Love
Knight & Day. Honorable Mention in Parallel Lives Challenge.
Roger had a very happy childhood. He was the youngest of four children, all children of Carl and Betty Knight. Sasha was only ten months older than him. She had been born prematurely but never let her smaller stature stop her from reaching her goals. Tommy was three years older than him and was believed to be the most athletic. Jackie, five years older, was considered the smartest — that is, until Roger came along. Don’t get me wrong. All four were very brilliant. Roger just seemed to catch on to things quicker than his older siblings.
By David E. Perry11 months ago in Fiction
The Girl by the Sea – Part 2. AI-Generated.
Ethan Cole thought he had mastered the art of vanishing—slipping through places without leaving a trace, never allowing roots to form. But ever since the morning he crossed paths with Amelia Hart, something within him had shifted, quietly and unwillingly. He found himself wandering back to the shoreline where she often sat, her presence lingering in the salt-stained air like a question he refused to answer. He told himself he didn’t care, that she was only a momentary distraction, yet his feet betrayed him, guiding him back to the very place he swore he would not return. Amelia stood once again at the water’s edge, sketchbook resting against her palm, her gaze drifting across the ocean with the softness of someone who believed in things he no longer did—hope, healing, the possibility of gentle endings. When he approached, she didn’t turn to him, yet she felt him, as one feels the first drop of rain before the storm. “You came back,” she said quietly. Ethan’s silence was not agreement, but it was not denial either. He looked at her drawing—the horizon, stretching farther than any man could run. “I don’t stay,” he murmured, almost to himself. “I don’t belong anywhere.”
By Yaseen khan11 months ago in Fiction
Tune Between Smiles
A soft tune, a quiet smile, and a story that feels like rain. He laughed at the mirror again, the kind of laugh that hides a thousand tiny worries. His morning coffee went cold, but he didn’t care. The city outside was loud, restless, alive. Inside, his heart hummed an offbeat melody that only she knew.
By MUHAMMAD SHAFIE11 months ago in Fiction
Stars Behind My Eyelids
I held my breath for what seemed like an eternity. As I clamped my eyelids shut, stars started to form in the darkness — kaleidoscopic and mesmerising. Everything slowed to a dreamlike drift, and my heartbeat’s rapidly escalating pace threatened to fling the swollen organ across the dancefloor.
By Paul Stewart11 months ago in Fiction
Hazel. Runner-Up in Parallel Lives Challenge. Top Story - October 2025.
In another world Hazel was dead. Arin knew because he threw up at her funeral. All over his shoes. The casket. The pretty flowers he used to grow for her. All of it covered in vomit like some last desecration of her beauty. Hazel should have been one of those untouchable things, a crystal figurine put up on the highest shelf and locked behind closed doors to avoid breaking.
By Silver Daux11 months ago in Fiction
Ashes of Yesterday
“Evelyn… is that really you?” Marcus squinted at the figure in the dimly lit café, unsure if his eyes were playing tricks on him. Time had sculpted her differently: the bright, audacious girl he once knew had vanished, replaced by someone quieter, more measured, yet undeniably familiar.
By Ethan Cole11 months ago in Fiction
Whispers Between the Pages
Chapter 1: The Attic Discovery It was the first rainy day of summer when 17-year-old Elara stumbled into the attic of her late grandmother’s house. The air smelled of cedar and old paper, the kind that seemed to whisper stories of the past. Among the dust-covered boxes and forgotten holiday decorations, a small leather-bound journal caught her eye.
By Ethan Cole11 months ago in Fiction
The Girl by the Sea – Part 1. AI-Generated.
The sun had barely risen over the small coastal town of Havenbrook, stretching soft golden light across silent streets and sleepy rooftops. Morning mist curled over the shoreline, wrapping the ocean in a gentle haze. It was here, at the jagged edge of town where land kissed the sea, that Amelia Hart often found herself—barefoot on damp sand, sketchbook in hand, searching for something she couldn’t quite name.
By Yaseen khan11 months ago in Fiction
The Keeper of Lost Things
The bell above the door of "Aeternum Clocks" didn't just jingle; it chimed a single, clear note that hung in the dust-moted air like a question. Elias, whose hands were as steady as his pendulum swings, didn't look up. He was calibrating the heart of a 19th-century longcase, his entire world narrowed to the tiny, relentless tick-tock.
By Waqas Ahmad11 months ago in Fiction
The Glass Bottle
Light remembers the hands that lift it. Every vessel dreams of return. It was the color that stopped her—green washed thin by sun and salt, the kind of green that once lived in antique windows or in the sea before a storm. She shaded her eyes with one hand, squinting against the glare. The wind pressed her shirt against her ribs, lifting and dropping the hem as if testing her balance. A few steps through the brittle grass, and the slope gave under her boots with a crunch like breaking shells.
By Rebecca A Hyde Gonzales11 months ago in Fiction
The Promise Beneath the Willow. AI-Generated.
The town of Meadowridge was quiet in all seasons, but especially in spring, when the old willow tree by the lake wore its green veil like a secret. It was there, under those cascading branches, that Mira first met Adeel—on a day scented with wildflowers and the sound of soft ripples kissing the shore.
By Yaseen khan11 months ago in Fiction
