Stories - Long Story Short Award - 2025 - page 7 - all works

Short Fiction

5 min

Forgetting Ithaca

The stars circle him. It's not just stars. It's galaxies, he knows; galaxies and nebulae and burning spheres of pure fire, so distant they form only pinpricks of light even this close. He thinks he ... [+]

Short Fiction

3 min

Living All Out

Kuraysha Govender

I choked.
The room wasn't even that cold, but my hands felt numb as I stared at the question paper. Pens were already scribbling around me like a starting gun had gone off in a race I hadn't even ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

The Year she almost gave up

Phophi Tshinamufhi

Her eyes burned from hours of staring at the laptop screen, a dull ache pulsing behind her temples — part headache, part frustration from memorizing endless drug names. The library was silent, the ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

Hating You

tamlyn khan

I hate this. "Miss Tanaka, are you afraid of me?" I hate the step he takes forward, placing one polished shoe in front of the other with the confidence of a man who has nothing left to lose. I ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

Princess Skin

Ronja Jokilampi

When she arrives at the hospital, Lily is not asked to wait in front of the operating room. She strides in on the dot, protected by an entourage of two secretaries answering questions of appointments ... [+]

Short Fiction

3 min

Courage

Sarah Nyland

The wobble of the homemade raft and the pain of bare knees on plywood set my teeth on edge. Seeking stability, I looked at the water in front of us. The lake was turning to river, and the whisper of ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

Clubfoot

Pratik Nair

Building materials in Ali's city told a story. Mosques and churches were always made of limestone, so were some old stock Arab homes; the old city hall was coralstone; new money bought multistoreys ... [+]

Short Fiction

Romance 3 min

Hope

Suandri Esterhuizen

Hope is the killer that perches in the soul and slowly hacks away at the heart and never stops at all.
I met her while working for the university newspaper. She was an aspiring journalist, and I ... [+]

Short Fiction

2 min

Cancer Diagnosis

lynn forquer

It was October of 1992, and Betty had a horrible cold. She was coughing constantly. It was so bad that it would keep her up at night. Worse than that, though, was the fact that it was keeping he ... [+]

Short Fiction

4 min

Currents

Kylee Klawetter

She is clothed in a dreary, dark shade. Little wrinkles paint her face, long and needle thin. She is weak and frail, yet undeniably mine.
Perhaps the others like winter, but I don't. The sky ... [+]

Short Fiction

3 min

Big Hippo(crite)

Naia P M

Tears stream down her face as she tries to finish a paper due at midnight. An overwhelming sadness consumes her. She's finally found the one she wants to keep forever, the one who signals to he ... [+]

Short Fiction

3 min

How Death Finds Us Wanting

Ellia Tio

What a packed schedule I have had this year. My last stop today is in the aftermath of violent protests. There are so many names here that are on my list.
Just two days ago, these streets still ... [+]

Short Fiction

1 min

No Air No Dice

Graciela Fernandez

i've never fixed a flat tire before i told everyone i knew how to
i told a girl who was the most beautiful girl i'd seen in the last 5 minutes that i knew how to fix a flat and i told her this ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

2359

Brian Ko

8.21pm:
Roughly three and a half hours till midnight. My fingers hurt from all the typing and the use of the trackpad on my laptop this past week. But above all else, my eyes hurt the most. I would ... [+]

Short Fiction

4 min

A Decision's Gravity

Mahek Arora

"Nobody said this was going to be easy, Robert," Anne said, locking her stern gaze on him.
Moving closer, she continued in a softer tone, almost as if echoing the voice in his head, "Think about ... [+]

Short Fiction

2 min

A bet

Muhd Afiq Bin Shawal

It was just a fun bet between his drinking buddies and him as they sat at the coffee shop, staring at the screen above and the football match playing on it. Jack had placed 10 dollars on one of the ... [+]

Short Fiction

1 min

Love's lottery

Dawn Teo

My grandmother's mind was a bank. In the wage against age, words eroded to snow, the soft slough of rivers. Her love dove in circles of code, floating figures homed in red spaces. The wordless ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

The Raft

S. N. King

"I saw something last night."
The Marooned didn't stir at these words. He remained crouched on the shore, hairy feet burrowing under the same sand as the crab he was hunting. The Englishman ... [+]