A New Kind of Literary Pulse

Home
Logo Long Story Short Award - 2022
Short Fiction
 5 min

Math Lab Fantasy

Lauren Allen

"Did you clock in?" The other secretary's voice cuts into my thoughts. I blink, "yes, I- uh huh," came my distracted response. My focus isn't on the schedule, or even on the monitor directly in front ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

5 Cupcakes in South Bend, Indiana

Kate Nanovic

There was trouble in the air. My naïveté did not sense it. The distrust. The greed. Nobody could sense its forthcoming. It was September of 2013, and my family and I were heading to a celebration. Of ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

Vices

Cassie Keene

I watch you light a cigarette through the hazy glass and, avoiding my gaze, turn your wedding ring around absentmindedly. You slip it off into your pocket, the outline of the ring making an imprint in ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

Trapped In a Jar

Vansh Malhotra

My lungs became sore from screaming, but their ears did not become deaf from hearing as I continuously kept pleading to them to let me go. My head started to spin, and I felt pukish enclosed in that ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 1 min

The Future: Kronian Cuisine

Kathleen Barraza

"Welcome to Titan's. May I take your order?"
"Yes, I'd like a-"
"Chicken nuggets."
"Yes, I'd like a kid's chicken nugget meal-"
"And a McFlurry"
"And a McFlurry-"
"I'm sorry sir. We ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

Showering Dreams

Matt Mandel

It's dark and stormy, and I'm home alone. About twenty minutes ago I hopped in the shower for a quick rinse. But now that I think about it, I'm not sure actually how long ago it was. It could've been ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

Élan Vital

Devin Glenn

Floating, weightless, in salty currents, my mind reclines into nothingness. Fluttering cerebellum pulsing its way to equilibrium, I fix my breath on the darkness expanding for miles behind my eyelids ...  [+]
Short Fiction
Short Fiction
 2 min

The House that No One Lived In

Madison Hancey

I was almost certain there was no one in that house.
Sometimes I saw the garage light on but, I mean, if it was electric anything could trigger it. There was a cat door and so I assumed ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

The Storm

Mirah Thornock

The wind whipped the salty spray through my hair, burning the cuts on my cheek made from Xander's stonesword. As the thunder clapped in the distance, bringing the inevitable doom of the Storm even ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

The First and Last

Christian Olson

I'm dead again.
Another quick trip across the Styx or whatever one wishes to call this black void and
I'll be back on my feet.
I wonder who I will be in this life.
Man or woman?
Rich ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

The Duel

Nick Saluzzi

A steel ball, otherwise harmless, hurled through the air, propelled by the ingenious mechanism of metal and gunpowder, an agent of certain doom. A perfect invention of death, the bullet cut through ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 1 min

Pasta Hair

Madilyn Abbe

I'm really sorry, Mr. Hogan. I didn't mean to get in trouble. I really do have a good explanation, I really do!

It's just that I always get hungry when I sit behind Maggie. You see, she has ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

A Story in Pieces

Jared Langford

It wouldn't matter that much, whether we lived or died. It mattered to us, sure, but in general, I mean. We would be just one more frozen corpse on a mountain. Like ornaments on a tree. This tree ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

Dying Stars

Elizabeth Boyer

It was twenty minutes before the start of class on the first day of my first year of college.
California. The land of opportunity. Maybe not completely accurate, but for a gay kid like me, it was ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 1 min

Ständchen

Eve Iyengar

His left hand reached for the door handle while his right wrapped around my own. The room he led me into appeared simultaneously empty and full, bright and dark. Through an open window I smelt the ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

MaFille

Tsz Yui Leung

Dang it. I think I am lost, where am I heading to? Aha, I must be on my way to visit my relatives. That's fine, I will ask the gentleman who is now coming my way, "excuse me, do you know a house? It ...  [+]
Short Fiction