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Discover weekly, the best short stories

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

150+ Speculative Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Looking to explore terrains beyond Earth and stretch the limits of your imagination? Welcome to the Internet’s best source of speculative fiction stories.

Speculative Short Stories – Page 2 of 10

McGill’s

Weekly Contest #341

“Well if it isn’t my favorite asshole!” Manny threw his towel down and reached below the bar. He popped back up holding a fresh Milson Light over his head. Smoke scattered in his wake.“If it isn’t the bartender closest to my home.” Mark sat at the stool in front of the taps of the long oak bar and accepted the bottle. The pride of McGill’s—it was over two hundred years old. Legend has it that Seamus McGill floated to shore on this piece of wood after anti-Irish mobs set their ship ablaze in the harbor.None of it had ever been proven—but ha...

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In Memoriam

Reshmina William

Weekly Contest #341

October 15th Dearest Jake, When the post arrived with your letter, I was simply ecstatic. I’d just come into town to pick up some more milk, and when Millie said she had a letter for me especially, from you, well I almost did a jig of delight. To think – my baby brother, a businessman in the big city! I’m so glad that the new bookshop is doing well, and that you are settling in and making friends. Things here continue the same as ever. It’s a sleepy time of year, when the first frosts are starting to bite and the trees are shaking off the...

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Leaving the World Behind

Hunter Williams-Sanders

Weekly Contest #341

You wake up with a start, confused. What? What just happened? You were just crossing an intersection after getting off the interstate and for a split second you saw headlights rushing towards you from your left and now you’re just… here? It was like you were teleported or something. You take a look around and find yourself seeing… nothing? You are surrounded by a never-ending white void. In fact, as far as you can tell, you don’t even have a body - looking down, you only see more of the white void you have found yourself in. Then, all at onc...

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All the Worlds Between

Weekly Contest #341

She ran her fingers along the remaining spines the way she had as a child, reading titles by touch. Half the shelves were bare. Cardboard boxes sat open on the floor between the stacks — Austen slumped against an atlas as though the two had given up together. The overhead lights were off. No one had bothered. Late October sun came through the high windows and did what it could. She had not set foot in Starthollow in thirty-five years. That had not been an accident. There had been invitations — her father's retirement party, the library's cen...

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hidden under a past tense

Naomi Tsu

Weekly Contest #341

CW: Physical violence, gore or abuse; sexual violence In the mirror…it’s me. I don’t look like myself though. How is that? I…don’t remember this version of myself. I’m almost…younger in this reflection. What the hell? It’s…me…only less scars- innocent and oblivious to the world’s pain. I can barely recall myself like this…didn’t I always have these scars? No…no I must’ve gotten them somehow. So…this…reflection is me before them? I thought I’d forgotten about this…I never wanted to return to this house. Wasn’t this behind me? I thought I was ...

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Puqllay the Playful Whale Remembers

Kristi Gott

Weekly Contest #341

The Spring when Anya saw the young whale entangled in fishing gear became part of the sea's legends.Today she told the story again to the new passengers on the ship. Her voice rose and fell like a singer, and the listeners let go of the present moment.They suspended their usual reality and entered a world where the past’s echoes could be heard, seen, and felt."It is not a myth." The listeners' eyes widened."It is all true. I was there. It is real."This is the story. Later it was repeated, and spread across the travels, oceans, and lands, whe...

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The Muse-Pawn Emporium

Jim LaFleur

Weekly Contest #341

The Circle K clerk’s eyes were iridescent moth wings, and he was weighing my voice in a tiny jeweler’s scale.The device sat on the Formica counter between a display of beef jerky and a tray of stale donuts. It was brass, old, and tarnished. One pan held a small lead weight; the other held nothing but the vibration of the word I had just spoken. The needle trembled in the center."Heavy," the clerk said. His nametag read Hollis. He did not blink. The shifting patterns in his irises swirled in violet and gold. "Heavier than fifteen years ago, J...

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Do You Disown A Bipolar Friend?

Alex Ghani

Weekly Contest #341

I met Mark, almost two years ago through mutual friends and social media. We hit it off instantly. Summers spent in the park, winters spent eating frozen custard at the specialty shoppe, talking about everything under the sun with someone who could carry a conversation. I mean, if he could sit and talk about existential crises, the delectability of a nice cup of chai with suji halwa, while understanding what the word eschatology meant, things were great. He even helped me pick up my two rescue kittens since he had a car and I do not. That fi...

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Letter from the Threshold

Haven Lopaz

Weekly Contest #341

To Ardan, I came back. I told myself I never would. I said it like a rule instead of a fear, as if speaking it aloud might turn it into law. You would have smiled at that—soft, knowing, the way you always did when I tried to outrun inevitability by naming it something else. The path in is narrower than I remember. Or maybe it only feels that way because I no longer walk it folded inward. The stone has sunk in places, worn smooth by centuries of passage that never led anywhere better. Old ward-markers still line the corridor. Their light is d...

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Funeral Rites of the Unlived

Hillary Steinberg

Weekly Contest #341

Funeral Rites for the Unlived My title is Architect of Death. My position is revered. Although it is no longer religious, centuries ago we were considered holy. Now our careers are as secular as anything in a modern society. Still, my job takes aptitude to get right, not to mention extensive training. I am not involved in killing, or even the Death itself. I like my job. I’ve heard our civilization puts more emphasis on Death than most, but I prefer the care we place on funeral observances. I believe it vital, and it connects me to my commun...

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Return to Extremity

Arlo MacGillivray

Weekly Contest #341

Immortality is exhausting. There have been endless volumes written on the struggles of living forever, I have read many of them myself. There are many poignant themes these books touch on, but many more they miss. Yes, immortality is indeed a punishment. Yes, one becomes entirely numb to the life around them the longer they experience it. The repetitiveness and boredom are excruciating. But, what they often miss is the Sisyphean suffering. I am not an old vampire, amassing wealth since the 17th century. I have no Transylvanian castle to seq...

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Rose, the Mother, and the Leaf That Fell at the Blessing of the Animals

CC CWSCGS

Weekly Contest #340

This piece follows Mishka, the Twenty-Year-Old Maltese Mix, and the Blessing of the Animals, which I submitted to the prior competition, Contest #339 in response to the prompt, “Write a story with the aim of making your reader cry.” The original story can be read here: https://reedsy.com/short-story/st0tuf/ *** I wee. It happens while Rose is holding me. She lifts me higher and turns me away from the people behind us. Then we stand there quietly together. “It’s okay, Mishka-girl,” she says. Her voice is level. It is the only voice I know. I ...

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The Green Lamp

Caxton Valentine

Weekly Contest #340

The Green Lamp By Caxton Valentine Grevis Anderson was always into magic and genies. He believed the power of a genie was in a lamp, and so he spent years collecting various lamps. Even when traveling to multiple countries, it would be far-fetched to see Grevis without a lamp. It got to the point where his wife, Amy, would not bother to get him any other gift. One day, in their small town of approximately 5,000, Grevis caught a news report about a magic auction featuring the most “magical” lamp in town, along with the chance to meet magician...

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Myfanwy

Alexey Williams

Weekly Contest #340

I. Bottle Corks The Glyn Alkaline Corporation (NYSE:GAC) is one of the world's preeminent manufacturers of plastics, rigid packaging, and packaging systems. Our company offers a selection of products that includes everything from glass bottles and jars to plastic jugs, plastic accessories, bottle corks, and steel drums. We are especially known for the glass bottles and bottle corks that we provide to the winemaking industry. Our natural tapered corks come in nine different sizes and range in price from $0.06 a piece to $0.93 a piece. Althoug...

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Next Chapter

Anil Ibrahim

Weekly Contest #340

Next Chapter ‘How would you or why would you even…’ He stared at that same stain on the ceiling every morning. He shifted his head one way then the next as if that would somehow give him some insight on what could have possible made that mark. He saw it but didn’t ask about it when he was looking at the apartment in the first place. Living in this city for this price made questions like that just disappear.“Dude get up.” Gene said with a look of what Steve assumed was boredom on his face.“Yeah, yeah I am. Man this lack of motivation thing is...

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