Stories | Every Day Fiction

Archive for Stories

THE FIRST FOURTH • by DJ Barber 8 Comments
William Green rode north along the river. The convention had gone rather well, all sides agreeing, at last, to the final document. William thought it a fine opening line; that tall fellow from Massachusetts had drafted it. Or was he from Virginia? And what was his name?–ah, it was just as well. They’d all be [...]
Literary, Stories
GARDEN FURNITURE AND THE APOCALYPSE • by Alex Moisi 10 Comments
Joe kicked the old garden swing and cursed.
“Martha, can you believe this? I paid a thousand dollars to have the best network chip installed in this crappy thing, and it doesn’t even work.”
The small screen on the swing’s side was flickering blue with “Loading Network” written across it in large white letters. It had been [...]
Science Fiction, Stories
BELOARALSK • by Alex Watson 10 Comments
There was a sharp rap on the bedroom door, startling Misha from his slumber.
“Misha! It is Thursday morning!”
“Yes, Grandfather,” Misha said, though the sleep left in his mouth made the words unintelligible. He rolled out of bed and threw on his clothes.
Mother and father were still asleep–they wouldn’t wake for another half-hour–and Grandfather had set [...]
Inspirational, Stories
WOOD FROM THE RIVER • by Sarah Black 8 Comments
“Grandpa, you pulled your wood out of the river yet?”
“And hello to you, Granddaughter. No, the Yukon still has too much ice. I’m going to wait a bit longer. I’m like an old bear. If I throw the chains and fall in, the ice might be too strong for me. I’d float away, out to [...]
Literary, Stories
THERE WHEN YOU NEED THEM • by Harley Crowley 14 Comments
I wasn’t expecting company. When the doorbell rang the place was its usual chaos, or maybe worse than usual–the books and mail advertisements and newspapers and apple cores, the cereal bowls with Grape-nuts welded to their surface in a shimmer of congealed milk, the clean clothes in a tangled, wrinkled pile on the couch waiting [...]
Humour/Satire, Stories
VIRTUOSO • by Gustavo Bondoni 8 Comments
Everyone on board was well aware of the honor we’d been conceded. Nothing could match the thrill of watching a true artist at work, and no artist in living memory was comparable with Ternsé.
I’d seen holograms of his work, of course. Every museum worth its salt had a wing dedicated to the reproductions of the [...]
Science Fiction, Stories
A LEGACY OF WAR • by Kurt Rice 8 Comments
Mejra, a big, shaggy, and affable Tornjak herding dog, waited outside near a long wall of firewood. Inside, her boy stuffed bare feet into rubber boots and dragged a coat from the rack. “Mama, I’m going out!” the boy shouted behind him as he pulled open and slipped through the back door in one easy, [...]
Literary, Stories
THE END OF TIME • by Frank Roger 11 Comments
It’s time to go now, Roderick thought. I’m ready. There’s no point in staying up here. The end is near.
He cast a final glance at the street and the people walking on the sidewalk or driving along. Didn’t any of them know what was about to happen? Was he the only one who had received [...]
Humour/Satire, Stories
LARRY LEGEND • by Jason Stout 29 Comments
Only a devoted fan knows where Kobe Bryant or Allen Iverson is from. But everyone must know where Larry Bird is from because when someone hears I’m from French Lick, Indiana, they always say: “Larry Bird’s hometown, right?” It gets old, especially when people want to talk about Larry like they know him, about his [...]
Literary, Stories
THE DEVIL AND THE DETAILS • by Mark Ward 11 Comments
“What’s this?” said the Devil, heavy hooves clopping on the boards as he walked around the slab of stone on which sat Sinjon safe within the pentacle of protection.
“Welsh slate,” said the magus, working hard to conceal a grin.
“Why Welsh?” said the Devil, taking time to look around the work room, at the alembics, pestles, [...]
Fantasy, Stories
MARS ASCENT • by Andrew Males 18 Comments
“It’s the logical thing to do and you know it.” Alan stared into Helen’s sad brown eyes, hoping for agreement at last.
“Why are you giving up? The antibiotics may just be enough to get you there, at least until you can say you’ve stood on the surface.” Helen hated the injustice that would happen if Alan [...]
Romance, Science Fiction, Stories
WASTE OF SPACE • by Sarah Hilary 41 Comments
In the beginning, there was the worm and the worm was Rod.
It wasn’t as if Rose didn’t know better, but Rod was supposed to be different. For starters, he was into astronomy. His favourite star was Betelgeuse and he knew all about the Hourglass Nebula. On their first date, he pointed to the brightest light [...]
Humour/Satire, Stories
MISSY’S SUMMER • by Oonah V Joslin 33 Comments
It was a scorcher of a summer the year Missy was born. Mammy had been running around like a headless chicken cleaning this and scrubbing that. She wasn’t fit for the farm work so Liddy and I collected the banty eggs. Daddy did the milking on top of the other work. We hardly saw him–just [...]
Literary, Stories
PRODIGAL PIANO • by Chaz Siu 9 Comments
I reckon I’ve felt a hundred thousand whorls, loops, and arches touching me since Eli Pond carved himself up some fine slabs of maple and spruce, cast a soundboard made of iron, and worked for a hundred days sculpting ivory to put some skin on my eighty-eight fingers.
That was 1937 in Tennessee, and they don’t [...]
Literary, Stories
THE WATCHERS • by Milton T. Burton 24 Comments
I was coming out of the Wal-Mart Supercenter yesterday when an earnest-looking fellow who appeared to be in his mid thirties came up and tried to hand me some kind of lurid religious tract.
“I can’t accept that,” I told him.
“Why not?”
“I”m an Alpha Prime.”
“Huh?” he asked in obvious confusion. “Alpha what?”
I decided to take the [...]
Stories, Surreal
MAIL • by Kevin Shamel 28 Comments
The mailman is stealing my mail.
I know he is. I can see it on his face when he hands me a pile of catalogues and fliers for oil-changes and pet supplies. Or a stack of bills.
I used to like my mailman. His name is Doug. He’s the first mail carrier I’ve ever considered giving a [...]
Science Fiction, Stories
THE END • by Nicola Horn 15 Comments
Church Street was always busy with people bustling and yelling, and Mummy normally kept me very close. Today she let me play outside the butcher’s shop while she bought something for tea, but she warned me to stay by the window.
Funny, it was getting noisier at the end of the street, and there seemed to [...]
Literary, Stories
A MOMENT • by Rosie de la Mare 12 Comments
It was deep red; a blot on the blue and white of his uniform and the stillness of the city’s wintry backdrop. A trickle of blood across the Commissioner’s frozen smile. The look of horror caught on his wife’s face, the mayor’s head blurred by its movement.
A moment before, the photographer had been looking through [...]
Mystery/Suspense, Stories
THE SALUTE OF THE OLD AND CROTCHETY • by Madeline Mora-Summonte 26 Comments
The blue car is my nemesis. It flouts the rules–ignores the Do Not Enter sign, blows past the Yield, speeds down the narrow one-way alley sandwiched between the garages and drives. Its engine revs, its music blasts, its rolled-up tinted windows like sunglasses on the young, too hip and insolent to look a person in [...]
Humour/Satire, Stories
SACRIFICE • by Gianna De Persiis Vona 9 Comments
Dillard had given up on living simply. What was the point when all of his pals from the good old days were already caving in? Just last week he went over to Mac’s for a beer and discovered him spread out on a black leather recliner, with a new plasma screen TV that seemed to [...]
Literary, Stories
WHEN SHE COMES TO IT • by Jennifer Tatroe 11 Comments
Ted is kneeling on the bridge in front of her. Quietly. It’s not like him. The man Hannah knows expands to fill empty spaces. He hates silence. It makes him nervous when he has no reason to be, but now, when he should be nervous, he isn’t. She can tell by his even breath, by [...]
Literary, Romance, Stories
JUNKYARD RATS • by Bill Ward 12 Comments
Lowell Strigg took careful aim with his shotgun and fired, filling the yard with a roar. Spooked by the blast, a flight of crows emerged from behind a rusty mountain of scrap and fled south, a lean hound caromed in panicked flight through a heap of bald tires before sheltering beneath an ancient Buick, and [...]
Horror, Stories
SECOND OPINION • by Lee Beavington 10 Comments
“You got a lot of cholesterol in here. No more transfats for my sweetie.”
Angela grinned at him mockingly. “You made your way into my heart, and that’s all you have to say?”
Tony shifted the controls so the nanocam exited her right ventricle. On the screen in front of them they could now see the inside [...]
Humour/Satire, Stories
DESERT ISLAND SOLITAIRE, OR, A GOOD CIGAR IS A SMOKE • by Nick Logan 30 Comments
Bill was convinced his matches weren’t dry.
After his ship had gone down, Bill had been in the sea for more than twelve hours before sighting the island between rolling whitecaps. A hard swim and the tide had carried him onto the beach, where he washed up more dead than alive. Two weeks of sun, sand [...]
Stories, Surreal
LISTEN • by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley 18 Comments
Her shoes lay in the sand behind her. She dipped her toe in the water and stared out at the horizon.
“I know it sounds awful but it wasn’t actually that simple…” Her voice trailed off.
She paused, sighed, and started again.
“He was a good man, as they say. Nice. Stable. Maybe drank a bit too much, [...]
Literary, Stories, Surreal
THE HEIST • by Ann Wilkes 5 Comments
“Earthlings aren’t that stupid, are they?” asked Vimii. Bent over her workbench, her ears hung down, hiding her eyes.
“They’re just too self-centered to consider the possibility of sentient intelligence outside of their planet.”
Bylii walked toward them from the nav console. “Quit talking and get the job done. I don’t want to be here long. Their [...]
Humour/Satire, Science Fiction, Stories
STUMPED • by Harold N. Walters 8 Comments
“Let me out,” the boy cried.
If he heard the boy, Old Harry ignored him. Stooped, Old Harry leaned on his booga-stick, a cane he’d whittled from a gnarly length of witch hazel when he’d felt the first bites of arthritis in his knees, when he’d accepted that the limber legs of youth were gone.
“Please, let [...]
Literary, Stories, Surreal
HOMECOMING • by Margaret B. Davidson 14 Comments
Willie Harvest was somewhat successful, having had three novels published to moderate acclaim. However, the books had not sold well, in part because he refused to travel all over creation to do book signings. The result was that Willie was poor, and although he’d been content with life in London, it was becoming too expensive [...]
Literary, Stories
SPRING MELT • by Gay Degani 66 Comments
Water drips from icicles outside the kitchen window. Clear skies glisten through dirty glass panes. I’m pouring my first cup of coffee when I hear snow sliding down the roof and know it’s time to call Carissa.
“You want me to come?” Her voice breaks a little. She’s a couple years older, but I’ve always been [...]
Mystery/Suspense, Stories
BURYING SAM • by Catherine J Gardner 45 Comments
The coffin rested on dour shoulders as the pallbearers marched forward. Hilda opened the door and bowed her head. She couldn’t form any words. Her fingers shook as she pointed towards the kitchen. The sounds issuing from within left no need for explanation.
Samantha sat crouched in a corner, studying her reflection in a collection of [...]
Horror, Stories
THE CAPTAIN’S CHAIR • by R. L. Copple 14 Comments
On a lonely space route, picking up strangers often promised a welcome relief from the robotic voices of the ship. Often the strangers grew into friends. Between hands of poker and beer, or the occasional game of Spaceopoly, I would learn about the strangest desires and the darkest secrets of my guests. Weeks with only [...]
Science Fiction, Stories
SAY IT WITH FLOWERS • by Tels Merrick 15 Comments
Elspeth leaned against the door frame, a mug of coffee in her hand, watching as Jared worked in the garden. He had been there most of the day, digging over the old flower beds that went round the outside of the garden. And now he was working on the raised bed in the centre of [...]
Romance, Stories
CAVEDWELLER 2.0 • by Greg Likins 28 Comments
I’m running late, negotiating mergers across three lanes of freeway traffic, when my father calls.
“Do we know a Richard Thruster?”
It’s the third time he’s phoned today. During breakfast, he called to report sparks in his oatmeal. (”Pull your spoon out of the bowl before it goes in the microwave, Dad.”) After lunch, he wondered what [...]
Humour/Satire, Stories
THE GRAY WORLD • by Brian Dolton 26 Comments
“The world is gray.”
As epitaphs went, it was the briefest Yi Qin had read. Her fingers brushed over the rough, beautiful calligraphy of the scroll. The letters had been drawn in blood. She could feel the echo of Liu Song’s power.
She looked back at the body of her fellow conjuror. He sat propped against the [...]
Fantasy, Stories
MUG’S GAME • by Sarah Hilary 42 Comments
“What’s this, the rumble in the ruddy jungle?” Jackson wasn’t amused. “Can’t you two keep your fists out of each other’s gobs for ten minutes?”
Ray tried to dislodge my heel. The punch I’d thrown had laid him out like a carpet; I’d no trouble keeping him down with my foot in his gut. Jackson jerked [...]
Mystery/Suspense, Stories
ALL THAT GLITTERS • by Deven D Atkinson 8 Comments
Ricky was very careful when he murdered his Aunt Nikki. He rummaged the house to make it look good, and only took her wallet which he dumped over the east-side overpass where “druggies or feebs” were sure to find it. He tossed the knife in the old canal off Water Street. He was only interested [...]
Mystery/Suspense, Stories
A DOG’S LIFE • by Hasmita Chander 19 Comments
All his life he had lived on the streets, picking up his meals of scraps from the garbage dump or alms begged from passers-by.
He had known no other life and he was content until the kind old lady down the street adopted him and gave him three meals a day and a chair to sleep [...]
Literary, Stories
ARROW’S WAY • by Vijayendra Mohanty 22 Comments
About twenty minutes before it was to fall and decimate more than half a country, the thermo-nuclear warhead “Arrow” became self-aware.
It discovered something akin to happiness in its first moments. The joy of existence spread to the very edges of its circuitous consciousness. It fell in love with itself.
Then, as a seemingly endless [...]
Science Fiction, Stories
ONE BRIGHT MOMENT • by Joel Willans 54 Comments
We were children, not lovers, but as we lay on the grass looking at stars, talking of angels, she took my hand and said that a moment can change everything. When I think of Sissy Zaleski, and I do now more often than ever, I always remember her that night. Splayed out on the earth [...]
Romance, Stories
THE HIT • by L.E. Elder 11 Comments
They were wearing off-the-rack suits, the men they sent to kill me this time. I made them immediately. They were scanning the patrons without a glance at Mystique working the pole until they spotted me at a side table nursing my Manhattan.
Still, I was taken aback. Such men. In such suits. Had my status declined [...]
Mystery/Suspense, Stories
A WALK IN THE CITIES • by David MacPherson 11 Comments
One day Father Death and Father Life were walking hand in hand down the streets of the City. Which city? Well, sir, it was all cities all at once. It was London. It was Khartoum. It was Budapest. It was New Haven, Connecticut. Father Death and Father Life can do that kind of thing. And [...]
Stories, Surreal
A CASUALTY OF THE TRUTH • by James C Clar 4 Comments
The truth was, as soon as he heard that Demorovic had seized power, Mokrzan knew he’d be arrested. A new broom sweeps clean and, in his country, there was no such thing as “retirement”.
They came for him two days later, on the morning of March 2nd at 3:30 A.M. There were four of them, three [...]
Mystery/Suspense, Stories
FINAL MOMENTS • by Ryan P. Standley 6 Comments
On his last summer day in Wisconsin, Eric dismounted his bicycle and hiked hurriedly into the wooded hills of Antigo Park. The teenager’s face dripped with sweat as he reached the giant fallen oak. He traced his fingertips along the log’s mossy surface, located the engraved ‘X’, and measured twenty paces west, squinting against the [...]
Literary, Stories
AFTERSHOCKS • by Alexander Burns 28 Comments
No matter where she pressed her face against the floor-to-ceiling window, Paderau Argall could still see the corpse reflected from the carpet behind her. Beyond the window, downtown lay in ruins. Occasionally a building shivered with aftershock, but the worst of the quake was done. Paderau saw people wandering in a daze on the cracked [...]
Mystery/Suspense, Stories
TWENTY-FIVE PRAYERS • by Kim McDougall 15 Comments
Early one morning, as dawn broke the blackness in two, I was three sheets to the wind and the sky was four shades of pink. Five minutes later, my sixth sense warned me of the angels who flew in from seventh heaven. Eight of them, not enough to fit on the head of a pin, [...]
Stories, Surreal
PRIORITY WON • by Bill Ward 13 Comments
Brad woke up caring about the date for once, and he got up and got himself together with a shot of cold black from the night before and a smoke. Hole-Lee Shee-It, he thought as he paced his small apartment, today’s finally the day. He stamped the smoke in the sink, splashed cold water on [...]
Science Fiction, Stories
IN SEARCH OF THE BUSH • by Gustavo Bondoni 7 Comments
The world around me is getting smaller. Just a week ago, I was striding along a path in the desolation of the Patagonian Andes. Despite the majestic emptiness, signs of human interference abounded. Red dots on the rocks marked the path, and every once in a while, a crushed soft drink can, missed or ignored [...]
Literary, Stories
PAROXYSM NO MORE • by K.J. Young 9 Comments
The decision has been made. Preparation must begin immediately; a trip to the hardware store is in order.
The older woman standing at the cash register scans each item. “Will this be all for you today?”
A nod is sufficient and the coiled lot is hoisted to a shoulder.
No paper is needed; likewise, no pen. Why make [...]
Literary, Stories
THE BURNING BLACK • by Greta Igl 12 Comments
The thing on the table stops him dead. The bag with the corn that could be any old bag, but isn’t. This one’s stained black, guilty black like his hands. He gets this bad feeling, but he sees the way Mom stands at the counter, her hips leaning against it like she’s done to death. [...]
Literary, Stories
FIRE AND BRIMSTONE • by Heather Kuehl 14 Comments
Daniel notices me long before I notice him; he lusts after me. Wants me. I follow him, my hunger rising. I used to enjoy feeding off the desires of men, but now I do it to survive.
I can feel eyes on me. Looking over my shoulder as I walk, I see a woman watching me. [...]
Fantasy, Stories

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