Microfiction

Twenty-Six Seconds
Earth sighs. Pulses. An ancient, subtle rhythm, unbearable in its slowness. tick tock Baffled scientists puzzle over it, scratching their heads over their seismometers, and counting her waves. Something to do with volcanoes, some say. Others shake their heads and theorise that Earth herself lives, and has a heartbeat at her core. Far beneath the Gulf of Guinea, the truth sleeps. Embers purr in her throat. Sometimes, she turns, rock-like muscles shifting and rippling. Scales groan. Far above, the scientists nod, and measure the creaking of tectonic plates.
By L.C. Schäfer2 years ago in Fiction
The Voicemail from My Future
I froze as the screen flickered to life. It was 2:17 AM—the middle of the night when nothing good ever happens. My phone lay on the nightstand, face‑down and locked. I’d forgotten all about it until the vibration roused me from a half‑dream. Bleary‑eyed, I flipped it over. One new notification: a voicemail from an unknown number.
By Naaike2 years ago in Fiction
The Café Where You Can Order Someone Else’s Memories
"First Kiss" (1997) – $12 (Notes of cherry cola and nervous sweat) "Last Summer Before College" (2009) – $15 (Hints of sunscreen and recklessness)
By Wiki Rjm2 years ago in Fiction
Exploring. Content Warning.
All Archie wanted was to be an explorer. Space held infinite discoveries in the black star-speckled miles stretching before him.
By Rachel Deeming2 years ago in Fiction
Go Fly A Kite!
For Mikeydred's April Challenge Anger is a kite---it must be tethered. Michelle Liew 🎏🪁🎈🪁🎏🎏🪁🎈🪁🎏🎏🪁🎈🪁🎏🎏🪁🎈🎏🪁🎈🪁🎏
By Michelle Liew Tsui-Lin2 years ago in Fiction
The Breathing Package. AI-Generated.
I stared at the brown paper package on the table, cold sweat trickling down my spine. There was no sender's information, no shipping label—just my name scrawled in dark red ink. What was even more eerie was that the package pulsed slightly, like a living heart, as if something trapped inside was struggling to get out.
By Mr.kong2 years ago in Fiction
"Beginning-Endings" Unofficial Writing Challenge. Top Story - April 2025.
Welp, it's all in title: I am very excited to announce the kicking off of another unofficial challenge! I will be blathering on about the inspiration for this and such for a few paragraphs- so if you just want to get straight to the details of the challenge itself, feel free to skip down to the section in bold. No hard feelings, life can get busy. :)
By Gabriel Huizenga2 years ago in Fiction
Scientists detect signature of life on a distant planet, study suggests
A team of astronomers have detected what they call the most promising signs to date of a possible biosignature, or signs of past or present life linked to biological activity, on an exoplanet named K2-18b. But the study authors, and other experts, remain cautious and have not declared a definitive discovery of life beyond our planet.
By Reehanul Islam2 years ago in Fiction
Mary had a little lamb
The chapel was gone. In its place, a field of ash stretched into the gray horizon—windless, breathless, still. Mary stood at the center, her palms glowing faintly, threads of golden light weaving from her fingers into the sky. Ash knelt beside her, quiet, reverent. Sebastian… lay collapsed. His body was no longer shifting. He was no longer transforming. The wool had peeled away entirely now. His hooves were hands. His face—delicate, human, eerily angelic—stared up at her with wide, black eyes filled not with hatred… but fear. Not for her. For himself. Mary stepped toward him, her voice hoarse. “Who were you… before?” Sebastian shook his head. Ash, watching silently, finally spoke: “He wasn’t always this. You deserve to know what they did.” And then the world began to remember. The Real Origin of Sebastian It began in the village of Vehl, nestled in a valley choked with superstition. Sebastian had been a boy no older than six when the rains stopped falling. The crops died. The livestock were born deformed. The sky turned a sickly yellow. The elders, drunk on fear and desperation, demanded a reason. A scapegoat. And they found one in him. A child too kind. Too quiet. With hair like bleached snow and eyes that unsettled the priests. A child who had been there—present—when the mayor’s daughter went missing. What no one cared to remember was that Sebastian had tried to save her. He’d followed the scream into the woods. He’d found her doll in a bush. He’d run to the village, gasping, sobbing, begging someone to help. But by the time they arrived, the girl was gone. And the doll—soaked in blood—was still clutched in his hands. The real killer stood behind the crowd that night, expression calm, face smeared with holy ash. Elias, the herbalist’s son. Seventeen. Jealous. Clever. He had found the Tome of the Devourer by accident—buried beneath his grandfather’s floorboards. He never meant to use it. Until he saw the boy with the snow-hair smiling too brightly, too innocently. He planted the evidence. He told the priests. He showed them the cursed book. He whispered, “The child is a vessel. The demon has entered through his birth.” The ritual began on the night of a blood moon. Sebastian’s mother did not stop them. His father looked away. He was dragged from his home barefoot, crying, trying to hold his brother’s hand. But no one reached back. They stripped him naked in the village square. They painted his chest with runes that burned on contact. They broke his toys and scattered them around the circle, muttering that no soul could remain attached to “worldly tethers.” And then they cut off his tongue. To prevent the demon from “whispering.” He didn’t scream. He couldn’t. But his eyes—those impossible, dark eyes—watched them all. When they chanted the incantation, the air twisted. Time buckled. Something answered. But not the way they hoped. Instead of banishing darkness—they poured it into him. Sebastian had never been a demon. But the ritual made him one. It cored out his heart. It poured in sorrow, confusion, rage. It stitched the wool into his skin. It closed his voice forever. It made him immortal. And very, very alone. The ritual ended. The child slumped forward. And the villagers cheered, blind to what they had truly done. For centuries, Sebastian wandered. At first, silent. Confused. A lamb with hollow eyes and blood on his hooves. He did not remember being a boy. But he felt the betrayal. The pain became his compass. The hunger, his company. Until he met Mary. She had picked him up from the field, just as the villagers once dragged him away. She held him. Fed him. Named him. She did not know what he was. And for the first time in centuries, Sebastian felt warmth. But warmth, twisted through torment, becomes obsession. Back in the Present
By E. hasan2 years ago in Fiction
The Wisdom Of Nature
Introduction I saw this picture shared by The Enchanted Booklet and thought it deserved a story. Obviously, this is an illustration of an original story, but this is my take on what I see in the picture.
By Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred 2 years ago in Fiction
The Cursed World of Time
El Nino is walking around in a rather indifferent manner. Various thoughts are running through his head. The year is 2136. The world is very modern. While walking, he gets on the railway tracks. Security is also quite advanced. It can be said that there are no problems. Nino's is a scientist; he has permission to enter everywhere. He can stay on the railway tracks even when the train is running, because the system knows that scientists do not make mistakes. Anyway, Nino's is walking around in a carefree manner. Suddenly he notices - a train has come. It has come very close! He is looking at the train with wide eyes. Thinking that death is certain, he closes his eyes. He takes a deep breath and gasps. In addition to the sound of the train and the smell of the engine, another smell comes to his nose. He is so scared that he cannot move his feet from the railway tracks. He thinks to himself - this is how his life will end!
By Arfan Raihen2 years ago in Fiction
OpenAI Flex API in 2025: A Game-Changer for Budget-Friendly AI Usage
If you’ve been looking for ways to reduce your AI infrastructure costs without sacrificing too much performance, you’ll want to pay attention to OpenAI’s latest breakthrough in 2025—the Flex API. Designed for low-priority, high-volume AI tasks, this flexible pricing tier is ushering in a new era of smart, cost-efficient model deployment.
By Sakibul Islam Sakib2 years ago in Fiction