Excerpt
Across The Merderet. Runner-Up in Parallel Lives Challenge.
I sped off to the recruiting post in Galena. Even though my birth certificate at St. Michaels said that Joseph F. Higgins was Born 1927 not 1926 like I told the recruiter, I wasn’t going to let that one year stop me. Hell or high water I was going to be a paratrooper.
By Matthew J. Fromm3 months ago in Fiction
Book of Bella: Prologue
16 year-old Bella Rose awakens with her little sister Lily to the crack of a single gunshot splitting the still night. Heart pounding, she throws off the covers and hushes Lily to stay put. Barefoot and breathless, Bella runs to their pa’s room — and freezes.
By Norrie's Korner3 months ago in Fiction
The Man Who Spoke to the Night. AI-Generated.
They said he only came out after midnight. In a city that never slept, Noctis Varen was the quiet pulse between the ticking hours — a man of silence, a shadow among neon lights. He ran a small photography shop near the harbor, open from dusk till dawn. Most people thought it strange, but he said the world only shows its truth at night.
By shakir hamid3 months ago in Fiction
The Day I Decided the Universe Was Listening
For most of my life, I thought positive thinking was a polite way of denying reality. People who said “you attract what you believe” seemed to live in a fantasy world. Meanwhile, I was stuck in mine — overworked, underpaid, and constantly anxious. I wasn’t unhappy because I lacked things; I was unhappy because I believed I didn’t deserve more.
By Atif khurshaid3 months ago in Fiction
The Train I Almost Missed. AI-Generated.
The 7:45 train was late again — just like it always was on Mondays. The platform was crowded with tired faces and the smell of burnt coffee. Everyone looked impatient, as if being late was the greatest tragedy of their day.
By shakir hamid3 months ago in Fiction
The Sound of Rain. AI-Generated.
It had been raining for three days straight in Lusaka, and the sound had become a kind of background music to Naomi’s thoughts. She sat by the window of her late father’s house, watching water run down the glass, tracing the same paths over and over again — like memories replaying themselves.
By shakir hamid3 months ago in Fiction
His Freckle Too, Stayed Until Morning
I did not notice it before. That small freckle just beneath his left eye, the one the light always seems to find before I do. How many times have I seen his face and never really seen it? The mark itself is nothing special, really, a speck, a shadow of pigment the sun decided to keep for itself, yet tonight it feels like a secret I have finally been allowed to see.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast3 months ago in Fiction
The Light Switch
The door slammed shut behind me, and the darkness swallowed everything whole. I hadn't meant to come inside. The old Caldwell house had been abandoned for thirty years, its windows like hollow eyes watching the neighborhood. But my phone had died mid-walk, and when the October rain started sheeting down, the partially open front door seemed like an invitation rather than a warning.
By Parsley Rose 3 months ago in Fiction
Megara: The Mechanism of Madness
On the Mechanism Cebes and Atlas are enjoying themselves at their favorite coffee shop after a prodigious session of alcohol consumption. They are coming down from their drunken state but Altas is in a cheerful mood for more, while Cebes is in a melancholy mood questioning his thoughts and emotional state.
By G.A. Sebastián3 months ago in Fiction
The Café That Waited for Love
The rain had been falling since morning, soft and unhurried, like the city itself had decided to move in slow motion. Inside Café Loraine, the windows fogged from the warmth of espresso and conversation, turning the world outside into a watercolor blur.
By Atif khurshaid3 months ago in Fiction
