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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…

He put the Celtic music on,sat out on his small apartment deck in a plastic Adirondack chair and rewound the tapes in his mind.

Scenes from six years ago, He could make them as focused or as hazy as he wished, It was a curse.

They had bought a house, her daughter (his step daughter) was achieving high marks in high school and headed off to college. When he looked at his wife under the surface appeared to be her empty nest syndrome kicking in.

He was only partially correct, it was a deeper malaise waking up after a fitful sleep. She would work late or just claim to, Things were not as they seemed though it's hard to play detective when you need to get up and go to work in the morning.

They argued about nothing and everything and only their dogs offered them any real sense of bonding. On more than one occasion he came home to find them lying in a closet avoiding something even they didn't understand.

He knew that he didn't. The evening came when another argument ensued about nothing important,

She ran upstairs to a storage room, reappeared ten minutes later and sat down in front of their desk computer, just staring into random pixels. He stood up and walked toward the staircase, the computer sat at an adjacent wall, He intended to glance at whatever web page was occupying her thoughts.

Instead his eye focused on a jagged piece of something on the floor behind where she sat. He reached down and picked up a shard of discolored glass, his momentum carried him up the stairs to his attic bedroom. The glass shard was yellowed and had a burnt appearance. It smelled like sweet death.

At that moment he discovered that he was married to a crack addict. After that came the reality, the non-reality, the promises, the lies the pain and suffering that comes from it all.

When the day came six years later he knew that he had lived with the madness long enough, He boxed up her stuff and sent her back to where she came from.

No second thoughts, no hesitation, Drug addicts don't have relationships, they take hostages. He couldn't recall how he had slept, and went to work and actually succeeded at his job while keeping his head held high thru this ordeal.

A balancing act while wearing lead weights at first, until the realization the weights didn't have to be there. Gratitude for being able to have perspective on the situation was tempered by what felt sometimes like wasted years....

The remnants of a distant meteor shower came and went in the Northern sky, the shelter dog he had adopted when his other two were given to her as parting gifts years ago lay at his feet,

She looked up and yawned & seeing nothing edible she closed her eyes again. He remembered the words of a wise man he had heard once: "The only commitment that I need to make is that the next decision I make is the right one for myself." The sky flickered again, a mosquito buzzed near his ear, He stood up, laughed and thanked God for this life...

End

-- MF Kepler resides in a breezy hamlet of Long Island.He has had several stories published in on this site under pseudonyms. He can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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