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Latest Stories

July 08, 2025
General Stories Michael Barlett

Dance Of Death

CHAPTER ONE 1940 Chief Inspector Kenneth Langford offered the Commissioner a crisp salute, and then walked back through the labyrinth of passageways to his own small office. Langford was a member of the London Metropolitan Police, commonly referred to as…
July 08, 2025
Poetry Markus J

The Winter Blues

the winter blues has a grip on me, all so tight Its icy tentacles wrap around me and squeezes freezing my fingers and toes with its nasty frostbite staving off the cold is a battle, an endless fight it brings forth an assortment of nasty diseases The winter…
July 08, 2025
Horror Stories Sushma R Doshi

Deliverer Of Messages

A loner in my childhood, my scrawny and weak figure prone to being bullied by sturdy and robust boys, I tended to wander around places frequented by few. Those curvy roads which fell into darkness after evening without street lights, the area near the pond…
July 08, 2025
General Stories L Christopher Hennessy

With A Side-Eye I Cherish

for Brittany ma amour Up to my neck in sadness for something just out of reach and she came along and fired up my life with kisses and the physical. The moment I looked into her eyes I didn't want to share her with anyone else and keep her all to myself. In…
July 03, 2025
Poetry Markus J

The Days Of Future Dreams

the days of future dreams the flames once rose high thinking our lives would end up supreme thinking our future seemed a far of dream but in the end nothing is what it seems many times the winds of changed has blown this way one minute we`re lapping the cream…
July 03, 2025
General Stories L Christopher Hennessy

Bad Girl

Part 1I lost the entire manuscript when I assassinated my laptop with sauvignon blanc as I rubbed the lower back of a woman who dozed drunk on my bed, sweating. She was crazed, somewhere between screaming and lying about the orgasm. Bree was a miracle to me,…
July 03, 2025
Horror Stories Nelly Shulman

Black Is Our Colour

“I swear she could have been you. Look! This girl is your long-lost twin.” Fi nudged me, and I smiled. “Never had or wanted one.” I stood up. “Let’s go, or the bargain hunters will clear the shelves before us.” We dived into the vintage emporium across the…
July 03, 2025
Poetry Markus J

The Transformation

"I need a brake" words that twisted my heart- shattering the dream that we would never part. I asked myself 'what ever did I do wrong? sad, gloominess could`ve easily been my song. I wouldn't let the anger and misery grow or cultivate- uprising feelings I…
July 03, 2025
Flash Fiction Benoit

Jae

It was Jae’s birthday today. She turned eight. What a beautiful sunny girl! Hyo planned a surprise or two; Li, his wife, did too. Birthday cake, a puppy and … Don’t forget, they grinned just before he drove off. Traffic was intense. A long call came from…
July 03, 2025
General Stories Matias Travieso-Diaz

Fear

Leandro stood outside the Kroger, leaning forward as he shivered in the early March dawn. He hated this moment: the cold, the fatigue, the feeling of helplessness, the anticipation of another day ahead at his degrading job picking collard leaves under the…
July 03, 2025
Horror Stories Mihko Askiweno

Found You

Panic gripped her as she staggered up the steep, rocky incline, breath coming in jagged, shallow gasps. Sweat streamed down her face in torrents, her hair clinging to her forehead and cheeks in disheveled clumps. Her legs trembled with exhaustion, molten fire…
July 03, 2025
Poetry Markus J

Lost On The Path

But alas; sometimes I think we've lost our way- too many strayed opinions...one too many a survey. Walking on the road ahead, just following the herd of sheep- with a hypnotised mind, wide awake yet very fast asleep. While yelling...join the team of the…

Eight-year-old Josh stares in the mirror. He wears Transformer pajamas, the water is running, and his toothbrush is untouched. He pushes his nose up and puffs his cheeks out. Giggles erupt. Josh likes to make goofy faces at his reflection; he does this every time his mother, Jean, says to brush his teeth. She used to yell about it, but he’s grown devious. Now he doesn’t leave the water running too long, he remembers to wet his toothbrush, and he squishes the toothpaste tube in a different spot so it looks as if he’s actually put some on his toothbrush.

 

After Josh leaves the bathroom, Tricia comes in and closes the door. She’ll be thirteen next month, but she’s already hit her ugly duckling stage. At least that’s what Jean calls it. She says it’s a natural thing all girls go through. Tricia knows that’s a lie; her older sister, Kelli, has never looked ugly or awkward or disgusting - ever. Tricia stands before the mirror now, staring at her sullen face. She opens her mouth and exposes shiny metal braces. The glasses she wears dwarf her face, but she wanted them because “they’re just like Mom’s.” Then Tricia looks down at her legs. A sob erupts. She jerks her head toward her reflection. “Four-eyed, brace-faced, bird legs,” she says, voice filled with contempt. This isn’t the first time she’s repeated the names her classmates call her while she stares at herself, feeling unadulterated revulsion for her appearance. From the counter, she yanks the orthodontic headgear the dentist said she must wear nightly and tosses it into a drawer. Kelli tries to hurry Tricia out of the bathroom, but the younger girl glares at the closed door and yells, “I’ll be out in a minute!

 

A few minutes later when Tricia opens the door, Kelli whispers, “It’s about time, dumb ass.” She sails into the bathroom and closes the door. When she turns to the mirror, the sour expression she wears disappears. She poses this way and that. Obviously pleased with what she sees, she smiles. Pulling her long hair into a ponytail, she reaches for the shower cap. When she drops her robe and turns sideways, a glint of fear changes her expression. She rubs her hand over her still-flat stomach, and bites her lip. Seconds later, she hunches over the toilet and deposits her breakfast. Jean knocks on the door, asking if “Kelli Belly” is okay. Kelli wipes her mouth; she lies, saying it’s just a touch of stomach flu.

 

After Kelli showers and leaves the bathroom, Jean enters. She heaves a loud sigh, drops her robe, and steps on the scale she’s scooted away from the wall. Her second sigh is louder. She puts the robe back on and kicks the scale back into the corner where it belongs. Her brow is furrowed when she glares at herself in the mirror. She’s taken to heart her husband’s teasing “pudgy” comment from last night. A tap tap tap comes at the door, and he pops his head in, saying, “Hey Babe …”

 

Jean, who usually calls her husband sweetie or honey, verbally backs Don away from the door. “Babe? Babe? Like that big fat pig in that movie? Is that what you’re trying to say?” She slams the door in his face then picks up the hair dryer and looks as if she’s about to throw it at the mirror.

 

In the bedroom, Don stares in the dresser mirror. He wears a bewildered expression. Aloud he says, “Women! I swear to God I’ll never figure them out.”

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