Short Story
The Room I Refused to Remember
For most of my life, I’ve been annoyingly good at avoidance. Not the fun kind, like dodging responsibilities for a weekend getaway, but the subtle, deep-rooted kind, pushing memories into corners until they shrivel into something shapeless and quiet.
By Aarsh Malik10 months ago in Fiction
The Room No One Enters
The taint of death lingered, even after every physical remnant had been cleaned away. Floors could be scrubbed and disinfected, carpets replaced, tiles and boards scoured, bodies removed... but the feeling remained. An odd miasma of horror, shock and bone-deep grief, tinged with the knowledge that no human had set foot in the room in years.
By Natasja Rose10 months ago in Fiction
The Watchmaker’s Silence
The shop smelled of dust and old oil. It was a comfortable smell. It was the scent of patience. Elias sat behind his heavy wooden counter. He wore a thick leather apron that had seen better days. The walls around him were filled with clocks. There were tall clocks that stood on the floor like soldiers. There were small clocks that sat on shelves. There were round clocks and square clocks.
By Muhammad Adil10 months ago in Fiction
How the Conflict Nearly Escalated into Full War
How the Conflict Nearly Escalated into Full War For years, the region had lived under a cautious balance—an invisible thread of pressure between Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. Diplomats called it “controlled tension,” generals called it “the edge,” and civilians prayed it would never snap. But last week, the impossible nearly happened. For seventeen hours, the region stood just one wrong move away from a full three-front war.
By Wings of Time 10 months ago in Fiction
The Horse That Mattered
Since I usually spent the first week of August moping about, when I whistled on my way to breakfast, my Aunt Fern knew something was up. I sat down at the kitchen table with a smile. She smiled back, kissed my cheek and passed me a bowl of oatmeal and a glass of orange juice.
By Call Me Les10 months ago in Fiction
The Ballads of Trees. Top Story - March 2024.
~*~ Between Here and There lay a mixed-woods forest. Of an age unknown, its existence was wedged between sandy fields of tobacco, deer filled plains and a sheer drop into a meandering river with which it battled daily to hold its ground.
By Call Me Les10 months ago in Fiction
Symbiotic: Chapter 6
The second Constrictor’s body scraped against stone as it entered, eyes glinting in the dim light. Sara gripped her punch dagger, her bat laying on the ground beside her where she had dropped it, but the cave was too narrow, the walls too close. There was no room for wide arc swings, no space for the Power Swing that had saved her so many times.
By Canyon Cappola (TheNomad)10 months ago in Fiction
The Last Boy Speaking
A middle school boy named George Warren is tired, angry lovesick and wanting to get out of eighth grade. He is beginning to grow tired of his sometimes rude, mad and ignoring twin brother Julius. His older sister is his favorite sibling but he hadn’t seen or spoken to her in over a year.
By Forest Green10 months ago in Fiction
A Gravedigger’s Musings
Rich people, poor people, highly influential individuals, and those who have been ignored their entire lives, I see them all eventually. A white person is covered with the same dirt as the black person resting on his left and the yellow person resting on his right, or the brown person lying by his head and yes, even the red person by his feet. In my job, all people are truly created equal. It is also true that after the grieving relatives and well-wishing friends leave, never to be seen again, everyone left behind in the dirt is treated exactly the same, because they are.
By Mark Gagnon10 months ago in Fiction
