Short Fictions - Short Édition - page 13 - all works

Short Fiction

Sorrow Portrait 5 min Mature Audience

My Father the Somniloquist

My father was a somniloquist; he only talked to me in his sleep. Lured at night by his one-sided conversation one room over, I would escape the cot I'd grown out of, gaze at my sleeping mother, and ... [+]

Short Fiction

Magical Realism Suspense & Mystery 3 min Mature Audience

In a Handful of Dust

Laurence Raphael Brothers

A witch wind was howling out in the desert. I was praying for a storm to scour Coaling Depot 6 down to the ground, wipe it right off the Arizona Territory map. Apart from prayer, I still had a shot ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Portrait Magical Realism 2 min Mature Audience

Francis Valencia Ortiz

Martin Hill Ortiz

For all his life, Frank had been at war with the willows. They sprouted in and around the stream, clogged the irrigation ditches, and choked off the water flow.
His land, a narrow plain between ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Portrait 4 min Mature Audience

Displaced

Sarah Blake

When they first moved in, the forest was big and lush behind the apartment building. It was the entire view through the kitchen window, standing at the sink washing dishes. Birds were often in the ... [+]

Short Fiction

Humor Romance Absurd 5 min Mature Audience

Stop

Conall Walsh

Of the over 5,000 numbers in the English language, it is the number 14 alone that has come to hold a special place in my heart. I'm not a superstitious woman, or a woman at all for that matter. I am ... [+]

Short Fiction

Nostalgia Portrait 2 min Mature Audience

Chekhov, the Old Man, the Seagull and the Crab

Mark Budman

The old man is watching a seagull eviscerating a crab. The decapod crustacean probably was handsome in his youth but not any longer. Does he wish he could scream? Or is it better to be stoic and ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Suspense & Mystery 5 min Mature Audience

When the Door Is Blue

Koji A. Dae

The second house on the left. If the door is blue, you're welcome. Red, you've come too early. Green, too late.

The meaningless chant comes to me whole. I can't remember where I've heard it, but ... [+]

Short Fiction

Humor Portrait Absurd 2 min

Leaving

Gillian Rolfe

Freddie left the red and white cannon at speed. He whizzed over the open-mouthed crowd in a graceful crescent arc and was quite frankly bored, bored, bored.

The large frayed net loomed up, saggy ... [+]

Short Fiction

Absurd Suspense & Mystery 2 min Mature Audience

Double-Edged

S. Qiouyi Lu

"I killed a man before, you know."

It's 3:12 pm, an awkward time for us to be preparing food. I'm not sure if we're making a late lunch, an early dinner, or just afternoon tea. I've been ... [+]

Short Fiction

Humor Modern Love Absurd 5 min Mature Audience

Ecdysis

Peter Ott

"Yeah," Darius said into the phone as Jessica, the receptionist, made no attempt to disguise her eavesdropping. "I just finished the work-trade shift and will take a class with Hannah. After, I'll ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Portrait 3 min Mature Audience

The Pugilist in Repose on His Porch, Most Sundays

Christopher X. Ryan

The moments of lucidity were rarer and rarer, but when they came, he regaled me with tales of swallowed teeth, basement brawls, and AIDS tests administered at midnight in ramshackle midtown health ... [+]

Short Fiction

Humor Quirky Absurd 4 min Mature Audience

Hair Today

Ty Fi

Randall stood before his bathroom mirror – gazing at the enormous, glistening dome that was his head. Creams, lotions, infused oils, battery-powered skull caps; he had deployed them all in his ... [+]

Short Fiction

Magical Realism Suspense & Mystery 4 min Mature Audience

Things with Permanence

Diane Callahan

My husband's nose changed first—a nearly imperceptible spot-the-difference puzzle on a face I'd known for twenty-two years. Through our kitchen's bay windows, the morning sunlight highlighted his ... [+]

Short Fiction

Nostalgia Portrait 5 min

Borrowed Memories

Julie Meier

Mamma always had a love for other people's possessions.
One of my earliest memories is walking to the park, my hand firmly tucked into hers. I was an impulsive child, and likely would have darted ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance Historical 5 min

Bread and Iron

Adriana Kantcheva

We are simple people. For us, fulfillment comes from hammering a piece of iron into a useful shape; from plowing the black soil for the new crop; from kneading the dough for the bread we all need ... [+]

Short Fiction

Humor Absurd Young Adult 4 min

You Give Me Butterflies

Makaila Keyes

There's nothing I love more than eating. Mmm, yes. Fat Boy loves a good meal. I enjoy the crunch, the squish, even the quietest sizzles as I grind every little particle between my molars. I cherish ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Portrait 5 min Mature Audience

Swimming Lessons

Rachel Malmin

The liftoff is like an elevator.

You know that feeling you get when you're going up? Like your stomach is getting left behind? It feels like that. Remember when we were kids and we were staying ... [+]

Short Fiction

Humor Quirky Portrait 5 min

Chimera

Nicholas Perilli

A woman who claimed to be a chimera called the library most Tuesdays, on the old line they never got around to disconnecting after the renovations. The call went straight to a yellowed phone hung on ... [+]

Short Fiction

Sorrow Portrait Magical Realism 3 min Mature Audience

Blueberry and Sky

Jessica Normile

There is no cheerful clatter of pans, or old Beatles records spinning in the living room. No warm cinnamon smell fills the air – only burnt coffee. For a moment, I'm half expecting Papa to swoop me ... [+]

Short Fiction

Quirky Portrait 3 min Mature Audience

Fred Is (Not) an Arsonist

Nathan Alling Long

Fred is an arsonist—and, Fred is not an arsonist. Let me explain: Fred has thought of fire, its power and grace, for a long time. Perhaps since he was a child. He often watched fires, mesmerized by ... [+]

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

My Father the Somniloquist

In a Handful of Dust

Francis Valencia Ortiz

Displaced

Stop

Chekhov, the Old Man, the Seagull and the Crab

When the Door Is Blue

Leaving

Double-Edged

Ecdysis

The Pugilist in Repose on His Porch, Most Sundays

Hair Today

Things with Permanence

Borrowed Memories

Bread and Iron

You Give Me Butterflies

Swimming Lessons

Chimera

Blueberry and Sky

Fred Is (Not) an Arsonist