Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Fiction.
Banging So Bad
It is 2077; men are working in call center-like office environments; their bosses, women. Male bosses are non-existent, and society is now matriarchal. Women leaders are everywhere. Women make all the decisions; they take advantage of men for their domestic abilities, cooking skills, and kindness attributes to perform all chores.
By Christa Cusack O'Neill5 years ago in Fiction
Renaming Dragontail Peak
The stage is set. The meager applause dies in the air, its praise fading faster than it had come. All the middle school students sit in rows on the retractable bleachers in the gym which, on days like today, doubles as an amphitheater. The teachers have constructed a makeshift stage underneath the basketball hoops, a simple raised platform with a decorative garland stapled all around its edges, little paper stars hanging from the shiny purple plastic fringe. The cheap decor doesn’t do much to make the gym look any less like a gym, with its giant scoreboards all over the bland cinder block walls. P.E. is Sascha’s least favorite class, and as such, the gym is her least favorite part of the school. Today, in particular, has done nothing to change that.
By Natale Felix5 years ago in Fiction
Wingman Batman Makes Introduction to Superman
December 1959 Superman and a Nose Dance I’m twenty-one, divorced and living in Manhattan. Just off Sutton Place on 55th Street. Great address and high rent. I’m determined to go to law school, but at the moment I’m an NYU undergrad. The last semester before Law School. I hope. To cover rent and food I work nights and go to school full time during the day. Not too many places to work nights. Hooker? Nah! Night watchwoman? Nah! All night disk jocky? Not a sultry enough voice. I’m the hatcheck girl at Gatsby’s, a chi-chi supper club on the corner of 49th Street and First Avenue. I can do homework in the check room between customers and as staff eat a good free dinner.
By Alice Donenfeld-Vernoux5 years ago in Fiction
The Phoenix Variant
The Phoenix Variant House mice are all pretty much the same, so I will call this all important mouse, "Mouse". On this particular day Mouse was foraging for food in the waste from the Phoenix Veteran's Administration Hospital when she came upon a tasty bit. Unfortunately, this tasty bit was tainted with the Covid-19 virus, which had come from an unlucky veteran who had served his country in Korea only to meet his demise from a virus invisible to the human eye.
By Cleve Taylor 5 years ago in Fiction
High Anxiety
I used to love the English composition challenges at school – you were given an opening sentence or two, and had to use these as a springboard for your own composition. The trick, supposedly, was to come up with something original, so that your work stood apart from that of the others, making any bored examiner sit up and take notice. You know the sort of thing; if the title were “A Summer's Day” you should avoid any seasonal mentions and instead plump for something about the life of an accountant. This story came following my son being assigned the opening line, “Forbidden to remember, terrified to forget; it was a hard line to walk.” The next line pretty much wrote itself and set the tone for the rest of the piece.
By Bryan Hallett5 years ago in Fiction
There was no warning.
You would think that the end of civilization would be global warming; with how bad the pollution to the environment and ozone was. Nothing could have prepared us for this. Even with all of the monitoring from the scientists; they couldn't have prevented this. The government had no disaster plan for such a catastrophic event. So we're all on our own now.
By Rachel Slater5 years ago in Fiction
