Top Stories
New stories you'll love, handpicked for you by our team and updated daily.
Kiss Me When the Skies Turn Orange. Top Story - April 2024.
A/N: Thank you so much for the Top Story pick and all your lovely comments! I take a seat next to Martha on our patio, handing her an empty wineglass. I pour the most expensive Bordeaux we have into hers and mine. We're both in our best dresses. She has on a sparkling violet ball gown, the chiffon creating a poufy mess around her legs. I'm wearing my best gold wrap-around dress. We don't bother with shoes. What's a skeleton going to do with shoes?
By CT Idlehouse2 years ago in Fiction
Traveler's Choice. Top Story - April 2024.
One pale petal clings To my backpack. Pluck it, or Let it be our guest? ~~~~~ Appreciation to Hannah Moore for her generous invitation to step into her writing space and join the dance of the Renga. See her breath-catching first stanza, Yūgen.
By Sonia Heidi Unruh2 years ago in Poets
First Starlight of Summer. Top Story - April 2024.
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 years ago in Fiction
TICK TOCK . Top Story - April 2024.
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 years ago in Fiction
A New Beginning. Top Story - April 2024. 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 years ago in Fiction
Descent. Top Story - April 2024.
“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 years ago in Fiction
A Lifetime of Embarrassing Events. Top Story - April 2024.
Embarrassment or awkwardness is an emotional state associated with mild to severe discomfort. It usually happens when someone commits a socially unacceptable or frowned upon act witnessed by or revealed to others.
By Lizz Chambers2 years ago in Confessions
Heart and Bone. Second Place in Whispering Woods Challenge. Top Story - April 2024.
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 Lillard2 years ago in Fiction
Winds that Bind. Top Story - April 2024.
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 Rogers3 years ago in Fiction
Twisted Tale: Hansel & Gretel. Top Story - April 2024. 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. Where would she go? Where would she hide? How would she survive? All those thoughts ceased when she spotted a cottage. Relief washed over her. There was something very peculiar about this cottage, though. It was very colourful. As she got closer, she gasped. The cottage was made out of cakes and chocolates! She wanted to break off a piece of the window pane to see if the chocolate was real but decided against it. Instead, she knocked on the door. “Hello, is anyone home? I was wondering, are these real? Would it be okay for me to eat some?” The door slowly swung open to reveal a girl around the age of twelve. “Would you like to eat with us?” “Oh, that sounds absolutely delightful! I hope I’m not imposing. My name is Snow White. What’s yours?” “I’m Gretel and –”, she opened the door wider to reveal a boy, “– that’s my brother, Hansel. Only both of us live here.” “Oh my, you poor little things! Would it be okay if I stayed here and took care of you both? I can clean, I can cook –” Hansel interrupted her, “You don’t have to cook.” He pointed at the kitchen door. “You can go anywhere in this cottage except the kitchen. If you agree to that, you can stay with us.” Snow White found that weird but agreed as she was grateful to have a place to stay. ~~~~~ That night, Snow White heard noises from the kitchen. She thought there were intruders, so she went to check. She tried to open the kitchen door but it was locked. So she peeped through the keyhole and what she saw scarred her for life. Hansel pushed Gretel head first into the oven and lifted up her skirt. He then proceeded to pound her hard from the back. Snow White was horrified but still watched until both Hansel and Gretel reached a Happy Ending. The End. __________________________________________ Author's Notes: This story (366 words) was written for L.C. Schäfer's Fucked Up Fairytales Challenge. It takes place after Gretel pushed the witch into the oven and killed her but instead of returning to their cottage after that, Hansel and Gretel stayed in the witch's cottage. Snow White found this cottage instead of the Seven Dwarf's cottage.
By Dharrsheena Raja Segarran2 years ago in Fiction
