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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…

When the Vreesek conquered Earth, they brought their gods.

They don’t plunder our resources. They keep to themselves. After smashing every defense and cratering capitals, they planted their temple-embassies in a hundred cities. We “rule” ourselves under their aegis—the temple high priest and ambassador, the iVress, is our Elder.

They’re here as missionaries, but they neither evangelize nor explain. There are harsh penalties for our misunderstanding.

But they need us, the police, to keep order. I’m Jessica Cho, Seattle Police Department detective. Crime. Murder. Now Vreesek-whisperer….

I got the bud-buzz—the Vreesek distribute these earbuds. You blink, hard, and you’re connected in your head somehow. Blink again and you’re off. Though it’s only between us and the Vreesek—sure would be useful for me and Brien.

There’s a dead Vreesek outside the embassy.

  

I made my way to Mercer and Fifth. The four-story building was also the personal residences of the on-planet Vreesek, while overhead a dozen spaceships monitored the planet.

SPD had yellow tape around the body. A male child. Dead, definitely. From a fall, likely. He was a small thing, his yellowish scales already fading to gray, a thick, teal fluid pooling on the wet sidewalk. His scaly hands clutched something metal, silvery. I bent down. A toy, maybe—an alien baby inside a halfshell.

A Vreesek guard motioned, then buzzed. The iVress would see you. Our Elder for the Pacific Northwest was a mystery, his infrequent words obeyed in sullen terror.

I’d never been called in before.

  

The iVress was more impressive, scary even, than in the vids. Yellow and ochre scales bristling, over six feet tall, wearing a glittering chain from which dangled the icon of an innocent face. And nothing else. No modesty among the Vreesek.

His guards were silent, deferential.

Even through the electronic connection of the earbud, the iVress roared: a mother lost her child. she accuses me of the disposition. find the truth. return the shokrah. restore the peace. remember your whidbey island.

Whidbey Island was vaporized four years ago after a May Day protest, really just a crowd refusing to disperse from Westlake Mall. We felt that harsh, distant light, and the long boom that followed shattered many windows.

The female Vreesek was brought in, her scales sleek, loose, shimmering in scarlet and orange. She shook before iVress, then looked at me with eyes that said nothing of her soul. The iVress and his guards left me, and I was alone with her.

A buzz. My child. My most precious thing, stolen from me.

How? Who saw this?

She waited. Then He was on the balcony. The iVress wanted him gone.

I snapped back. The Elder pushed him?

The child was disobedient. He stole the shokrah. She did not buzz again.

I walked out to the balcony. There were two smudges on the wide railing and some dropped gray scales.

The Vreesek was gone when I came back inside, and a guard took me to the elevator.

Once outside, I peered up into the drizzle, searching.

Would a child be so foolish?

Could a mother be so calm?

  

Off work, I walked to my condo that faced Pike Place. Marcus worked remotely to watch our deaf son, Brien, four, who bounced on the sofa, laughing. I signed Careful, my love. I smelled garlic and oregano.

“Hey. I’m home.”

Marcus came out, wiping his apron, and pecked me on the cheek. “He learned ten new signs today, so he got treats. Chocolate!”

Brien signed Chocolate, mommy!

I scowled. “It’s so expensive…” International foods were slowly returning. Coffee. Chocolate. Even tea.

I was sick of chicory.

Marcus laughed. “Life is to be enjoyed.” He remained calm through the invasion and occupation, and still found celebrations along the way. I found humanity’s dregs. We both were living in our elements.

After dinner I got Brien cleaned up, watched his prayers, and put him to bed with his snugglebear. In the dim light, he looked like an angel.

I can’t imagine….

  

The next morning, I talked with the coroner. He’d cleaned up the Vreesek, and handed over the toy to return. The face of an alien child looked up at me.

I went back to the embassy-temple, then out to the balcony again. The two smudges and the scales were cleaned up. I peered over the railing.

He was face-up.

I summoned a guard. Who uses this room when the iVress is absent?

The guard stared straight ahead. He blinked. No one but the family of the iVress.

And the child? Was he also the son of the iVress?

All who share the shokrah are his children. The guard fingered his own silvery icon, a rounded hollow cube with a small child within. This Child commands us to rule the galaxy.

I blinked, but not to communicate. Then, I blinked again. Bring me the mother.

  

She stood calmly. You have news?

I opened my hand. This is yours.

She made a sound, whistling, high-pitched, and then grabbed the icon. Thank all the gods! The shokrah is returned to me, and I am returned to the Vreet, the Holy Child!

Tell me, Vreesek, of your son’s death.

She was silent, then He was disobedient to the Vreet and the iVress.

I responded He took your Vreet, and with that, your place with the Vreesek.

Her stare grew colder, harder. How did you know?

He was looking at you when you pushed him off for stealing. His mother.

She made a choking sound. The gods are to be obeyed, always. The Vreet is everything. The Vreesek is all.

I took out my earbuds before my own thoughts could betray me.

  

The sun broke through low clouds at sunset, painting the wet streets with reds and golds. I watched from the condo window, my hand upon Brien’s hair. He looked up, then returned to his silent game.

I whispered to Marcus, “Perhaps this is enough—that we live.”

“It is enough.”

 

 

Author Biography

Stephen J. Matlock is a part-time author and gardener, often overwhelmed by both words and weeds. His novel “Stars in the Texas Sky” was a quarter-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards in 2012. His most recent short story She Who Made the Land Her Home is published in the April 2018 anthology “Take a Mind Trip: Book a Fantasy”.

 

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