Menu

More apps built by Reedsy

reedsymarketplace

Assemble a team of professionals

reedsystudio

The writing app for authors

reedsylearning

Writing courses, events and memberships

reedsydiscovery

Get your book reviewed

reedsyprompts

Weekly writing prompts and contests

Menu

Prompts

Contests

Stories

Blog

Featured stories

Activity feed

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 5 of 10

A Curse of Pleasantries

Mary Knutson

Weekly Contest #354

The front door hung crooked on its hinges, but it kept the wind and rain out so Maggie supposed it worked well enough. She grabbed the basked off the counter and, with a firm tug on the door behind her, stepped into the dappled sunlight. Green leaves glistened with last night’s rain and fallen twigs crunched softly underfoot as she made her way through the small, wooded yard leading towards the muddy path into town. Light danced through the small gaps in the trees above as the birds and squirrels chittered their morning tune. It couldn’t h...

2 likes

Read story

Under the Obsidian Beaches

Luis Mabel

Weekly Contest #354

I was never fond of the ocean.My brother often went when he felt lonely or distraught. He said it calmed him listening to the pulse of the waves. “Just listen,” he told me. “You’ll find an answer there.” I tried for endless years. I waited in silence, or in uproar, and yet the same lapping was indifferent to my demeanor. I left with less patience than before, so I stopped going. I stopped going to a lot of things now that I think of it. Time passed with more sympathy than the sea. At least for a while.Words cannot express why I wandered down...

0 likes

Read story

The Architect

Jessica Schoelkoph

Weekly Contest #354

They say we grieve to the depth that we love, but how do I grieve someone who isn't dead?***Xavier and I met in our freshman year of college. He was from Iowa and I from Idaho, and we bonded over the fact that no one can ever correctly identify either of our states on a map. We were both in the architecture program at Cornell University, and when the opportunity to study abroad came up during our senior year, we jumped at the chance. Wanting to make the most of our time and limited cash, we chose a school in Florence, Italy because of the we...

5 likes

Read story

Jenny

David Poslad

Weekly Contest #354

CW: misogyny, stalking, femicide Up-down. Up-down. The man’s knee was trembling, shivering as if to a high up-beat. With his worn-out sneakers and his green hoodie, the guy in front of officer Mile couldn’t be older than twenty. His jet-black hair was sticking to his sweaty forehead, his eyes not darting around the room, as most one’s do, but instead fixed on an imaginary point somewhere in the corner of the small office. Maybe he was looking at the huge black spider that made it into the office a few days ago and that officer Mile just cou...

0 likes

Read story

The Cost of Returning Home

Ashley Faust

Weekly Contest #354

“Welcome home, Lieutenant. We’re glad to have you back.”The captain flashes his teeth, and in return I offer a wide grin. Home. When I left this place, I imagined this moment would feel triumph, relief, pride, and accomplishment. I completed my mission and proved to my superiors that I possess the discipline and intelligence required to rise through the ranks. I should feel honored standing here again beneath the sterile lights the captains office.Instead, all I can think about is him. Without him, this place no longer feels like home. It fe...

2 likes

Read story

Four For Elba

Michael Jefferson

Weekly Contest #354

“Can’t you loosen these cuffs, Robert? They’re cutting off my circulation,” Cisco McGraw grouses.Robert’s steely blue eyes crinkle in frustration. A herculean seven feet tall, the immense A.I. security guard has the rugged features of a no-nonsense jailor. By contrast, Bridget, the Aeolus’ A.I. pilot, has the silken redhaired appearance of a hip twenty-something. But like Robert, she will not deviate from her mission to bring her passengers to the prison planet Elba.“Per EarthWorld Security’s rules of incarceration, all prisoners must be hel...

3 likes

Read story

Renewed Hope: Project Restoration

Megan Black

Weekly Contest #354

Renee tucked away the final t-shirt into the small carry on case she’d be bringing with her to the shuttle. She couldn’t believe that the day was finally almost here. In the morning she’d be boarding the SL Restoration for a 10 year mission to a little piece of rock light years away from Earth, in search of oil reserves that the Earth could use to shore up its dwindling supply. She’d trained for this almost round the clock for the last year and now that she was finally eighteen, she’d been cleared for lift off. She had been just a kid, at ...

0 likes

Read story

File name: Caelum Altera. Case number: 2085 1141513151225

Logan Hill

Weekly Contest #354

Trigger Warning: Sensitive topics. Mentions of physical violence, gore, or abuse, references substance abuse, and mental health topics. There’s a quiet click, and the quiet hum from the internal mechanism of the cassette tape begins to play softly in the background. There’s a quiet shuffling as it’s placed on a surface, and someone clears their throat as they settle into their chair. “Statement of Caelum Altera, regarding his uh… his ability to…” “To manipulate space and time.” “Right. Regarding his ability to manipulate space and time...

1 like

Read story

Cambois Beach

Alan Falkingham

Weekly Contest #354

Cambois Beach The Coal CollectorOn spring days, when the worst of winter is behind us, I walk Lola on Cambois beach. I check the tables, and go when the tide is out, hoping the relentless wind that makes the sea angry and dark with white-topped waves will occasionally pause for breath. It is a bleak landscape, beautiful because of its scars, defined by the River Wansbeck to the north and the gash of Sleek Burn to the south. I carry a flask of coffee, brewed fresh each morning, and wear my green wellingtons and hunting cap, the one with the l...

1 like

Read story

Rosemary's Flowers

Weekly Contest #354

Mrs. Rosemary Bennet lived life like a ghost. Seeing without being seen. Speaking without being heard. Her fingers left no fingerprints.Tick, tock, said the clock. Your time is up.Smiling strangers came and went, leaving their fingerprints on her favourite teacups—the ones with the queen’s picture.She had children once. Perhaps even grandchildren. Now, unfamiliar faces adorned her fireplace, calling out to her at night.Long ago, she had a mother. A young woman cradling Rose like a ragdoll in yellowed pictures. She died when the house collaps...

3 likes

Read story

Sacrifice

Kayla Wissmeyer

Weekly Contest #354

Themes of death, gore, mental health, and physical violence. Arthur didn’t hear the wind anymore, only the rhythmic, wet thud-crunch of his own jaw as he ground a stray, sun-bleached animal femur into a fine, grey flour for a son whose heart hadn’t beaten in forty days. He spit a mouthful of coppery, thick saliva into the palm of his hand, mixing it with the dust to form a dense, hefty red tinted paste—the only mortar he had left to rebuild a skeleton he believed was turning to chalk. Arthur turned around to face the sled he dragged through...

0 likes

Read story

When Gratitude Arrives Before Sadness

Harsh Jain

Weekly Contest #354

The hardest people to lose are not the ones who leave loudly. Not the ones who slam doors, throw accusations into the air, or make sure the ending scars itself into memory. The hardest people to lose are the quiet ones. The ones who leave gently. The ones whose absence settles slowly into your life until one day you realize the silence they left behind has become louder than anything else. Aarav learned that too late. When he was eight years old, his father left home carrying a brown suitcase and promising he would return in two weeks. For ...

8 likes

Read story

All the Best

Christopher Adams

Weekly Contest #354

“Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Pat-“ “No thank you, James,” the old man said. The room was just coming round. Yesterday’s air sucked out, tidied and smoothed for re-use. Machines blipped and beeped awake but the old man rarely went near them. He still wasn’t sure what they all did. James tried again. “Good morning Patrick, and Happy Birthday.” “Good morning James,” the old man said. "Did you sleep well?" "Yes. And you?" "Most restful, thank you Patrick" “That's good. What time are we on?” James thought f...

5 likes

Read story

Conspiracy

Laura Feir

Weekly Contest #354

TW: Death, suicide, SA, abuse “It takes a special kind of person to look the barrel of a gun straight in the eye and keep on plowing through life. As though they can’t see that deep darkness right ahead of them. But that’s me. And that’s why you’re,” she turned and pointed vaguely upwards towards nothing, “they’re studying me; testing me. I’m special. I’m stronger than everyone else. You got me for a while there,” she shook her finger with a half-hearted chuckle. “I really thought life was just a rollercoaster of ups and downs and that my do...

1 like

Read story

For the greater good

Lyle Closs

Weekly Contest #354

‘Vengeance is a dish best served immediately.’‘If a murder happens in the forest and it’s not reported, did it really happen?’Jason passed the time re-working Earth aphorisms as the craft picked up speed for the slingshot past Neptune and automatic systems prepared for worm drive. Writing them in his paper notebook. He had a special dispensation. People rarely used ink and paper anymore, but it could get boring in the space between planets. ‘A bird in the hand is worth eating.’‘A friend in need is a friend best ignored.’“Jason,” Maria said o...

1 like

Read story