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Write a story where a small action from the past has had a huge effect on the future.

Posted in Short Story on Nov 7, 2025

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✍️ 48 stories

The Loop

Submitted to Contest #328

15 October 2025 – 11:08 PMChronos Data Systems – Lab 4 The lab always felt sharper at night. Maya Patel, the techy geek, badge-tapped into Lab 4 and exhaled. She was currently the in-charge of systems security attached to the Quantum Computer Q-9; and before heading home, she decided to check the lab once more. Her AI assistant Lana had reminded her to reach home early as it was Riley’s birthday the next day and her husband William’s tech start-up had just got an investor. She dropped her bag at her desk and and glanced across the room. Jaso...

41 likes 37 comments 37
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The Hourglass

Submitted to Contest #328

According to the guide, this had been Agnes Ganley’s bedroom. The young visitor — about the same age Agnes had been when she lived here — paused before a framed picture: a cluster of mostly older women in dark cotton dresses, looking fiercely solemn. She was drawn to the woman in the back row, and not just because she was younger. There was something about the fragile yet resilient figure; she was holding an hourglass that looked like the one on the walnut chest of drawers standing next to the window. Typically Edwardian, the drawers had swa...

30 likes 24 comments 24
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A Matter of Minutes

Submitted to Contest #328

A Matter of Minutes The September sunlight streaming through the window carrying the promise of a new day seemed to mock Isabel. When the plus-sign on the test-stick bloomed bright blue in less than a minute, she slumped against the cool porcelain vanity, certain her heart would box its way through her ribcage. She'd attributed her increasingly vague maladies to the same hereditary disease that robbed her of a mother when she was just three. For years, she'd been complacent about getting genetic testing, and this unknown shadow trolling her ...

23 likes 22 comments 22
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Breakwater

Submitted to Contest #328

The book had not been there before. Caleb was certain of that. By the time he reached the shoreline, it was well past ten. The air gnawed his joints with a chill that ate at his soul. Above, dusk lingered, not quite night or day, like a dream he couldn’t wake from. He spotted the backpack right where the hiker had described it: twenty feet from the slough, half swallowed by silt. The book was another matter. It did not appear in any of the photographs, certainly not in the evidence log. Small and leather-bound, it looked like the sort of thi...

13 likes 12 comments 12
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Past, Present, Future

Submitted to Contest #328

This story contains death and depression. The Past. I thought my life was over when I realized I was 5 months pregnant. My love life was over when I told my boyfriend. My social life was over when I delivered the baby. The Present. I wish my life was over. I’m laying in a hospital bed. My leg is broken. My arm is broken. My will is broken. The Future. The doctors say that I am healing. They say they will discharge me. They say the bruises will fade. My boyfriend thought my body was disgusting when I gained weight (turns out I was growing a h...

11 likes 9 comments 9
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The Table

Submitted to Contest #328

The dining room waits in reverent silence as the afternoon light spills through the west-facing windows, illuminating dust specks that dance above the space’s centerpiece: a massive table that has served four generations of my family. The wood glows amber under the fading sun, its surface worn smooth by years of use. A series of curved indentations along one edge where pencils had pressed too hard during homework sessions, water rings from countless glasses, and in one corner, a small carved lettering that looks like initials, which is nearl...

10 likes 2 comments 2
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The Last Lighthouse

Submitted to Contest #328

Kaelren stood on the upper terrace of the lighthouse. The setting sun painted the sea blood-red, and the cliffs as well. White foam crashed against the rocks below, outlining every jagged edge—a warning to any who strayed too near of the fate that awaited them.This stretch of coast was every sailor’s nightmare, and it wasn’t called the Witches’ Claws for its shape alone. Few had ever slipped from its grasp.That was why the light had to be kept alive—to keep ships from drifting too close. This week, it was Kaelren’s duty to tend the flame and...

10 likes 2 comments 2
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THE STORY ABOUT NOW

Submitted to Contest #328

Once upon a time, in the land of windy shines, a timeless mind called Now wondered where it truly belonged. It was a strange kind of being in a tiny kingdom made of light and wind, and it never felt like the others. Something in its existence was always unfinished—as if one breath were missing to feel alive. The kingdom was full of shimmering souls, born from winds and shines, each carrying the rhythm of time inside them—except Now. Past, the mother held gentle warmth in her soul; she loved with softness and memory. Future, the father, carri...

10 likes 9 comments 9
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The Future Writes Itself

Submitted to Contest #328

I remember when I first started taking notice. It was after the resurgency of the self-help genre at the turn of the century. No one else batted an eyelid. After all, we were the snowflake generation. The Millennial. Too wrought and sensitive to deal with our baggage alone. Too meek and self-obsessed to cope with the cruel hard world we lived in. Not without some instruction at least. So it made perfect sense that publishers would push this stuff, and it was certainly consumed in abundance.Within a few years their focus turned from self-love...

10 likes 2 comments 2
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The House of Blyth

Submitted to Contest #328

Galfrid Blyth looked past his campfire to the stars, his sword resting over his knees and reflecting the dancing light. Henry Blyth lit a cigarette, illuminating the night for a moment, before tossing the empty matchbook into the mud and repositioning his rifle against his shoulder. Kalfrit Blyth slid the dial on his utility bracer to push a white glow out into the void, flicking his wrist to set his repeater into his grip. Each rested on the eve of war. “Are you shittin’ your pants, Galfrid!?” A gruff voice bellowed. Shortly followed by Bol...

10 likes 6 comments 6
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Of Bykes and Men

Submitted to Contest #328

My momma is the prettiest lady in our church. I know because I checked. On Sunday mornin, my daddy tells me to sit still and quit wigglin so much, but I like to look around. Other ladies in church are nice— some of them wear pretty hats, and some smile real kind to me, even on account a my bein white trash. But my momma’s the prettiest of all. She smells like apple pie and fried chicken and coffee, and when she hugs you, you feel like a little ducklin safe in its nest.Her hair is long and curly like mine, and she wraps it up in a scarf so’s ...

10 likes 6 comments 6
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Tug

Submitted to Contest #328

He became a giant ship sometime around his thirty-eighth birthday. Floating in the harbor, a doctor arrived to examine him. The doctor was having an affair with his wife, but he was also the only medical professional in the city who specialized in maritime transformation. The affair was a short one anyway. It had begun a month earlier when he and his wife decided they didn’t want children. He began to feel an itch down near his right knee, and his wife began to commit infidelity. The doctor wasn’t her only paramour, but he was her favorite. ...

9 likes 5 comments 5
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Retribution

Submitted to Contest #328

"I know what you did." On the other side of the slatted confessional wall, Father David drew back reflexively, head swiveling in surprise toward the voice of the hidden penitent, whose confession was to be the last of the day. The voice was feminine, young, carried a hint of formative years spent below the Mason-Dixon line. "Excuse me?" he said. "Do you wish to confess?" Performing the Sacrament of Reconciliation was relatively new to the novice priest, and he still felt a certain unease about the process, a fee...

9 likes 2 comments 2
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Farewell at Sunset.

Submitted to Contest #328

CW: Substance abuse, mental health Sunset beamed its glory over the floral tributes for Asher. Several mourners were still openly grieving the demise of an iconic gospel muso and songwriter. There stood Benjamin, old buddy, with his son at his side, and also his wife. Kelsey had on a bitter face, full of regrets, and so did Benjamin. He was reflecting on all that joint history, from the time he had first met Asher in primary school.The two lads and Kelsey had attended a Christian college, with formal discipline and firm teachings. Kelsey had...

8 likes 2 comments 2
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All the Bells that Ever Were

Submitted to Contest #328

The Funeral and the Voicemail The bells had been ringing all morning, a slow metallic heartbeat drifting over Ljubljana. Mira Kralj stood beside the open grave, coat collar turned up against the drizzle, and wondered if the sound would ever stop. The priest’s voice blurred with the rain; words fell like small stones into the mud. Her mother’s name — Marija Kralj, 1954–2025 — shone briefly on the wet marble before the first shovelful of earth dulled it. Someone touched her arm; she nodded without seeing who. The scent of candle wax and damp w...

8 likes 3 comments 3
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