Top Stories
New stories you'll love, handpicked for you by our team and updated daily.
Introducing Saved Stories and Homepage Story Feed
Community is the heart of Vocal, and today we are excited to introduce some new updates that are all about supporting each other, fostering deeper connections and relationships, and improving your reading experience.
By Justin @ Vocal2 years ago in Resources
Distant shores. Top Story - June 2024.
The entire city felt the heatwave break in the night, as did the birds. The gulls started to pick up despite the hour; closer to morning than evening. Sheets lay unused on the floor, tossed from the bed so as not to touch her skin as it sweltered. Languidly she migrated from the bed to the window, draping herself on the thick ledge and letting the cool air melt over her naked body. A sigh of relief escaped her.
By Skye Moffett2 years ago in Fiction
The AI Attack on Humanity. Top Story - June 2024.
This dream haunted me for years. It seemed like I couldn't go not even one night without this same dream. Sometimes, something new would happen but the little boy was always with me. I still cannot figure out who he was. Perhaps he was my son in a past life?
By Julie Sykes-Stull2 years ago in Fiction
Travel Snaps Challenge Winners
Travel changes us — if we let its lessons in. It’s possible to wander the world, even to take pictures, with our eyes as good as closed, never opening to the new self that a new place might make of us. So many of the entries to our Travel Snaps challenge were by creators who really wanted to look at the world, and themselves, anew. They were all inspiring to read — and to see, because photography was an important part of this competition. To us, the ‘quality’ of the photographs wasn’t the point; it was that these images were yours. It was a reminder of how much more that can mean — certainly when it comes to personal essays — than widely available or AI images. We really loved seeing these snaps.
By Vocal Curation Team2 years ago in Resources
Paralysis. Top Story - June 2024.
She was there. Like she always had been, as if she were created immediately following the big bang. Waiting for him. Her long brown hair twisted and danced wildly in the lack of gravity. She was hauntingly beautiful, but her face was a look of terror and desperation. She mouthed wordless shouts, Ron only could assume she was yelling by the way the veins bulged in her neck.
By Jordan Flynn2 years ago in Fiction
A Bridge Among the Flowers. Top Story - June 2024.
To my dear and beautiful granddaughter, I've needed to write this letter to you for a long time now. I just didn't have the words. I'm not sure if I even do now. But this is my feeble attempt. Forgive me if I don't use the proper pronoun or gender when I am referring to the "you" that I know and love. I'm new at this and still very confused in my "Boomer-ness." I think you already know that I am having a difficult time wrapping my head around these concepts. But it doesn't minimize my love and adoration for you.
By Shirley Belk2 years ago in Pride
Crocodile clouds . Top Story - June 2024.
Sometimes Clouds at night look like crocodiles or maybe it's a dragon again visiting the sky and saying my name out loud into the night to fade away into a dream and dive back to its air consistency and water drops disappearing in each thoughts!
By Antea Lumina Kala Matylda 2 years ago in Poets
The Swimming Pool. Top Story - June 2024.
Clementine watched the sun swaying like a drunken dancer from the bottom of her parents' swimming pool. It was July: the slow, gold-colored time when the heat felt mean spirited, and the air felt thick with possibility. If she focused, she could hear the neighbor mowing his lawn. She could hear the drone of the cicadas and cars passing her parent's house on Magnolia Avenue, lent an almost otherworldly quality by the chlorinated water filling her ears. Clementine checked her watch. Seven minutes. She should have lost consciousness by now.
By Daniel Bradbury2 years ago in Horror
Dead Asleep. Top Story - June 2024.
At 23, I moved out of my parents’ old house, finally on my own, free. Even though I was moving into a tiny studio apartment, the euphoria of escaping that oppressive house was liberating. The strange experiences and nightmares my sister Eva and I had painfully endured as children in that house faded into the past; after her funeral, I suspected it had something to do with those nightmares. I never wanted to go through that again.
By Barb Dukeman2 years ago in Horror
Dog Thirteen. Top Story - June 2024.
Dog Thirteen June 4, 2023 Today was different. To be fair, all days are different now that I am a new dog. Every day I seem to be able to do something new- open my eyes, stand up, hobble around, wag my tail. Every day I get stronger and more comfortable in this body. It’s not bad, being a dog. Not so far, at least. I never have to go hungry, although we are feeding from our mother less and less and trying new foods that come out of a bag and a can. It’s a mixture. I wish I could tell the humans that I prefer the food from the can. I try to show them by picking out the kibble pieces and spitting them onto the ground, but they just laugh and think I am being cute. That feels frustrating, to not be understood. But I cannot stay mad for too long because the humans pick me up and pet my head and body and it makes me feel happy inside, and now that I know how to wag my tail, I try to do that a lot.
By Morgan Longford2 years ago in Chapters
