Suspense - page 1 - short circuit

Short Fiction

Suspense & Mystery 4 min Mature Audience

Cave Party

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

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

Suspense & Mystery Love & Loss Sorrow 5 min Mature Audience

What Happened That Night

P.A. Cornell

Josh is gone, but I see him everywhere. Even now, it's his reflection I see in the puddle as the storm brings me back to reality. I shiver. Seems I'm always cold these days. I need to get my shit ... [+]

Short Fiction

Suspense & Mystery 3 min

Night of the Strawman

Edward Yatscoff

I had to have it.
It waited for me in the night as I summoned courage.
Soon, it would be my trophy.
The scarecrow stood, a stark silhouette against the light from a rear window ... [+]

Short Fiction

Suspense & Mystery 3 min

The Brick House

Joseph Testa

Every time I walked by the house it haunted me. The run-down brick house at the top of a hill, window frames rotting, trim crusted with flaked paint. It showed no evidence of life, no evidence of ... [+]

Short Fiction

Suspense & Mystery Quirky 2 min Mature Audience

Ghost Writers

Martha Witt

There's a relief that comes with revealing things down to their minutiae; small gasps of relief make space in the bedroom for the proverbial elephant. I do have a good husband. He's the kind that does ... [+]

Short Fiction

Suspense & Mystery Portrait 1 min

The Sweet Striper

Rolli .

The children don't understand.

The sweets they pine for are not squeezed from the machine with stripes intact. No—they must be painted on, by hand, with so much care. It is almost unimaginable, the ... [+]

Short Fiction

Suspense & Mystery Sorrow 1 min Mature Audience

For Seven Years

Thomas Elson

Each morning his face flushed as he remembered the boy's words, "I want that shovel. It's just like yours." And each morning he fell to his knees, extended his arms, then plunged his hands into the ... [+]

Short Fiction

Suspense & Mystery Slice of Life 4 min Mature Audience

Echoes

Floris M. Kleijne

"You didn't invite them in, did you, Sheila?"
Grandfather Jessup clasped my biceps in his feeble grip and searched my face, worry akin to fear darkening his eyes. I patted his liver-stained hand and ... [+]

Short Fiction

Suspense & Mystery Slice of Life 1 min Mature Audience

Summer of 1985

Thea Pueschel

The cool breeze drifts in from the Pacific Ocean through the banana plant leaves. Shadows dance across the pastel pallet of the bedspread; the charcoal nude woman looks over her shoulder. Jesus ... [+]

Short Fiction

Suspense & Mystery Portrait 4 min Mature Audience

Butterflies

J.T. Hamilton

Seven-year-old Isabella Thompson pressed her hands into the cool, moist dirt of her grandfather's garden. She peeled away the surface like an old scab. Beneath, a reddish-brown earthworm squirmed – ... [+]

Short Fiction

Suspense & Mystery Sci-Fi & Fantasy 3 min

Bespoke

Shawn Bailey

In the movies, it's always an invasion. Us against them. And they've got tech that far surpasses ours. We fight in the streets and a ragtag group finds a weak spot that the advanced beings have ... [+]

Short Fiction

Suspense & Mystery Sci-Fi & Fantasy 5 min

Castrapitheca - City of the Ape

Peter Hankins

To call this elegant metropolis "The City of the Ape" does it a considerable disservice, but it is impossible to avoid. Every time we speak of something being as old as the Ape, we reaffirm the ... [+]

Short Fiction

Suspense & Mystery 5 min

The Tiger Talk

Stephen Hundley

Royals Primary has the second grade corralled into the gym.
"What you want to do," I tell the kids, "is draw a mask that looks a lot like your face. As close as you can get it, except we're going ... [+]

Short Fiction

Suspense & Mystery Portrait Nostalgia 5 min

Glacial Motion

Seymour Aab

August brought with it a new easy-swallow scheme by a new self-improvement mentor. Luna Rojas had measured out her life with the likes of them – detoxes, spiritual awakenings, fad diets. She craved ... [+]

Short Fiction

Suspense & Mystery Quirky Absurd 5 min

Delicious

Megan Hart

Jess was only ten when the first pods washed up on the shore. She'd been standing with her toes dug into the sand, letting the cold Atlantic Ocean swirl around her ankles, daring herself to venture ... [+]

Short Fiction

Suspense & Mystery Sci-Fi & Fantasy 2 min Mature Audience

When No Cats are Gray

Deborah L. Davitt

Through the weeping household stalked a small black cat—just past kittenhood, and more gamine than gangly. She darted past the skirts of a grieving wife as the woman buried her face in a ... [+]

Short Fiction

Suspense & Mystery Slice of Life 2 min

Man on the Doorstep

Georgia Morandi

There was a man on the doorstep, all leatherette shoes and easy iron trousers. When I say doorstep I mean the pavement between the threshold and the hazard lines of a busy junction.

His head, too ... [+]

Short Fiction

Suspense & Mystery Sorrow 4 min Mature Audience

Truth, Justice, and the American Way

Cathy Tenzo

Once you become visible, it's hard to disappear into the shadows again, but Hank White was doing his level best. His life depended on it. People looked right through you when you were flipping ... [+]

Short Fiction

Suspense & Mystery Slice of Life 1 min

The Brighter Light

David Drury

I was chasing my little brother through the park at dusk. The whole park was filled with restless families waiting for the fireworks to start. My brother halted in his grass-stained diaper. "God ... [+]

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

Cave Party

Old Age Blues

What Happened That Night

Night of the Strawman

The Brick House

Ghost Writers

The Sweet Striper

For Seven Years

Echoes

Summer of 1985

Butterflies

Bespoke

Castrapitheca - City of the Ape

The Tiger Talk

Glacial Motion

Delicious

When No Cats are Gray

Man on the Doorstep

Truth, Justice, and the American Way

The Brighter Light