Top Stories
Stories in Fiction that you'll love, handpicked by our team.
Manslaughter - How to Get Away with It. Honorable Mention in The Unhappy Ending Challenge. Top Story - April 2026. Content Warning.
Lots of people die of sickness or old age. Some people are murdered, with pictures in the paper, court proceedings, and convictions.
By Ruth Stewart6 months ago in Fiction
Mystery of the Masked Men. Top Story - April 2026.
You would think that I would be used to loss by now. I was five years old February seventeenth, the day that two masked men, armed with assault rifles, entered the Free Citizens First Credit Union on the corner of First and Crimson. They subdued the guards and zip tied the bank manager to the bronze leg of Wilford Citizens, the bank’s founder, statue in the center of the lobby.
By Amos Glade6 months ago in Fiction
Fluidity. Runner-Up in The Unhappy Ending Challenge. Top Story - April 2026.
The liquid alloy implant invades the base of the skull, touring through the cerebrospinal fluid, colonizing, claiming the medulla oblongata, the cerebellum, back toward the thalamus, and up into the cerebral cortex until it goes where it's told. But before all this occurs, the extracted dose comes from a time-constrained chain of melting glaciers and heated reunion. Because of its origin, it traces a peculiar pattern, scientifically calling to life a future your body alone could not do on its own. After invading the skull, the dose moves at a pathetically glacial pace compared with the buckshot desire to live despite. Once implanted, that is, the dose comes under the mediation of machine time, which gives you plenty of ambivalence to call your own as you contemplate, in a phrase you’re robbed of the chance to abhor, "what might have been."
By Nicky Frankly6 months ago in Fiction
Nobody Wins. Top Story - April 2026.
Jack is a newspaper man, or an "ink stained wretch" as his uncle, also a newspaper man, used to refer to those in their profession. Before that, he was something else-something he didn't like being. He did bad things for bad people. Not as bad as most who did them, but worse than some. Certainly worse than you or I. It was a life he'd been trying to leave behind for a while now, but he chose the wrong career path for that. Now, he tiptoes the line between honest reporter and sold-out hack, but it's better than being dropped in the Alleghany with a lead weight tied to your ankles.
By Adam Diehl6 months ago in Fiction
Undone. Top Story - April 2026.
He told me I didn't have to be perfect. He said, "Just show up." Funny how I willingly believed that. Maybe funny isn't the correct word. I probably should have said, "sad." You most likely already know the story, that it's not going to end well for me and be outrageously embarrassing? But what I want to know is, was it all just a set up? Had he meant me to be humiliated? Was he just going to use me? Could a person truly be that cruel?
By Shirley Belk6 months ago in Fiction
Lucas/Mari. Runner-Up in The Unhappy Ending Challenge. Top Story - April 2026.
Lucas stumbled, grunting as his knee slammed into the hard dirt of the Durn Forest Hill path. He checked his pocket for the hundredth time, sighed in relief, then brushed at the dirt and grass staining his brown corduroys.
By Aaron Morrison6 months ago in Fiction
Speak My Mind. Top Story - April 2026.
If there is one thing I’m known for it’s never being afraid to say what’s on my mind. Granted, what I have to say may not make me a lot of friends, but those aren’t real friends anyway. A true friend listens to what you have to say, tries to look at things from your point of view, and then decides whether they agree with you or not. Either way, they remain your friend. At least that’s how I felt this whole friendship thing was supposed to work, but maybe I was wrong.
By Mark Gagnon6 months ago in Fiction
