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Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of fiction short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

150+ Fiction Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. If you’re looking for the best fiction short stories to read online, we’ve got you covered. Wide-ranging and ever-curious, these free short stories will meet your reading needs.

Fiction Short Stories – Page 3 of 10

Born, Bound, Blind

Submitted to Contest #330

Born not to you, nor yours alike, a seldom-seen spirit roams the castle in the dead of night. Rough, cobblestoned walls and sturdy armored guards did not stop the wild nature of a child and the spirit from wreaking havoc upon the old castle. The castle’s weary walls laughed at their juvenile antics as its residents watched in confusion, wondering who the young heir was talking to. Paying no heed to the foolishness and dismissing it as the vast imagination of youth, they let the two be, happy to let the prince have his fun. The two in questio...

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Sales

Submitted to Contest #330

“Do you know how to turn this on?” my new coworker asked, her head peering from behind the gray, flimsy panel that separated us. She seemed to be in her mid-twenties, like myself. It took me a moment to process the unexpected query. Putting my smartphone down, I deduced she meant the computer. “The on button is underneath the screen on the right,” I responded, facing her. “Alrighty, let’s see,” she said, her head disappearing into the cubicle. Perfect silence followed. Curious, I was going to swing around to check when she exclaimed, “Found...

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Venus

Submitted to Contest #330

Venus The youth dropped to the base of the old yew tree. He needed to rest. Earlier that morning, he had risen from his bed after having a dream in which he had found something near that very same tree, something that he had been thinking about for a long time. So, after changing from his shabby brown pajamas to his plain white shirt and wrinkled brown trousers, the youth set off on foot in the direction of the forest, north of his small abode. It was a journey he had taken a hundred, perhaps several hundred times since his childhood, and h...

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Smuggler of First Smiles

Submitted to Contest #330

By the time Cormac found the building, the rain had settled into a steady whisper on the cobblestones, soft as someone sharing secrets they didn’t expect to be believed.Rue Chimay ran narrow between old stone walls, the kind holding centuries of damp. The bakery on the corner—Boulangerie du Marché—had already drawn in its café chairs, though the smell of butter and coffee still leaked through the seam of the door. Above it, a row of leaded windows glowed yellow — her apartment.He climbed the worn steps with the crate strap digging into his s...

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The Proposal

Submitted to Contest #330

“My darling, I will love you forever.”Myles whispers with a quivering voice, desperately gazing into my eyes. His excitement quickly turns to fear as I maintain my frozen disposition, which shifts from a gasp to silence. My voice eventually cracks as a small squeak fills the air, but I still don't say yes. His smile fades as he sees the hesitation. He glances briefly at the crowd that begins to gather around us, eager for a "Yes!"Myles, still down on one knee, clings to the ring box, waiting for the one word to escape my lips that will chang...

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Beasts of Unburden

Submitted to Contest #330

It snowed until the body was covered good and proper. I saw the bloody trail arrowed towards the forest and tried to convince myself not to go after it. Yes, I had a shotgun, and no, I didn’t know how to use it well. I was made to reload, clean, and aim it at some coke cans a few weeks before, but been given no opportunity to release its thunder since. I couldn’t be sure what had killed the fox. My feet ached to go outside and after the mystery, so instead I got up to make a cup of tea to keep myself occupied. I distrusted the momentum the b...

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Northern winds

Submitted to Contest #330

"What about her?" The girl was wearing a long, cherry-red gown and a similar shade of blush on her cheeks. Her posture was a little stiff and her demeanour anxious, but her smile was charming and her features innocent. "Ah, too ordinary." Sam leaned casually against the balcony railing, just like her. They adopted each other's posture, a glass of champagne in their hands, watching the crowd dance, drink, and chat easily in the night. Most of the girls were dressed in vibrant colours, choosing shades that matched their aura or perceived mood....

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Just In Case

Submitted to Contest #330

It’s not the saying goodbye that’s hard. It’s the letting go. I tell myself, if I didn’t come to check the post, burglars would guess no one was home and ransack the place. Not that there’s anything worth breaking in for. Unless they like the smell of dusty cabbages or they’ve got a thing for incontinence pads and denture fix. Who knows, we live in a strange world. But I come to check. Just in case. When the front door closed behind me, I hadn't planned on staying. Just popped in to check the fridge had been emptied. The milk would smell ba...

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Home for the Holidays

Submitted to Contest #330

"Where did Tim go?" Mark asked."I think he wanted to put his leftovers in his car," I said.Everyone was home on break. We called and texted one another to get plans together for the evening. There was an old Italian restaurant that was known for having a duck-pin bowling alley in its basement. They were also known for having meatballs that were about a third of a pound apiece. The name of the game was to order spaghetti with the meatball and marinara and then smash the meatball or slice it or whatever. Everyone had a method for tackling the ...

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The Waiting Lot

Submitted to Contest #330

The airport waiting lot was a gravel patch under a sky the color of wet cement. Rain tapped out an unsteady rhythm on the roof of Liam’s beat-up sedan, making the world outside look blurry and inconclusive, which felt appropriate.Maya was perched on the passenger seat, not really sitting, but suspended, halfway between the leather and the future. Her carry-on bag, a garishly purple monstrosity she’d named ‘The Monster,’ sat importantly between her feet.​“Are you sure you have enough charge on your earbuds for the first leg?” Liam asked, his ...

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Lair of The Abyss OR "Are we done yet? My feet really hurt."

Submitted to Contest #330

"Oh, you can't be serious. I am the star of this production, you know." "Cut!" Matte Lorrie—as is clearly stated in his email signature—Assistant Product Development Manager at Razr Wyre Studios and erstwhile director of the above referenced production, the soon to be released Lair of The Abyss, second installment in the Abyssian Chronicles series of video games, turned to his co-worker and assistant for the day, Lissa Andrelio, and sighed. "Lissa, I can't. I mean I just can't." "Matte, I get it," she said, holding her iPad close to her ches...

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Heat and Teeth

Submitted to Contest #330

The skin on my neck felt hot and sticky. The smell of teen body odor and years of lingering lunches all melded together to create one giant wall of public high school funk. The overload hit me hard, and I blacked out for a second in the school hallway. People think southern California can’t get hot because it’s close to the ocean, but it can. We’re not all ocean breezeway adjacent, so when the Santa Ana winds come in, and you’re surrounded by asphalt, concrete and poverty, it gets hot. And it’s even hotter in overcrowded, underfunded city sc...

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Taking The Shot

Submitted to Contest #330

Finally, they were outside and away from the Saturday night crowd. Erik reached out his hand, his back to the midnight energy of U Street, and signaled Auri to come over to him with an underpalmed wave. The lights from inside the club reflected off the tears that began to well.“When you’re ready,” Auri said with a sororal softness.Erik took his sleeve and wiped away any traces of sadness coming from his eyes. “God, I haven’t had a cigarette in forever,” as he looked at some guy, not much older than him, face dimly lit by his phone as he scro...

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1907

Submitted to Contest #330

I don’t like waiting. If it were my choice, people would always just leave at the right time, so they get to wherever they want to go when they are supposed to be there, and no one would have to wait. Mom and I took a taxi here. I always like to go for a ride. That waiting isn’t bad. There’s a lot to look at when you’re riding in a car, although this car ride is getting old now. We’ve done it so many times that I think I’ve seen everything there is to see by now. Everything on the way that is. Ever since we started coming here, I’ve been wan...

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Rooms

Submitted to Contest #330

There were no words to be had. None that could accurately and completely describe the true depths to which my heart had been inflicted with their disappearance. They did not come home. I was alone, and it was my new reality. It settled over me with the slow certainty of something that would not lift. Something that I did not choose but was thrust onto me with little regard for how irrevocable orphanhood was. I needed them. And, they were taken from me. When I entered our home for the first time since they left me, it all felt… off. The hom...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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