Short Story
Home for the Holidys
Snow blanketed the winding road as Nora drove toward the old family estate, her hands tight on the wheel. She hadn’t been home in years, not since the screaming fights and slammed doors that marked her departure. But her mother’s voice on the phone—quivering, pleading—had cut through her resolve.
By V-Ink Stories9 months ago in Fiction
The Krampus Pact
Snow fell in soft, soundless flurries outside the Anderson family’s house, but inside, the air crackled with tension. Christmas Eve should have been joyous, but years of resentment had turned it into an annual battlefield. The family had gathered reluctantly—mother Janice, father Greg, their teenage daughter Holly, and her younger brother Max—but the holiday spirit was nowhere to be found.
By V-Ink Stories9 months ago in Fiction
The Boy Who Lost His Soul. Content Warning.
THE SEER’S RETRIEVAL: Archive 2025 "What follows is a work of Speculative Truth. Born from the analog grain of 1985 and developed in the high-definition suite of 2025, this story is a Sci-Fi frequency shift a narrative map of one mother’s journey to reclaim a lineage that the 'Hard Reality' tried to delete.
By Vicki Lawana Trusselli 9 months ago in Fiction
Foxglove Public Library . Runner-Up in Instructions Included Challenge. Top Story - December 2025.
First off, congratulations! You have been selected for this position as overnight library security based off your unique qualifications, indomitable spirit, and impressive mental fortitude. We would like to offer you a few instructions and helpful tips to make your first and future shifts here as smooth and easy as possible. Read thoroughly and keep this sheet on you at all times. The last thing you want is for the shadows in the corner of the breakroom to find it. Once again, welcome to the team!
By M. A. Mehan 9 months ago in Fiction
Missed Message
Krisiera ran hard, feet kicking up clods of dirt as she sped across the hillside, breath coming in ragged gasps. She clutched the wooden tube containing the message tightly in her right hand as though it were a baton she would pass off on the track. Her pulse raced within her no matter how much she tried to even out her breathing. This wasn’t a leisurely jog, this wasn’t training. This was real.
By Phoenixica249 months ago in Fiction
Don't Open the Door. Runner-Up in Instructions Included Challenge. Top Story - December 2025.
Wakey, wakey! Congratulations! You're alive! That's more than most people can say right now. That's the good news. Here's the bad news: pulling through them injuries was the easy part. If you're reading this, it prolly means something's happened to me, and I can't take care of you or the other survivors no more.
By Tyler Clark9 months ago in Fiction
From Beyond Our Sky What Is it
From Beyond Our Sky What Is It This image has been circulating online, and it immediately pulls you in. That long, cigar shaped object drifting silently through space doesn’t look like the comets we grew up seeing in books or documentaries. According to what’s being shared, it’s known as 3I or ATLAS, an interstellar object making a close pass by Earth, and scientists say it has already pushed them to rethink what they believed about comets in a very short space of time.
By ♿ V+ Marie381Uk 9 months ago in Fiction
Beneath the Unsaid
A night of anonymity. A kiss that ruined the rules. A silence that changed everything. Aliyah Berman lives by control. As a trusted executive assistant, she has mastered professionalism, distance, and restraint. Feelings don’t belong in boardrooms. Desire doesn’t belong in offices. Until one night on a balcony with a stranger makes her forget every rule she’s ever lived by. Days later, Lucien Larsson walks into her office as her new CEO. The tension between them simmers beneath every professional exchange—glances held too long, words chosen too carefully, boundaries tested in silence. Aliyah refuses to crack. Lucien refuses to look away. What neither of them expects is how deeply one night can echo… or how secrets have a way of surfacing when least expected.
By Courina Buchanan9 months ago in Fiction
5 Minute Fiction: Ring
Snow fell from the deep gray sky. Huge flakes alighted on branches and coated the sidewalk. I stood gazing up at the dense clouds and patches where the starlight shined through. The cold bit at my exposed fingertips but didn’t hurt enough to persuade me to go back inside. Beyond the muffled televisions and thrilled shrieks of children, the sighs of cars over the damp pavement, and the distant hum of caroling was the silence I craved.
By Valerie Taylor9 months ago in Fiction
