Short Fictions - Short Édition - page 1 - all works

Short Fiction

2 min

Money Machines

We were poor, but hopeful. Two students on scholarships without parental support, dreaming of bright futures. We had not known wealth as children, and our poverty did not oppress us. We married ou ... [+]

Short Fiction

The Last Quagga

Mahaila Smith

I woke up before you, looking down at your peaceful, sleeping face. You were curled into me, your breaths warm against my collarbone. I wanted to lean down and kiss you, but you needed the rest.
I ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sci-Fi & Fantasy 5 min

Payment in Kind

Ian Li

Lana grinned upon hearing the cawing of her door chimes. Her days had grown dull with regularly scheduled client meetings, so she relished the thrill of unexpected guests. She tossed aside he ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sci-Fi & Fantasy 1 min

37.4 Hours Before My Brother's Execution

Nico Martinez Nocito

One electric pulse can instantly suppress ten thousand digital signs, so before the protest begins, we scrounge for cardboard and cover it with bright colors and wild slogans. I tie the balaclava ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Nostalgia 2 min

Transported

Ed Teja

I found exactly what we needed, as it happened, on a Friday. It was a strange Friday, even as Fridays go. But we won't go into that. And I didn't like going out in all that snow, walking through it ... [+]

Short Fiction

Suspense & Mystery 4 min Mature Audience

Cave Party

T.L. Tomljanovic

The Cheese Grater scrapes my bare arms and legs. I squeeze through the limestone crevice and my skin goose pimples. Sucking in a breath, I exhale steam. It's a muggy, hot September, but the caves are ... [+]

Short Fiction

Magical Realism 5 min

If You Have an Orange to Spare

Tunvey Mou

Of the myriad of things my grandmother was afraid of, the actual spirit that haunted the orange tree in our backyard was shockingly not one of them. All of my friends and family had had terrifying ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait 5 min

Crookedness

Yvette Saenz

One of the first things my mom did after we found out that I'd gotten in was search online for a winter coat for me. She saved money and bought me a beautiful Cabela's coat. It was full-length with a ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sci-Fi & Fantasy 4 min

Watchdog

J. Millard Simpson

Tonight, like most nights, James Shelby woke in the small hours and listened to the silence.

He pulled on his robe, went to the kitchen, and made tea.

Moving quietly so as to not disturb the ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance Sci-Fi & Fantasy 4 min Mature Audience

Roping in the Wind

Ej Sidle

Olivier Brossard had been hanging men for the best part of a decade, and he'd never seen the rope break. It wasn't uncommon for folk to try, usually magicians spitting fire and brimstone as they ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Love & Loss 4 min Mature Audience

Finding Hope

Corrie Haldane

My wife went to bed fifteen days ago, and she's been there ever since.
We came home from the hospital dazed and empty-handed. Eleanor climbed the stairs, rushed past the freshly painted second ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sci-Fi & Fantasy 3 min

Moonmouse

S.L. Harris

We brought them with us accidentally, or maybe they were secret smuggled pets for someone who worried they might get lonely. They'd've been right to worry: it's really lonely on the moon.
Howeve ... [+]

Short Fiction

Magical Realism Sorrow Love & Loss 4 min

Across the Board of Time

Heather Santo

Lena walked through the soccer field and to the edge of the woods. The large oak greeted her, outstretched branches bursting green with the early spring. "Hello," she said, patting its trunk. She ... [+]

Short Fiction

Love & Loss Sorrow 5 min Mature Audience

For Always and Forever

Briana Angulo

You never know when the last goodbye is. We think we have forever until suddenly we don't. We enter with purpose and leave with only memory. I wish I had seen the battle he was fighting before it ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance 3 min

Hope

Suandri Esterhuizen

Hope is the killer that perches in the soul and slowly hacks away at the heart and never stops at all.
I met her while working for the university newspaper. She was an aspiring journalist, and I ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait 5 min

Quicksand Street

M. Morton

We call it Quicksand Street, despite what the road signs say. Where the sidewalks should be, two long columns of dirt reside, that kick up dust in the summertime. In the spring, when the rain really ... [+]

Short Fiction

Suspense & Mystery 5 min Mature Audience

Old Age Blues

Joe Giordano

It was Yolkov who bought Hanna's ticket on the overnight flight from Warsaw to JFK. Hair streaked with gray, she wore the blue dress purchased on sale for eighteen dollars.
"Better to fly late ... [+]

Short Fiction

Love & Loss Nostalgia 2 min

Dreams on the interstate of forests and mountains

Henrietta Mosforth

The house takes a day to dismantle. Goodwill gets the furniture. Meghan sets a ground rule for the rest: George is allowed three seconds to decide where each thing should go: in the car (to be driven ... [+]

Short Fiction

Quirky Sci-Fi & Fantasy 3 min Mature Audience

Therapy

Brittany Story

"It happened again," Myriam said, as she entered the room. "I screwed up. I'm sorry." She collapsed on the couch, head in her hands. "I just wanted a sip. I thought I had a handle on this ... [+]

Short Fiction

Magical Realism 4 min

Lago das Estrelas

Catherine Tavares

In the springtime, after the clouds of winter and before the storms of summer, when the skies were clear and the waters still, Abel went star-catching. The other villagers thought him daft, of course ... [+]

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

Money Machines

The Last Quagga

Payment in Kind

37.4 Hours Before My Brother's Execution

Transported

Cave Party

If You Have an Orange to Spare

Crookedness

Watchdog

Roping in the Wind

Finding Hope

Moonmouse

Across the Board of Time

For Always and Forever

Hope

Quicksand Street

Old Age Blues

Dreams on the interstate of forests and mountains

Therapy

Lago das Estrelas