-The best stories on the web-
Read or link to over 1000 stories listed under Stories to the left.
Submit your short stories for review as a Word document attached to an email to: Read@Short-Story.Me

Latest Stories

March 19, 2024
Fantasy Stories Wondering Monk

Just My Imagination

The alarm clock went off and started playing an awful tune. Tom opened his eyes and closed them back, squinting. He reopened one eye and stood up to stop the torture. The phone was on the desk, in the furthest spot from the bed. Although he changed his way of…
March 19, 2024
Science Fiction Stories Ocelotlzin

Earth Is Dead

Recording… It doesn't matter who I was; I probably lived a long time ago, and I am now just a voice someone added to the audio-visual records. What is essential is the recollection of events that lead to the current state. So, a little history needs to be…
March 08, 2024
Flash Fiction Benoit

Some Enchanted Evening

It was a rugby tackle with tears: Chrissy burst in, sobbing and babbling, hugging James. Her face was all wet, eyes wild. What…? My parents split up, Dad has moved in with his boyfriend and I cannot join them. I am shut out. I have lost my dad. Torrent of…
March 08, 2024
Horror Stories Marvel Chukwudi Pephel

In The Hands Of My Legs

The car pulled up in front of the large salon. The neon sign, that sexy broad thing, on the salon'sroof read "Mr. Gil's All-night Salon". The exhaust pipe of the car was pumping solid smoke, theswirls moving from the car and towards the salon.…
March 07, 2024
Mystery Stories Vanessa Leigh Giles

Casualty of Love in the Time of Coronavirus

Chapter 1 Until Death do us Part ‘Ring, ring!’. I answered the telephone and asked, “Hello, good evening. Who’s this? “Hello.” This is Dr. Smith from Red Cross hospital. “Is this Mr. Locke, John?”, he asked, hesitantly scratching his bald head. “Yes, doctor.…
March 07, 2024
Crime Stories Robert Pook

Bar Room Trigger

Another return journey on footpaths so familiar. He strides across each crack in each paving stone. Regular loose drain covers sidestepped. Mapping long ago mapped in Richard’s desolate mind. His pace hastened by the sight of the oncoming storm. Quickening…
March 04, 2024
Horror Stories Ano Chinemerem

Sanctity

Where should I begin? I could begin by telling you about this comely boy, whom every notable person around the streets agrees his smile could charm the bills off one. Between one smile, there was his goodness, his dreams and humanity—a little far ahead?— but…
March 04, 2024
Flash Fiction Emanuel Diaz

Et Mortui Partium

As Rafael stepped out into the rain, it wasn't the ordinary drops that fell from the sky. Instead, it was a storm of souls, each one taking the form of shimmering jewelry as it cascaded toward the ground. Rubies, diamonds, and sapphires twinkled amidst the…
February 29, 2024
Poetry Jing Li Ava

London

‘Am I in London?’ "I am." Where is Elizabeth? Happy living story All of your chapter Bounlance joy Please my heart Power hand Wise mind Our baby Vow vow Love all love Miss I miss Endless wonder Bring us together Love all love Miss I miss For everything My…
February 29, 2024
Flash Fiction Rob Pook

Life Sentence of The Smith

Born nine months after his country won the World Cup.A child prodigy.Cast off at age twenty-four.Husband, father, emigree, away on the other side of the world.The blue-collar life.The dreams of success.The search for fulfillment.The long years of empty…
February 29, 2024
Mystery Stories Joshua Lowther

The Operator

Jason looked over to his right, his eyes barely able to focus themselves on the subject of his attention. His neck ached terribly from the strenuous movement. He was tired. The captain’s gaze came to rest on the rookie sonar operator sitting tense at his…
February 29, 2024
Flash Fiction Salvatore Difalco

The Chute

At dusk, we left our unit with a soft pink bundle. I carried it through the wet streets and into the black woods. I said I’d take it all the way, the bundle, but that we had to drop it in together. My wife’s green eyes flashed. “Don’t make me do that.” I…

No one saw it coming until it was too late.

It was easy to miss. The first who got infected were the poor drug addicts. One of the earliest incidents involved a heroin addict named Earl who suddenly turned on his neighbor one night after he had his fix. He decided to go over and visit his pal Miles, He took his axe with him and chopped his way in the door. Neighbors finally called the police when the screaming wouldn't stop. It wasn't Miles screaming though, it was Earl. Miles had stopped screaming after the 3rd swing.   The police arrived and shot Earl Dead when they found him sitting on his neighbor's chest. Screaming with each swing and still chopping away. He had pulverized poor Miles, went right thru him and now was embedding the axe into the floor...

Other reports involved prostitutes stabbing their pimps, teenagers killing their friends. No one noticed or cared when the bad neighborhoods suddenly became a little more violent. More reports trickled in of some heroin addict or crack head going psychotic and falling into a blind 'rage attack' on whomever happened to be in their path. It was a fury unleashed until their heart just overheated and gave out .Or until the police arrived and shot them down.  Most of the victims were beaten to death. Any person who had been attacked was lucky to survive.

They blamed it on bad batches of drugs. They were right. The street drugs had been tainted. By whom, we never found out. The drug task forces and the news warned of the tainted street drugs, but despite all this, dealers were dealers and addicts were addicts. Life for the common addict went on despite the warnings.  It just couldn't be stopped.

Then news of it happening in other major cities made it clear it wasn't just local.  Reports popped up all over the country. In other countries as well.

Next it was the mental institutions that were being overrun by the patients who turned psychotic after taking their daily meds. Instead of a game of checkers in the recreation room the patients had finger painted the walls with the staff's blood. A few of the staff survived and got away to alert the authorities but by the time they arrived some of the patients had either escaped or were dead. Bodies were found burned beyond recognition, some were obviously operated on while still alive. Grisly accounts of the horrors they found .Most were found in a pile in the rec room, eyes gouged out, bites all over their bodies, blunt force trauma injuries and multiple broken bones. It seemed most just killed each other or themselves with their bare hands.

They tested all the medications in stock and found that Lithium and Thorazine had been coated with an unknown substance, a substance that could not be identified.

Still, no one seemed too shocked or concerned. For the next few months the world went on with a little less of the poor, addicted and insane of the world.

That is until the Prozac, Valium and oxytocin were tainted.  Only when an executive or a socialite goes berserk does the world take action. Soccer Moms killing their children, Executives walking into their offices stabbing every employee they saw.

The Newspapers boasted headlines proclaiming the military was now involved and it was thought to be an act of terrorism. People were warned of the dangers of taking prescription drugs. Of any drug for that matter

By this time people were afraid to take aspirin.   Drugs could no longer be trusted and pharmaceutical companies shut down. People began dying from infections, high blood pressure, heart attacks, even asthma attacks. Without medications, people were dying all over the world. Those who did take any kind of drugs risked getting the Rage,

The people who did get the Rage were living longer than a few hours, and they were more controlled. Which meant the killing sprees became much worse.

The "Rage” hit again. This time it was a virus. Sexually transmitted. No symptoms until body fluids were exchanged. You could be a carrier and not know it. That is until your partner tried to kill you. All over the country were reports of lovers who flew into the Rages, some while still in bed. Killing their partners, sometimes even each other, some would wander around afterwards stalking and preying on the unlucky person who happened to run into them next.

No one ever found out who started the Rage or why, but one thing was certain, they made sure the human race would be vulnerable to disease without medication or antibiotics and fear of infection through body fluids were keeping most from having sex.  The population was slowly dying out.

Time passed. The first outbreak was about 10 years ago. But the way things are now makes it seem more like 100 years instead. Memories of simple life is almost like an old dream you try to recall.  Days of trips to one of the many grocery stores, personal computers, cell phones, and hot water. Society as we knew it is long gone.  The remaining survivors have made small villages out of the rubble of what were once big cities full of people. We sit around the fire and tell stories to the few young ones that are around. The Rage doesn't happen as frequently as it had in the beginning.  We stopped using drugs and we keep a close watch on the ones entering puberty when the hormones are going crazy and the sex drive is the strongest. We all know that there is a real danger the goes with it... So we abstain until we are ready to try and reproduce. It’s a big risk to do this, the commitment to create life could end your own...

Last night my partner Lila and I decided we wanted to have a baby. We have both been locked in our room until morning and we show no signs of the Rage.  I can hear the rooster crowing outside now. They will be coming to check on us soon.

Poor Lila she looks at me from the floor. Blood specks on her cheeks like freckles.  I giggle quietly as I hold the broken chair leg over my head.

Ready to greet whoever walks in the door.

 

The End

 

Rachel Villalobos lives in Central California and is currently working on her next Horror novel.

 

0
0
0
s2sdefault

Donate a little?

Use PayPal to support our efforts:

Amount

Genre Poll

Your Favorite Genre?

Sign Up for info from Short-Story.Me!

Stories Tips And Advice