Stories - Long Story Short Award - 2024 - page 2 - all works

Short Fiction

4 min

Through the Window, Moonlight Peeps In

Through the window, the moonlight peeps in
You were sitting in the corner of the café today, right along the back wall. I liked how you almost fell into the shadows but were not completely out ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

Ferry Bus

Sun Two

On the first hour of the fifth day of the eleventh month, the bus pulled up alongside the quiet stretch of road I was on. The driver was a bespectacled elder, the skin of his face dragged down due ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

No Rest For The Weary

Grace Franklin

I make my way down the stairs to the hull of the ship to the newest prisoner. She's different from the rest. She put up a fight. Only one brave enough to. She's no more than an orphan. Not ... [+]

Short Fiction

4 min

Fairy Lights

Layla Grace Montesol

I keep the ropes coiled under my bed for a clear night. They're the thickest I could find. I think they're made for tug-of-war or something. Ronnie from Severville Hardware didn't ask questions when ... [+]

Short Fiction

4 min

The Tourist

Gabrielle Goh

WHEN EYES MEET, SOME SAY IT HAPPENS ONCE IN A BLUE MOON.
The warmth of a lover's sweater, the laughter from an old friend's core. I grew up in this city but in her passage of time, I call ... [+]

Short Fiction

3 min

The Descent

K V

They rushed into his room holding metal rods to beat his lifeless body.
He was barely conscious, yet his body seized from the pain and shock of the violent attack. Their hands were hidden. They ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

teenage chords

Sanika Ganesh

We all tire of our greatest loves. We get caught up in the flash of excitement, and we begin to believe in something real, something true, something meaningful, something lasting. But sooner o ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

The process of thawing

Vaenil Vembirai Nambi

Avascular Necrosis. Bone tissue death from blood supply loss—a fate Isaiah might face if his wife didn't abandon her desperate need for comfort. He could only blame himself. Well, maybe his wife's ... [+]

Short Fiction

4 min

Metamorphic

Darwin LaPollo

At first, James hadn't known what a coma was. His parents, through misty eyes, had to tell him several times in the first week after his brother's injury. Now, he was the one who had to regularly ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

Raising the Stellar Dead

Tanisha Shende

Raising the stellar dead. The phrase had been plastered on posters and emails in the weeks leading up to the astronomer's lecture, intriguing even the least scientifically-inclined of our student ... [+]

Short Fiction

3 min

Limbo

John Chase

"Again?!" The judge exclaimed as he grabbed onto the little strands of hair on his head. "This hasn't happened since 40 years ago!" He slowly raised his gaze until it met Tim's eyes. "I'm ... [+]

Short Fiction

4 min

The Evolution of Trust

Nazeq Abudaya

Lucy looked towards her Captain only to find him keeled over the side of the deck bringing up the contents of his stomach. The nearly imperceptible sigh that escaped her lips was the only indication ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

Pyramids of Madness

Maya Meehan-Ritter

The professor stared deeply into the foam of her coffee and only saw hieroglyphs.
That little swirl of chocolate she had added to the mocha concoction sort of looked like an ankh, didn't it? The ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

Brueghel’s Peasants

Justin Cannan

"The Hapsburgs? Bah, who'd want to paint their ugly mugs, what with their inbred chins! Or perhaps you thought I'd paint Adonis, or David bathing beside Bathsheba, complete with glistening skin and ... [+]

Short Fiction

4 min

Memento

Naci Konar-Steenberg

The artifacts were discovered forty years ago by a mountaineering expedition, but came to the attention of our geology department only recently. The mountaineers were part of a multinational ... [+]

Short Fiction

1 min

When No One's Watching

Quinn McNally

It's 11:54 when we leave the party. I have to drag her away; she's tipsy from sneaking sips of my parents' champagne and doesn't see the need to rush. I can't judge her—I'm not all ... [+]

Short Fiction

4 min

Friends Lost and Found

Isla McCullough

Most people think ghosts only come out at night. They'd be wrong. A kid tripped along the path, about five years old, chasing a chipmunk. Nobody called out for him to stop or be careful. Indeed ... [+]

Short Fiction

3 min

legs

Swaranya Sarkar

"Shoot!"
The blast echoes across the field.
I watch from behind a grimy water pump. For days, I have been watching, never daring to go beyond. The air smells like sweat and hangs heavy ove ... [+]