Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Fiction.
Device of Hope
"My locket! My locket! Johanna, have you seen my Locket'? Mya searches the street corner where she was standing and tried to retrace her steps when she felt another shove from a stranger hurrying to get inside their home. Mya could not understand why that person even touched her. There were only roughly 6 million people left in the world. There was plenty of space to walk. Johanna her little sister was a few yards away from her searching for the locket. Mya wanted to hurry and find the locket so that she could get home and write in her diary about the day's events. Today's diary entry was going to have a lot to do with the pending excitement.
By LATANYA N CHATFIELD3 years ago in Fiction
Crow Secrets
It happened on the couch on our front porch. That old couch that had been out there since Mama decided a few years back that we needed a new one. Some new neighbors moved in down the road and she saw the fancy couch that they pulled out of the back of the moving truck. Daddy said he didn’t think there was anything all that special about it, but Mama did. She went on for days about the white, lacy upholstery and wonderful leather trim. For the next week, whenever she walked through the family room, she would look at our couch and sigh. And the louder she would sigh, the more frustrated Daddy would get. White upholstery wouldn’t last three seconds in this house with all us kids runnin’ round and all the dirt comin’ in from the farmhouse every time someone opened and shut the kitchen door, he would say. Daddy was right. I didn’t think the neighbors’ couch was gunna look real great after one of our long, dry summers when the dust crept in even the tightest shut windows and layered itself up in every nook and cranny. Heck, the white linen napkins that were tucked away in the dining room drawer even seemed to turn brown in the summer. Mama knew this was true too and eventually said that it didn’t have to be white, but that she still wanted a new one. And she continued to sigh every morning as she passed the couch on her way to make breakfast for me and Jake and the twins. And then, one day, comin’ home from school, there was our couch, out on the porch. When I went inside, I found Mama sittin’ all smiles on a brand new blue couch. She was quick to point out the carved mahogany feet. The neighbors’ couch didn’t have no carved mahogany feet.
By Megan Clancy3 years ago in Fiction
THE BARBARIAN & THE KING
T he ring in the curved steel as it cleared the scabbard spoke to the quality of the blade, the glare from the morning sunlight striking its edge spoke to its sharpness. The steam of his breath spoke of the coldness of the air. The speed of his movement spoke of the hone of his reflexes. The stare in his cold grey eyes spoke of his determination. The stance in his lean but powerful form spoke of his skill as a warrior.
By Grant Kininmont3 years ago in Fiction
Raptor Hunt & Mesoamerican Adventure
What do you know about raptors? We are refined prime predators. Quick minds make rapid adaptors. They’ve been around since dinosaurs. Now we've flight & in the sky soar! We’re a feature of much folklore. We now protect the bald eagle. Their true nature is quite regal. To hunt them in now illegal. I did once shoot a red-tailed hawk. Upon death we felt a soul shock! A somber truth no being can mock. My chickens needed protection. Death in my arms was connection. Its shocked eyes showed my reflection.
By David Duran 3 years ago in Fiction
The New Eden
“You can keep staring at it, Evangeline. It’s never going back to the way it was before.” “Nathaniel, my dear friend, that kind of eternal optimism is why I’ve kept you around all these years….” I turned to face my friend with a smirk, one eyebrow cocked so he could sense I was only half-teasing with my sarcasm.
By Jessie Waddell3 years ago in Fiction
Locket of Emotions
You ever have one of those days you can’t forget? Well, I can tell you about yesterday which I can’t seem to stop thinking about. I was already having a long day by ten or so in the morning. So me understanding you can’t help anyone if you can’t help yourself had me ready to go for a walk and think about something other than my life. Now this wasn’t me fantasizing about being rich or famous, this was more so me questioning why they force you to stay alive when you’re probably better off. After walking and clearing my head I noticed this guy that seemed to be walking with me. Now I’m confused, because it seems like he’s been talking to me while walking with me and was asking me a question. I tried to think of something catchy to say that might change the subject to something else. “ You know what? It’s pretty hot outside we should go get something to drink.” He was quick to respond because he must have been thinking the same thing. So we go to the store buy some water and then he asked me if I wanted a ride home. Perfect right, because I wasn’t really tired from walking but I just didn’t feel like walking home so of course I’ll take an offer for a ride seriously. Consistently his car just seemed to be park at the gas pump, which was questionable, but I didn’t feel like asking myself anymore questions about the reality I live. So while he driving he tells me he saw me walking and parked his car at the station so he could walk with me and guide me to safety because it didn’t seem like I was paying attention. For that I was most definitely grateful. He tells me how he hasn’t seen me in a while and after my car accident I just seemed to have disappeared. Luckily one of his friends said I ended up moving to the area he was in at the time hoping he’d run into me. I smiled but I honestly didn’t care and since I already had the GPS up on my phone I just spaced out again, but not enough to not see what he’s doing, I had to copy his actions so he felt like I was listening. So as we pull up to my house he puts the car in park and grabs my hand. I listen to him tell me how he wants to actually hang out one day , which so happens to be today, and he had something to give me. Now I don’t consider myself above taking candy from strangers but this, this was completely different. He put a box in my hand and said he made this specifically for me. So I’m thinking okay should I open the box in the car or after I get in the house. Thinking was pointless because he started opening it for me, like okay cool. So inside the box was this beautiful necklace like a diamond heart shaped locket, but he said it wasn’t diamond because I didn’t have his last name yet. Whatever it was I liked it until he said there was something important he had to tell me before I put it on. Like “Okay here we go, just tell me before I don’t want it anymore.” So he says it’s a prototype and he thought I would be the right one to give it to because he put some thought into it after him and his friends made the decision. Now I don’t know how to feel about a group of guys sitting at a table judging me but again I really didn’t care. So before getting out the car he tells me “ If you ever feel the need to cry let your tears fall inside of the locket and it will show you what’s in your heart before attempting to make it into reality. It’s something like those little mood rings you could buy in the store, so it does change colors to fit your emotions and if it ever turns red you have to, I repeat HAVE TO calm down.” I figured it was a speech he practiced in front of the mirror to persuade me into putting it on if he ever got the chance, so I picked it up and it started glowing the pale green color. He said I was relaxed and had my attention, so I asked him to help me put it on knowing I could but I figured he wanted to anyway. So while he’s putting it on he says he’s going to pick me up tomorrow so we could hangout and catch up on missed time. This was a good idea because sitting in the house all the time was getting annoying, I just couldn’t get anything done. I accepted his offer and put my number in his phone because one thing I can not stand is someone popping up at the house unannounced.
By Jazmine King3 years ago in Fiction
Pretty little nightmare
5 years before: July 21st I swear the way people act when something out of the norm happens you would assume the world was ending. You would think the fact that it has been winter since last October and it is now July, wouldn't cause mass chaos, yet it does. People hoarding essentials and non essentials alike, the same people refusing to even help their neighbor while looking down on those less fortunate. 10 months of below freezing weather, occasional snow fall, and semi busy streets, have became the normal every day life. Random sicknesses that leave kids and adults alike hospitalized, some even dead, with no idea what medicine would heal or help, and all we get is global warming, a pandemic or even doomsday, but no real help or insight.
By Sharon Marie3 years ago in Fiction
Ethan
[8/17/XX 16:47] FACILITY 4 DR. ERMINE CALLASTER - CENTER MONITOR [Subject #6] Subject has reached full maturity after 6 cycles. We have provided it with only positive stimuli in order to receive better results than the last experiment. The community is still cleaning up after the devastation caused by Subject #5 who has since been terminated. The Nurture department has seized full control of this project with promises of a peaceful future and are fully willing to hand it over if the subject proves to be dangerous.
By Elise J Lewin3 years ago in Fiction
Doomsday Diary
Diary entry, August 26, 2071 Our family is driving back to the, now burned, home that we had to abandon when the wildfire entered and devastated our town. We want to look for anything salvageable in the ashes. As we drive along the “escape “route, by the burned -out cars, with burned bodies in them, and more burned bodies on the roadside, where people had tried to escape on foot when traffic was jammed, I wish I could say that I’m surprised or shocked by this. But how could I be surprised, when this scene is so common?
By Janet Robinson 3 years ago in Fiction
A Peace of Our Heart.
She couldn't believe she was this close to finding it, as she dug through the thick layer of grime and ash. After all this time, it had been hiding in the midwest of all places. In a small crumbling farmhouse, deep in the now toxic cornfields of what used to be called Iowa. It had taken her years to trace it back here. After the Burning, and through the terror of the famine wars, it's a miracle it had survived at all. She sat back a moment and recalled the long journey it had taken to find it. She had first learned of its existence reading through the early scientific reports of the first outbreak. They thought it was a disease at first, and of course it was, but not like anything humanity had ever faced. The first reports were from small farming villages in Eastern Europe. People and animals getting sick, many dying. Those who survived left deeply changed and scarred for life. They didn't know, couldn't know what had happened to them. Soon, it was happening everywhere. Almost every form of plant was now deeply toxic, unable to be consumed without horrible sickness. Early research soon theorized that a parasitic fungus was invading nearly all plant life, hijacking the plant's natural ability to create pollen and co-opting it to spread its own spores instead. Some thought it was our punishment, that we had pushed the Earth too far in our greed, and this was our justice. Others tried everything they could to fight it. Even though they were warned that we didn't know enough about the fungus to take any definitive actions. World governments quickly and unanimously agreed to a "burn first" policy in an attempt to contain the fungus. Whole crops and forests were destroyed in an attempt to contain the "Grey Spore" as they called it. But in their haste, they only made it worse. The spore itself, it turned out, was extremely heat resistant and the warm air from the fires spread the spore farther and faster than they could've ever imagined. It was only then, as it became an uncontainable disaster that we realized the true horror of the Spore. It started with strange animal attacks. A missing dog or cat, a herd of cattle slaughtered and eaten as if by a pack of wolves. Normally docile, even herbaceous animals began killing and eating each other, and any humans they came across. Early tests looked for brain damage from the Spore, or some type of rampant form of Rabies, but the tests always showed negative on victim and predator alike. The answer turned out to be much simpler and much more destructive. The animals and people were all now showing early signs of starvation. Any animal or person that had ingested a plant infected by the Spore and survived, could no longer eat or digest anything but meat, becoming violently ill again should they try. Her body begins to shake as her memories of that dark time threaten to overwhelm her.The last group of scientists, working inside of sealed greenhouses had found the answer, but too late. The carnivores came for them, driven mad by their starvation as the world ran out of any meat but the human kind. But the answer survived. The lead scientist had left a video behind, in the hopes that someone would find his work, but he died before he could tell his daughter how important his gift had been. So it travelled with her, a hidden secret, as she fled from the wars as humanity fell upon itself. Thousands of miles the secret travelled in the hands of a little girl, not knowing what she had, until when she was fifteen, she had been forced to leave it behind or die. Years and miles had carried her far away to the ocean and to the islands where the few remaining unafflicted humans had found their shelter at last, living off the vegetation they could grow in sealed greenhouses, the community of only a few thousand survived. After a time, it became clear that the carnivores had either starved to death or killed each other off. The community began sending out small teams who would travel to the burned lands, looking for survivors, and even more importantly, looking for any clues of how to combat the Spore. Eventually one of these teams found the video the lead scientist had made, and it was only upon viewing this video, she realized what her father had given her all those years ago. She saw the tattered threads that were all that remained of the stuffed bear he had given her that day. Seeing the shimmer of silver, she knew she was close. Reaching down into the grime she grasped the chain that had adorned the bear's neck and pulled the heart shaped locket it carried from the grime. Wiping it down she found the small, barely perceptible notch her father had shown in the video and the locket popped open as if it had just been closed yesterday and carefully empired its contents into her hand. There it was, the thing she and her friends had hunted and sacrificed for. The thing that had nearly driven her mad when she had learned that she had carried it, unknowingly for years. At long last, the Apex Seed. Genetically created by her father and his team, and infused into the unassuming seed of an apple tree, was the last salvation for humanity and life on earth. The seed, when planted, would grow the first tree completely immune to the effects of the Gray Spore, and the pollen from that tree would be universal and would breed true, allowing for new generations of nearly every plant that would share the immunity.
By Roy Lee Purdie III3 years ago in Fiction