Stories

Death.It came one evening when everyone else was sleeping. It crawled in the dark outside, hissing along the night winds that were shaking leaves and branches … [Read more...] about Story: Hanging by Beaton Galafa

The little boy could hardly keep his eyes open. He lay on his Uncle’s lap during the subway ride home. He always liked resting his head on his lap; it was safe there. He looked up at the ceiling of the train and stared at its empty space. … [Read more...] about Story: Spirit in the Subway by Mark Tulin

“It came out positive.”“You’re kidding!”It would seem so. The news was surprising to Ruth because Sandra was old. Not Betty White old, but easily old enough to be Ruth’s mom. … [Read more...] about Story: Delivery by Denis Bell

Little Mrs. Sommers one day found herself the unexpected possessor of fifteen dollars. It seemed to her a very large amount of money, and the way in which it stuffed and bulged her worn old porte-monnaie gave her a feeling of importance such as she had not enjoyed for years. … [Read more...] about A Pair of Silk Stockings by Kate Chopin

Invisible boundaries. The gum lines of aggressive brushers. Chins, if you’re a Hapsburg. The stamped fingerprints of once white shoes. Synthetic beards on aging tires, eroding like rootless rubber hillsides. Reflections of home in the rearview window. Oil on a hot pan, a screaming, droplet army retreating in disarray. … [Read more...] about Story: Things That Recede with Time by Lauren Howlett

She ran away from home, and Pastor Bruce was dismayed after talking with her mother. Her mother said she’d been sullen for the last month or so, and even the school nurse called once. Her daughter wouldn’t tell her what was wrong, and she asked Pastor Bruce … [Read more...] about Story: Retreat by Jack Coey

The Gift of the Magi One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher … [Read more...] about The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry

The Steadfast Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen There were once five and twenty tin soldiers. They were brothers, for they had all been made out of the same old tin spoon. They all shouldered their bayonets, held themselves upright, and looked straight before them. Their uniforms were very smart-looking—red and blue—and very splendid. The first thing they heard in the world, … [Read more...] about Story: The Steadfast Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen

“Are you going to be my new daddy?” she asked directly.“I don’t know,” he said, looking down at the flowery dress squirming beside him on the edge of the living room couch. “I like your mom, but to get married you have to really, really like each other.” … [Read more...] about Story: Helping Me Up by Bruce Ransom

“Here you go Missy.” Elizabeth hears her daughter say as she enters the kitchen. Brooklyn is sitting at the table, pouring milk into the empty glass in the seat beside her. … [Read more...] about My Daughter’s Best Friend by Michelle Reynolds

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. … [Read more...] about Story: The Birthmark by Loretta Martin

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. … [Read more...] about Story: Monday the 28th of August By Dean MacAllister

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. … [Read more...] about Horror Story: Night of Fire and Glass

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. … [Read more...] about 500 Word Horror Contest Entry: Footloose by E. W. Farnsworth

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 … [Read more...] about Story: Disclosure optional by Keith Nunes

On his bench in Madison Square Soapy moved uneasily. When wild geese honk high of nights, and when women without sealskin coats grow kind to their husbands, and when Soapy moves uneasily on his bench in the park, you may know that winter is near at hand. … [Read more...] about Story: The Cop and the Anthem by O. Henry

Describe the storm for me, would you?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,or, in his case, the heavenly view. Tornado warnings had been striking our area for ten hours yesterday, … [Read more...] about Story: The Storm by Kristin Leprich

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, … [Read more...] about Story: Trapped In A Bottle by Ruben Michael Molina

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. … [Read more...] about Story: The Magic Spot

Monsieur Lantin had met the young girl at a reception at the house of the second head of his department, and had fallen head over heels in love with her. … [Read more...] about THE FALSE GEMS by Guy De Maupassant