Microfiction

Necromancer's Neoteny. Top Story - October 2023. Content Warning.
"First you must give before you can take," Ganelon's words echoed in Ajax's eardrum. "You must loose so that you desire to regain."
By Thavien Yliaster3 years ago in Fiction
Grannie Annie. Content Warning.
This story is part of the Vocal + Assist on Facebook Unreliable Narrator Challenge. You can read more about it in the link embedded below:
By Mother Combs (Sharon)3 years ago in Fiction
Forehindsight
I see you, future self, with your eyes fixed on this moment. My moment. Analyzing the choice I am making to step left instead of right. My left hand points me this way with its pencil. A past voice rings in my ears: this is what we’ve always wanted. We’ve been led astray by logic and security. We’ve been on a jet black road for far too long. I want dirt and gravel. Bumps and grit. I want the entirety of this risk in my hands, gripped.
By Abby Seber3 years ago in Fiction
Lost Between Layers
The room shook. Around the center of the room stood a massive, cylindrical apparatus. Its edges gleamed in the artificial light. Coils of wire snaked from its base to the walls and ceiling. It produced an incessant hum that almost made one insane.
By Roy Huff3 years ago in Fiction
Kalamaalienation In The Hospitals 2
The scene in the hospital looked chaotic, the emergency waiting room swimming with patients. The hospital-infested Alien personnel just were having a conversation among themselves and pretending to look busy on the computer.
By Mariann Carroll3 years ago in Fiction
Patientdoctorese
Martha was smiling wide, her cheeks practically ripping at the seams. Her doctor was grinning right back. There was no cancer, and her body was back on track.
By Hope Martin3 years ago in Fiction
The Fridge. Top Story - October 2023. Content Warning.
Written for the Paul Stewart’s “Unnerve, Unsettle and Scare me” Challenge. Find all the details below. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
By Lamar Wiggins3 years ago in Fiction
Cheapening
"You're crazy Tim. Nobody designs products intentionally to fail. With the amount of competition out there it would be suicidal for any business. Why would anyone do that?" Tim lowered his head slightly and frowned, paused a moment to gather his thoughts, then replied. "Greed brother. You are so naive, think about it. How many tubes of caulk have you had to throw away and replace because after you used it once, there was no easy way to seal the tube back up, and it completely dried out? In Mexico every tube of caulk comes with a plastic replaceable cap, completely solves the problem at virtually zero cost. The exact same caulk in the States, no cap." Joe looked at Tim a look of obvious confusion on his face. "So?" "Without that cap the caulk dries out in the tube after one or two uses and needs to be replaced which sells more caulk. In Mexico the caulk never dries out, and the entire tube gets used. Less caulk is sold overall and a lot less waste. A win win for the consumer and the environment, but not as much profit for the caulk manufacturers. That is just one example out of hundred I could give you. So many technical problems related to storage and stability have been solved but solutions are never implemented because it means things last longer and so less of them are sold." Joe looked at Tim and smiled as he said "You are crazy man."
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Fiction
Populus
The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room. The once lush and vibrant landscape had become a vast expanse of desert, whose deep fissures etched their way through fractal plates of clay like stretch marks. They seemed to strain upward over the monolithic city walls, to grasp desperately at what scant enduring moisture might still be suspended in the cloudless sky. Perhaps she was projecting. The world had grown tough, in recent years, not to view through a colourless lens. Surface runoff from the nearby mountains, which the Architect had once redirected to flow through the citadel, had been exhausted ages ago… And rainfall had become a rare phenomenon that the Elder now recounted with reverent longing. Groundwater, drawn from aquifers deep beneath the city, had since served as their primary water supply; The majority of which was reserved for maintaining crops and livestock.
By J3 years ago in Fiction
Blackmail and Sinismoglio
Janice, be a dear and transcribe this piece out, please? And check to see if “Anaphoric Prosmonia” is taken as a clinical diagnosis? Needs a proper name, not that drivel the client babbled about. This could make me rich! No, I mean it could make US rich, of course! What do you mean you're putting this conversation in the official transcript too? Proof? Blackmail? Oooh, you stinker! Fine, I'll cut you in. Standard 60/40 split like usual. Yes, I'll pay you for the last time before you deliver this transcript, sheesh!
By Meredith Harmon3 years ago in Fiction
No, I'm Not Going To Kill You
For the first time since I launched us both from that damned office window, the little whiney fuckwit opens his mouth with something close enough to words for me to understand. Almost every syllable stuttering their way out as if he's having to drag them from some where deep inside his throat, "w-what do you-ou m-mean? Th-th-they're my p-people. W-why would th-they-"
By L.R3 years ago in Fiction
lassudol
He woke wiping rheum from his eyes and feeling that opening them was more labor than usual. Once managed, they did the easiest thing and fixed to the wall, closely examining the number of stipple marks on the ceiling. He thought to himself, what an interesting decision for landlords to paint with texture. It could only make their job harder between tenants.
By kp3 years ago in Fiction