-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…

Lucas DeRoso was a criminal genius, but he didn't look it.

With a fine, expensive suit and silvery, silcked-back hair, he was far more suited to the roll of someone's rich grandfather, or a powerful politician, or maybe a successful inventor. Certainly not a professional thief and the mastermind behind several of the worlds most famous thefts.

In short, he looked out of place in the dimly lit side street off Avenue Nine, black dress shoes snapping unevenly on the cracked, weed-ridden cobblestones. Lucas walked with the slightest of limps, pronounced only without the strait black cane he never went without. The painted wood staff was crowned with a tall, gleaming diamond. DeRoso was a rich man, and he had no qualms about showing it.

There was a soft shuffling sound as a soft pair of boots stepped into a spot of light. Pale eyes gleamed in the same faint light, the mans other features shrouded in shadow.

“You have it?” The voice from the pale-eyed man was soft and light, pixie-like but unmistakably masculine. Lucas would've imagined him a young boy if the outline of a hulking, massive man wasn't visible in the dim, and the eyes not hovering almost a foot and a half above his own.

“My son, when have I ever failed you?” DeRoso said graciously, using the familiar term with a vague wave of his hand. His voice matched that of a smooth-spoken elderly man, used to making elegant business deals alongside long velvet carpets and tall glasses of champagne.

He reached into the deep pocket of his navy suit jacket and pulled out a long, gleaming string of diamonds, the same glistening necklace he had scouted a week ago. The diamonds glinted as they caught the faint, dirty light, the stones reflected in the pale eyes across from him.

“My apologies, good sir. You have never failed before. But this business is getting riskier and riskier. It has lost much of the finesse since you began." Lucas dropped the necklace into his large, pale hand with a good-natured scowl. Pale-eyes examined it before closing his fist. Another small velvet bag followed, pricey odds and ends that DeRoso, being the perfectionist he was, couldn't leave lying in the safe. The man's eyes widened.

"You play this game of thieves as well as ever, DeRoso."

“A pity, for this used to be that of a gentleman.”  He answered without missing a beat. The pale eyes lifted from the inside of the velvet bag, which he had been inspecting. The shadowed man twirled an exquisitly cut sapphire between his fingers.

“Ah, but so it will remain," He looked up from the gem and made eye-contact with the richly dressed thief with a clever glint in his eye, like that of a lawyer who has trapped a criminal into something he doesn't wish to say. "as long as you still deign to play.” Lucas nodded his head respectfully towards the pale-eyed man. With what had happened, the drop-off, it seemed to anyone watching that the pale eyed man was in charge of the exchange. It was him, after all, collecting the goods. DeRoso didn't seem to take any payment. But both him, and Lucas DeRoso, knew otherwise.

 

I live in northern Canada and enjoy reading and playing hockey, as well as painting and writing (of course) I like fantasy and science fiction.

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