Short Fictions - Short Édition - page 6 - all works

Short Fiction

Slice of Life 3 min Mature Audience

I Ain't Your Mama

Mrs Wallace had to jaywalk to make the bus, which was about to pull away. It wasn't easy. She was overweight and her left knee, which hadn't been feeling so good of late, felt spongey. Breathing ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life 2 min Mature Audience

Waiting for Another Train

Mark William Butler

There he was, waiting for another train. He was so sick of the subways. Always late. Dirty. Noisy. Flying maniac kids dancing for dollars. Bad musicians. Endless panhandlers. And the so-called ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Portrait 4 min Mature Audience

Wildfire

Patrick Kuklinski

We weren't quite yet old enough for a high school reunion, and not quite close enough to become Facebook friends or follow each other on Twitter. And yet, here we were. Jack had been one of my best ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Slice of Life 1 min

The Identification of Bears

Betsy Cornelius

"Do you like Sunshine Bear?"

Becca scowls down at her white shirt emblazoned with a smiling bear—at the long, bony finger inches away from her skinny chest.

"It's Funshine Bear," she says. She ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Love & Loss 2 min

Masks

Hugh J. O'Donnell

The day after the election, he carved a mask.
The day after that, he carved another.
It had never been more than a hobby; a craft passed down to him by his grandfather, who carved and painted all ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait 2 min Mature Audience

The Guerrillas' Rucksacks

Donna Lee Miele

Within a few weeks of her escape, the girl outgrew her only dress and had nothing to wear. Trying not to make a fuss, I gave her something of mine. She thanked me. She looked so ashamed. That she, a ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Nostalgia Magical Realism 4 min

The Story Tree

Rachel Dievendorf

When I was a kid, I was very nervous about what I would be when I grew up. It honestly consumed me. I was constantly trying new things so I could see what felt right. At seven years old, I begged my ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Portrait 3 min

Four-Leaf Clover

Peter Wallace

The four-leaf clover should not have been there, caught in Esteban's hair. It was a surprise there was any clover at all. The cows had already been through twice that week, pulling at the remnants of ... [+]

Short Fiction

Joy Romance Slice of Life 4 min

Freefall

Angela Teagardner

The wind was sharper this close to the water. Hands trembling, Astrid hurried to zip her jacket before the ride operator checked her seatbelt. She wished her tremors had more to do with the chill in ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Modern Love 5 min

Perhaps Under Different Circumstances

Sonia Weiser

Anna knew the bridge was a mistake before she and Henry even got there. Maybe it was because he had said he thought it was strange for full grown adults to interrupt a conversation to swoon over an ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Portrait 3 min

Channel Five

Nathan Alling Long

"Are you scared?" I ask Dad over the phone.
"What do I have to be scared about?" he says. "We're locked in our rooms."
He's always been tough like that, stoic, but I wish I could see his face, hug ... [+]

Short Fiction

Quirky Magical Realism 3 min Mature Audience

Heavenly Rapture!

Dylan Brown

The sun struck my eyes as I rubbed the sleep off them. I stretched and yawned and felt the air. The little hairs on the back of my neck stood up straight. I couldn't help but smile because deep inside ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Historical 2 min Mature Audience

Night Walk

Mountain Nose

I ignored him until he throttled down. That was not normal.

It was a pleasant night, but an hour after curfew. City lights from Saigon to the east turned the dark a velvety purple, and the sweet ... [+]

Short Fiction

Absurd Humor 4 min Mature Audience

Cost of Living

Joel Shoemaker

Joe's knuckles bled, the result of inflation.
Tonya was some sort of greedy little Tinker Bell wannabe. She even had the wings to go along with it. She wore them every single day. The whole idiotic ... [+]

Short Fiction

Humor Suspense & Mystery 5 min

Chifir

Jesse Richmond

A hand emerged from the darkness and placed a steaming mug—Greg's favorite mug—on the table.
"Drink."
"What is this?" Greg demanded, starting to rise from his chair. "You can't—"
He'd barely moved ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Modern Love Love & Loss 3 min Mature Audience

Moondust

Lysander Champion

The night before Jen touched down on Earth, I was holed up in Rachel's bedroom in Houston. We had both made a valiant, fruitless effort to sleep; now it was three in the morning. Sometime around one ... [+]

Short Fiction

Slice of Life Nostalgia Portrait 2 min

Couch

Jared Levy

My dad came home from work and sat on the black leather couch in the living room. He always sat in the same spot. He always looked tired. Every night went the same: first work, then couch until the ... [+]

Short Fiction

Humor Modern Love 4 min

PrinceMatch

AJ Rocca

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess who was stolen by a terrible necromancer. He and his rotting, clanking horde abducted her from the palace gardens and carried her away and away until ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait 4 min Mature Audience

All the Spiders

Floris M. Kleijne

Colonel Mathura beckons me forward, but the balcony is a maw with a balustrade of marble teeth. The crowd devours me with their cheers. I shuffle forward to be consumed by their support. The midday ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait Nostalgia Love & Loss 5 min

A Bunch of Early Mimosas

Emil Draitser

"So, you're happy, huh?" he says in disbelief.

He asks me this question several times during our two-hour get-together, trying to understand how I could feel so much happier about my life than he ... [+]

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

I Ain't Your Mama

Waiting for Another Train

Wildfire

The Identification of Bears

Masks

The Guerrillas' Rucksacks

The Story Tree

Four-Leaf Clover

Freefall

Perhaps Under Different Circumstances

Channel Five

Heavenly Rapture!

Night Walk

Cost of Living

Chifir

Moondust

Couch

PrinceMatch

All the Spiders

A Bunch of Early Mimosas