I was born with a birthmark that looked like a bruised flower. It trailed along the left side of my face, from hairline to where neck and shoulder met. I grew accustomed to open stares, sidelong glances, and children being chastised for pointing.
Contemporary
Welcome to our Contemporary Flash Fiction category, showcasing bite-sized stories from a diverse mix of emerging and established literary voices. These quick reads, each under 1,000 words, offer a snapshot into modern life, relationships, and the human condition.
Despite their brevity, these stories pack an emotional punch. They capture poignant moments and thought-provoking insights that linger long after the final word. From slice-of-life vignettes to surreal and speculative tales, the styles and themes are as varied as the authors themselves.
We’ve curated works from some of today’s most promising up-and-coming writers, eager to make their mark on the literary landscape. But you’ll also find new flash fiction from acclaimed authors you may already know and love.
Whether you’re looking for a quick fiction fix on your coffee break or a palate cleanser between longer reads, these short shorts are sure to intrigue, entertain, and satisfy. Dive in and discover a world of contemporary storytelling talent, one flash at a time.
- You Complete Me by Adele Evershed
- When the Moon is Full and Bright by Ty Green
- Trick of the Light by Dan Caine
- Trapped In A Bottle by Ruben Michael Molina
- Time Window by Doug Dawson
- Things That Recede with Time by Lauren Howlett
- Thief by Kristy Gherlone
- Them By Meg Pokrass
- The Storm by Kristin Leprich
- The Soldier Who Loved Dogs
- The Shine of a Sinful Heart by Ximena Escobar
- The Rusted Swing Set by Sheila Good
- The Message on Emily’s New Phone by Charles Lee
- The Many Laments of Dagda Lichfield by Kit Zimmerman
- The Manhattan Club by John RC Potter
- The Magic Spot
- The Loser by Arthur Mackeown
- The Inner Circle by P. J. Atwater
- The hunt for the desired ratio by Marie Hanna Curran
- The Guitar Man and the Pigeon by Ben Westerham
- The Feral Nature of Werewolves, A History
- The Deceased’s Wife by Charles Milton Lee
- The Cold Sausages in my Neighbourhood by Owain Evans
- The Closet by Doug Dawson
- The Birthmark by Loretta Martin
- The Birds Weep by Steve Carr
- That Look by Neil Brosnan
- Telekinesis for Beginners by Michelle Lee
- Taming the Devil by Chris Martin
- Tajima By Miss Mitford
- Switching Gears by LB Sedlacek
- Swallowed by Angela Carlton
- Stuck Between the Pages by Julia Vellucci
- Strutters’ Ball by Barry Basden
- Some Freaks Sleep When They Go To Bed by Scott Pomfret
- Slowing to Park by Chris Martin
- Sherkin by Neil Brosnan
- Saving Alice by Angela Carlton
- Retreat by Jack Coey
- Questions For Vampires by Anastasia Gustafson
- Open Hands by Angela Townsend
- Nobody Shall Sleep By T. Dem
- Night of Fire and Glass by Justin Bendell
- My Job by Ronald Robert Moore
- My Daughter’s Best Friend by Michelle Reynolds
- My darkest fear! by Wendy Montoya
- Monday the 28th of August
- Missing Pipes, Nuts and Screws by Adaora Ogunniyi
- Miracle Stain Remover
- Looking for the Unseen/Seen by Anshika Arora
- Jacobs Shadow by Kate E. Lore
- In Denmark by David Sydney
- I Knew You’d Come Back to Me by DD Creed
- Heart of the Matter by Loretta Martin
- Girl with Pearls in Her Eyes by Fanni Sütő
- Full Moon Nights by Roopa Raveendran Menon
- Footloose by E. W. Farnsworth
- Falling Out by Lenka Miklosova Vrazda
- Escape by Murdock O’Mooney
- Encounter With a Talking Head by VM Landi
- Don’t Look For Us by Christine LaChance
- Disclosure optional by Keith Nunes
- Delivery by Denis Bell
- Dear You By Angela Carlton
- Damn if You Do…by R.S. Nelson
- Cold Shoulder by Hugh Cartwright
- Chasing Zero by Jean Ryan
- Catching Up 2143
- Buy it Now!
- BLACK HOLE by Alex Khansa
- Ant Death by Lorna Wood
- Alien bloom 982
- A Thank You From Evelyn by Eric Tarago
- A Quick Twist by Patrick Hanford
- A Narrow Bridge by Avital Gad-Cykman
- A Job of Work by Salvatore Difalco
- 1979, Hungary By Zary Fekete
- “Hi” by Lauren K. Sweeney
- Helping Me Up by Bruce Ransom
- Headless by David Sydney
The Deceased’s Wife by Charles Milton Lee
Three elderly women stood huddled in a corner of the funeral home, whispering and glaring at the deceased’s wife.
Monday the 28th of August
Today is the worst day I have ever experienced. But it’s not over yet. It’s not going to end for thousands of seconds. Thousands of raw, grating seconds. I know, I’m the one with the problem. Not you. You have coping mechanisms. Your brain has worked out that to experience every second of every day would quickly lead to
Night of Fire and Glass by Justin Bendell
The freaks are out again tonight. I hear them howling. I hear branches cracking off trees. There were out last night, too. It has been warm and heat draws them to the streets. It’s been like this since the war, or since the raids, but really it started with the slave ships.
Footloose by E. W. Farnsworth
It was dark, and the party was going to start on the other side of the freshly-plowed south pasture anytime. Bob impatiently stomped through the damp earth toward the Thompson Farm.
Telekinesis for Beginners by Michelle Lee
At the ripe age of 21, Ariel lives in failure of that first step. She’s filing papers now, an administrative assistant at the Dropbox headquarters in the heart of Silicon Valley. She watches the computer engineers check in and out behind the front desk on the third floor, and all day this plagues her with a sense of inadequacy. She thinks about her upbringing in an upper-middle class
Disclosure optional by Keith Nunes
A middle-aged guy in a dark jacket and a patterned shirt sitting at a bar, a woman of a similar age in a deep purple dress walks over and sits next to him.
Trapped In A Bottle by Ruben Michael Molina
The sun sizzled the soft tanned skin of Alison Bailey, as she lay comfortably on her favorite azure beach towel; the soft gurgle of the ocean tide lulling her into a peaceful slumber. The beach was a place that Alison visited when felt the world shatter around her, when the gratifying constants of her
The Storm by Kristin Leprich
My brother speaks to me in a hushed tone, as if the shaking echo of a louder voice might break the sight in front of us. We sit on top of the tallest hill in our plain Midwestern subdivision, surveying the damage
The Magic Spot
The Magic Spot: A story inspired by Giorgio de Chirico’s “The Melancholy of a Beautiful Day” He lay in the grassy median of a road which bounded one side of a large inner-city university. How he had come there, nobody knew. From his looks, though, his path had been a cruel one. His body showed the signs of a life wracked by insupportable pain. His face was hollow and sallow,
Strutters’ Ball by Barry Basden
Strutters’ Ball by Barry Basden Cleaning out my father’s things I found an old black and white photo, one I’d never seen before. Hidden away all these years. The photo was taken in some kind of hall, a gentlemen’s club perhaps. Joyless carpet, somber wainscoting, a small mirror propped on its rail. Patterned wallpaper and…
Escape by Murdock O’Mooney
Escape by Murdock O’Mooney “We got to get out of here,” I tell her. She tells me she knows and that she’s waiting for the right time. “You saw what he did to Johnny- he’s got a black eye and fat lip… he’s all beat up.” She says that it’s none of our business. I…
A Quick Twist by Patrick Hanford
Patrick Hanford is a short story author and has been published in Heater Magazine and Elite Critiques Magazine. He is a member of Caprock Writer’s Association and has published on their website.
Chasing Zero by Jean Ryan
Garret has a head cold. Naturally he’s in a foul mood. His world has stopped
Taming the Devil by Chris Martin
Since her mother left and they moved into that old Victorian home, Martin saw his daughter, Eva, change drastically.