Top Stories
New stories you'll love, handpicked for you by our team and updated daily.
Lucifer calls Home.. Top Story - April 2025.
Thunder roared and lightning split the sky. The phone line between Heaven and Hell is ringing. Every time that it thunders and storms, it is the attempt by 'The Prince of Darkness', Lucifer, Beelzebub or whichever name you prefer, to make a phone call to Heaven. How the conversation goes, decides the severity of the ensuing weather phenomenon.
By Antoni De'Leonabout a year ago in Fiction
The Breaks I Take. Top Story - April 2025.
They say the twenty-minute shower, the quiet drive with white noise on loop, the grocery run with a list half-remembered— these are our breaks. Tiny breaths between the cries, the diapers, the lullabies. And maybe they are. Maybe they’re not grand or luxurious, but sacred all the same. A moment not to escape, but to exist— as more than a mother, but still, always, one. I’ve read the comments, heard the pushback: “Those aren’t real breaks.” “We deserve more.” And I agree— but this is what I have. This is what I take. And I call it mine. Because my baby needs me— in ways that reach beyond logic. She won’t sleep without my warmth, won’t settle unless I’m near. And I love her for that. But it’s also why I hesitate. There’s a concert in a few months. A rare moment for me and my sister to reconnect. And still, I wonder if I’ll go. Not because I can’t— but because my baby might still be tethered to my heartbeat, still mapping her world by the sound of my voice. They say sleep training helps. But sometimes, it sounds like silence where there should be comfort. Like teaching her that I won’t always come. And maybe one day, she’ll need to learn that. But not today. Today, she is still small. Still learning what safe feels like. Still searching for me in every room she enters. Sometimes I feel guilty— that she won’t fall asleep alone, that I am always needed. That I can’t just hand her off without tears that echo in my chest. But I remind myself— she was never meant to do this alone. And neither was I. Still, I am told: “It’s okay to let her cry.” And I know that. I do. But crying isn’t just noise. It’s her first language. Her only way to say: Something doesn’t feel right. So I answer. Not always with perfection. But always with presence. To the mothers like me— who breastfeed on demand, who carry their babies close, who are told they’re doing it wrong— I see you. You’re not weak. You’re not spoiling. You’re not failing. You are honoring a connection so ancient, so sacred, it doesn’t need validation to be real. So yes, I take the breaks. I take the breath. I stand under hot water a little longer than I need to. I walk the grocery aisles like they’re quiet hallways in a house that belongs to only me. These are not everything. But they are something. And sometimes— something is enough.
By Carolina Borgesabout a year ago in Poets
The Assistant . Top Story - April 2025.
Millie I am very lucky to live in this world. Mama taught me that over and over again, when I was growing up. She’d tell me all kinds of stories about people who didn’t have as much as we did. And how they almost wiped out the entire race. But the Omegas swooped in at the last minute and brought peace. Which is why, even Timothy at school is mean to me, I have to be nice to him, because he’s a future Omega. She also tells me he’s mean to me because he likes me. But I think she just says that to make me laugh. Mama can be very silly sometimes. But Papa says that’s just how women are. Which means he probably thinks I’m silly too.
By Lane Burnsabout a year ago in Futurism
The Edge of Silence. Top Story - April 2025.
Alexi Petricov watched the Earth bleed light. From the cupola, the world was quiet. That was the first lie. A pale blue and green marble, innocent from up here. But he knew better. You didn’t get to survive Gulags of bureaucracy and Russian cosmodromes without learning how beauty could lie to your face.
By Ellie Hoovsabout a year ago in Horror
Diplomas Flambé. Runner-Up in 500 Word Shockwave Challenge. Top Story - April 2025.
Opening the old notebook, an aroma flutters from its pages: not mold, not dust, but love gone sour, the ripe odour of hate. Yet all its pages seem untouched, immaculate as unruffled snow, a virgin notebook. Then I glimpse his scrawl on a few pages in the middle. There’s the stench.
By Marie Wilsonabout a year ago in Fiction
Aspire Door. Top Story - April 2025.
Vanessa was making her way up Alex’s driveway while she looked up at the sky above her head. The sky was covered with dark clouds and what started off as a grey sky thick with the smell of approaching rain was now nearly black as the oncoming storm was only minutes away. “So the storm just had to make its appearance when I decided to come vent to Alex?” Vanessa thought to herself.
By Joe Pattersonabout a year ago in Fiction
The Life-Extending Conundrum Challenge Winners
Sometimes, pushing beyond the boundaries of mortality means unraveling more than just the secret of a longer life—it means venturing into new realms of identity, ethics, and unforeseen consequences. For this challenge, we asked you to conjure a world where science and speculative fiction collide, to imagine an invention so transformative it reshapes what it means to be human.
By Vocal Curation Teamabout a year ago in Resources
DollFace Anthem. Top Story - April 2025.
Note from the author: This is a local covers band from Laredo, TX. I have been following them for a few years now, and I wrote this piece for them, as their merchandise always refers to their followers as the "DollFace Drinking Team".
By Alex Torresabout a year ago in Beat
Medium is dying and they're sinking their pushing their writers away . Top Story - April 2025.
I used to write daily on Medium, and I took my Medium Partner Program earnings from $5 a month to $5000 in 2020/2021. I was living in Ghana, West Africa at the time, and this is life-changing money over there.
By Edina Jackson-Yussif --personal growth about a year ago in Journal
📢 Raise Your Voice Thread: 04/10/2025
Our “Raise Your Voice Threads” are hosted most alternating Thursdays at 12PM ET to offer creators more avenues to uncover exceptional stories on Vocal. As we are continuously searching for fresh creators and inspiring stories, this thread provides an opportunity to exchange and discuss the stories that have moved and motivated us on Vocal.
By Raise Your Voice by Vocalabout a year ago in Resources
How to Write a Horror Script . Top Story - April 2025.
Hello dear reader. What scares an audience? A filmmaker could concentrate on phobias centralized to certain groups of people. That would be one route to go. A much more Advantageous route to go would be the purely and simply sake of universal fears i.e. death, loss of loved one. Every story ever told can be broken down into a beginning a middle and an end. In a horror story think of it in these terms opening tragedy evil attacks and is it over.
By DJ Robbinsabout a year ago in Geeks
Final Review. Top Story - April 2025.
"I can't believe it. They think I'm losing it." My office mate, Bill, looked haggard. Of course, at the end of any given semester, we all do. But there was something haunted and a bit mad about his demeanor. He looked like he had just been told something was malignant.
By D. J. Reddallabout a year ago in Fiction
