Love
The Waiting Room of Snow
“The room would keep her secrets, but the words would travel with me.” I did not come to Amherst only to see a house. I came because my mother is gone, and poetry is the only way I still hear her voice. Emily Dickinson’s lines were her language of comfort, the words she sent to steady me in my struggles, the playful refrains she spoke when I felt unseen. Two years have passed since she left this world, yet when I read Dickinson, it is my mother who answers. So I came here, to the Homestead, to step into the silence where her voice and Emily’s still meet.
By Rebecca A Hyde Gonzales12 months ago in Fiction
The Last Analog Sound
The world hummed in perfect G-sharp. Elara had checked. The transport pods, the auto-servers in the food hall, even the gentle hiss of the climate control in her sterile, white living cube—all were tuned to the Global Standard Note, a frequency scientifically proven to promote calm and productivity. It was a world perfected, polished, and utterly predictable. And Elara, a Level 3 Archivist at the Global Sound Archive, was beginning to hate it.
By Pir Ashfaq Ahmad12 months ago in Fiction
The Silence of Oris – Part 1
Eric had always found the ocean comforting—until the night it answered back. He was thirty-two, a marine acoustic technician stationed at the remote research facility of Blackwater Bay. His work involved mapping sonar disturbances, tracking whales, and documenting the sounds rising from the dark Atlantic shelf. It was quiet, lonely work, but after the death of his sister two years ago, loneliness had become a tolerable companion.
By Shehzad Anjum12 months ago in Fiction
Whispers Beneath the Old Oak
The old oak tree had been standing in the town square for generations. People carved their names into its bark, lovers left promises beneath its branches, children played in its shade. For Lily, it wasn’t just a tree—it was where she had met James, one warm summer afternoon ten years ago.
By Mahboob Khan12 months ago in Fiction
The Last Letter in the Drawer
Emma never thought love would come quietly. She used to imagine it would be loud, like fireworks, or at least dramatic enough to sweep her off her feet. But the evening she met Daniel, there were no fireworks. Just a bookstore, the smell of old paper, and a stranger with kind eyes who asked if she had ever read the novel he was holding.
By Mahboob Khan12 months ago in Fiction
The Fruits of Labour
The breeze blowing in from the sea chilled her skin. Slipping out of her bed, Marissa closed the shutters and draped her naked body in a soft woollen shawl. She glanced back at him: sound asleep, at peace with the prospects of sunshine and mornings, his bronze skin glowed against the white linen. She bit her lip, then turned away and headed for the garden.
By Call Me Les12 months ago in Fiction
The Forest of the Forgotten
The Council of Shadows met in the hollow of an ancient oak tree so massive that its interior could house a dozen people comfortably. Amnity had been here only twice before—once when she'd first been recognized as a healer worthy of official notice, and once when she'd requested permission to gather rare ingredients from the protected groves. Both times, the experience had left her feeling small and overwhelmed by the weight of tradition and authority that seemed to seep from the very walls.
By Parsley Rose 12 months ago in Fiction
Poppi's Secret
They were so excited to be moving into their first home. Diane had inherited this wonderful old colonial from her grandfather who had passed away last November. She had loved Poppi more than anyone in her life and was delighted he remembered how much she loved this old house.
By Barbara Gode Wiles12 months ago in Fiction
