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The majesty . Content Warning.
The Majesty In a small, rich city called Baybal, there lived a very old woman. It was announced to the people of the city that the woman had to announce the new king who was going to take over. This came as a surprise to the bitter and wicked Kai, the first son of the woman, Sally.
By Uhone Matshele 10 months ago in Fiction
DAY SIX: Six Geese a-Laying
The first sign was the smell. A sharp, swampy odour crept up the porch before the doorbell even rang. It smelled of ponds, panic, and something that might once have been straw. Stephen had been mid–Teams call, trying to look competent while nudging a partridge away from his keyboard, when Jane called from the hallway:
By Stephen Stanley10 months ago in Fiction
The Maple Key
It began with a perfect day. The kind of autumn day that exists mostly in memory: the air was crisp, the sun was a gentle gold, and the maple trees in the park were a blazing cathedral of scarlet and orange. For Leo, a man whose life had become a grey blur of commutes and deadlines, it was a glimpse of heaven. As he sat on his favorite bench, a single, perfect, crimson maple key spiraled down and landed in his palm. He felt a jolt, a strange, static charge, and then… the world dissolved.
By Habibullah10 months ago in Fiction
Meeting the Sky
In the little metal lunchbox were scraps of paper notes, and old movie tickets, and pins, and those smashed pennies from novel places. All that and select photos, and old keys from homes that I once claimed. There is a picture at my grandpa’s breakfast table, with its clutter of breakfast apparatus. The occupied bowls, orange juice filled glasses and plates of bacon, eggs, golden-brown toast all strewn and aligned with the encircling chairs and their smiley occupants: grandpa, mom, and me.
By Atrayu Sweet10 months ago in Fiction
Echoes of My Daughters
There was a room inside Anthony’s two-bedroom apartment in New York City that had seen more of his heart than any other place he had ever lived. It was an ordinary room—barely large enough for a twin bed, a desk, and a dresser—but it held within its four walls the history of a father’s love, the echoes of two childhoods, and the quiet ache of time passing far too quickly.
By Anthony Chan10 months ago in Fiction
The Clockmaker’s Promise
M Mehran Everyone in the quiet town of Eldenbrook knew Elias Thorn, the old clockmaker whose shop stood at the corner of Willow Street. The windows were always fogged with dust and time, and the shelves were filled with clocks—grandfather clocks, pocket watches, delicate sand timers, and curious contraptions no one had names for. But the most mysterious thing about Elias was not his clocks. It was his secret: He could fix time. Some said he once repaired a moment of regret for a grieving widow. Others whispered he restored a lost memory for a child who had forgotten her mother’s face. No one knew how he did it. They only knew the price was never money. And so people came, quietly, secretly, leaving with lighter hearts—or heavier ones, depending on the moment they chose to change. But none of that mattered the night fifteen-year-old Rowan Carter walked into the shop with a shaking hand and a broken watch. It had belonged to his father. The man who never came home. --- The door chimed softly as Rowan stepped inside. The hum of ticking clocks filled the air like thousands of tiny heartbeats. Elias Thorn, with silver-thread hair and warm, unreadable eyes, looked up from a clock he was polishing. “You’ve been outside my door for three days,” Elias said. “Come in, child.” Rowan swallowed. “I… I wasn’t sure.” “You are sure now.” Elias nodded. “What do you want fixed?” Rowan opened his hand. The pocket watch lay cracked, its glass shattered, its hands frozen at 7:12 PM—the exact minute his father’s car went off the old Briarwood Bridge. “I want to go back,” Rowan whispered. “Before it happened. I want to stop him.” Elias didn’t take the watch. Not at first. “Time is not a toy,” he warned. “It doesn’t like being moved. It resists. It demands sacrifice.” Rowan’s voice broke. “I’d give anything.” Elias’s expression softened with a grief that seemed older than the town itself. “Many have said that,” he murmured. “Few understood what it meant.” Still, he held out his hand. “Let me see it.” Rowan placed the broken watch in Elias’s palm. The moment the clockmaker touched it, the shop grew cold. The ticking of the other clocks slowed until the whole room held its breath. Elias closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they glowed faintly with a golden light. “This watch is tied to a moment you wish to rewrite,” he said quietly. “I can open the door. But remember—every changed moment steals something from another.” “What do you mean?” “If you return to the past,” Elias said, “you must leave something behind.” “Like what?” Rowan whispered. “A memory,” the clockmaker said. “A piece of your life. Something time will take as payment.” Rowan hesitated only a moment. “My father is worth more than any memory.” Elias nodded. “Then hold the watch. And do not let go.” --- The shop dissolved. Rowan felt himself falling through light, through ticking, through moments stretching and snapping like threads. Then his feet hit solid ground. He stood on Briarwood Bridge. Wind brushed against his face, cold and familiar. The wooden planks creaked beneath him. And there—just ahead—stood his father, leaning over the railing, staring down at the rushing river below. Rowan’s breath caught in his throat. “Dad!” His father turned, surprised. “Rowan? What are you—” “Don’t drive tonight,” Rowan gasped. “Please. The bridge… your brakes—” Before he could finish, headlights glowed on the road behind them. A car swerved, tires screeching on wet wood. Rowan lunged. He shoved his father out of the way. The car hit Rowan instead. Everything went black. --- When Rowan opened his eyes, he was lying on the ground, rain hitting his face. His father hovered over him, frantic. “Rowan! Rowan, stay with me!” “I’m… okay,” Rowan murmured. But he wasn’t. Something inside his mind felt hollow, missing. Elias Thorn stepped out of the shadows of the bridge as if he had always been there. “It is done,” the clockmaker said quietly. Rowan’s father looked up, confused. “Who—?” “You don’t remember me,” Elias said gently. “That is how it should be.” He held the restored pocket watch in his hand. The glass was whole, the hands moving again. Rowan sat up slowly. “Did I save him?” “Yes,” Elias said. “Your father will live. The accident will never happen.” Rowan exhaled in relief. “Then… what did I lose?” Elias hesitated. Then he handed Rowan the watch. Rowan looked at it, waiting for memory to rise. But nothing came. “What… what is this?” Rowan asked. “It belonged to your father,” Elias said softly. “It was your favorite birthday gift. He saved for months to buy it for you.” Rowan blinked. “I don’t remember any of that.” “That was the price,” Elias said. “To save your father, time took the memories you had of him.” Rowan’s chest tightened. All the laughter. All the stories. All the moments they shared—gone. His father knelt beside him, tears in his eyes. “Rowan? Do you know who I am?” Rowan looked into his father’s face. It felt warm… familiar… but distant, like a name he once read long ago. “I don’t remember,” Rowan whispered. “But… I want to learn.” His father pulled him close, holding him like something precious returned from the brink. Elias watched them silently. Sometimes saving someone meant losing the part of yourself that loved them. Sometimes love meant choosing the loss anyway. When Rowan looked up, the clockmaker was gone. Only the steady ticking of the pocket watch remained.
By Muhammad Mehran10 months ago in Fiction
The Lantern Maker of Lyria
M Mehran Lyria was a town that did not sleep. Even at midnight, its narrow cobblestone streets glowed with strings of paper lanterns—blue for peace, yellow for hope, white for healing, and red for courage. But the most beautiful lanterns, the ones people whispered about, came from the workshop at the very edge of the riverbank, where an old woman named Sera lived. Sera was a lantern maker, but not the ordinary kind. Her lanterns were said to hold memories—real ones, taken from hearts that were too heavy to carry them. People came to her door in the quiet hours of dawn, clutching their pasts like burdens they no longer wanted. No one knew how Sera collected the memories. Some said she caught them like fireflies. Others believed she carved them out of shadows. A few whispered that she had once given up a memory of her own, and since then, she had been able to touch the memories of others. But none of that mattered to Mika, a sixteen-year-old girl who had spent the last month sitting outside Sera’s workshop, waiting. Mika held a small silver ring around her neck. It belonged to her brother, Lior, who had disappeared in the river storm three months ago. The river had given back his ring—but not him. Tonight, she finally gathered the courage to knock. The door opened before she touched it. Sera stood there, her eyes pale like moonlit water. “You’ve been waiting a long time,” she said softly. “Come in.” Mika stepped inside. The workshop was filled with hundreds of glowing lanterns. Each seemed to pulse faintly, as if breathing. “What memory do you want to let go?” Sera asked. Mika clutched the ring. “None,” she whispered. “I want to find one.” That made Sera pause. Nobody came for retrieval; they came for release. “I want to see the last memory my brother left behind,” Mika said. “Before the river took him.” Sera studied her face. “Memories do not always show what we want,” she warned. “Some show only truth.” “I still want to see it.” Sera nodded slowly and turned to the shelves. She pulled down a lantern—unlit, white, frail as winter glass. “This one is empty,” she said. “It will hold whatever you seek.” She handed the lantern to Mika, who felt it tremble as if sensing her grief. “Close your eyes,” Sera instructed. “Hold the ring. Think of him—the sound of his voice, the way he laughed, the last time you saw him.” Mika shut her eyes. Memories surged—Lior teaching her to skip stones, Lior racing her across the riverbank, Lior promising he’d be back before the storm turned fierce. A warm wind brushed her face. The lantern glowed. Suddenly, the world changed. --- Mika stood on the edge of the river. But it was not the river as it was—it was brighter, clearer, shimmering with something almost unreal. Lior stood there too, barefoot, smiling at her as if nothing had happened. “Lior?” Mika breathed. He turned, eyes widening. “Mika? What are you doing here?” “I… I came to see your last memory.” The sky flickered, as if the world knew something it wasn’t supposed to. “This place isn’t a memory,” Lior said sadly. “It’s a doorway. A place between letting go and holding on.” Mika’s heart tightened. “I don’t understand.” Lior knelt beside the river. “The storm didn’t mean to take me. I tried to come back. But sometimes the river keeps what it loves.” Tears filled Mika’s eyes. “I wasn’t ready to lose you.” Lior reached out, brushing a tear from her cheek. But his fingers passed through like mist. “I know. That’s why you came. But Mika… if you stay here, you’ll get stuck between the worlds. Like me.” The lantern flickered in Mika’s hand. Its light was fading. “You’re not gone,” she whispered. “I can still see you.” “Only because you haven’t let me go,” Lior replied gently. “But you must. You deserve a life outside of this memory.” Mika shook her head. “I can’t. You’re my brother.” “And I always will be,” he said. “But I don’t belong in your world anymore.” Thunder rolled in the distance—the storm returning, repeating, as memories often do. “You have to leave before the lantern goes dark,” Lior said urgently. “If it closes, you’ll be stuck here.” Mika looked at the fading light, then at Lior. Her chest ached with a pain she wasn’t ready to face. “Will I ever see you again?” she whispered. Lior smiled—soft, warm, familiar. “In every river you walk beside. In every storm that passes. And in every lantern Sera hangs above the town. I’ll be there.” The wind surged. The river roared. The lantern’s glow dimmed to a thread. “Mika, go!” She reached for him one last time. Their hands almost touched—almost. Then the world shattered into light. --- Mika gasped and opened her eyes. She was back in Sera’s workshop, the lantern in her hands now glowing softly—steady, peaceful. Sera watched her with gentle knowing. “You saw him.” Mika nodded, tears falling silently. “Did you find what you needed?” Mika closed her fingers around the lantern’s warm surface. “Yes,” she whispered. “I did.” Sera smiled faintly. “Then you are ready.” Mika stepped outside. The town of Lyria shimmered with lanterns, each one holding a piece of someone’s heart. She lifted the lantern and walked to the riverbank—the same place she had once searched for Lior. She set the lantern on the water. It floated out, glowing stronger than all the others, drifting toward the horizon like a small piece of the moon. Mika watched until it became only a dot of light. Then she whispered into the wind, “Goodbye, Lior.” And for the first time in months, the river looked calm.
By Muhammad Mehran10 months ago in Fiction
