Skip to content

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

Home
Logo Long Story Short Award - Fall 2020
Short Fiction
 4 min

Clasped

Skylar Gruys

He moved in, hand clutching hand as I was pushed into the wall. The sky was eerie bright, the half-moon large, sparked light.

It was our third date, a monumental first step. The first had ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 3 min

Fate

CK Jensen

I believe in fate.
And today, I can feel it.
Today is the day where fate brings me true love.
My yellow raincoat twists around me as I dance down the hall. The other tenants in my apartment ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

A Spoon Full of Sugar

Emma Hostetter

I found it in his gray suit coat while doing some cleaning. It was in a white marbled box tucked in his coat pocket. I knew it was meant to be a surprise, but I couldn’t help my fingers from sliding ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

Susannah Lee

Dahlia Breiter

On the southern banks of the Susquehanna, when the last dregs of winter were melting away- that’s when I first met my true love. Her name was Susannah Lee, and I had never seen anything quite like ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 3 min

Sertraline

Nikki Gallant

When I was six, a seed took root in my body. Though small, it had a profound effect. I was young and naïve, and this new part of me was like a new toy for me to break in. I fed it, watered it and gave ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 3 min

Kissing Carrie

Riley McGreer

Carrie Jackson wasn’t a normal child.

Science had always been her favorite subject, studying life and death and the cycle that all things had to go through in some form or another. After weeks ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

Decisions

ANDRES CORREA

After twelve hours of no sleep and no food, tightly handcuffed to a chair and sitting in the middle of the US-Mexico border control office, an old woman of seventy-five years called Magdalena ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

The Sunflower

Bethany Sycamore

As the seedling emerged from the warm and cozy earth, it gloried in the sun above. It always turned its tender leaves to the sun’s filling heat and one day, the bud upon the top, burst open. At last ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

Red Lights

Christena Oldham

Of all the odd habits children develop with their parents, Sam’s was truly peculiar. The rubbery strap of his mother’s wristwatch felt so beefy in between his teeth. The sound of the material’s ...  [+]
Short Fiction
Short Fiction
Slice of Life Portrait  5 min

Charlie

Tammy Emo

"Charlie...Charlie...are you daydreaming again? It's work time now, please get your pencil," asks Ms. Amy sweetly.
Charlie Madison is in the 3rd grade, at KB Woodward Elementary school. Generally ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 3 min

The Remembrance of the Past

Jacob Dayton

Elra awoke in the middle of the night. A cool wind was gusting down from unseen heights on the mountain, and the stars were clear and bright in the dark sky. Elra saw Ulmar, the Crown of Thalris ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

The Dream

Savannah Williams

The man tossed in his sleep, for there in his mind’s eye was that strange non-material thing that the Dream was. The image was there in his subconscious mind, that same image of a place he had neve ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

The Beautiful Blade

Tyler Bateman

In the darkness a mouse scampered across the dusty floor in search of a meal. As it travelled something caught its eye. A faint glint of reflected light shattered the eternal midnight of the cavern ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

Weatherby's Justice

Samuel Shumway

I was passing through the alley behind the grocery store when I heard the shouts coming from behind the yellow row of dumpsters. I was curious, and so I stopped and leaned my bike up against the back ...  [+]
Short Fiction
Short Fiction
 2 min

Half an Hour

Hayden Underwood

The nurse left work at five o'clock. She usually left around 4:30 and if she hadn’t taken that extra half an hour, perhaps the tragedy could have been avoided.
Kristie’s day was fairly normal: She ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

The House of Escher

Santiago Blanco Torres

I arrived unannounced. The Alchemist’s house was dark and crowded with ornaments. “Tools” the man corrected as we entered deeper into the mansion. As I sat in my new room I marveled at this incredible ...  [+]