Category: Short Fiction
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The House on the Hill by T. S. Parnell
Jamie stepped out of the taxi onto the gravel driveway. Pebbles popped under the soles of his polished shoes, unfit for countryside like this. He grabbed his suitcase and handed the driver a hundred-dollar bill for the extended trip. The driver gave him a curt nod before turning the car around and driving back down…
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Marnie by Chelsie Blackwell
“And the winner for Best Actress in a Drama goes to…Marnie,” the seasoned actress whispers, choking on the name. She turns to the back of the stage, where the giant screen flickers on. A young woman appears, seemingly on stage, though her physical body is not. She holds the award in both hands, clutching tightly.…
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The Exchange by Kaitlin Milliken-Flohr
I should have known when we left the town that safety was far behind us. Our trike blazed along the narrow asphalt over the estuary, while the world around us lay uncharacteristically still. The setting sun reflected in the ocean unbroken, not a breeze to ripple the water. With every kilometer, life thinned — not…
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Shopping Complex by Bert SG
They cut Julie early, so she punched the clock and left Cookie Ranch behind, left the whole food court behind. She hadn’t brought a change of clothes, but there was still time to make it downstairs and hit up Alley Brats, maybe steal a cool shirt so she wouldn’t be forced to hang around the…
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Fell Island by Nathan Poole Shannon
The scenery is losing its color. It looks like the landscape has been carved out of lead. In the shiny places it could be lit from within by ancient deadly radiations. Everything has been monochrome for some time, the flat charcoal of the water broken only by white ice, that of the land only by…
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Flatlands by Redfern Jon Barrett
It didn’t seem like anything odd. After all, children do childish things, especially ones as young as little Molly. She were out playing in the back garden as I watched from the window, making sure she didn’t wander out into the fields. Those endless flat fields, with churned black soil as far as the eye…
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The Boy in the Bayou by Alyce Lomax
Owen had lived nine years peaceful and alone in the bayou when it happened—the thing that changed everything. The dead boy. Owen was fishing on his boat, where he had seen all kinds of things float by on occasion. An alligator. An opossum, clinging to a piece of wood. A dead bear. An old tire…
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In the Aftermath by Phil M. Robinson
Another synthetic sunrise. A plastic dawn. How long has it been now? It’s amazing what you can forget when you’ve spent so long chained to a bed, with webs of bloody tubes to tie you down. Each time I breathe, I feel the drain in my chest as it struggles and strains to filter the…
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Dear Robert by Gabriella Giambanco
Dear Robert, Do you remember how we first met? I think of it more often than I should. The air was cold that day, yet I felt inexplicably warm, almost as if some part of me already knew you. You said something ordinary; I can’t even recall the words. What I remember is the way…
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A Good Deed at the Hanging Tree by Kris Violet
August 1747, Shepherd’s Bush outside London, midday I can’t see its curdled waters, but the smell of the Thames coats my nostrils and the back of my throat. Who would have thought it could be worse after you’re dead? London is a crowded, sprawling pit where a man can find anything he needs on every…