150+ Best Urban Fantasy Short Stories to Read Online for Free - Reedsy Prompts

Beings of Unfathomable Potential

Weekly Contest #371

Cthulhu's off season conquest of the peninsula of Cape Cod was going swimmingly. Aquarian technology and armaments were far more advanced than humans’, and Cthulhu’s forces had suffered no losses. The reports from the Deep One Defectors stationed across the peninsula were the same: they were kept busier protecting humans from the impact of other humans' stupidity rather than dealing with resistance. A few human resistors had taken out each other in Chatham due to irresponsible cannon usage. Cthulhu’s base of operations above the water was a ...

10 likes

2 comments 2

Read story

VOICES BEYOND TIME

R. J. Garron

Weekly Contest #371

The night pitched over the road that burrowed through Wyoming’s interior. Ethan drove under the midnight oil, hoping to reach Cheyenne before morning, aware that his aging figure would give out if he never stopped to rest. He switched on the radio, hoping for lively music to stir him awake for the next few hours; instead, he came across a news report on a heated escalation abroad. He promptly switched it off, yawned, and refocused on the dotted lines rolling underneath the cone of lights. Perhaps it would have been all the wiser had he taken...

8 likes

4 comments 4

Read story

It always happens when you're in a rush

Alaye Idikio

Weekly Contest #370

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" "Come on! We need to go! We need to go!" "I heard you the first time!" Two figures ran across an open field, their footsteps pounding on the grass, far louder than anyone would expect. Behind them were the sounds of a lot more footsteps, alongside moans and groans of creatures that they did not want catching them. "I hate zombies!" Claire yelled. Her red hair whipped back and forth, the braid that she usually used to keep it tied having long since come undone. Blue eyes darted left and right, trying to see if there was an...

0 likes

0 comments 0

Read story

Puppets

Cub Mckay

Weekly Contest #370

In The Tinker’s workshop, unfinished puppets hang from the ceiling by their strings. He calls them Marionettes: reminders of his past mistakes. When a Marionette is born, the first thing it does is cry. It may plead to be cut down so it can play with the boys and girls who come in. But soon the joints begin to rust from disuse, and the wood begins to rot. Then the Marionette will cry no more, for even if it is cut down, it can no longer move of its own accord.The Tinker keeps them hanging as a reminder—a warning to himself, in a way, that he...

2 likes

1 comment 1

Read story

The golden egg

Samriddhi Jain

Weekly Contest #370

The hard beep of the countdown up ahead gives me shivers every time it sounds.Red digital numbers shift to create the next one.30.29.A cacophony of shouts, cries, and whispers fill the room.“Where is he?” I mutter to myself. I still don’t understand why he’s there. He had never been interested in sports, and in the egg. But when I told him, I was ready to join, he signed up too.Josh was wearing black when I last saw him, the most generic colour in the world. I can’t see him anywhere, though the crowd could have hidden him well enough. At lea...

7 likes

0 comments 0

Read story

The Glass

M B

Weekly Contest #369

It was late in the afternoon when I found the small, dirty, and absolutely postage-stamp covered cardboard box waiting for me outside my office door.  Frankly I was shocked - a parcel delivered right to my office for the first time ever. I checked the dim hallway, but no deliverybeast in sight. When I saw the amount of stamps, my muzzle fell open, but when I saw who it was from I had to sit down in the rickety chair behind my desk.  “Uncle Shepherd,” the upper left address space on the box declared modestly. I set the parcel down o...

9 likes

2 comments 2

Read story

The Last of the Light

Naomi Rivkis

Weekly Contest #369

September held onto the summer, hugging a little piece of August tight against its chest even after August’s welcome was thoroughly worn out already. All the windows in Brooke's house were open. Through them, as she moved up the stairs, Edith heard someone mowing the lawn two doors down, and a handful of small children shouting in the sprinkler across the street. Brooke met her sister on the second floor, already apologizing. "You really don't have to do it all," she said hastily, her voice half-swallowed with embarrassment. She held her key...

10 likes

8 comments 8

Read story

Lilith Confession.

Francisco Kelley

Weekly Contest #368

"Ms. Lily, um... Ms. Lily."Lilith opened her eyes."Oh, hey."Sarah came over and sat beside her.Lilith took her hand. "How are you?"Sarah shrugged. "Been better, to be honest."Lilith squeezed her hand. "I understand I'm asking a lot of you.""Is there... is there any way to stop this?""I wish." Lilith looked down at their joined hands. "I so wish none of this had to happen. But sadly, it's a reckoning long in the making.""Do you truly believe I can keep Mia safe?""Yes." Lilith nodded. "I have faith in you. But more importantly, Mia has faith i...

4 likes

0 comments 0

Read story

Dollar Ten a Pound

Jami Carey

Weekly Contest #368

NIGHTCURVE — Season 31, Episode 6 Assembly cut. Never aired. Property of the network. Do not distribute. COLD OPEN[STUDIO. Anchor at desk. Behind him, a graphic: black river, white razor.]HESTER LOWELL: Tonight on Nightcurve — a Vermont town where, in two hundred years, no one has ever drowned. A state investigator found dead in four inches of water. And a book of four thousand names that one prosecutor calls the most frightening thing anybody ever put in his hands. Here's Candace Anning.[AERIAL. A New England town at dusk. The river black a...

3 likes

1 comment 1

Read story

SECRETS INHERITED

Carolyn Petersen

Weekly Contest #368

Gina looked down at her leg, she had taken a razor and made multiple cuts, she watched as the drops of blood dripped onto the floor. This wasn't the first time. Instead of being painful she would say it released the pain. This is what she did after every time she and her father fought, after he had slapped her around yelling about how rotten she was. This usually happened after she came in late from a date. She had locked herself into the bathroom, never crying, just staring at the rivulets of blood. She waited for the cuts to stop bleeding,...

3 likes

1 comment 1

Read story

The Break-Up Crate Incident at Wrong Turn Records

Jennie A. Fernandez

Winner of Weekly Contest #368 🏆

New records are silent. When Imogen touches them she can’t hear a thing. She’s tried removing the shrink wrap, holding them up to her ear, and softly nibbling the cardboard ends like hot slices of pizza. She’s given up and asked Geoff, her boss, to excuse her on new release day.  “I’ll work any other day but Monday. I can’t work amongst all this SILENCE.” “Midgey.” The last time she asked him, he played a Lana Del Rey record on the shop’s turntable. “Listen, will you?” He put a hand behind his ear. “There she is! Warbling on about love ...

79 likes

24 comments 24

Read story

Not In The Cards

Patrick Druid

Weekly Contest #368

Not in the Cards It had been a long day at the call center for me. The queue was at a constant 110 calls waiting in line; One would be answered and several more calls would replace them in the queue for 8 hours straight(or was it 9?). That’s nearly 1000 calls during the shift or more.  I got up from my non-descript cubicle, with its computer and telephone and made sure that everything was off and ready for the next unlucky soul to find themselves chained to this desk, picked up my backpack and started heading out of the ...

17 likes

6 comments 6

Read story

Ms. Alice’s Birthday Cake

Marty B

Weekly Contest #368

She didn’t want to remember anymore. Lourdes’s finger brushed the bottles in the large cabinet, considering. White vials perfectly arranged in long rows, like tombstones on the shelf. She only came back for this, for relief.        She snapped around at a sound outside the medical closet. She had to move.Her fingers examined her front pocket, pulling out a ring of keys, and a rainbow sticker.The colorful image shot a lightning bolt through her heart. A forgotten gift for her daughter who loved rainbows. ‘To...

14 likes

13 comments 13

Read story

Hilter House

Inna Reza

Weekly Contest #368

Before my eyes even open for the day, I know it’s going to be another hot, sticky one. The feeble AC unit in my window whirs desperately, wondering if today would be the day it dies a bitter, merciful death. I thought the same. The light filtered in from the broken blinds, Arizona’s sun seeking its victims before the rooster has had a chance to crow, before my eyes are fully open, before I sit up and put my feet on the faded wooden floor. The water running from the shower head provides no relief, a weak drizzle of lukewarm water at its best,...

7 likes

4 comments 4

Read story

The Good Luck Shop

Opal St. Gerald

Weekly Contest #368

I walk through the door like I would on any other day, and the bells in the top corner of the doorway jingle. It’s early November, so the sun hasn’t risen quite yet but there’s that grayish-blue hue, that crisp stillness in the air. I carry a travel mug that holds steaming coffee with lots of cream and sugar in my right hand, and the key to the shop in my left, which I use to unlock and open this door. The door is very tall, with emerald-green paint that could honestly use a fresh coat. There are some chips here and there. It’s a heavy door....

5 likes

0 comments 0

Read story

Discover weekly, the best short stories

Urban fantasy Short Stories to read

Urban fantasy Short Stories – Page 2

Beings of Unfathomable Potential

VOICES BEYOND TIME

It always happens when you're in a rush

Puppets

The golden egg

The Glass

The Last of the Light

Lilith Confession.

Dollar Ten a Pound

SECRETS INHERITED

The Break-Up Crate Incident at Wrong Turn Records

Not In The Cards

Ms. Alice’s Birthday Cake

Hilter House

The Good Luck Shop