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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…

“Like most men who made it to the age of thirty in the mid 1800’s, General Robert E. Lee had no teeth,” Nico Tarst informed our investor, who stared anxiously at the wooden box sitting in my lap.

“Although dentures at that time had progressed beyond wooden teeth, they were still comprised of an uncomfortable blend of chimpanzee molars, cuspids from stray dogs, and incisors carved from the horns of the common, domestic goat.”

As I waited for my queue to open the box, I took a moment to survey our surroundings. Our investor lived in a family estate that had once been a plantation. The room in which our meeting took place was one of many appointed in antique furnishings. I noticed that the couch Nico and I sat on was built with solid mahogany arms and handwoven upholstery. Beyond the walls that stood thick with centuries of paint and plaster touch-ups, lay acres of farmland that had been turned into an amusement park for the rich including a nine-hole golf course, running track, and Olympic sized pool.

Nico’s voice snapped me back into the parlor. “A true aristocrat such as the general could afford fixtures that may not have been more comfortable, but were certainly more luxurious,” he motioned towards the wooden box in my lap, which I opened, and held out towards our investor. What lay inside were a set of sparkling white dentures; the top and bottom ridges forming an “O” from atop a burgundy silk scarf.

“Most of these are a combination of elephant and rhinoceros ivory, which was hard to come by in those days, not because of anti poaching laws, but because of the simple fact that only the wealthiest of dentists could afford to leave the main land and travel to Africa to shoot these animals themselves.”

“But the real treasure of this piece lies in the upper and lower central incisors,” Nico leaned an arm across my lap to point at the front teeth on each ridge.

“These were carved from the horn of a narwhal.”

Our investor’s eyes grew to the size of a snake’s mouth as it chokes down a possum. I handed over the box of false teeth so he could examine them closer.

“You can almost make out the grooves of the corkscrew pattern,” the man said.

“Naturally,” Nico explained. “Since the age of the Vikings, medieval practitioners sought the horn of the narwhal for its healing properties. The king of England himself drank his tea in cups carved from narwhal horns because he believed that it would neutralize any poisons.”

Nico amazed even me with that fact. I wasn’t sure if there was any truth to it, or if he made it up on the spot, but I was certain our investor was imagining the narwhal grooves. That was mainly because the false teeth he was about to pay us $40,000 for had recently been swimming in a glass of water on my grandfather’s nightstand.

Our investor was a state senator, and he had been in the news recently for being the author of a new policy that would cut funding for college loans. Upon further investigation, Nico and I found that our investor’s great, great, great grandfather was infamous for murdering any of the slaves who attempted to escape his plantation. One of those slaves’ great, great, great grandsons was a college student significantly affected by the grant cuts.

Once we completed our sale, Nico and I sent the $40,000 as a gift to that nice young man. We figured it was the least the senator could do.

 

I am a freelancer who graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a  Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing. My fiction has appeared  in The Cynic, I’ve done articles for HD Living magazine, and I spent a  year as a staff writer at Groupon (www.groupon.com) composing daily  deals, merchant profiles, and stupid jokes.

 

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