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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 7 of 10

The Chess Book

Weekly Contest #338

“Okay, honey, go look at the books, but stay where I can see you,” Sam's mother said before kissing him on the forehead and ruffling up his dark and wavy hair, something he didn’t like but didn’t hate, either. It was summertime, there was no school, and they were yard-sale hopping with grandma; for a skinny kid in the sixth grade, there weren’t too many better days than that.As kids his age went, Sam was reasonably normal with a propensity toward the geeky, if that makes sense. While he enjoyed bikes and bugs and girls and super heroes as mu...

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Flowers of Time

Weekly Contest #339

This morning feels different as I lift my head from the pillow. I turn toward the window. The sky is thick with clouds, but golden and orange light cuts through the horizon, making everything glow. I glance at the digital clock. 6:14 a.m. A lovely time for tea. I step lightly from the bedroom and drift into the kitchen. The cedar tea box waits for me there. I lift it carefully and carry it to the small white dining table set for two. My thumb unlatches the lock, and I ease the lid open. Inside is an array of colors and textures (leaves, peta...

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Atheists Anon

Weekly Contest #338

Hi, everyone. My name is Paul. I’m 34. I’m a construction worker and a part-time pilot. I have three kids and an ex-wife who lives in Minnesota. And I’m an atheist.Hi, Paul. There were only twelve people in the room (their names were altered for purposes of anonymity). There was Rita, the social worker; Kevin, the actor and barber; Will, the veterinarian; Mandy, Hansen, Kyle, Jules, Michael, Owen, Esther, and me.They meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the back of Will’s veterinary shop, in a bad part of the neighborhood, so it’s unlikely anyo...

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Negative Capability

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...

108 likes 80 comments 80
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The Matchmaker

Weekly Contest #338

The MatchmakerI opened the Collected Works of Edgar Alan Poe and began to read. Near my chair, a large iron radiator creaked, hissed, and smelled of heat. Basking in its prodigious output, my toes had thawed and were now toasty warm. At my feet sat a packed lunch and a thermos of hot tea, but it was still early – ten o’clock – as I plowed through “The Telltale Heart” on my way to “The Cask of Amontillado.”On this snowy winter morning, I had enjoyed a mug of strong coffee with a big breakfast fry up before bundling up and trudging through the...

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Heed the Call

Weekly Contest #338

I have a secret. Books speak to me. Sometimes they warn me.That’s how I found myself constricted between two towering shelves of dusty western novels, tucked away in the furthest corner, out of reach from the captivating aroma of hazelnut lattes.Heed the Call drew my gaze. A mass market paperback trapped between two behemoths, almost out of sight. I pulled it off the shelf and ran my finger along the cracking creases that had formed on the spine.I opened it and began flipping the pages. My favorite part of any book was the first sniff. The a...

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An Evening at Travonna

Weekly Contest #338

It was a cold, cold night in Columbus, Ohio. Clem sat in his usual corner of Travonna, his favorite coffee shop. They were open twenty-four seven, so it wasn't strange to see him there at any hour of the day or night. He worked odd hours, and was temporarily homeless, sometimes even taking a quick cat-nap on the couch, depending on who happened to be working. Normally, he would wear headphones and listen to music while studying or working on personal projects, but tonight he wanted to listen. He wanted to hear the rhythm of this particular T...

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Here the Hard Times Begin

Weekly Contest #338

Content Warning: Gore, Physical Violence, Mentions of Slavery I often used to believe that my carefree days ended in the Lion’s month of my twelfth year. My father, a man who would have no idling son as his own, enlisted one of his old generals with the task of beating me into shape. The man was Aischylos, who served under my father in the King’s army; he was a stout fellow with a limping gait, and I always thought his short, stocky build and unshorn striking black hair (of which he had much) looked particularly appalling in contrast to my ...

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The Awakening

Weekly Contest #338

They whisper around me, but I cannot hear the words. They’re still polite to my face – nodding as if to say good morning, nice weather today – but they never stay to chat. I don’t know what I’ve done. I feel so alone. For now, until Paul returns from his tour of duty, fighting for the City. You’d think they would appreciate the sacrifices we make. And even my darling child is not here with me – though I'm grateful to the Company for giving her the opportunity to school in the City, so that she can perhaps follow her dreams. And I 'm proud ...

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Concordia

Weekly Contest #338

Dr. Thomas Whitaker stood beside the narrow examination table and listened. The patient sat on its edge, jacket folded neatly on the chair, a blue tie draped over the back. His shirt was open at the collar, his feet not quite reaching the floor. There was, in his posture, something boyish, a grown man waiting to be told he was all right. The room held the familiar blend of antiseptic and tobacco. Somewhere beyond the door, a typewriter struck a few efficient keys, then fell quiet. The stethoscope was cool against his chest and the pulse was ...

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Plan-Verse Corp. Future Strategy Memo: Narrative Case Study

Weekly Contest #338

Plan-Verse Corp. Corporate Office Altasia blew the dust off of the brown leather-bound volume entitled “Plan-Verse Manual: One-Thousand Greatest Upkeep Disasters, Vol. 3. (300-399)” (Plan-Verse Corp.: We Manage Your Planets!) and threw it open, all the way to the index. She ran her finger down the page furiously and felt a bead of sweat find the unfortunate path into her eye. “Dammit!” She shouted with a tone that indicated an attempt to respect the whisper policy, but not the presence to actually keep quiet. “Shhhh!” cut into her ear from a...

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The Story of my life

Weekly Contest #338

When you see a dusty red book that has your name on the front with your birth and (what you assume to be) your death date, you have to open it, right? That’s what I did. Big mistake. This story begins in a library and ends, well, we’ll just have to find out together. I’ve not written it yet, and you’ve not read it, so no skipping to the end to find out. I went to the library because I wanted a new book to read. A Kindle is fine, but nothing beats feeling the paper on your fingers, smelling the ink, especially of older books and seeing the st...

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Not My Cup of Tea

Weekly Contest #338

CW: Sexual assault, physical violence Magdalena knew better. She knew better than to visit the strange Dr. Greene without an escort, especially to his private residence of all places.Her inner voice practically begged her not to climb that grassy hill, not to place her newly fitted boots one after the other up the mossy stairs. Click. Click. Click .She knew better.She knew better than to pull the frayed cord that rung the bell alerting the occupants of her arrival. She knew better than to step over the threshold when the lanky, gray haired b...

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Book of Dreams

Weekly Contest #338

As a collector of antiquities I felt like a kid in a candy store. This shop called ‘The Lost Age’ I had stumbled upon, had artifacts and relics that looked to be thousands of years old. They had to be fake was my first thought, since artifacts that old were only found in museums. There were Egyptian, Mayan, Persian, ancient Greece and China relics as well as many others. Pottery, jewelry, sculptures, ancient devices and manuscripts filled the shop’s shelves. As I wandered down an isle near the back of the shop my eye was drawn to a shelf of...

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Farewell Address

Weekly Contest #338

Farewell AddressThe hall was packed, every seat taken as the ceiling lights dimmed. Then he appeared – Doctor Simon Torrance – tall, strong, his neatly combed hair glowing silver. A roar of cheers and applause filled the hall as everyone rose to their feet, cell phones flashing as he strode beneath an enormous banner reading “Happy Retirement Doctor Torrance!”He was the most brilliant genetic engineer of all time, and the founder and Chief Scientist of Torrance Genetics. After three decades of world-changing discoveries, he was one brief hou...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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