thriller
City of Death. Top Story - August 2025.
A stout conversation on life prompted Geraldine Snow’s bout with necromancy. This included recent dealings with amnesia, anemia and a thick, resolve to live. If only she could muster up enough strength to break out of here, then the real fun could begin.
By K.H. Obergfoll6 months ago in Fiction
Marianne. Honorable Mention in Everything Looks Better From Far Away Challenge. Top Story - August 2025.
Glinting on the railing, Marianne’s ring rivaled the sun hung midway in a cloudless cerulean sky. Oliver Swenson squinted tired eyes and swirled half melted ice cubes in his bourbon while water rippled in opalescent veins of turquoise and sapphire before a lush mound of trees and brush. A real generic paradise. Not one mile away throngs of tourists clamored for a piece of shade in the heat, but in the small lagoon, all was quiet. Surrounded by a fortress wall of jagged volcanic rock, it was unspoiled. Clandestine. A honeymooner’s dream. The same as it was all those distant years ago when they were young and in love. Young and dumb was more like it. Still, they’d given it a good go. Thirty years and three kids later the island was the only thing unchanged. Lazy puddles of surf drifted ashore, washing the most delicate shells back to the ocean. Seagulls guffawed like Marianne’s laugh overhead. No, that was then, not now. Now it was silent. Too silent. Heavy with the silence of being completely alone on his perch.
By Elizabeth Diehl6 months ago in Fiction
The Outer Perimeter Society
I wasn’t planning on writing much of anything this week, maybe not even this month but I got wildly intrigued about the idea of completing another challenge and have always wanted to try one of these for myself—so be kind—as this is my first and I am not sure I did this exactly right. Today’s story is more of an inspiration from something a bit spooky and a lot less magic. I was feeling something in the vein of macabre for summer so I decided upon the “All Night Long” challenge—the guise of which intrigues me. A story that spans the whole night, without using the words night, light, dark, day. It’s a mystery, what will happen next, but I am excited to see where this story takes me, and you, the reader. I started with the title— "The Outer Perimeter Society” joyless, nefarious sorts of folk who inhabit the dusky, gloomy, shade ridden edge of our world. The ones who hunt in our obscure radiance and wait on baited breath for those of us who can’t help ourselves, and let curiosity win, even if for just a little bit, but what are they hiding, what are their secrets? Some of this is likely also inspired by my most recent movie outing to see: Weapons—which was a small treat. I love the doors it unlocked in the mind but wish it would have been slightly more realistic in regards to the missing persons, that would have been exquisite (imho). But for now, let’s see what happens with this story—hope you enjoy!!!
By K.H. Obergfoll6 months ago in Fiction
He kept the light on . Content Warning.
He passed his finger along a jagged edge of paper, but a door flung open, a pervasive memory of the past instead of a paper cut. The scene played as if it were nurturing. There was no movement. He knew the path the way he knew his mother. He thought his past would play a different song, but it was a race car reversing backwards. The person that changed everything came too close and it might cause a dangerous end to the present.
By Caitlin Charlton6 months ago in Fiction
A Stranger in Every Photograph
A Stranger in Every Photograph I found the photo album on a rainy Sunday afternoon, tucked behind boxes in the attic of my late grandmother’s house. Its leather cover was cracked and worn, the pages yellowed, and the smell of old paper and faint perfume clung to it like a ghost.
By waseem khan6 months ago in Fiction
The Day the Colors Fled
The Day the Colors Fled It started quietly, as if the city had taken a deep breath and let all color escape. I woke to gray skies and streets stripped of vibrancy. My walls, my clothes, the garden outside—everything was a shade of ash, steel, and stone. Even the sunlight seemed pallid, like paper left too long in the sun. I rubbed my eyes, convinced it was a trick of sleep. But the world outside my window confirmed my fear.
By waseem khan6 months ago in Fiction
The Café That Served Emotions
The Café That Served Emotions The café wasn’t on any map. Not in guidebooks, not on GPS, not even on the neon-lit streets of downtown. You stumbled upon it when you weren’t looking, through a narrow alley framed by ivy and flickering lanterns. The sign read simply: “Café Émotion”, its letters curling like smoke.
By waseem khan6 months ago in Fiction
Letters to the Future Me
Letters to the Future Me It started on a Tuesday. I was pouring cereal at my tiny kitchen table when I noticed the envelope lying beside my bowl. Brown paper, neatly folded, with my name written in cursive I didn’t recognize. I opened it with cautious curiosity.
By waseem khan6 months ago in Fiction
The Visitor. Top Story - August 2025. Content Warning.
The first flash came at 7:17 p.m. Eliza sat up in her cot, eyes wide in the dark room. The sterile white walls of Ward B had blinked with blue light—like a camera flash—illuminating the hallway just outside her door. She scooted back against the cold wall, shoving the pillow into her lap. She studied the crack under the door—waiting, listening.
By Tennessee Garbage6 months ago in Fiction
