Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Fiction.
Walking In The Dark
The beautiful thing about walking in the dark, is that you never quite know where you are going. Oh, I suppose technically we might have a vagueish idea, but because we can’t see very far ahead, it’s essentially a journey of faith, every time. Have you ever wondered what happens to those bits of the world that you can’t see? What do they get up to, unobserved in dim starlight?
By Sachi Petrohilos5 years ago in Fiction
A NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE
The winter wind is blowing like snot across Saskatchewan as my two friends and I huddle in a half-ton truck, the heat cranked high to warm our frigid bodies. As we bump along a frozen deeply rutted road leading to a highway, which leads to another butt-fuck town, I wonder where we will spend the night. My friend Rex Smith is driving, and I’m squished between him and his brother Cyril on the front seat, which I suppose is the back seat too, since there is only one seat in the truck. Rex has a contract to hook up underground telephone lines all over the province and to think I left balmy Vancouver Island for a couple of weeks to be with my friends without pay; not my idea of a winter vacation; busty-blondes sipping pinacolatos stretched out beside a pool in a Mexican resort was more to my liking but I doubted my wife would have approved.
By Len Sherman5 years ago in Fiction
before the end
No one lived anymore. I mean really lived. No one laughed, no one dreamed, no one loved. It wasn't allowed. The sky was gray, such a uniform and unchanging gray that all the color seemed leeched from the world. Gloomy, heavy, and dull. Overcast with a thunderous foreboding of control. I wished for drumbeats, for peace, for music, or dance. I wished that the sky would ever break its formation and let out the ozone, to smell fresh air and feel thunder shake the walls and reverberate in my chest. I wasnt a child when the Black Army took control.I could still remember the thrill of running through a rainstorm, feeling soaked to the bone and the cozy comfort of dry skin and clothes after coming in, as outside the storm raged.
By Melissa Eaves5 years ago in Fiction
Chaos
Daylight came streaming in through the cheap metal blinds that were hanging in the narrow window. Chris laid still, watching the sunlit lines slowly climb across the quilt that covered his stomach and legs. Sleep had not easily come the night before. He knew the apartment was as safe as a place could be these days, but it was not soundproof. The screeching and banging had carried on until just before dawn, and even in his exhaustion, he had not been able to close his eyes for more than ten minutes at a time. “I should be used to this by now,” he moaned dryly. His back ached from the lumpy mattress he had carried over from the destroyed apartment across the hall. The small room he had chosen to shelter in was the cleanest he could find, but it was still garbage-strewn and the air was rancid. Sitting up, his muscles ached from the tense night. He had known better than to travel alone this far south, the woods farther north were almost untouched by the terror in the city. As Samantha had died slowly from cancer that came before the chaos, he had promised her he would find other survivors, that he would not be alone. “Bullshit,” he said gruffly, shaking his head, tears stinging his eyes.
By Kai Michelle5 years ago in Fiction
The Forest
The never-ending sight of trees surrounded the couple, turning left, or to the right; it was in no particular direction that their straining vision would capture any sort of landmark to point the way. The overhead branches blocked out what light there might have been, and they both longed for the brisk air of the mountains of Tulsiria that they called home. A perfect place with that familiar light always obstructed by rock and snow. The two days that led them here, and the thought of the days to come brought upon the feeling of hopeless dread and their minds, in a slow and unnerving quietness understood that they might never escape. It was, however, not for their own safety which concerned them; but for that of their infantile daughter.
By Gabriel Vargas5 years ago in Fiction
Our Own Terms
Mom always said to keep pushing, to keep moving. We were survivors. We survived when we lost the house. We survived when dad left. W survived when the world changed, and the schools closed. We even survived when the explosions started and it seemed like the lights would be out forever. The news would come on at night and would list the numbers of all of the people who had died. That’s all there was to watch, just a scroll of the dead until the electricity went out and all of the stations stopped running. I guess it was something nuclear. Mom never would give me a clear answer, she would just mutter something about how people would rather hate one another than live. I don’t blame her for being vague, she didn’t know what this would turn into.
By Samantha Slomin5 years ago in Fiction
Priceless
I can feel the sweat dripping down my nose. I try to stretch my shoulder to wipe it off, but the weight of the crate in my arms left little slack for such luxuries. In all honesty, even I was surprised at how much I had lugged in from The Wilds. I'm starting to regret trading my shopping cart for a portable stove. Who wants a hot meal in the middle of the damn desert? That's what I get for being cocky, I guess. A few good sales go to my head and I get swindled by The Mad Max equivalent of a used car salesman.
By Meghan Betke5 years ago in Fiction
Promise.
The fate of the world was strung onto a thin metal chain and tucked away in my robes. As the only surviving heirs of our line my sister and I each had a piece to guard; a solemn vow to protect the world re-shaped by humanity. Years ago our world was nearly desolated by pollution and greed; people were killing the one thing that could supply them with everything they needed. It probably would have continued on this way had people of the old faiths not intervened. The Oracles could feel the cry of the dying planet and felt the wrath of the old Gods bludgeoning through their veins. Notwithstanding the pain of their world they summoned as much of the magicks as they could and forced the human world and the unseen world to merge as one. Pure chaos can only describe what happened after that; whether this was their original intention or not its tremendous outpouring of energy sent shockwaves through the Earth. The ground erupted towering trees that pierced through homes and rose into the sky. People fell to their deaths as the houses fell apart and debris crashed down to the earth destroying streets and squashing unsuspecting people as everyone stared on in horror and awe. Places of unimaginable wealth and thievery burned to ash and towering skyscrapers fell to dust as the earth took back what should have been hers. Concrete and glass in clever displays of alchemy reverted to sand plummeting story after story ‘till nothing was left and people either crawled out or suffocated. The devastation of populated areas sent governments into overhaul as they tried to find some sort of recompense to get the Oracles to stop, but this only angered the old Gods further.
By Victoria R Mueller5 years ago in Fiction
