it, beginning to skim. And he was a child. It was night. The door to his bedroom swung open, and his brother entered. 
 
 Martin shivered and gagged, quickly slamming the book back into place. A solitary page fell out, having received the final push. Martin left it, turning away, face filled with horror. 
 
 After a few minutes he turned back, not knowing himself why he did. Perhaps he thought it would be cathartic. Perhaps he thought he could see the future, or where things went wrong. Perhaps he wanted closure. Perhaps he just wanted to give a big fuck you to his life, in his own personal way. 
 
 So he voluntarily was abused and molested. He went to school and got picked on until he dropped out. He joined the army to escape from his broken home. He fought in Vietnam. He killed. He tortured. He did what was done unto him. He lost himself in the bottle and in cocaine. He failed at maintaining a social life, never met a woman, developed PTSD, and attempted suicide twice. He became a husk, devoid of spirit and confidence, left to aimlessly wander a broken world as a broken man. 
 
 Finally, he reached the end, now crouched in the aisle over a book drenched with salty tears. On the last page was written *Martin died one week after reading this book, after finally finding a brief moment of peace and happiness. * Tears of sadness became tears of joy. Martin thrust the book down into his tattered overcoat, willing to risk encountering police to keep a hold on it. He sprinted out of the store, sprinted like he had when he was 22 and his legs still worked. He ran to the park, and rolled around in the grass. Martin jumped for joy. A dead man became alive once more. 
 
 While cleaning up that night, a bored teenager found a single piece of paper, lying on the ground. He tried to match it to a book, but it did n't seem to belong to any of them. So he threw it out. 
 
 If you were to go to that bookstore's trashbin, and open up a crumpled piece of paper, odds are you might find something interesting on it. Something like *After reading the previous page, a painful chain was lifted. Martin became free to pursue happiness once more. He was entirely untroubled for the last 14 years of his life. *
