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Latest Stories

March 19, 2024
Fantasy Stories Wondering Monk

Just My Imagination

The alarm clock went off and started playing an awful tune. Tom opened his eyes and closed them back, squinting. He reopened one eye and stood up to stop the torture. The phone was on the desk, in the furthest spot from the bed. Although he changed his way of…
March 19, 2024
Science Fiction Stories Ocelotlzin

Earth Is Dead

Recording… It doesn't matter who I was; I probably lived a long time ago, and I am now just a voice someone added to the audio-visual records. What is essential is the recollection of events that lead to the current state. So, a little history needs to be…
March 08, 2024
Flash Fiction Benoit

Some Enchanted Evening

It was a rugby tackle with tears: Chrissy burst in, sobbing and babbling, hugging James. Her face was all wet, eyes wild. What…? My parents split up, Dad has moved in with his boyfriend and I cannot join them. I am shut out. I have lost my dad. Torrent of…
March 08, 2024
Horror Stories Marvel Chukwudi Pephel

In The Hands Of My Legs

The car pulled up in front of the large salon. The neon sign, that sexy broad thing, on the salon'sroof read "Mr. Gil's All-night Salon". The exhaust pipe of the car was pumping solid smoke, theswirls moving from the car and towards the salon.…
March 07, 2024
Mystery Stories Vanessa Leigh Giles

Casualty of Love in the Time of Coronavirus

Chapter 1 Until Death do us Part ‘Ring, ring!’. I answered the telephone and asked, “Hello, good evening. Who’s this? “Hello.” This is Dr. Smith from Red Cross hospital. “Is this Mr. Locke, John?”, he asked, hesitantly scratching his bald head. “Yes, doctor.…
March 07, 2024
Crime Stories Robert Pook

Bar Room Trigger

Another return journey on footpaths so familiar. He strides across each crack in each paving stone. Regular loose drain covers sidestepped. Mapping long ago mapped in Richard’s desolate mind. His pace hastened by the sight of the oncoming storm. Quickening…
March 04, 2024
Horror Stories Ano Chinemerem

Sanctity

Where should I begin? I could begin by telling you about this comely boy, whom every notable person around the streets agrees his smile could charm the bills off one. Between one smile, there was his goodness, his dreams and humanity—a little far ahead?— but…
March 04, 2024
Flash Fiction Emanuel Diaz

Et Mortui Partium

As Rafael stepped out into the rain, it wasn't the ordinary drops that fell from the sky. Instead, it was a storm of souls, each one taking the form of shimmering jewelry as it cascaded toward the ground. Rubies, diamonds, and sapphires twinkled amidst the…
February 29, 2024
Poetry Jing Li Ava

London

‘Am I in London?’ "I am." Where is Elizabeth? Happy living story All of your chapter Bounlance joy Please my heart Power hand Wise mind Our baby Vow vow Love all love Miss I miss Endless wonder Bring us together Love all love Miss I miss For everything My…
February 29, 2024
Flash Fiction Rob Pook

Life Sentence of The Smith

Born nine months after his country won the World Cup.A child prodigy.Cast off at age twenty-four.Husband, father, emigree, away on the other side of the world.The blue-collar life.The dreams of success.The search for fulfillment.The long years of empty…
February 29, 2024
Mystery Stories Joshua Lowther

The Operator

Jason looked over to his right, his eyes barely able to focus themselves on the subject of his attention. His neck ached terribly from the strenuous movement. He was tired. The captain’s gaze came to rest on the rookie sonar operator sitting tense at his…
February 29, 2024
Flash Fiction Salvatore Difalco

The Chute

At dusk, we left our unit with a soft pink bundle. I carried it through the wet streets and into the black woods. I said I’d take it all the way, the bundle, but that we had to drop it in together. My wife’s green eyes flashed. “Don’t make me do that.” I…

‘Fuck, I can’t move.’

I scrambled up the side-wall.

‘Fucking maze.’  I cursed.

I tied my bronze hair back.

Just... left, an inch.

Huh, I sighed.

In the breath went.  Huh – out again.

How I’d ever get out of this place I didn’t know.

Heck, how I even got in here I barely knew.

‘It is your time,’ they’d said.

If only I’d won that fucking card game...

 

Jazz slurred in the background while tall, red-lipped whores slunk in the shadows.

This was a man’s domain, and, I, Kat, had infiltrated.  I gave myself a pat on the back.

Foolish.

I sat down.

Dirty ale jugs sloshed in the centre of the table.

Is it five-check pokem?  I asked.

‘Yes dear.’  He slithered.

His snakelike eyes ought to have been a clue.  This was no ordinary underhand, earth-facing, roughneck crowd.  These were the earth-facers.  They followed no rules.... lawless.  Hedonistic interest and grime were their only Gods, these... people.

I had not traversed the known world to end up here and not win, though.

I would win back my mother’s signet ring.  The one that had been stolen by the dirt festering tyrant in front of me.  The one that kept her heart beating.

I knew this game, I had been sure of it.  I’d never lost a game back in Newcastle.

It is your time. They’d said.

The ring had been my mother’s heart itself.

They were wrong.

 

‘Darling, darling, are you having one of your day-terrors again?’

‘No.’ I answered.

I was simply remembering, remembering the injustice.

 

‘I’m getting out of here.’  I screamed.

The walls seemed to laugh back at me.

‘Fuck.’

Ahead of me were two options.

Up... or down.

I chose up.

Oh why did I choose up?

I scrambled up a tangled ladder.  Thorns from winding, spiking brambles scratched at my thighs.

On reflection, while the skirt may have got me into the game, it was not working for me now.

‘Ouch.’ I cried.

I looked down.

A trickle of blood ran into my boots, and then dropped down.

Down.

I’d choose down.

I looked all around me.

Though I could smell the rot from the under-passage, it seemed the only way to go.

 

‘NO!’  I’d screamed.  ‘Don’t take her...’

But it was too late.

‘...ring’  I gulped.  ‘That ring kept my mother’s heart beating.’  I snarled.

He looked at me.

I spat in his face.

Then he left, cackling.

I’d cradled my mother’s dead body.

 

I felt tiny, belittled by this stinking gigantic hell.

I went further down.

The spikes grew an inch.  The maze grew higher.

Down I went, into the stifled air and hit my boots on the disgusting ground.

Slop, slop, they went.

 

‘We play for rings.’  I said.

I could see his ring, a murky brown, swirling on his second finger.

‘High stakes girl.’  A long-haired, dirty man smirked next to me.

I turned my head.

‘I will win.’  I said.

And at that no one said a word.

They started to dole out the cards, the whores.  Their hands looked cracked.

I swept my head down.

Nobody would see my face.  My fear, loathing, panic.  My determination.

Nobody would know how angry I was.

I would just win.

 

I slopped forward.  Sticking faeces stuck me to the ground.  I pulled harder.

I could hear footsteps coming towards me.

 

I picked up my cards.  Two aces.  I had to stop myself from looking up.

The whores slunk back into their corners.  All that was left now was to play, play my best game.

I pushed a card forward.

‘I’m in.’  I said.

‘You’re out.’  He said, pushing his own card forward.

Shit.

I started to stutter, to stumble.

‘I... I...’

 

I turned a corner and there he was, the snarling man.  The man I’d come to kill.

‘You stole my mother’s ring.’

‘And now you’re going to die.  What sweet injustice.’

He reached over and plucked my heart right out of my chest.

 

I grappled for the light, gulped in a last breath of air.

‘She’s dead.’  My dad said.

 

My God stood next to me.

‘Let’s go.’  I said.

Perhaps I could find him in the afterlife...

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