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Latest Stories

September 27, 2025
Flash Fiction Syed Hassan Askari

Half an Hour to Fourteen

Last night she lay on her bed with a curly-haired doll close to her chest. She was looking at the clock hanging over the door. Only half an hour was left —her life’s digit would turn from thirteen to fourteen, a change that felt like a heavy blow to the…
September 27, 2025
Romance Stories Nelly Shulman

Till We Meet Again

“Would you like more coffee?”The server in the orange apron lowered the pot, but Cath muttered, “No, thank you.”Her voice trembled, and the server busied herself with the next table. Outside the window, fog enveloped Waterloo Bridge. The morning was quiet,…
September 23, 2025
Flash Fiction Leroy B. Vaughn

Another Farewell To Arms Reunion

We were sitting in a little café in Wickenburg Arizona eating lunch when my wife looked at me and said, “I can’t believe you’re actually going to this reunion after you told all of your buddies that there was not a chance in hell that you would go.” “I know…
September 23, 2025
General Stories William Kitcher

A Political Solution

The Rt. Honorable Leader/Head of Council/First Governor/Chief Minister/Premier/President/Chancellor/First Minister/Party Secretary-General entered his office, and looked out the open window. It was a beautiful sunny cool day, and the cherry blossoms shone in…
September 23, 2025
Fantasy Stories M.D. Smith IV

Boat Of The Dead

A double-edged knife thrown at my head by a drunk in a tavern where we tried to restore order, sliced my ear, and stuck in the wall behind me. A near miss. We took them all to the dungeon. I’d had my fill of this kind of work. Still a young man in 1111, a…
September 23, 2025
General Stories Jo Gatenby

Better Safe Than Sorry

After watching his parents’ marriage slowly implode, Matthew decided love was not for him. Theirs had lasted long enough to ensure his birth, but thereafter it seemed to diminish in direct proportion to the number of years they spent together. The frown…
September 23, 2025
Flash Fiction K. Imdad

Abbey And The Resistance

The year is 2088 Following the catastrophic world war that left humanity on the brink of extinction, the last remnants of humanity rebuilt, survivors established communities amidst the devastated terrain. The city lies in ruins towering skyscrapers now…
September 23, 2025
Horror Stories Brittany Anne Szekely

The Stuff Of Nightmares

When she woke up there were seventeen voice messages from a stranger. The first was breathing. Wet, laboured, like someone trying to inhale through a mouthful of blood. The second was a whisper: You left the window open. By the fifth, her hands were shaking.…
September 23, 2025
Poetry Markus J

More Than A Soft Toy

There once was a child from Adelaide, who had a teddy called Marmalade. taking each other by the hand, they roamed imaginations land: there, they never turned scared or afraid. this world they only had each other, no mother, father or big brother. on a tandem…
September 10, 2025
Horror Stories Brittany Anne Szekely

The Taste Of Long Pig

The wardrobe was small, but it smelled like cedar and old coats, and that made it okay. Mum had lined the bottom with a blanket and tucked my stuffed bear beside me. She called it quiet time, and sometimes it lasted until the moon came out. “ Be good, my…
September 10, 2025
General Stories Matias Travieso-Diaz

The Red Oak

An oak tree is an oak tree. That is all it has to do.If an oak tree is less than an oak tree, then we are all in trouble.Nhat Hanh A majestic red oak (Quercus rubra) stood alone atop a hillock. It was almost a hundred feet tall and had a trunk four feet in…
September 10, 2025
Flash Fiction Brittany Anne Szekely

Some Women Are Made Of Neon Bones

The house had been abandoned for years, but it stood like it remembered being loved. The walls were cracked, its windows shattered, and the front porch sagged like it had been holding its breath too long, but beneath the decay something pulsed, like neon…

Harry Dunn sat with his wife, Gina, at their kitchen table.  “Gina, I spent the last week casing the bank, and I got it all figured out.  It’s a sure thing.”

“Harry, darling, I wish you’d get out of the business. Get a real job, one that won’t land you in Jail or worse.”

“Gina, I’m fifty. I admit I wasted my life trying to make a quick, easy buck and failed. Gina, what is a fifty-year-old man like me going to do? I don’t have an education. I don’t know nothing. All I can do is steal.”

“Harry, I’m afraid you’re going to end up on a slab with bullet holes in you. What would I do without you?  I love you, and I don’t want to be a widow.”

“Honey, you know I don’t take chances. You don’t have anything to worry about.”

“The next day, Harry went to the bank and carried out his plan, but didn’t count on the bank guard, who came out of a back room and shot Harry dead as he pointed his gun at a teller.

Nobody saw Harry’s bodily spirit rise from Harry’s body and hover above the scene.  “Jeez, I’m dead. Now what?” As he uttered those thoughts, in the blink of an eye, Harry appeared in the middle of a mob of people. He looked around at people as they seemed to wander around aimlessly. “What the hell is this place? Where am I?” he said as he looked around and saw what looked like an information booth. “And there’s a guy sitting there. Okay, It’s time for information,” he said as he walked through the crowd to the booth.

The man, with long, silver hair, dressed in a tuxedo, looked up when Harry reached the booth. “Yes, sir, may I help you?”

“Yes. Where am I? What is this place? I feel like I’m in a giant, black hole. There are no walls; no ceiling, just a lot of black.”

“Sir, you are in purgatory, and this is now your home away from home for a while.”

“Purgatory? You’re kidding. I thought purgatory was a place dreamed up by religious zealots.”

“I’m not kidding,” my friend. This is purgatory.”

“Who are all these people? As far as the eye can see, there are people milling around.”

“They are the once-alive.”

“You mean they’re dead people?”

“You catch on quick. Very good.”

“Then…then I’m really dead?”

“Right. Give that once-alive man a cigar.  Yes, you are. You are really dead.”

“How did I die?”
“You were shot while you were robbing a bank.”

“Oh, yeah, I remember. Gina begged me to go straight. I should have listened.”
“Anyway, why are all these once-alive people just wandering around?”

“They’re waiting, and since there aren’t any chairs in purgatory, they have to keep moving.”
“Waiting? What are they waiting for?”

“They’re waiting for me to send them to their final destination.”
“Where are they gonna go?”

“The kind of life a person lived will determine whether he or she goes ‘up’,” he said pointing, or ‘down’,” he said pointing.

“You mean there really is an ‘up’ and a ‘down’?”

“Of course. Do you think you can become once-lived without being rewarded for your deeds?”

“Tell me. What do ‘up’ and ‘down’ look like?”

“Harry, how would you like a tour?”
“Yeah. Sure. I’d love a tour.”
“Okay. Let’s take that elevator over there. I’ll show you ‘up’ first,” he said and led Harry to an elevator. “Press the ‘up there’ button, Harry.”

Harry pressed the button, and after a moment, the door opened. “That was fast.”

“Actually, Harry, the ride up took us ten years.”

“Ten years? It seemed like a couple of seconds.”

“Time is relative, Harry. Well, here we are. Follow me as I point out a few things. Over there is the country club. It’s always warm and sunny up here so a resident can play golf any time he or she wants. Next to the country club is a mall. A resident can get just about everything there. Those are the residences,” he said pointing. Each resident has a choice of a house or a condo. You’ll notice the golf carts coming and going. Each resident gets a golf cart, which is needed to go from one place to another. Theaters are over there, and restaurants are over there next to the theaters.  Nice here isn’t it? Now, let’s take the elevator ‘down there’,” he said and they returned to the elevator. Press the ‘down there’ button, Harry.”

He pressed the ‘down there’ button, and a moment later, the door opened. “I suppose that took ten years?”

“Right. Time is relative.  Now, step out and look around,” he said and Harry stepped out of the elevator.

“Wow. ‘Down there’ is nothing but a huge hot tub. It’s as big as all of purgatory. And there are people in the hot tub.”

“The once-alive, Harry.”

“Yeah. The hot tub is filled with the once-alive. Why are they red?”

“Put your hand in the water.”

“Okay,” he said, put his hand in the water, screamed, and jumped back holding his hand. “I’m burned. You let me burn my hand.”
“Yes I did, and all those once-alive souls will enjoy hot, searing water forever. How do you like that?”

“I don’t. Let’s go back to purgatory,” he said and they took the elevator up to purgatory.

“I don’t like this whole set up.  How do I get out of here? I want to go home to Gina.”

“That’s not possible, Harry, and if it were, you wouldn’t go back to Gina. You’ve been here for over a hundred years. Gina died a while back and is living in a condo ‘up there’.

“She is? Great. Send me up there so I can be with her.”

“Sorry Harry. According to your file, you’ve been bad, so you can’t be rewarded with the good stuff. Now, you have to join all the others and wait for me to summon you,” he ordered, and Harry floated into the crowd.

****

“After robbing a jewelry store, 45 year-old James Carter entered the confessional in his church. “Father, forgive me, for I have sinned. I robbed a jewelry store and shot the owner. I think I might have killed him.”

“Shouldn’t you go to the police and confess.”

“No chance. I ain’t goin’ back to jail. Jail is hell. Will you absolve me of my sins?”

“Do you mean you don’t want to be held responsible for your sins?”

“That’s right. That’s why I’m here.”

The confessional curtain was pulled open and a man in with long, silver hair wearing a tuxedo faced James, who was startled.  “You think you can steal and kill and be forgiven so you can steal and kill again?”

“Well, isn’t that what you do?” sounding as though he expected an affirmative response.

“No, it isn’t. Come with me,” he said, pulled James out of the confessional, and dragged him to an elevator that appeared, and took him ‘down there’ where he would spend eternity.

 

The End

 

BIO

While teaching speech and English at a community college, Mr. Greenblatt wrote short stories and plays, one of which won a reading at Smith College.  After retiring, he wrote short stories, novellas, and plays.  Several of his stories were published in on-line magazines, and others were published in print anthologies.

 

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