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The Darkest Point of Night

Winner of Weekly Contest #354 🏆

Every bit of starlight we see is ancient. The night sky is a tapestry of twinkling relics flung across millions of lightyears, eons from when they first burned. Even after a star dies, its light may linger for eternities as it travels across the cosmos, like the last strains of a song still echoing after the players cease. To gaze into the night is to be haunted by a bygone universe. Back home, even the light of the sun had to embark on an eight-minute journey across millions of miles to caress the face of earth. To think, I once basked i...

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The Snake That Killed Eurydice

Alli Kennelly

Winner of Weekly Contest #353 🏆

The widows’ pity gnaws at me. Their puffed lower lips, the downturned corners of their red eyes. I take a crooked pleasure in it, a masochist for their biting glances. For the first time in my life, I’m proud of the youthful chunk of my cheeks. Makes me look sadder, more innocent. I’m the youngest woman here by twenty years, which of course means my storm cloud’s the grayest. They’ll think that’s why I look so thin, so dog-tired. Do feel sorry for me, won’t you? Their stares would be sharper if they knew what I’d done to be here. But that’s ...

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Black and White

VJ Hamilton

Winner of Weekly Contest #352 🏆

CW: Police harassment They slouched in the flickering darkness, watching the final credits. For two hours, Mark Dirac had shared part of the universe with Blanche, breathing in her wild-rose scent, listening more to her small creaturely noises than to Marlene Dietrich’s sexy alto in the German movie, The Blue Angel. Two hours of bliss. Oh sure, he had worried a little about his body, about not mouth-breathing and not tongue-smacking, and not being overcome by the occasional ahem hardening that he had learned to disperse by thinking about sol...

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Samantha Strolls in Silver Fields

Jamie Campbell

Winner of Weekly Contest #351 🏆

A demigod of rock thrust his guitar pick down in one final stroke, and the Stratocaster screamed under the arena’s flashing strobes, a thunderous roll of drums finishing behind him. Uproarious applause exploded from the crowd. He gazed out at them, raking sweaty tendrils of hair from his face, letting the applause crash over him in staggered waves. In the light of the strobes, dozens of young women with Hollywood faces screamed at him, their eyes aglow with lust, hands groping at the stage.BEEP.He had played perfectly, and in that moment, he...

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Pending

F Barraud

Winner of Weekly Contest #350 🏆

A few years ago, a new law was enacted: ‘It is forbidden to open an animal’. No one had thought about surgeries. When an annoying journalist raised the issue during the press conference, the committee replied that the solution was simple: We just had to miniaturize humans so they could operate from the inside.***Now, everything was ready to operate on the ginger cat. The suit was set. Pressure: OK. Temperature adjustment: stable. Compressed air: OK.Once Lisa was miniaturized, she could be swallowed by the tomcat. The most difficult job for A...

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The Milk Upstream — Hannah’s Diary

Scott Christenson

Winner of Weekly Contest #349 🏆

My hands were shaking worse than usual the day Todd Schultz first noticed me. Not from nerves, but from the milk. Twenty years of living downstream could do that to anyone.It all started when I was refilling the punch bowl at the Elkhart Lake community center's monthly dance night when he lumbered over. “I’m Todd. I’ve heard about you.”“What have you heard?”“That you're from downstream,” he said. “And that downstream girls know how to keep a man happy. That true?”I smiled the way that mom taught me, small and grateful. “I guess that depends ...

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Iteration #458

Ariel Sanchez

Winner of Weekly Contest #348 🏆

Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump. The first sound that greeted her when she awoke was her own heartbeat. The second sound was a squealing mechanical whir. Her eyes (so heavy, so tired) drifted to the source of the noise: robotic appendages with drills and pliers and other tools affixed to the end of them. They retreated from her to metal poles that surrounded her bed. A bed? She didn’t remember a bed when she last fell asleep. No, she remembered blue skies, ambulance sirens in the distance, and an excruciating pain in her legs. The memory prompt...

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Blindsight

Saifullah Usmani

Winner of Weekly Contest #347 🏆

I wish I never got my sight back.That thought crossed my mind sitting outside the hospital, in the green Chevrolet Camaro my father left me. The sun rose, bathing the city in its warm glow, but my body still felt cold. The smell of old leather and the hard steering wheel under my hand take me back to just a few months ago when I drove it for the first time. Right after I had my surgery for Retinitis Pigmentosa.To be clear, I hadn’t lost my sight completely, I was just in the process of losing it. I’ve had the condition ever since I got glass...

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The Road That Has No End – Mariah Lightening’s Last Interview

Khaya Cohen

Winner of Weekly Contest #346 🏆

The Road That Has No End - Mariah Lightening’s Last InterviewAs the curtains close on a life and career, the 54 year old rockstar gives her final statements to her beloved fans and staunch critics. She’s hardly recognizable. The once powerfully strong build that performed olympic level dives off arena stages is now an amalgamation of flimsy bones on a hospital bed. Her iconic glittery unitard has been replaced by a gown. The only music in Mariah Lightening’s presence these days is the beeping and groaning of her dialysis machine. She’s bee...

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Windows to the Soul

Helen Tynan

Winner of Weekly Contest #345 🏆

I ring the doorbell, my suitcase hunkered beside me on the footpath, a black, sullen thing. After a few moments, the door swings open. Jane, my eldest, looks surprised to see me. “Mam,” she says. “What are you doing here?” No how lovely to see you or I’ve missed you. She hasn’t come to see me once since she left, years ago. She eyes my suitcase on the pavement. “I’ve come to stay,” I say simply. “Stay?” she says, not understanding. “With me?” I nod. “For the weekend?” she says. I shake my head. “For as long as you’ll have me.” We look at ...

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An Ode to the Archduke

Riley Furey

Winner of Weekly Contest #344 🏆

June 27th, 1914: Today started out like any other day. I was a bit hungover from grabbing a drink and going to the cinema the night before, and it still never ceases to amaze me how well the real world can be captured in a black and white film. The headache that has already begun to plague me was expected, and most certainly worth it. After rolling out of the bed, I dipped my head below the faucet and drank what felt like at least two liters of water. My morning routine as of late has consisted of eating eggs with a dash of salt and paprika,...

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Forgiveness

Harry Stuart

Winner of Weekly Contest #343 🏆

Wasted moments are sins. I am cursed by each one that I have slung with casual indifference. Her smile broken by my temperament. My thoughtless disregard. Instead of being hollowed out by regret, the fear stirs and sinks its claws into what is left of me that feels.I can’t see.Backing out of the driveway, the light refracts. It is stunted by the heaviness of drifting clouds. I grip the steering wheel tighter, knowing I have no choice but the road ahead. The weakness of my brother-in-law. Summoning me to the hospital to be the one to render t...

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By any other name

Katy H

Winner of Weekly Contest #342 🏆

First of all, it's the loan of a pen.The kid is a transfer in, a scrawny bag of knees and elbows deposited into 10PT by the hands of fate. Jacob gave him a friendly smile on the first day, aware of how easy it is to get lost in the unforgiving sea of humanity that is East Rothman Comp, but all he got back was a thousand yard stare. Fear, perhaps, rather than unfriendliness, but he hasn't been motivated to try again. Not until now.It's something about the kid's reaction that draws him in. It's not unknown to stick a hand in a rucksack and fai...

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The Fish

SJ Lamo

Winner of Weekly Contest #341 🏆

The water was clear and bright. After days in the shade, sunlight now cut through the rough surface, sending shimmering rays dancing across the rocky bed of the river, and illuminating the patches of bright green algae that carpeted the rocks of deeper, slower pools. The fish gained speed, then hurled herself above the water line, over the rocks that created a minor fall in the river. Above the water line, the fish did not notice that the land here held only a remnant of the forest. The riverbank was open, aside from a still-developing layer...

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Six Home Runs

Rick Jones

Winner of Weekly Contest #340 🏆

VIDEO: Most Valuable S3E7 “Six Home Runs” air: 6 October 2016 dir. Henry Yang CAROLYN GENNARO: Welcome to “Most Valuable” on Showtime, interviewing the athletes at the heart of the greatest moments in sports. This week, we discuss one of the most remarkable performances in Major League Baseball’s long history of postseason heroics; Ryan Mercier’s unprecedented display of power in the 1994 World Series. We’re here in Ryan’s home in Glendale, California. Ryan, thanks so much for having us. (Ryan Mercier nods at the camera and shifts in his ch...

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Negative Capability

Grace Giddings

Winner of Weekly Contest #339 🏆

[Online Order #32249 LARGE Iced Americano. EXTRA Mint syrup]Ronny sighed, staring at the mobile ticket printer spewing sticker after sticker with the obscene confidence of something that would never need to stretch its wrists or call out sick. The tickets came out as warm, adhesive-backed little decrees, other people’s desires rendered legible, monetizable, and, for the most part, stupid.It wasn’t that she didn’t like being a barista. She was grateful, in the way a person is grateful for oxygen: not sentimental, just aware of what it costs t...

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The Super Pals

Michael Gattis

Winner of Weekly Contest #338 🏆

Have you ever slept through your alarm and had to skip breakfast? Have you ever wished for more protein in the morning than what bland oatmeal could provide? Have you ever been stranded in the woods, starving, with nothing but a raw egg? If you answered “yes” to at least one of these questions, Lenny Livingston could have helped. You see, Lenny had a superpower. …Well, it was less a superpower, and more a “specific issue resolver.” Lenny Livingston could [insert drumroll here] fry an egg under any circumstances, provided he had a frying pan ...

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The Bends

Nina Chyll

Winner of Weekly Contest #337 🏆

_October 10, 1045 Earth EST, 1920.2 Europa LST_Dear Bob, this is going be so bizarre for you to read, but I am 35 now, have rewritten this LSM at least a hundred times, and you have a 6-year-old daughter. I am so sorry you are finding out this way. People here have recommended I help you acclimatise with what you may experience. Confusion, anger, bittersweetness (apparently this is a legitimate feeling), regret, or maybe disappointment (this will depend on whether you feel like you have done something wrong — regret, or whether you will feel...

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The Fifth Treatise of a Scurvy Cur, 1747

Avery Sparks

Winner of Weekly Contest #336 🏆

An introduction to the collection as presented by The British Library, 3 January, 2026. Captain Judah Lind’s diary entries have been an object of some historical interest since their composition in 1747. They tell the story of a minor yet highly consequential moment of discord in British naval history, and the enduring mystery which followed thereafter. For over two-hundred and fifty years, the same question has occupied the imagination and official enquiry: what was the fate of Fabian Calloway? Following this voyage of HMS Rival, this myste...

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Wax/Off

Christopher C

Winner of Weekly Contest #335 🏆

“I’m going to start this confession as plainly as I can: if you can think of a better way to rob a wax museum, I am ALL ears.” The arresting officer cocked his head back in the front seat of the police cruiser, glancing at the man behind him in a full Elvis Presley outfit. There was no way it was going to be THAT easy. “So that’s it? That’s a confession then?” he asked the suspect in the back seat. The man in the back of the cruiser raised his arms, the bedazzled sequins jangling off his jacket with every movement. “Buddy, take one look at m...

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The Bear Necessities of Contract Law

Troy Phillips

Winner of Weekly Contest #334 🏆

Goldilocks Lockwood v. Bear FamilySmall Claims Court, Woodland DistrictCase No. 2024-SC-0847Transcript of the Plaintiff's Opening Statement THE COURT: Ms. Lockwood, you may proceed with your statement.MS. LOCKWOOD: Thank you, Your Honor.[Sound of papers shuffling]My name is Goldilocks Lockwood. I am a licensed house-sitting professional, bonded and insured, operating in the Forest District for the past five years. I hold certification number 4721-GL from the Forest District Professional Standards Board, and I am a dues-paying member in good ...

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Peel and Core

Keba Ghardt

Winner of Weekly Contest #333 🏆

I always knew it was you.You don’t know how beautiful you are. You think no one would look at you without the kohl on your face, the gold in your hair, the corset cinched around your vanishing center. You thought coming here with a cloak on bent shoulders would make me see a crone, as if your unpainted skin held one single wrinkle. If you walked through the village instead of the wood, men would fight for the right to propose to you. Without any of the trappings and rituals you feel forced to maintain, you would still be the most beautiful t...

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Slippery Nonsense and Other Atmospheric Crimes

Michelle James

Winner of Weekly Contest #332 🏆

They say the British complain about the weather at least three times a day.Personally, I consider that an underestimation bordering on slander.I complain about the weather the way other people hydrate: constantly, instinctively, and with a faint sense of moral duty.It’s one of my most finely honed talents, practically a calling.Too hot. Too cold. Too windy. Not windy enough.The drizzle is rude. The cloud cover is smug. The frost feels judgmental.Some people complain recreationally. I complain as if the climate owes me money.Until last Tuesda...

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First Snow

Mark Kodak

Winner of Weekly Contest #331 🏆

The first snow began in the small hours, noiseless, without ceremony. By the time Ruth woke, the world at the window had turned to winter. The sky pressed low over the mountain bowl, a porcelain hush of blue shadows. She took her time to sit up. Her joints felt the weather before she did. A dull ache in her knees and an old pain in her collarbone reminded her of a fall on ice.The window fogged with her breath as she leaned close. Below the cabin, the slope dropped away into fir and aspen, their trunks lifting out of the new snow. The creek i...

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TAG

Elizabeth Hoban

Winner of Weekly Contest #330 🏆

TAG The jungle never slept. The air buzzed, especially at night. Danny got used to distant gunfire, but in his dark bunk, the most paralyzing was the unknown. An invisible dread that wrapped around a man’s throat and whispered, Morning will never come for you. The guys only knew each other for a few months. Yet, since their tour of duty began, together they’d survived oppressive heat, monsoons and mudslides, mortar fire, and the soft murmurs of uncertain prayers and stifled sobs while hiding in foxholes. They just wanted to go home but when ...

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Thousands of Short Stories to Read Online

Featured recently

The Darkest Point of Night

The Snake That Killed Eurydice

Black and White

Samantha Strolls in Silver Fields

Pending

The Milk Upstream — Hannah’s Diary

Iteration #458

Blindsight

The Road That Has No End – Mariah Lightening’s Last Interview

Windows to the Soul

An Ode to the Archduke

Forgiveness

By any other name

The Fish

Six Home Runs

Negative Capability

The Super Pals

The Bends

The Fifth Treatise of a Scurvy Cur, 1747

Wax/Off

The Bear Necessities of Contract Law

Peel and Core

Slippery Nonsense and Other Atmospheric Crimes

First Snow

TAG

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