Short Story
Silent Shadows.
The first time Clara noticed the shadows moving on their own, it was dusk. She had been sitting in her grandmother’s old house, a place that smelled of cedar and memories, tucked into the folds of a small New England town. Her grandmother had passed away two weeks prior, leaving Clara as the sole heir to the house. It wasn’t much by modern standards—creaking floors, a roof that leaked in autumn storms, and drafty windows that whined at night—but it had history, a kind of pulse that felt alive.
By Muhammad Ilyasabout a year ago in Fiction
Vanilla, cont'd
I have no idea what I'm doing! I'm so nervous. Ian was fairly attractive, for what it's worth. Neat hair, clear skin, generous lips. I could see it, objectively, but I didn't fancy him. "Shall we have a drink?" I burbled. "Jac! Make sure everyone has drinks, and put some music on!" This was where he shone; the menial, "could you just" tasks. I could trust him with those. While he was busy serving, I seized the opportunity to speak with Rita, and clutched it like a shield. If not Rita, then Ian, and Ian was already fairly drunk. Maybe he expected to, oh I don't know, dive straight into us baring our breasts, or having our buttocks grabbed. It wasn't unreasonable to want to warm up to that a bit, was it? A drink or two, a bit of conversation? How did these evenings usually go? I leaned close to speak softly, so that Ian couldn't hear. Asking if she was ok, tucking a stray blonde wisp behind her ear. She flinched away from my touch. I wanted to catch at her hand, pat it or squeeze it for reassurance, but her knuckles looked shinier and more cracked than ever. I rested a palm on her shoulder instead. "Rita," I spoke as gently as I could manage. "Try to relax a little. You're quite safe." I gave her an encouraging smile and moved in to her husband, who was already quite a way down the measure of whiskey in his glass. Well done Jac. I couldn't put it off any longer, and I moved to speak with her husband. Up close, I was eevn surer that I didn't fancy him. He leaned towards me, and those lips I'd thought looked soft, now looked wet and slimy. The smile I'd thought handsome was a leer. "I do love a woman in red," he said. "Did she tell you?" His eyes barely grazed his wife, and lurched back to me. "She wants to please you, you know," I said. "She wants you to be happy." "Oh I'm pretty happy," his grin was cartoonishly lopsided now, and it made him look untrustworthy. He looked like he was about to say Well looky what we have here... He took another swig of his drink, and I offered him a top up.
By L.C. Schäferabout a year ago in Fiction
Waiting Place. Runner-Up in Everything Looks Better From Far Away Challenge. Content Warning.
They let us see the stars before we go under. Let us spend a few "days" wandering around in the grey, lifeless ship and look out at the universe. A few people always break a little, just a little.
By Alexander McEvoyabout a year ago in Fiction
Perfect From Afar. Runner-Up in Everything Looks Better From Far Away Challenge. Top Story - August 2025.
“Let’s just try it,” Mark said, looking again at the old car up ahead. ‘Old’ and ‘car’ didn’t quite capture the wreck of it. A 1940’s Chevy 2 door, the kind of hotrod you saw in surf movies twenty years after and sixty years ago. This one even had 2 surfboards on the roof, fins up, like a fancy haircut. Time and the sun, salt and humidity, had not been kind. Technically a car was for moving; this one had served as a billboard for the Crayfish Diner until it closed.
By Bernard Bleskeabout a year ago in Fiction
The Legend of the London iBus
They say that one day Apple decided to conquer not only phones and laptops, but also… London buses. And thus appeared the iBus — the world’s first “smart transport” that decides on its own whom to take and whom to leave behind at the stop.
By Professor Victoria about a year ago in Fiction
A Letter Between Us
The small town of Willow Creek was the kind of place where everyone knew everyone’s business, where streets were lined with familiar faces and the rhythm of life moved slowly. Emma had always loved the quiet comfort of the town, but as she stood by her mailbox, clutching a folded piece of paper in her hand, she felt an unfamiliar nervousness. Today, she was sending a letter to Alex—her oldest friend, someone who had been by her side since childhood.
By arsalan ahmadabout a year ago in Fiction
The Circuit of Aether. AI-Generated.
The city of Luthra shimmered against the twilight, its towers rising like crystal spires stitched with veins of glowing circuitry. From afar, it looked like a constellation fallen onto the earth, every rune-etched street pulsing with soft light as data and mana flowed together through the same conduits. In Luthra, magic and technology were one and the same; people called it Arcanatech.
By Ai.Pendrakeabout a year ago in Fiction
The Golden Diary
The attic had always been a forbidden place in the house. Dusty, dim, and filled with relics that no one cared about anymore, it seemed like a graveyard of forgotten objects. Yet, one late afternoon, curiosity pulled Zara toward it. The wooden stairs creaked beneath her feet, as though warning her to turn back. But she didn’t. Something in her heart told her that there was a story hidden there, waiting for her.
By Vocal Member about a year ago in Fiction
