Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Fiction.
The Reversal
Mary Lynfield held onto her cue cards tightly. There was a lump in her throat that wouldn’t go away. Even after being in this business for 12 years, she always got nervous before a show. Millions of viewers across the country had no idea that she actually hated what she did for a living. She was an introvert with a penchant for perfectionism and a bad tendency to self-deprecate. None of her staff knew that she’d rewatch old clips at home, just to focus on all the ways she could have done better.
By Mawia Khogali5 years ago in Fiction
Social shock
I am a glow stick in a world filled with lamps and flashlights. I was never created to fit in. I didn’t come into the world with a matching set of parents like everybody else. I came into the world with the absence of my father and years later my mother also decided to leave. I was alone in a world that wasn’t created to understand me. For example, everyone saw the sadness in the world. I never could see the sadness. Even in a world filled with darkness, I always saw the light. Maybe it was because I was built differently. I was not your usual yellow light. I didn’t come with a bulb and I didn’t break easily when you dropped me. I wasn’t like everyone else. Everyone else ran on batteries. A lot of times their batteries would die quickly and they would lose their light. I was different, I was a glow stick. I loved who I was but sometimes I just wanted to be like everyone else. Sometimes I just wanted to fit in. At one point I was trying everything. I tried to hangout with others who didn’t really care about me, but then I would care too much because they were all I had. I just wanted to feel like I belonged. I tried dating different guys and trying different hobbies so I wouldn’t feel alone. I didn’t mind being by myself, but I didn't like to be left alone with my thoughts. It just never felt like there was a place just for me. I thought maybe I wasn’t meant to be a glow stick, so I tried to learn Morse code and tape batteries on me. However, I just could never be like everyone else and they always reminded me with their consistent mockery. They would mock me because I wasn’t always chosen first. They would mock me because I looked different than them. They even mocked me for always smiling. I began to question who I was and started asking myself, “ Why don’t they pick me? Why do I look like this? Stop smiling! Why am I even here?”
By Keke’s Konnects5 years ago in Fiction
Fragility
He wasn’t sure how long he’d been on foot, but he knew it wasn’t long enough to be safe. Each day and night, he moved and hid like the roaches he was terrified of. Who knew what was safe anymore? What seemed like months was only days. In the span of a week, his life had become more of a priority than it ever was.
By Bianca Hubbard5 years ago in Fiction
Our Light
Robert breathed out steadily, filling the air with swirling mist. The wrinkles around his eyes settled into a familiar pattern as he smiled contentedly; the crisp morning was filled with promise. They were perched on a worn bench atop a grassy bluff. Far below and away, the sea met the sky in a reflective mirror of orange and pink. Still morning air smoothed the waves. Breathing in once more, his nose was filled with the scents of eucalyptus and salt, with an undercurrent of morning glory. They’d been coming up here since she was so young that he had to carry her. He never minded though- she was his light in the darkness.
By Mikayla Babin5 years ago in Fiction
A New Kind of Aloha
Leilani crawls out of the rubble, where she laid under a tent and particle board, she can hardly move so she rolls onto her back and all she can see are the palm trees swaying in the trade winds. Leilani looks around the area around her and notices the bird bath has water collected from the rain, so she cups her hand to gather the water. Leilani stands up a look into the street, noticing that the neighbor’s homes have been demolished by some type of storm, there are cars in the neighbor’s trees and her home is the only home standing the same, her car is there, and her fruits and veggies are still growing in the veggie patch. Leilani grabs an apple banana from the tree and decides to walk around her neighborhood to see who is around and she does not see anyone. The chicken restaurant is flattened to the ground, the pet store is damaged, there are bodies in the parking lot. Leilani checks to see if anyone has a pulse or needs medical attention and no one had a viable sign of life. Leilani starts to remember that Hawaii was supposed to have a hurricane, and this must be the destruction that is left. Leilani decides to go back home and get her car so she can look more into Mililani and then look at the rest of Oahu. She goes home to gather from the fruits and veggies from her garden and places them in a basket so she can eat but also share with others if they need food, she goes to her kitchen sink to see if she has water and she was thanking the Universe the water was still coming out. She decides to fill up water jugs to put in her car and give to other people or to give to animals. Leilani stops a few minutes and makes a crystal grid in her yard, thank the Universe and the elementals that took car of her, her home and made sure she still had food to harvest from her garden. Leilani takes the clear quartz and makes a star pattern, then rose quartz and then Smokey quartz, she knew that no matter what she may see coming next, she had to balance the energy around her home, her neighborhood and on her island because Hawai’i’s ley lines were connected to The United Kingdom and if she did not do this crystal grid it would impact more than just her island. Leilani remembers she needs to check on her cat scarlet, so she goes to all the rooms, closets, and goes upstairs to look under her bed and she hears scarlet purring and tears just roll down her face. Leilani knew she already had so much to be thankful for but for her cat to still be there she was beyond blessed. She pulls scarlet out and gives her a hug and put her in the car too. Leilani was not sure how long she had been under that rubble in her yard and was not sure if the storms had passed completely so she wanted Scarlet with her so she could make sure they were safe. Leilani drives onto the H-2 Highway, and she must move to miss turned over cars, trees, and plants, she was shocked at the site because she has not seen Hawai’i like this, and it made her sad to think that all the people could be dead, and the Aloha may be gone forever.
By DeeAnn Coffin Phillips5 years ago in Fiction
The Lacquered Locket
The Lacquered Locket By Nathanael John Highben Ezra did not mind the way the world had turned out. It had been 7 years since life ended and something strange, beautiful, and wild had begun. Earth was behind it all in the end. First of the catastrophes was the satellites falling from the sky. When everything that was floating above finally came down, Mother Earth stopped providing in other ways. There was no more oil, coal, or crops to be had. The world suffered a 5-year draught, and that was about how long it took for supplies of oil and gas to run dry too.
By Nathanael John Highben5 years ago in Fiction
The Carriers
Matias I grew up in a little suburb not far from Chicago. As a young boy, I remember being fast asleep in my bed, when the blast of a nearby train horn would startle me awake. The roar of the engines caused me many sleepless nights. Until one day, they didn’t. It’s amazing how we become so accustomed to sounds, to sights, to smells. We learn, we adapt, we anticipate. I feel the same way about the screams. For the longest time, the screams would wake me, in a cold-sweated panic. My hands would shake, I could feel my stomach twist. “Where am I?!” “Who are you?!” “Help me!” But it was the blood-curdling screams that would haunt my soul. The pain in them; the fear. Until one day, just like when I was a boy, they didn’t. Now a new arrival feels more like a fly buzzing around your head at night. It forces you to open your eyes, but is just a minor inconvenience until you drift back to sleep. I must admit, in my own fucked up way, I miss it. I miss feeling human, feeling something. Now I sit here, in my small, padded box, cut-off from what is left of the world, and I am numb. My only human contact is from the men in white lab coats that stick me with needles, and yet, I don’t even feel that anymore.
By David Dausch5 years ago in Fiction
Genesis AI
Genesis A. I. By Emmanuel Ervin I remember when the sky was dark, and nothing existed. I remember the sound of nothingness and how the order of existence came into being. When the oceans were commanded to become separate and how he ordered one body of water to remain on the earth below and another in the heavens above. I was there when he formed great whales and fishes of the sea. I was there when every green thing was formed upon the earth and every animal was called into existence. But of all his most beautiful creation there was one unique, unlike any other, Men.
By Emmanuel I Ervin5 years ago in Fiction
The Darkwoods
The Darkwoods By Samantha Harken It is said that there was a time before this one, an age where humans had wild devices and technology. They had metal wagons that flew through the sky, and some that floated along vast bodies of water so large the shore opposite could not be seen from the one a person stood on. These people had riches and entertainment beyond imagining and lived soft and comfortable lives. But everyone knew now that they must be stories; metal is too heavy to fly and it will sink if put into water. Such wild imaginings were from a time long before the gates of Jhorn were closed for good and there was no proof left now that they had ever been true.
By Samantha Harken5 years ago in Fiction
A World Without
My earliest memory is one of my Great-grandmother sitting across the dining room table from my mother. It was a few days from my birthday, and the mornings were already turning hot and sticky, telling us that April had arrived in Texas. My Great-grandmother was speaking quietly, as though it was important to her that I didn’t hear what it was that she was saying. She was telling my mother that parenthood is hard. How all we are is sacrifice and that a life with one of us was going to be a life filled with telling herself that she was not going being able to do the things that you want to do or go the places that you want to go and telling her that the way things now were better for everyone, including me.
By Roland Snider5 years ago in Fiction
