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Latest Stories

December 08, 2025
Flash Fiction Syed Hassan Askari

The Angel Who Never Returned

Aslam was taken to the city hospital after he fell off from the road down into the riverbed almost thirty feet below. All of his family members rushed to the river, but before they could reach, a pure gentle soul stopped his jeep, jumped into the water, and…
December 08, 2025
Science Fiction Stories Tom Kropp

New Nemesis

Grimly I faced the immense, sphere-shaped, steel sealed doorway of the multi-dimensional cyberspace portal, wondering what joker put the sign on it: "Abandon all hope to all ye who enter here." "I hate Mondays," I grunted, shrugging my shoulders to make the…
December 08, 2025
Fantasy Stories Tom Kropp

Temerity

Quinshale the sorcerer smiled at the Zergon tree that loomed over the forest clearing. Its trunk was broader than a dozen barrels, and its limbs reached high into the azure sky. Its foliage was a kaleidoscope of iridescent colors. Its limbs eerily arched…
December 08, 2025
Flash Fiction Abdul Basit

When Understanding Sat Between Us

People from Dera Ismail Khan often grow up with more than one language around them. My own childhood was full of soft sounds of Saraiki spoken in homes and bazaars. Our people wear shalwar kameez with pride, enjoy hot chai at any hour and are known for their…
December 08, 2025
Science Fiction Stories Tom Kropp

Adolo

Captain Adolo was a tall, terrifying, warrior woman. Her athletic figure was all solid, lean muscle, crisscrossed by battle scars. Her eyes were a pale blue set in an attractive face marred by scars, including a wicked one through her left eyebrow and cheek.…
December 08, 2025
Horror Stories Alizah Zaidi

The Case Of The Missing Time Capsule

When the letter arrived, postmarked from my old town, I almost didn’t open it. Fifteen years had passed since I last set foot in Ridgegrove, and that distance had softened memories I spent years trying to bury. But the moment I saw the school’s crest stamped…
December 08, 2025
Romance Stories Syed Zeeshan Raza Zaidi

The Chenab's Embrace

The river was the pulse of Gujrat, and for Sohni, its ceaseless murmur was the only constant companion to the fire that raged in her father's kiln. She was the daughter of a master potter, a creature born of river silt and ancient clay, her hands delicate yet…
December 08, 2025
Poetry Markus J

6 Days Of An Aussie Christmas

On the first day of Christmas, my aussie love gave to me a koala in a gum tree On the second day of Christmas, my aussie love gave to me Two swimming platypuses, and a koala in a gum tree On the third day of Christmas, my aussie love gave to me Three jumping…
December 04, 2025
Horror Stories Alizah Zaidi

The Apartment That Remembers

Elias Trent signed the lease for Apartment 4B on a damp Sunday morning in October—one of those mornings when the sky felt heavy with secrets. He had moved to Hawthorne City for a fresh start, a quieter life, and an escape from the noise of the world. The…
December 04, 2025
General Stories Ben Macnair

The Silent City

John awoke not with a jump, but with a profound, unsettling lack of noise. Usually, Tuesdays in his high-rise apartment were an orchestral assault: the insistent moan of the sanitation truck, the 7:05 a.m. argument between Mrs. Petrovich and her potted fig…
December 04, 2025
Crime Stories Ben Macnair

The Shoplifter

The city was a bruise, the sky a bruised purple at dawn, bleeding into a sickly yellow by noon. Sarah knew its various shades intimately, mostly from beneath the hoods of stolen jackets or the weak, flickering bulbs of forgotten alleyways. She was a ghost in…
December 04, 2025
General Stories Tom Kropp

Shannon's Date

Recently I testified at a murder trial. My big brown Quarter Horse named Buster snorted and stomped his hoof with clear protest at the prospect of moving farther into the forest patch. It was a cool September evening with the sun slipping over the horizon in…

It was supposed to just be a joke.  Really…

Josh, Pat and Casey drove over to the house of Rachel Vessing with the intent of play a bit of a joke on her 17th birthday.  The “mooning” of the attractive redhead while singing “happy birthday” was intended to in fun.   They were sure that Rachel won’t be offended and would take the gesture in the manner intended.

Hey, it was just a joke, right?  But unbeknownst to the boys, Rachel’s father, the Reverend Josiah Vessing, was at home that night and not at bible study as was usually the case for a Wednesday evening in the fall.  The widower was protective of his only daughter so what happened was not totally unexpected.  So the boys were surprised when both Rachel and Reverend Vessing opened the door.  Turned around and bent over, the boys thought that just Rachel was there when she gasped “oh my god” at the sight of their bare buttocks.  But they quickly realized their mistake when they heard a male voice boom out “what the hell??”

Fleeing off the porch while simultaneously trying to buckle their pants, boys might have been a bit too distracted to hear the reverend’s final comment to them as they ran off his property.

 

“That is not what I was talking about last week when I said that we all need to turn the other cheek…”

 

 

The End

 

Author’s Bio:   Tom Schmidt is a Chemical Engineer working in medical diagnostics in upstate New York.  He enjoys creative writing and has been published on www.short-story.me as well as on www.fartherstars.com and in www.overmydeadbody.com in the past.  He is currently working on the “Paul Garigan Crime Mysteries”, a collection of short stories centered around a Malibu based police detective which he hopes to publish in the future.  Tom can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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