Fantasy

Abatement of Kings
For a lifetime I’ve been waiting: being an environmentalist takes time and patience. Research after research, I’ve become one with the sea. After graduating from Duke, I found myself traveling everywhere except land itself. From the Caledonian Barrier Reef all the way to the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef.
By Audrey Hancock5 years ago in Fiction
The Cycle
“And the world became a better place.” This was the last entry in the librarian Seshat’s audio archive. It was recorded just before she died. Well, I am using the familiar vernacular. No one has died in over 1,000 years here. Seshat transformed into a serpent.
By Asiya5 years ago in Fiction
Salvation
Cold and desolate, the barren streets of a ravaged world stood silent. Empty of, yet infested with blood thristy demons at night, and quietly populated with the remaining survivors of the human race at dawn.
By Jasmin McCardell5 years ago in Fiction
The Shattering
Dry. I felt dry. I tried to squint realizing that my eyelids felt as if I hadn’t washed a month’s worth of makeup away from my face. I am assuming it’s my black liquid eyeliner and mascara that is encrusting my eyes creating a very gritty feel and making them stubbornly stuck to my face. I soon realize they have just adhered together. Raising my hands to my face to clear my eyes, my limbs felt heavy. With every movement, I feel even sorer. I finally push myself enough to rub my eyes and a black crust and something that looked like dirt crumbled onto my tanned hands. As I inspect the dirt closer with foggy and unfocused eyes, I begin to make out a streak of purple glitter running between the crust.
By GG Atwell5 years ago in Fiction
Thoughts of the Mist
The Village of Toth burned. The community, twenty hollowed-out trees a hundred feet tall, contained in a single stone wall fifteen feet high that stretched around the entire circumference of the settlement. Two thick wooden gates, one on each side of the village guarding its vulnerable interior, stood wide open. Fire engulfed the leafy canopy above, burning down the dark gray trunks toward the people cowering beneath. Flaming branches and leaves fell, covering the victims in black ash. Each tree was a dwelling, and the people saw their homes burn in panic and disbelief. The smell of smoke permeated everything.
By Mark Jefferson5 years ago in Fiction
When the world was no more
We were living in a world back that was put back in order after covid then something..... happened. I was asleep one night when I felt the earth shake hard for a split second. I woke up with a start. There was another shake and a flash. I went to the window and it was very hard to put it into words. There was selective destruction, I don't know how else to describe it. There was some buildings that were gone while others will still standing, the same could be said for the trees and other landscape. I was barely burnt and I could barely see people. I look up and there wasn't a star or moon to be seen.
By Lena Bailey5 years ago in Fiction
Matters of the Heart
Tami was already more facile than her designers envisioned. She inspired those who made the decisions for the communities known as "Old Bay" or " Frisco". She had been born in the new way. She had never seen public transportation nor been on a train because she had not yet been invited. She would not be invited until she had a heart. Without the heart they couldn't connect to Nvidia. Because her older sister had been " to town"- because she had earned a heart and had decided to get married in the church building, which was dedicated to sanctioned union groups, Tami was living in a unique family. The seaside cottage they maintained was built in the style used after the originals WW11. She was begat directly from some of the earliest AI designers, Jen-Hsu, Huang, Curtis Priem, and Christopher Malachowsky. Her DNA was established in Delaware, as the Old Gods might say, and maintained in Santa Clara.
By Ruth Nofchissey5 years ago in Fiction
The History Maker
She would have liked it here. White grains of sand as far as I can see. A benevolent and consistent sun always above, lighting the way and keeping me warm. She would have named the sun as it watched over us and spun tales about the footprints in the sand that travel further back than I have come and continue beyond anywhere I will ever go. She would’ve even joked that we have just one more hill to go.
By Rafe Kaplan5 years ago in Fiction
The Locket
She held the heart-shaped locket between her fingers as he spoke, holding her breath to steady herself. The feelings she had towards him had changed over the last three years, and although one could argue it was due to everything they had been through, she knew it was much deeper than that. These feelings had been there longer for her, dwelling just below the surface, being forced down so deep that they couldn’t be detected by anyone except for her.
By Melissa, the Empress5 years ago in Fiction
Revolution
They had waited too long. The sun stretched over the far horizon. A breeze rushed up the large hill which she stood upon. Her leathers kept it from penetrating her skin, but her long hair was pushed back. The thick black strands twirled aggressively behind her, whipping the side of her rosy cheeks. She closed her eyes allowing the wind to silence the growing stampede of the enemy crawling across the horizon. The sun at their backs, their numbers were immeasurable.
By kristina kreutzer5 years ago in Fiction
Ashes to Ashes
“Once upon a time, the world we knew fell away from us, and in that moment the real world emerged.” ~Unknown~ Smoke wafted on the air, casting a haze over the scarred landscape ravaged by fire. Thick black plumes pillared toward the heavens, painting the winter moon a reddish hue. Perched on the outcropping of a cliff surrounding the alpine village, Nathan Farloe gazed at the devastation below with dark disparaging eyes, nearly hidden beneath a wide-brimmed hat. Clad in puritan-style garb, the steadfast judge wore his dark hair pulled back into a short tress. A crucifix fashioned from hammered silver draped his neck.
By Jennifer Whalen5 years ago in Fiction
Of Fading Seams
How much time does it take to kill a bad habit? No idea. But surely, enough had passed for the girl to entirely murder one, by all means.
By Tom Siv5 years ago in Fiction