A New Kind of Literary Pulse

Home
Logo Button Fiction - Spring 2019
Short Fiction
 2 min

Nothing is nothing

Whisperingsmith

My good man, how much for that nothing?

Sir, that nothing is VERY expensive.

I’ll take it!

Sir, I mean no disrespect, but I am certain you cannot afford this nothing. Perhaps I ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

A Girl In Disguise

tiff

I quickly walk into the Amal School for Children, with my mother’s words on repeat in my head, “The quicker you get inside the school, Zahara, the better.” I make my way to the back row of desks. With ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

The tipping point

waterfallwriter

I could feel the panic soaring in my body. Mustering all the courage I could pluck up, I soldiered on across the hallway with my head bent down, wary of making eye contact with him. Every second was a ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 3 min

ReWorld

Gary

The thing you need to understand right off the bat is: this isn’t real. The world you and I live in. We’re in the Re-World, we’re on the do-over planet. For the Bretz, it’s a nasty world, that real ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 1 min

Let us blaze

Freya Morris

I'm burning. It started with a whiff. Everywhere I went people said ‘What's burning? Can you smell that? Something's burning.' And I caught it. It wasn't like cigarette smoke. It tasted like burnt ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

The Girl from Cape Loneless

Fab Caleffi

Take heed, dear heart...
William Shakespeare

The last shining sun, flyin' over the sea, is going to celebrate a spectacular sunset at Cape Loneless. On the seaside, at the sand, a Gorgeous ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 3 min

High Heels

csh

She walks on high heels, her eyes cast down, determined, oh so firmly, to do the right thing. Her dress is ironed, and even though short, it nicely swings around her beautiful legs with each step and ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 1 min

Hide and seek

Cila Warncke

Sixty-seven, sixty-eight... she’d be under the bed, shoving shoe boxes and scraps of clothing out of the way. Trying to make space. Trying to be smaller.

Seventy-two, seventy-three. Or she’d be ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

One Cigarette a Day Man

Chelsea Reede

Each day he wakes hungry and makes his way to the crossroads, where he holds a sign that says:
I’m hungry
anything helps
God bless.

People driving by give him their leftovers, hand him ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 1 min

One Puff of a Pipe

blb

Why JP called his whippet “En-soi” was never known. He explained why he, an amateur, pollarded his own ash trees into terrified stumps, why he broke up with the woman in the gypsy skirt and, more ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

The story of a perfect moment

Amanda Boucher

It has been a long day for all of them. Mo sits back in his armchair. The sky is filled with thousands of stars. Here on the hilltop, a bit out of town, he feel so much more in touch with God. "Dea ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 1 min

Leviathan

Graveyard Frank

“There is a swarm of bees amongst the whales. Or at least I thought there was at first.” Dr. Pete Pistil paces, puffing his pipe, “I first noticed it recording mating beluga in Antarctica. Then off ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

A Family Decision

Chandrahas

A few miles beyond Vasai Creek, the outermost boundary of Mumbai, Samanea trees had taken roots on a twenty acre, unclaimed, unoccupied plot of land. This place, near Kanjari village, was simply ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 3 min

Problems of Poetry

Joe Lucia

1.

His choices are stark: between a greater degree of fragmentation and incoherence – a further breaking down of the prospects for insight and understanding as commonly accepted – or a return ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

Baby Factory

Nwaokwu CBenard

Anthony rushed home, very early. He went to the bathroom. He did not heat the water on a cooking stove but simply removed his black trousers and T-shirt. The cold bath that evening felt good to him ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

Care

Zoe Marie Bel

Dalton met Lucy on the median of a Chicago boulevard, with an aggressive winter thawing around them. Both were in their late teens, but feeling older. Dalton had his hood up for warmth and his pockets ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

Olivia

Chris Stolle

Crescent moon began to hover over Lake Ponchartrain. Crescent City couldn’t settle down. It awaited a bombshell, a bold chartreuse, a legendary star ascending her own sky. Soon, Basin Street blues ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

Sunset on the North 500

Robert Kibble

“We’ll have to hurry to get there and back and still make Keiss this evening. Quick photos this time.”
“We’ve already see two castles today, Dan. What’s special about this one?”
“It’s a ruin.” ...  [+]