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Latest Stories

November 04, 2026
Horror Stories Alejandro Casas

Loss and Grief

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partita No. 2 for Solo Violin, Chaconne in D Minor (BWV 1004), plays faintly in the background. During the summer of 2008, Lauren had lived through an intense period of loss that would mark her for the rest of her life. She often…
November 04, 2026
Crime Stories Michael Barlett

Deadly Reckoning

CHAPTER ONE It was a warm sultry night in August and the sun was just setting over the horizon. I was floating in a small rubber dinghy just off a remote wooded shoreline. I reached into my bait bucket and scooped up a live frog. Its eyes bulged as it…
November 04, 2026
Fantasy Stories Alejandro Casas

Paradox or Coincidentia Oppositorum

"Viver é muito perigoso... Querer o bem com demais força, de incerto jeito, pode já estar sendo se querendo o mal, por principiar." “Living is very dangerous…Wanting good too intensely, in an uncertain way, might already mean wanting evil, from the very…
November 04, 2026
General Stories Alejandro Casas

Malady

“Thoughts without content are empty; intuitions without concepts are blind” -Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason “In fact, our willing is the only opportunity we have of understanding simultaneously from within any event that outwardly manifests itself;…
November 04, 2026
Poetry Alejandro Casas

Wayfarers

Dedicated to Samuel Taylor Coleridge I am in no doubt that the creative story of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s composition of Kubla Khan had some general influence on my subconscious, for I was aware of this story, having encountered it in my early teens, and yet…
November 04, 2026
General Stories Matias Travieso-Diaz

First White Hairs

Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back. Marcus Aurelius Edith caught her husband in the bathroom, tweezers in hand, struggling with something. Noting the concern showing in his wrinkled brow, she questioned: “What are you poking at, honey?”…
September 18, 2026
Science Fiction Stories Lilyan Ruiz

Cosmic Crash (Part Two)

Almost thirty years earlier… Nathaniel Cole was married to Catherine Cole. Together, they had two children: their oldest child, Tobias, and their daughter, Lola. Nathaniel and Catherine’s marriage seemed like something out of a Disney fairy tale—a prince…
September 16, 2026
Crime Stories Matias Travieso-Diaz

Making Amends

The beginning of atonement is the sense of its necessity. Lord Byron If only I had …. Maybe I should …. What can I do? … Theo’s thoughts drifted aimlessly, like a lotus floating on a pond, switching from regrets about past errors to misgivings about his…
September 16, 2026
General Stories Lilyan Ruiz

An Apology To My Dad

I never thought I would write these words. For years, I carried things inside of me that I didn’t know how to explain. Hurt has a way of growing when it is buried. It can turn into anger, resentment, and eventually words that come out much harsher than we…
September 05, 2026
Horror Stories Vidal Martinez

Bittersweet Revenge

I walk into the pub and there she is, in the far corner, sitting at a table with her friends.She sees me, smiles, and gives me that look. I know exactly what’s going to happen. She standsup, moving through the crowd. She approaches. Before I say anything, I…
September 05, 2026
Romance Stories Thomas Turner

Not Just Any Man Of Twim's

A woman is running a ranch house in Upstate New York. Her name is Sharon “Twim” Morris. All workers are male. Her ranch house has all payroll and employee profiles. Sharon decides to take a break and go outside. She is going into town and will take one of…
September 05, 2026
Science Fiction Stories Lilyan Ruiz

Cosmic Crash (Part One)

Part One After almost thirty years, Lola sat in her living room beside someone she never thought would be sitting there again—her brother, Tobias. If someone had told her years ago that this moment would ever become a reality, she wouldn’t have believed them.…

Do people who've gone insane recognize the changes they've gone through that got them where they are? What I mean to say is do they know they are going crazy? Are they helpless to the events happening to their minds? Or are they oblivious to the events, making their life an ever morphing horror movie? Both sound very intriguing, I don't think I could choose one way or another. I think the journey alone is an adventure worth experiencing. Which brings me to the paradoxical question am I sane? Conventionally no, but I understand this. This is why I will choose and not allow time or fate to make a choice for me.

I have an overwhelming amount of hate growing inside me, though I am not sure who the hate is meant for. I hate me, for allowing myself to be the butt of every joke and the punching bag for every degenerate and miscreant of my town. And I hate all of them, not for what they have done to me but at the end of the day, in their eyes I don't exist. How can someone who has lived here their whole lives, and taken so much abuse not exist. The mail man who broke my nose while in a drunken rage, didn't deliver my mail for three weeks because he didn't realize someone lived in my house. He thought it was abandoned. The mailman is my neighbor.

So today I load every magazine, And oil every firearm, I tie my boots tight and prepare to make them recognize me. Machiavelli proposed an interesting choice. Wether you want to be feared or loved. I lost the capability to love long ago. Today I practice fear.

As I walked out of my house draped with 2 pistols, a semi-automatic rifle and a 12 gauge pump shotgun, I was ready. When I made it to the street, I was startled by a man sprinting towards me like a rabid dog. Swallowing my fear deep into the pit of my stomach, I raised my Colt .45 caliber 1911 and fired at the man. The loud noise of the shot made me jump, so much so I almost dropped my pistol. So shaken up by the power of the pistol itself, I almost forgot to look at the damage done to the attacking citizen. The round had hit the man in his left elbow severing it from the joint, the rest of his forearm now hanging on by a small piece of flesh. In the 3 seconds it would have taken the man to reach me by this point, I had a full conversation with myself. How did the round not stop the man immediately? The shock from something like that would surly incapacitate anyone. I fired again hitting the man in his chest. The force from the round knock the man of his feet, yet the man was not dead. As my tunnel vision dissipates I can clearly see my surrounding, the fog of hatred made my senses dull. The man was disfigured, it looked as if he was mauled on the neck and face. I shot him a third time, this time in the head. He ceased to move any longer.

It figured, the day I choose to take the lives of my fellow town people, they had turned to zombies. This is the best conclusion based on the most current of events. At this moment I wonder if this is an hallucination; a symptom of my pending insanity. I continue onward. The noise of the three shots had drawn the attention of more living dead. Pulling the rifle off my shoulder I began shooting, aiming high in hope of head shots. Almost simultaneously from my right I heard screaming. And out of the corner of my eye I saw a young woman being mauled by the dead. She became a zombie immediately and started looking for her next living meal. I need to remember this! Walking the town I must have killed hundreds of zombies. It had seemed if I had killed them all. If anyone was still alive I would be considered a hero, if they saw what I was doing and how I saved the world I would be famous. I would be noticed. And maybe loved.

From where I was standing I could see a man sitting hunched over near the doors of town hall. As I got closer it was someone I knew and some what respected, he had a needle in his arm. A definite overdose. I kicked his foot and the man tried to move but was unable to get to his feet. With its arms raised he tried his best to grab me and try to make me his next meal. I decided to make this kill for mercy and not for my own personal gratification. I put the last bullet that I was saving for myself in the event of an emergency, through his head and removed the needle. From the door next to me I heard whispers. It sounded like people were hiding out waiting for the National Guard. One of the more desperate patrons inside opened the door to see if help was outside. It was my mailman. He asked who I was and if I was there to help them. He continued to explain how there were hundreds inside and the place was heavily fortified. As I walked inside and my mailman chained and locked the front door, I jammed the needle that was still in my hand into my thigh. Now I will show them fear.

 

End

 

My name is Thomas Berman, I have been a fan of horror my entire life. Horror for me is a way to live out my darkest and deepest fantasy. I encourage everyone to try to write and never let anyone tell you what you are doing is foolish or dumb. It is foolish or dumb NOT TO TRY. Life is for the living, do what makes you happy.

 

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