-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

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…

“The trouble with you Scott,” Jack said with his face only inches from his stepsons. “Is that you’re soft.” He emphasised the tt”s in Scott’s name spitting in the boys face as he spoke.

“You’ve got a lot of work to do in this field, you and that old nag of yours.” Even though the mare was far too old to pull a plow Jack insisted she, like everyone else, work to earn their keep. And if she was too old to work she was certainly too old to be having a baby, but that didn’t matter to Jack. He had bred her to his young stallion Ranger despite Scott’s tearful protests and now she was due to foal any day.

Jack continued his tirade, “What with plowing and picking all them little sharp stones. Why I expect you and that nag will probably be out in this field working all night.” Jack let the full impact of his words settle into Scott’s already heavy heart. Knowing full well there was nothing that the boy could do to stop him. Then to add insult to injury Jack told Scott to saddle Ranger so he could, “Go and bring sweet little Mary home.”

He spit in the boy’s face again not emphasising anything except the point that he was making. The point was obey me or else.

Scott had learned that point the hard way, fighting back tears he stuck the handful of sharp little stones that he had just picked in his pocket clutching them so hard his fingers bled. Then with a heavy heart he went to saddle Ranger

Scott hated how Jack treated Tess, his dear old mare but he hated even more how Jack treated his sister Mary. His cold humourless eyes were always following her and he was always trying to find a reason to be alone with her. Now with their mother gone to the doctor at Timber Lake it looked like Jack had found his reason.

Earlier this morning Scott had urged his sister to run up the mountain to Grandma Namie’s and not to come home till their mother returned, Mary had left running. Jack had been enraged when he found out that Mary had gone. Now he was going after her.

Scott saddled the fidgety stallion and when he was done Jack checked the girth twice, just to make sure it was tight, it was.

“You’re just too soft Scott,” Jack sneered. They were the last words he said to the boy before he galloped wildly out of the yard. In fact they were the last words he said to anyone. Those little sharp field stones that Scott had in his pocket, he had managed to slip a few of those stones under the saddle blanket before he had carefully placed the saddle on Rangers’ back. Those little sharp stones had set that stud to buckin before Jack was half way around the bend. He bucked so hard that the only part of Jack that stayed in the saddle was the boot of his left foot. The rest of him bounced along that rocky path up the mountain, till there wasn’t anything left to bounce.

The Sheriff brought Scott the news of Jack’s fatal accident, just as Tess had finished delivering a small but perfect little stud colt.

“I don’t imagine you’ll want that rank horse?” The Sheriff asked nodding towards the dejected stallion tied to his saddle horn.

“I’ll keep him,” Scott surprised the sheriff by replying.

The sheriff was uncomfortable leaving the stud in the care of the youngster, but Scott reassured him that in the morning he would have the vet come and geld Ranger. Then he would use him for working the fields, since Tess had just foaled he was in need of another horse.

Try as he might the sheriff was unable to convince Scott that with Jack now deceased he would be able to buy as many plow horses as he might like. But Scott was adamant, “You can’t blame Ranger,” he told the Sheriff truthfully.

“You’re soft Scott,” Sheriff said clasping the boy’s hand and smiling. “Not a lot of men could take the attitude you have towards that horse.” If he noticed that the boy’s hands were cut up from the imprint of small sharp stones same as the cuts on the Stallion’s back he said nothing about it, he just turned his horse and rode away.

Bio-I am blessed to live in the beautiful Alberta sunshine, where I can be found either curled around my computer writing or on my horse thinking about what I would like to be writing.

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