Top Stories
Stories in Fiction that you’ll love, handpicked by our team.
First Starlight of Summer
Your whole being is constituted by yearning. You miss the stars but have never seen a fully-realized night sky sparkle to life before your eyes. You write things, funny but short but profound, emulating the archaic cosmos that turns by its own unknowable calculus emulating love in all its celestial glory turning in that same cryptic way, but fully know neither and hardly know both, and it feels disingenuous, so you write about writers. It feels vaguely masturbatory, but it’s funny but short but profound and it impresses the people around you enough, so you run with it forever until you can’t anymore.
By Steven Christopher McKnight2 months ago in Fiction
TICK TOCK
11.59. Even though the glass had shattered, Lorna could still see that her watch ticked over. One minute until midnight. Her watch was the only thing she had that she could carry. The only thing to remember her parents by. A birthday present from last year, the year she turned seventeen.
By Elizabeth Butler2 months ago in Fiction
A New Beginning. Content Warning.
Tony couldn’t sit still, crossing and uncrossing his legs, trying to calm his trembling hands as Clara stood at the office window deep in thought. The airline ticket in his shirt pocket moved to the beat of his heart¬– each beat bringing back the nightmare causing memories of the words he’d spoken over ten years ago. Thanks to Clara he’d finally gained the courage to buy that ticket.
By Gerald Holmes2 months ago in Fiction
Descent
“60 seconds.” Aris tightened her grip on the overhead handhold. The troop transport shook like a leaf in a windstorm as it battled through the atmosphere. Dim lights flickered on and off as the ship’s systems were battered by pelting rain and narrowly dodged blasts from laser cannons on the surface of the planet.
By M. A. Mehan 2 months ago in Fiction
Heart and Bone. Second Place in Whispering Woods Challenge.
Worst. Birthday. Ever. Thirteen was supposed to be exciting. A time of beginnings, endings. A rite of passage, a door to individuality and maturity. She was supposed to be surrounded by friends and family, not alone in the mud on the forest floor. Well, she was not entirely alone; there was the voice. That almost made it worse.
By Scott C Lillard3 months ago in Fiction
Winds that Bind
Under an iron sky, a silver-leafed dragon holds the key to peace. A hailstorm of burning of the Frellian force’s unceasing rage slams against the Golden Dome. Each impact forces the wavy currents of hazy, golden air to scatter erratically for a moment before returning to their perpetual breeze. Each impact fuels my urge to run, but leaving would only ensure the fate I wish to avoid. Licking flames dance just outside the protective haze, like worshipers before the Great Khal during ceremony. The fires closest to the dome burn the brightest. Stacks and stacks of bodies, the men, women, and children from lesser castes, field workers and farmhands who couldn’t afford city life pile against the translucent golden wall. The surprise assault afforded little time to evacuate from the countryside and into the city. Charred hands reach and beg for sanctuary, the guilt of survival is heavy against my soul. Even in death, they worship the Great Khal, the only one who may grant their entrance to the afterlife, their God King, their supposed protector. If he falls, the souls of Marowar are forfeit, destined to wander listless wastes of the grey. They will be nothing more than experiments, playthings for the devious Frellian shamans to tinker with --- a fate far worse than death.
By Keb Rogers6 months ago in Fiction
Twisted Tale: Hansel & Gretel. Content Warning.
“Go! Go into the woods and never come back! The Queen would have you killed by someone else, even if I don’t do it!” The Huntsman’s words kept ringing in Snow White’s ears as she ran haphazardly through the woods.
By Dharrsheena Raja Segarran3 months ago in Fiction