Short Story

The Potion
Pew Eponos was having a wonderful dream. Until he wasn’t. He was rudely plucked from his imaginings (of enjoying some goddamn peace and quiet), and thrust into the musty, dung-scented world of consciousness. His ears picked up on the trill of furious clucking around the same time as he felt a creature’s foul little beak peck him directly in the eye. He flailed his arms (damn they felt awfully heavy today), and waved them erratically, shooing the feathered vermin away.
By Alyssa Cheriseabout a year ago in Fiction
The Labyrinth of Ketu
The silence was surreal. After hours of rhythmic drums rattling her bones, heavy woodsmoke choking her lungs, and nearly fifty people passing her around like a doll, Sonia was exhausted. The ritual was finally over.
By Alyssa Cheriseabout a year ago in Fiction
The Axe and the Egg
I’m not used to running for my life. I crash through the woods, trying not to trip over my feet in the dark. My breaths come out ragged and my thighs burn with exhaustion. Slung over one shoulder is a bag containing all that remains of my possessions. Tucked safely under my arm is a golden Faberge egg, ridiculous in its opulence and heavy with encrusted jewels. This egg is my ticket to freedom, to a new life.
By Alyssa Cheriseabout a year ago in Fiction
Starting Over Part 4
Ella hadn't seen Rio in a week. David had tried to send her flowers but they remained on the porch and withered away. Ella went over and knocked on Rio's door softly; three times a day she did. Rio never even cracked the door a bit or looked out of the windows. Ella could only hope that Rio was taking care of herself. David went to Ella's house every day that week to ensure Ella was taking care of herself.
By Samantha J.about a year ago in Fiction
The Porch Between Us. Honorable Mention in Leave the Light On Challenge. Top Story - August 2025.
The moment the Sun disappeared beyond the horizon I took my usual place on the porch swing. It was that day of the year again.
By Imola Tóthabout a year ago in Fiction
The Genesis Incident . Runner-Up in Leave the Light On Challenge. Content Warning.
Exhibit A; The Genesis Incident The following is a transcript of a 911 call placed on Saturday, April 7th, 2012 in Teller County, Colorado.
By Emma McWilliamsabout a year ago in Fiction
Through a Window
I was sound asleep when a small noise from my window woke me. tap, tap, tick, tick. What on earth was that annoying noise? Was it raining? It was too inconsistent to be rain. I huddled closer to the wall, not knowing what that noise was, maybe it was just a bird. yes, tell yourself it is just a bird. Woodpecker maybe. When suddenly my window rattled, I carefully peered from underneath my covers. Oh, it was just Sam standing on the roof of the house. What the hell, how did he get up here? I walk over and open it up.
By Adrianna M. Braunabout a year ago in Fiction
Dining Out. Runner-Up in Leave the Light On Challenge.
I can remember the exact moment when I realised that my dad was a bad man. It's not a nice place to be at any time of life but as a young kid, it's the worst, I think, because you don't really have the analytical tools to deal with it, tools that, over time, you've gathered and honed with the experience of living. Then you can craft it, whatever it is - the disappointment, the betrayal, the fear, or all of these things combined - into something manageable, that you can look at, at least, and live with.
By Rachel Deemingabout a year ago in Fiction
Reckoning
I've one night to set right what was done to my family. One night to take the pound of flesh that's been owed. To my left and my right stand my brother and sister. Three wounded souls who thought this night would never come.
By The Invisible Writerabout a year ago in Fiction
The Fever That Came at Midnight
The night of Aug 1st started with a slight fever round eight p.M. On a quiet Thursday night time. The sort in which a faint layer of sweat beads across your forehead with out a clear cause or motive. I didn’t pay a great deal interest. Following my traditional nightly ordinary, I still had things to do: iron my garments, take the canine out one last time, and make lunch for day after today. The lasagna at paintings’s cafeteria turned into delicious, but at nine bucks a serving, it was a luxury I couldn’t manage to pay for. With the equal 9 bucks, I could buy enough pasta to remaining the week. That, mixed with the money I burned at the strip club every Friday, meant i was constantly locating myself inside the pink. Budgeting turned into in no way certainly one of my robust factors. When I opened the fridge, i was greeted by using its typical chaotic mess — one of the many shameless conduct of a bachelor. I reached for one of my favorites: a chilly Heineken. That’s once I noticed the twitch in my proper hand. It started small — only a faint tremor — but as my hands closed across the bottle, the twitch grew into a violent shake. Seismic spasms rattled the glass till the label blurred into an unreadable smear. Happily, I hadn’t opened it but. I grabbed my proper wrist with my left hand, hoping to regular it. Miraculously, the touch by myself stopped it. Right away. Bizarre. I shrugged it off. Probably too much caffeine. Or maybe just exhaustion. If I desired to be dramatic, perhaps even a slight stroke. Through eleven p.M., although, the sweat had returned in complete pressure, soaking into my shirt collar. I didn’t have time to be ill — now not with an vital task due the next day that required me to expose up in character. I stored my paintings, minimized the Excel chart, and headed closer to the bathroom. Really, there had to be a few expired bloodless remedy in there somewhere. I not often were given unwell, however I always stored the basics on hand. That’s once I heard it. From the kitchen. A unmarried, planned clink. Like a tumbler bottle being set down gently at the counter. I froze. Benny — my canine — become nonetheless asleep inside the nook of the sofa. My upstairs friends had been quiet this night. The sound had come from my kitchen. I became slowly, my frame heavy from the fever, but something between curiosity and dread pulled me in the direction of the kitchen. The fridge door was extensive open. And at the counter sat the identical Heineken I’d grabbed earlier — but now, the cap turned into off. Droplets of condensation slid lazily down the glass. I picked it up. It become nonetheless ice cold. However the second it touched my lips, i finished. The beer turned into flat. Completely dead. As though it have been sitting out for hours. A sit back labored its manner down my backbone. Benny turned into wakeful now, status together with his ears up and his eyes fixed on the kitchen doorway. A low growl rumbled from his throat. I accompanied his gaze — and that’s once I noticed it. A shadow. No longer mine. It stretched unnaturally across the linoleum, long and bent in ways a human body couldn’t bend. It moved — slowly, deliberately — like it became identifying something. My right hand began shaking once more, more difficult this time. I grabbed it with my left, but the tremor unfold — up my arm, throughout my shoulders, down my spine. My entire frame quaked like something internal me wanted out. The fever spiked. My skin burned. My respiratory grew ragged. Sweat poured into my eyes, however I couldn’t look away. The shadow moved nearer. Benny barked once — sharp and loud — then whimpered and bolted down the hallway. The shadow reached the threshold of the dwelling room carpet. And then — The whole thing stopped. The shaking ended. The fever vanished. The room went nonetheless and bloodless. The fridge door become closed. The counter become empty. I stayed frozen on the sofa, my eyes locked at the kitchen doorway. My heart thudded in my chest. I told myself it changed into simply the fever. Just a hallucination. By the point morning mild filtered into the condo, I almost believed it. I felt high-quality — higher than nice. No fever, no tremor. I laughed at myself for letting my imagination run wild. Until I walked into the kitchen. The refrigerator door turned into open once more. And internal, sitting on the middle shelf, was a perfectly chilled Heineken — its label warped and unreadable — shaking ever so slightly, as even though something inner it become alive… and ready.
By Janalamabout a year ago in Fiction
Lost but Not Alone
Undulating through the crystal blue water, Bubbles spun and tumbled. She couldn’t help but giggle as a school of rainbow gillpies flittered by. Their scales tickled the bare bronze skin on her arms and neck. Her sunset-hued, locked tresses hid a few stragglers. A few hundred yards away, Bubbles spied a disturbance on the surface. Ever curious, she kicked her tails and quickly approached the vessels.
By K.B. Silver about a year ago in Fiction
The Girl in the Yellow Raincoat
The rain had a way of swallowing the city whole — smearing headlights into liquid fire, turning strangers into shadows. Evan was halfway across Pine Street when he saw her.
By MUHAMMAD BILALabout a year ago in Fiction