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A New Kind of Literary Pulse

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Short Fiction
 5 min

The Impossibility of Sharing

David Xiang

It was cold on the rooftop when the meteor shower began. I had brought a blue fleece blanket, and through the veneer of excessive shivering I draped it over us. Our shoulders touched, and I looked ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

Dancer

Annika Carlson

Death was a surprisingly wonderful dancer.
He carried a haunting beauty about him as we moved across the floor, an etherealness of presence that went beyond his mantle. To call Death intimidating ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

The Yellow Leaf

Henry Ashworth

She looked at him from across the gallery; tall, athletic, light eyes and dark hair, well-kept but not overly so. He looked like the type that was probably here with an INGO or a government agency ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 1 min

Harvest

James Wicke

The woman lifted her mask up to her eyes, securing its extravagant form to her by tying the back behind her head. Her skirts swept the dirty streets as she stepped out from her hiding place. Just last ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 1 min

Idiom-made Idiot

Yeelim Lee

"Do you know what an idiom is?"
"It's like a phrase that has a double meaning, like when you say 'break a leg' to someone in the theater."
"Oh, that's horrible."
"No, it means 'good luck.'" ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

He Should Have Kissed Her

Rachael Gunn

During his journey back home in the slowly slumbering sunlight, he thinks to himself about what he would change. Him standing over her, six feet and one desperate inch compared to her five feet and ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

Who's Crazy?

Natalie Bradshaw

"Dare," I chose. Kira's eyes gleamed, "Knock on Crazy's door." "What?! No one has ever gotten that close to his house," I exclaimed, looking around at my other friends for support. All four of ou ...  [+]
Short Fiction
Short Fiction
 1 min

Her Future

William Eitelgeorge

She'll wake up tomorrow.
She'll open her eyes to a cold day fractured by a beam of light dashed across her face. She'll wait there for a minute, grasping onto the last bit of a fading dream. He ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 3 min

The Cave

Shaan McGhie

The hall closet was tall enough to stand in at the very front, but farther in it sloped smaller and smaller as the stairs above it descended. At about the point where an adult would be on all fours ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

Self-Portrait with Side Effects

Lucas Thornton

Ten years from now, I will be thirty-one. I picture this future person as someone who clambers out of bed every morning, wearing only boxers. His joints are stiff, and his newly-wedded wife will hea ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 3 min

Tied Down

Maia Sichitiu

When Gary asked politely if she wanted him to tie her to the bedposts that night, Sybil politely declined. Polite, polite, polite - she was sick of it, the way he always asked when it was a nightly ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

The Timefang's Prowl

Renton Christensen

‘Getting old', Vyncor thought, ‘has been my worst decision yet'. He stretched and felt each of the gnarled knots of pain that ran through his back and neck, twisted up like tangled fishing lines. He ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 1 min

A New Resident to Darkness

Vanshika Ghai

"The work of the eyes is done. Go now and do the heart-work on the images imprisoned within you."
― Rainer Maria Rilke

I sit in front of him watching him like the painting that hangs in a ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 1 min

Falling

Aidan Hardy

Close your eyes...

Be in the moment...

Breathe in and out...

Feel the air against your body...

Just take it all in...

Keep breathing...

Stay calm...
...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

Origami

Elizabeth Bryan

The boy is obsessed with origami, his mother tells her friends. He sits at the kitchen table for hours at a time, folding and pressing and creasing and fitting. Microscopic tucks and pleats – tiny ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

The Fucking Jasper

Freya Emery

"Where the hell are we going anyway?" Cynthia asks Jess in a stern tone.
We've been on the road for several hours, stuck in Jess's mini cooper listening to nothing but Harry Styles and Miley ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 3 min

Rock Candy Sweetness

Mia Maxwell

My bloodless white fingers grasped my thighs, squeezing away like Sunday lemonade. I gasped, letting my head fall back. I thumbed the lining of my shorts, finding a loose thread and pulling hard. No ...  [+]