21 Results in the "short stories" category
- Story
Seaview
These take place in the same universe, set in a fictional coastal town, so I’ve grouped them together. While the stories aren’t connected (at least not right now), TNI takes place in the same universe. The Edge of Light The ghost was throwing leaves again. Published in press 2023. This story began life as a red leaf I picked up on my walk to… -
prompt: sick of being safe harbor, I want to be the storm original, no warnings Look over your shoulder, look this way. A little farther. I’m the one behind her. But you know I’m here. That’s the worst part. You’ll find me later to talk about it, how she wouldn’t meet your eyes again, you’re not sure what you did wrong this time. With your head in my lap, you’ll gaze up and say I’m so glad I have you, no one gets me like you do! Maybe I won’t smile this time. I could…
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The Night Immortal
It was past four a.m. and he hadn’t slept. He needed to be up in a couple hours if he was going to make the meeting with his editor. He couldn’t postpone a fifth time. The storm had been raging since he’d gone to bed. The curtains were thick enough to block the lightning, but coastal storms always unsettled him. He could never sleep through the wind. He turned over, shoving a pillow over his head, but he could still hear it. His mother had called him a night owl since he was a child—better…-
4.3 K • Completed
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Verity
She’s got a broom in her hands and is sweeping dirt from the lowest stair when he walks past. Seeing him doesn’t surprise her anymore. When he first went by—years ago now—she felt the shock like lightning in her stomach and in her chest. It was his back that she saw, but she knew him at once by the color of his hair, the deep rust brown that hung past his shoulders, out of style her whole lifetime. The particular motion of his step, always favoring his right leg. An accident when he’d…-
6.2 K • Ongoing
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Bluebird
He came with the rain, decades ago when the forest here was still saplings, back when we were growing sod and Mama was crying every night that the drought would ruin us. I heard him before I saw him that first time, a cheerful whistle coming up the road. “Don’t talk to him,” the neighbors whispered. “That boy’s bad luck.” But he’d been friendly and young, as young as me, the only other person under thirty anyplace I could get to on foot. A year older, maybe two. I’d never asked.…-
2.2 K • Oneshot
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apologies for the rain
If he’d known the storm would last all afternoon, he would’ve taken the early train. By the time he learned of cancellations due to flooding, the last one had departed the station, leaving him soaked in the road outside of the restaurant. Not the impression he’d hoped to make after two years, but if he was stuck here, he ought to make the best of things, and he hadn’t packed another suit. At least his watch was waterproof. Maybe he ought to look for a hotel instead and catch up on sleep.…-
4.5 K • Ongoing
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Trees
They emerged together in a new life as twin saplings in the damp, black mulch. Their seeds had spun down the previous autumn and lodged in the soil. They hadn’t blown away like the others. She was alone with her consciousness, an innate sense of being; she had been once, twice, a hundred times before; so had he; and they had been—together. Without eyes or mouths, they could no longer see or speak to each other and they were too far apart to touch, but beneath the soil, their roots spread and twined…-
1.3 K • Oneshot
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In Flight
Ray visited his brother more often after his death than he had for a decade. On Saturdays, he’d pick up a bouquet along with a week’s groceries and after lunch, carry it on the five-mile run that took him past the cemetery. He’d kneel before the grave, clear away last week’s flowers, pinch weeds slithering up the headstone. The fresh engraving was almost sharp to the touch. Simon Fisher, beloved husband. Ray hadn’t seen anyone else here since the funeral—not even her. The adjacent plot waited,…-
4.3 K • Completed
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The Demon Tree
Rose’s seat was the third from the end on a continuous desk that could seat seven, but she was one of only two that morning over her first cup of coffee. The desk faced the back of someone’s monitor; to her right was the senior writer, Ania, who had given her a tour yesterday in a banana-yellow sweater. Today, they wore gray and black leggings and had not looked up when Rose said good morning. Most of the paper’s staff worked remotely. That meant an empty office but no one pressed up on…-
4.4 K • Oneshot
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- Story
TNI & In Flight
A pair of stories set fifteen years apart about a man dealing with different kinds of heartache. - 1 2 3 Next
