family
Renaissance Room
I was an old man by the time I returned to the house, long after the war had emptied its lungs and fallen quiet. The stairwell leaned as if age were a weight it could no longer disguise. Still, the shape of my childhood waited for me at the top floor, patient as only the past can be.
By Hyde Wunderli 11 months ago in Fiction
The Market of Beauty — A Woman, A Society, and an Unforgiving Truth
In every era, literature has held up a mirror to its time. Some stories don’t simply entertain; they expose the soul of a society. Among them stands “Bazaar-e-Husn” (The Market of Beauty), a masterpiece by Munshi Premchand — one of the greatest voices in Urdu and Hindi literature.
By hamad khan11 months ago in Fiction
The Pale Blue Door
I walk past the pale blue door every single day. It is locked, I think, but I haven’t ever tried to open it. Somehow, I sense that I’m not meant to go in there. My Grandma won’t even look down the hall at it. It’s right by my room, and she never goes there either. I had to move in with her six months ago when I finally left my husband. Randy had hit me one last time and that was it. I decided I had to leave. I had to get out of there. I waited until he was on his business trip, packed everything and left. I had told him all my family was gone, because they were essentially. All except for my grandma, Sylvia. I hadn’t seen her since I was sixteen, at a funeral. My parents moved across the country and didn’t see their parents but a couple of times a year on holidays. Once I turned thirteen and could stay home with my older brother, I hadn’t gone back east to visit family at all. My other two grandparents died, my parents had no siblings. So, it was the four of us and Sylvia out here in West Virginia all alone in her little yellow cottage. Then when I was sixteen and hanging out with my boyfriend Randy at home, my parents and my brother went out to pick up pizza for all of us. They wrecked and all of them were killed. Randy was the only person in my life; he was a football player and a mechanic. His parents took me in and then we moved out and got married, his family was mine. And that was how he kept me trapped so easily.
By Raine Fielder11 months ago in Fiction
The Boy Who Captured the Moon in a Jar
Leo was a boy who loved the moon with a desperate, possessive love. Every night, he’d press his face against his bedroom window, watching it sail through the clouds, a perfect silver coin. He hated that he had to share it with the whole world. He hated that it always, eventually, slipped away.
By Habibullah11 months ago in Fiction
Across the Way. Runner-Up in Through the Keyhole Challenge.
I like to talk with you in my mind like you're here, even though you've been gone for seven months now. Oh, Paul! If only you had made a doctor's appointment like I asked, maybe... Oh well, none of that matters anymore.
By Julie Lacksonen11 months ago in Fiction
Punk Tactics
Everyone in the Belcher household was sectioned off and fixed on their individual tasks. The subtle creaks of an old house settling echoed through an empty hall. Bob and Linda sat quietly in the kitchen, wine glasses sweaty and half empty. Bob stares at the phone, in complete shock and disbelief.
By Dylan-Quinn Harris11 months ago in Fiction
Moon’s Gift to the Blind Girl
Elara’s world was not dark. People called her blind, but that was their word, born from their own fear of the absence of light. Her world was built of sound and scent and texture. The rough bark of the old oak was a story of strength. The scent of rain on dry earth was a complex symphony. But the one thing that remained an abstract concept was the Moon.
By Habibullah11 months ago in Fiction
The Window Everyone Forgets. AI-Generated.
When Rehan moved into the quiet hill cottage, he wasn’t looking for magic — only silence. After years of city noise, heartbreak, and a life that felt too heavy to carry, he wanted peace. The cottage was old, wrapped in moss and forgotten flowers. Locals told him it once belonged to a writer who disappeared without a trace.
By shakir hamid11 months ago in Fiction
