-The best stories on the web-
Read or link to over 1000 stories listed under Stories to the left.
Submit your short stories for review as a Word document attached to an email to: Read@Short-Story.Me

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…

What a keen sensation it gave me! Riding on a night-bullet-train, head out the window, sharp daggers of air against my face. Yes, I stole the diamonds. And it felt good.

The only problem was that I knew you'd soon catch up with me. Then I’d be reduced. Made into a regurgitated bean. A regurgitated bean is like stew that’s been sitting for three days and all the water’s boiled from it and only a composite crud – a hideous conjunction of carrots and broiled pork – lies pellet-like at the bottom. I don’t want to eat those beans any more. Or to be reduced, made into a bean. Which is worse? But I won't tell you where the diamonds are.

The worst thing that ever happened was the great electrical collapse, fifty years ago. When the only source of protein became those regurgitated beans. I used to work with a GM cow that made them. God, I hated that cow. Maybe stealing the diamonds was my way of rebelling against the monster.

When the electron-feeders finished with our power, I reached a dead end with my life. Before the collapse I'd worked as a technical consultant on power stations. What vocation was there for me after the power disappeared? None. So yes, I worked at the new GM production suite for a while, all powered by steam, like in the old days. Steam powered by charcoal. The dead embers of our once mighty civilisation. We pillaged the skeletons of our dead to feed our new society. Nasty, wasn't it, how the electron-feeders, once they ran out of electricity, started feasting like ghouls on our bodies, robbing our precious electrons, of cats and dogs and animals, leaving condensed bare carbon-forms in their stead. Diamonds became worthless. You know all that, I'm just an old man talking nonsense. You don’t know how the shiny metallic purple diamonds stopped it all. No-one knows that. There was some kind of reaction, a bad reflection that set up a chain of destruction amongst the electron-feeders. Subatomic prions, some say: a pseudo-image that changed the shape of the electron-feeders and killed them. I don't know.

Why did I steal the diamonds? Maybe to teach us a lesson. I had the opportunity, once you sent me to the plant where the diamonds were being kept. Maybe I was fed up being told how things would be when we finally rebuilt this place. We screwed up the last world and I'm certain we'll screw up the next one. What will happen when the electron-feeders come back and no-one knows where the diamonds have gone? No, I won't tell you where they are. Go ahead, feed me to the GM cow. Did you know that GM cows can digest anything from carbon to adamantium? Yes, it's true. By the way, the diamonds are in my guts.

 

End

 

Erwan Atcheson is a research scientist at Oxford, working on a malaria vaccine. He has previously published "The Bollocks" in The Albatross; "A Quiet Place…," a lengthy horror poem, in the Horror Zine; and his first novel The Big Pink is published on Amazon and Smashwords.

 

0
0
0
s2sdefault

Donate a little?

Use PayPal to support our efforts:

Amount

Genre Poll

Your Favorite Genre?

Sign Up for info from Short-Story.Me!

Stories Tips And Advice