Fantasy

The Sudden Stop
Thump. It wasn’t a loud sound. Not compared to the roar of the engine or the crash of thunder that had been threatening all night. It was dull. Heavy. Final. A sound that didn’t belong to the rhythm of the drive. It was the sound of something solid meeting something fragile, and winning.
By Mark Lim 2 months ago in Fiction
The Geometry of a Lie
A memory. It wasn’t a big one. Not like the abuse, or the breakup, or the nights spent coordinating secrets for people who paid me to forget their names. It was small. Quiet. Almost insignificant. But it was the first brick in the wall I would spend the next decade building around myself.
By Mark Lim 2 months ago in Fiction
The Graveyard of Better Options
A dream that died years ago. It didn’t die with a bang. There was no dramatic confrontation, no tearful farewell, no cinematic moment where the music swelled and the credits rolled. It died in silence, somewhere between the signing of an NDA and the deposit of a wire transfer. It died in the sterile hotel suites where I coordinated arrangements for people who treated human connection as a commodity. It died in the quiet arrogance of my own mind when I looked at the love I had built over nine years and decided it wasn’t enough.
By Mark Lim 2 months ago in Fiction
Chapter 39: interpretation of her love
Hey this is your girl Cara again. I am used to writing stuffs out for zombies and ‘Letters by now and honestly it feels kinda weird like relief to be there for my friends. I am a human woman but still. It’s rare. Rare to find such good friends. I miss Indigo ever since she ran away from our group and I know I’m not the only one.
By Melissa Ingoldsby2 months ago in Fiction
The Inevitable Horizon
It always was. The loneliness. The silence. The weight of my own choices. They weren’t new arrivals, unexpected guests who had kicked down the door of my life in a moment of crisis. They had been there all along, sitting quietly in the corner of the room, waiting for me to stop distracting myself long enough to notice them.
By Mark Lim 2 months ago in Fiction
The Ghost in the Passenger Seat
The only sound was the hum of the engine and the occasional hiss of tires against wet pavement. My eyes stayed fixed on the road ahead, but my mind was somewhere else.
By Mark Lim 2 months ago in Fiction
Small Changes
Flying with my sisters offered me the greatest sense of peace and freedom. Serenity in the slipstream as we hunted and gathered for our tribe. As idyllic a life as one could hope for. The climate was temperate, with a glowing yellow sun beaming down on us, lifting our spirits and easing any aches and stiffness in our muscles.
By Paul Stewart2 months ago in Fiction
The Honesty of the Void
Silence didn’t lie. People lie. They lie with their words, certainly smooth, polished sentences designed to soothe, to deceive, to protect, or to manipulate. But they also lie with their eyes, which dart away when the truth becomes too heavy to hold. They lie with their hands, which reach out in comfort, while their minds are already calculating the exit strategy. They lie with their silence, too, the heavy, judgmental quiet that says I am disappointed in you without ever uttering a syllable.
By Mark Lim 2 months ago in Fiction
The Empty Sky
I used to believe they would save me. It wasn’t a conscious belief, not at first. It was a reflex, a biological imperative wired into the soft, vulnerable parts of my childhood brain. When the floorboards creaked in the hallway, I didn’t reach for a weapon; I waited for footsteps that weren’t there. When the shadows lengthened in the corner of my room, I didn’t turn on the light; I waited for a hand to push them back. I believed in the architecture of safety. I believed that if I was good enough, quiet enough, small enough, the universe would eventually send someone to stand between me and the dark.
By Mark Lim 2 months ago in Fiction
Echoes in the Concrete
I used to believe they could save anyone. That was the foundational myth of the Corps. It was the promise painted in bright, primary colors on the sides of the recruitment buses, the lie whispered in the sterile, air-conditioned halls of the Academy. They showed us the highlight reels. The miraculous pulls from the swollen monsoon drains. The impossible climbs up the glass facades of the financial district. They made us believe that if you were fast enough, strong enough, and pure enough of heart, you could cheat the city’s weight.
By Mark Lim 2 months ago in Fiction
The Velocity of Silence
My hands tightened around the steering wheel as my car cut through the empty road. The radio was off. I preferred the silence.
By Mark Lim 2 months ago in Fiction
The Summer Festival That Came Back in Winter
The first fireworks appeared on December 18. I know because I was standing outside the convenience store at 10:43 p.m., holding a bag of instant noodles and wondering whether I was too tired to cook.
By Takashi Nagaya2 months ago in Fiction