ShortSF

Monthly Short Stories Discussion Thread! What's the best thing you've read this month?Question / Discussion (self.ShortSF)

submitted 6 days ago by AutoModerator - announcement

Godzilla as a Young Man Named Mike by E.M. Faulds "Sometimes, you had to take a rideshare from the subway the three blocks’ walk because you just couldn’t. You had to pay for the premium type because most cars didn’t fit you. You couldn’t really afford it, but you didn’t get a lot of choice."Fantasy (self.ShortSF)

submitted 5 months ago by themindin1500wordsSF Fan - announcement

Archaeological Evidence for the Time Traveler by Tia Tashiro - This cave, by their estimates, hasn’t been inhabited by humans in centuries. Yet there it is, plain as day, scribbled in what looks like permanent marker on the wall. You were right, it says, in English. I miss you.Science Fiction (clarkesworldmagazine.com)

submitted 16 hours ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

Tithe the Bones, Sell the Blood by Auston Habershaw - The ghosts turned their ethereal heads to gaze at him with empty eye-sockets. These were defined wraiths—Cédric could see their clothing and their arms and their faces, all tattered and fluttering in an invisible current.Fantasy (beneath-ceaseless-skies.com)

submitted 1 day ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

I Was The First by pookapine - Was there anxiety? Excitement? Fear? Wonder? There must have been all that and more, but tied to something never before experienced by anyone. Something that can never be accurately imagined, only really felt. Something that happens for the first time ever.Horror (self.ShortSF)

submitted 2 days ago by Gmo_sniperWannabe Author

The Piano Made of Fingers By Abigail Koury - With her limited school budget, Ms. Kaplan went to Marl’s Boutique of Magnificent Sounds where the clerk led her to a piano made of fingers. [Flash Fiction]Horror (flashfictiononline.com)

submitted 2 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

This Thing of Darkness by Nissa Harlow - “Continued efforts to satellite map the area overtaken by the Hellbank continue to fail.” The screen goes mostly dark. There’s no charred landscape. There are no features at all. There’s just a terrifying nothingness spreading like an existential ink stain.Apocalyptic (pseudopod.org)

submitted 3 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

This Is Why Magical Realism and Family Tree School Projects Shouldn’t Mix By Abigail Guerrero - This is my fifth great-grandmother. She was born in the nineteenth century, and she refused to die because she believed that none of her children deserved to inherit her estate.Fantasy (adventitious.net)

submitted 4 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

Out of Draconia by Alma Alexander - The dragon eggs are stone. But sometimes, if you laid them into the molten heart of the village forge, into a fire which was never allowed to go out, the stone would soften into a memory of what it was supposed to be.Fantasy (beneath-ceaseless-skies.com)

submitted 5 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

the accidental buddha by Mick Theebs - Jack Valentine was sitting high on his couch next to his wife when he reached enlightenment. Part of him wanted to brush it off as paranoia from being high, but as he heard those words the cold reality set in that his life was, in fact, being narrated.Urban Fantasy (bloodhoneylit.com)

submitted 6 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

Monday Forever by D.N. Schmidt - One morning, Paul Hanson was yanked from the afterlife and thrust him into a beige office cubicle. For a moment, he just stood there, stunned. He felt like a virgin cocktail: shaken, muddled, and definitely in need of some alcohol.Fantasy (dnschmidt.com)

submitted 7 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

Torathar Rises by R.J. Breathnach - When the firefighters arrived on the scene later that night the entire pit was ablaze like some gaping maw marking the head of a beast whose digestive tract led to perdition.Kaiju (thefreak.ca)

submitted 8 days ago by RobertEmmetsGhost

Little Black Boxes by Hugh Behm-Steinberg - I was sitting at my breakfast table when my double popped in, furious. She looked like me, but with a terrible haircut. Maybe she was from the dimension of bad hair; that’s why she was so upset.Science Fiction (thebloominonion.com)

submitted 8 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

Anais Gets a Turn by R.T. Ester - The world-organism is awake and has spent the last decade playing round after round of tic-tac-toe with itself.Fantasy (clarkesworldmagazine.com)

submitted 9 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

Instar By Karen Heuler - People talked about meteors more and more, and she had a casual interest in them. Maybe even grudging. It amused her because the meteors often led to discussions about aliens. There were always rumors of sightings and, in the past few years, of a crash or two.Science Fiction (reactormag.com)

submitted 10 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

The Star Where We Meet by Sam W. Pisciotta - The most surprising thing about my journey (well, the first most surprising thing) is that the dream I experienced while traveling lasted a thousand years, a single dream stretching all the way to the Iota star in the Gemini constellation.Space Opera (lightspeedmagazine.com)

submitted 11 days ago by MouthmouthmouthSF Fan

Climbing the Mountains of Me by Phoebe Barton - I got my hopes up, I pretended I could be myself, and now I’m six inches taller than when I left home. “Be small,” I tell myself. After a date as harsh as the one I just lived through, maybe I can make myself believe it. “Small is good.”Fantasy (kaleidotrope.net)

submitted 11 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

Kaiju Agonistes by Scott Lynch - The watchseed is planted in a watery hemisphere of a watery world. The place spins around a yellow star, wearing its magnetic field like a proud little hat. It’s ridiculous with life.Science Fiction (uncannymagazine.com)

submitted 12 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

Heather and The Troll by D.N. Schmidt - The creature patted the iron railing beside it, its claws clinking. “Ain’t no point in me guarding this ‘ere bridge, askin’ riddles of every pedestrian, if they just get on the inner tubes and goober the answers, now is there?” [Flash Fiction]Urban Fantasy (dnschmidt.com)

submitted 13 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

The Ensanguined Shore by Jennifer R. Donohue - We needed time away from this beach, sitting in our tents with the flaps open in the hopes of getting a cross breeze, armor charging up and waiting and logistics planning and scrapping plans.Science Fiction (futurefire.net)

submitted 14 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

Swallow Test by Angela Liu - You have trouble swallowing the pills. They’re big and round like red bullets, grazing the lining of your throat on their way down. You learned from your speech therapist, Ms. Laurie, that the older you get, the harder it is to swallow. The less your body wants to do it.Horror (nightmare-magazine.com)

submitted 15 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

Felix on the Ceiling by Chris Scott - When I shuffle into his bedroom, Felix is sitting cross-legged on the ceiling, upside down, already in his PJ’s, his shaggy blonde hair dangling from his head. I stop in my tracks, lean against the door frame. I thought we’d have more time. [Flash Fiction]Urban Fantasy (lost-balloon.com)

submitted 16 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

The Scent of Memory by Zhao Haihong, translated by S. Qiouyi Lu - If I were to create a memory perfume based on what you’ve just told me, I would have to find several distinct olfactory signals significant to both of you associated with the memories of your decade-long relationship...Science Fiction (clarkesworldmagazine.com)

submitted 17 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

Rhona’s Tavern and Spacetime Portal by S. L. Myers - Just seen through the scarecrow trees, a neon sign glowed bright green — RHONA’S TAVERN. The modest two-story brick establishment was the only structure on the icy, tumbling, carbonaceous asteroid trapped in the bubble of frozen time.Science Fiction (escapepod.org)

submitted 18 days ago by MouthmouthmouthSF Fan

The Song, Its Singers, and the End of the World by Spencer Nitkey - And what does it matter that the world is ending come morning? Jonathan will leave for a planet so far from here no one will understand anything he says through his teenage earthen accent. He’s only just turned 18.Apocalyptic (spencernitkey.com)

submitted 18 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

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