Romance Short Stories

They Used to be Green

Last night, they were green. It took several minutes before I noticed, as generally I keep the bathroom light off first thing in the morning. It was a habit I…[...]

The Chromatic Curse

I have to eat colors to stay alive. Go ahead. Laugh. But it’s not as easy as it sounds. I had to figure out how to eat color. Just color.…[...]

A Very Red Vase

The upside to catching a lasgun beam in the stomach rather than a lead bullet, Sinclair thought, is there is no bullet you have to dig for before stitching yourself…[...]

Trigger Warnings: - disturbing imagery- societal manipulation- militant themes Jade Zelenska was a snapshot of whimsey in an urban jungle. From the space-buns wrangled by mismatched, neon scrunchies to the…[...]

The World Isn’t Yellow

Quill was twelve and a half and lived with a hundred other one to eighteen-year-olds in a bunker under an ancient suburban neighborhood.The only information she and the others had…[...]

The Grayscale Syndrome

CW: Mass death, suicide, apocalyptic themes The Grayscale Syndrome “This is the Friday night edition of the Critical Mass podcast with Ava Winslow. I would ask how everyone is doing,…[...]

The Shape of Knowing

The Shape of KnowingThe lights went out on a Wednesday in October, which was an inconvenient day for the end of the world. Don Anderson was in the shop behind…[...]

The Quiet Divide

"Rainy Days Ahead," announced the text box at the bottom of Dr. Riley's display. "3 inches of rain expected this Friday." For a moment, he imagined himself as one of…[...]

It Ain’t Easy Being Orange

I used to be bolder than others. Even the boldest of the bold could not eclipse my brilliance.I don’t mean I was unapproachable; I was and am as sweet as…[...]

312 A.D.

The day was 312 A.D. Anno divortium, that is — 312 days had passed since Melody found herself single after bringing nearly 25 years of marriage to a close. 312…[...]

UNICORN RE-WILDING

No re-wilding programme has caught the British public’s imagination more than the recent plan to re-introduce unicorns into Scotland. People of our generation have long forgotten that the unicorn used…[...]

Roots of the Withered Land

My hand feels stiff, as if bark has grown over my skin. I stare across the bar and wonder: Is ignorance really bliss? I don’t have an answer. Luckily, it’s…[...]

I The Chimera, T The Tachyon, and We The Web

My kin told me a long time ago in my youth, “The earth remembers what” others “forget.” “Others? Of whom do you speak?” I asked ”You’ll see” said affirmatively my…[...]

Jave Islands

The sun is hot on my skin. I have so much to do and so many places to be but I'm not in a hurry. I've had a song stuck…[...]

What Survives Being Measured

The ground had forgotten how to give anything back. It held its shape when she pressed her heel down.The town called it a drought, like naming it made it simple.…[...]

The Earth Remembers

Ruth stood at the shoreline and took deep breaths. She had been in charge of the island for years, but sometimes, standing here, staring into the openness of the water,…[...]

Blue Mouths

The hand came first.I had held it so long I had forgotten it was not mine — five fingers, dark and perfect, the nails still curved like little shells. I…[...]

The Small Ones First

I found them by their heat.From altitude, the planet read mostly in blues and greens, the thermal signature of a world still within habitable range but trending wrong. Pockets of…[...]

The Earth Remembers

Sankee walked among the headstones in the old cemetery. There, she was afforded windows of introspection. It was a quiet world, over ten miles away from the nearest town of…[...]

Dug the Demon Poet

This is the guy I’m supposed to possess, I confirm as I look at my fact sheet. Dwayne Gary, age 33, single, waiter at Chili’s. He sounds incredibly boring. One…[...]

A Trace Of Green

A Trace Of Green With a coffee as bitter as his thoughts, Mike barely heard the waves lashing against the walls of his lighthouse home. For ten years, he had…[...]

Ladybird

Hi, my name is Ladybird, and I have a tale to tell. One you won’t want to miss.Through my research, I learned that the creature we call a unicorn had…[...]

One Hundred and Twenty-Two Suns

We wait for you, our special one, as we always do. We’ve come to expect you, and we are afraid that you are long overdue. Please come home, our special…[...]

The Opening

The OpeningIAccording to something he had once heard—perhaps as a child, perhaps later, perhaps not even from a person—the earth remembers what we forget, though the sentence had never settled…[...]

The Pulse Beneath the Moss

Vera had been cataloging the death of things for eleven years. She never used that word in her reports. She wrote things like photosynthetic decline, premature senescence, biosphere instability, or…[...]

The Water Takes Us

“If you go into the water, it will take your life. We are cursed to never enter the ocean.” My mother’s words echoed in my mind as I recalled a…[...]

The Coquimbo Node

The ceiling fan spun slow, like lazy vultures circling through the smoky neon haze of the bar. The air was thick—too thick—humid in a way that didn’t belong this close…[...]

The Last Midwife

The Last Midwife Her name was Evelyn Marrow. In the dim, sterile glow of the Evergreen Care Facility’s common room, she sat alone with her memories and the faint, ever-present…[...]

To Subatomic Particles You Shall Return

Alpha Memento Mori was a special universe. Like every universe, stars moved out of their neighborhood seeking new beginnings. But they strayed too far and consumed all their resources in…[...]

The Soul of a Tree

I ached. My branches creaked like the old bones of a buck. Had many come and go. Some never return. A loss of the tiniest bird makes my heartwood ache…[...]

Asterion

The mud was thicker than molasses under my boots. I generally hate cliches, but it fits. It rained last night, and honestly, I despise feeding the fucking bull. He was…[...]

The Hum

The Sound That Makes You Sick — Vlog 1: Ridgepoint (uploaded April 26th, 2026)Video transcript:Can you hear it? “Jordan, what am I supposed to hear?” you ask. I’m not talking…[...]

The Man and The Lighthouse

The Man & The Lighthousemadeleine rosevear At last, I was alone before the sea.CRASH, she bellows. KSHH, she wails and retreats. Beautifully expectable and enticing. Timid yet unapologetic. A shame,…[...]

Beneath the Oak

Padraig stared at the grove from the other side of the fence. Green like that made his stomach ache. The white drone beeped and hovered above the ground beneath the…[...]

Your Country Needs You

Your Country Needs You I’m lucky to be alive. And terrified of myself – for doing something I never thought possible. A man, or what was once a man, stands…[...]

All You Can Eat

We approach at sunrise: five men packed into a crew-cab truck, descending on the last five-acre parcel deemed “problematic” because of its rumored curse. Armed with cables and winches, first…[...]

The Seventh Sense

The Seventh Sense The screams were horrible. She had never even been able to watch crime shows on TV that depicted people hurting others. It was a type of horror,…[...]

The Pebble Who Was Once A Mountain

To your eyes I am still and yet I have moved thousands of miles.Slowly. Slowly.I am but a piece of who I was; chiseled by gravity, by motion, by time…[...]

The Brother Who Let Go

First, I have to tell you I am alive and I have two brothers. One Near-And-Beating Brother, who holds my hand beneath the damp, green and life-bearing soil. Whose hurts…[...]

The Final Landscape

I am eighty-seven years old, and I have lived a very simple but happy life. My wife, Ava, passed away fifteen years ago, and as we had no children, now…[...]

The Saddler

“What are you working on Faf?” Riley asked his grandfather as he sat on the far end of the workbench to watch him work. He called his grandfather Faf because…[...]

Manos de Mujer

The first group of children are already huddled by the exhibit entrance at the far end of the hall. A young guide in her sleek black dress is gently pressing…[...]

Peeled

Mika looked up from his keyboard when he heard the tap on the window. His first insane thought was that someone was knocking, but then he came to his senses,…[...]

How to rebuild the future

The Earth remembers what we forget. The husks of humanity’s past glory, laid out all around for us to admire… And yet, we lack the ability to restore them, to…[...]

Soda pop

I remembered the night I realised my fate. I awoke standing in front of one of the rows of a vending machine at night. Alive with both the spirit of…[...]

The Last Storyteller

“Let me tell you a story.”The man looks up at me, tearing his gaze away from his phone as I slide into the seat across the table from him. “Huh?”…[...]

The Quiet Afghan

It had been eleven years since Afshin had journeyed out of Mazar-i-Sharif, through the stony deserts and forbidding mountains of the Hindu Kush, to meet the friend who put people…[...]

The Market and the Misanthrope

Jack is alone in his studio apartment, on his phone, watching the odds creep low and lower.“Don’t overthink it,” he tells himself. “And don’t get greedy.” He understands that the…[...]

The edge of the world

Vincent made a sharp turn, causing the car to sway along the rocky road.“You could at least slow down,” Amaia complained. “This road is full of bends.”Vincent grunted.“You wanted to…[...]

The Final Cut

Type Note: This story contains themes of alcohol abuse and emotional distressFirst Drink After the math exam, I went back to my room – a messy student den I never…[...]

I Do This to Remember

When people ask me how or why I chose to get into this line of work, I tell them the story of my grandfather’s funeral. Which, I know, is never…[...]

Gentle

Hands shaking, breath shortening, she stood at the edge of the land and looked at the deep water ahead. She hadn't done this since childhood, and even then, it hadn't…[...]

At the Dawn of the Second Age

Evie was only six years old the first time she met a unicorn. It was not, as she had thought, a horse with a horn on its head. Rather, it…[...]

This Water Lives in Muña

Father Time watched the death of Mother Earth and in his sorrow became a drunkard that knew not whether to regress or progress, so in his confusion he mashed it…[...]

The Snake That Killed Eurydice

The widows’ pity gnaws at me. Their puffed lower lips, the downturned corners of their red eyes. I take a crooked pleasure in it, a masochist for their biting glances.…[...]

The Barn

Men ravaged with age, slurping white corn and frozen veggie soup, a blend of little taste, dipping stale bread, spoons in the creases of crow’s-feet mouths, slurping, heads down. The…[...]

Salaam

Salaam It is 5:30 in the morning, Ziv has been tossing and turning since he retired to bed last evening. Sweaty, mouth dry, and with a pounding headache, he decides…[...]

Echoes Beneath The Ruins

Little Riri stumbled and fell. Quickly standing up, she ran the last few steps towards me. She clung to my legs for dear life, her lips quivering in fear. I…[...]

The Ruin

CW: Violence, traumatic loss, and psychological manipulation The Goddess of Spring waved her hand over the weeds sprouting from the cracks in the earth. Elena watched breathlessly, flowers erupting from…[...]

Liquid Gold

“Many years ago stood a village. From it lived a man, a fella from them rocks named Finley. Finley grew up real poor. His clothes were nothing but rags. His…[...]

The Smallest Expert

The Smallest Expert The future of indoor plants was saved on a random Thursday morning by a seven-year-old girl with a bottle of beer. At the time, the little girl…[...]

The Memory Thief

Fudalik was hopeful. Perched on the corner of a tall structure, he had found the perfect vantage. His entire form shifted like wind on the surface of water. Gentle and…[...]

“Keeper of the Roots”

“Keeper of the Roots”Ms. Kwan PerkinsWord Count: 1909 Élise Noire was born at twilight when the Mississippi River rose higher than it had in years, swollen with light from the…[...]

What the River Leaves Behind

In the quiet Lowcountry of South Carolina, where tea-dark rivers wind beneath moss-draped oaks and memory lingers like humidity in the air, one woman begins to understand that survival is…[...]

There Was a Wise Woman Who Talked to the Fish

The sun was just starting to set behind the hill, and the lightning bugs and mosquitos were rising from the grass. Magic and mayhem, delights and bites, coming at you…[...]

The Hunger

The Hunger Laura’s body was there in the darkness, a pale outline in the dirt. My eyes overflowed with tears as I wrung my hands, wanting to touch her, wanting…[...]

Asphalt and Ashes

"Remember, little one, the Earth will be angry.” Grandmother said, the wrinkles on her face like furrows in a farmer’s field, timeless eyes like the sea and the sky and…[...]

Deer Eyes

(Sensitive theme in story: blood, talk of death, bones, maggots, rot, war, and flesh.) As war raged on, blood spilling on pikes and rocks, birthing fluid coated the soft clovers…[...]

It Spins

It’s the most perfect thing I’ve never seen. It spins. I only know this because everything around it spins. You can’t really describe it — it’s not made for description.…[...]

The fourth sun

A constant humming filled the bar. It was a typical Saturday evening. “The Anchor Point” kept its promise.Sam stared into his glass. Ice turned into water. Water turned into whiskey.Ha,…[...]

The Darkest Point of Night

Every bit of starlight we see is ancient. The night sky is a tapestry of twinkling relics flung across millions of lightyears, eons from when they first burned. Even after…[...]

He Walked

There was a man who walked and walked. He walked so far that he disappeared from the planet. The world ended and he strolled right into space. He strolled into…[...]

Is Anybody Out There?

Captain Paul Chalmers was woken by the sound of the proximity siren ripping through his skull. “What the fuck?” he murmured, opening his eyes to see the strips of lighting…[...]

DIFFUSE

He waits until the remaining movement in her begins to recede. Not surrender. Not yet. Just the moment her shape seems to feel there is nowhere left to continue toward.She…[...]

Quick Deaths

Kael armed the forbidden gas at 03:47 local time, fourteen minutes before the bakery ovens would have been lit.The standard harvest protocols glowed amber on the console beside it. Two…[...]

Make No Mistake

If you limit your actions in life to things nobody can possibly find fault with, you will not do much. - Lewis Carroll Bekky was a miracle to behold. She…[...]

The Scent of Burnt Sienna

The Scent of Burnt SiennaBy G. Raymond SmallCycle I:The Needle and the CanvasThe studio reeks of linseed oil and charcoal dust, A hollow ribcage of blackened beams and rust.Here, Tristan…[...]

I remember those days

I remember la chanson the birds sang that day. The fallen leaves and all.I remember people talking about their days. the flight instructors who struck me the most, at least,…[...]

your go-to café

have you travelled far far away and need to find your way back home, darling? this would be listed among the most humane situations, no need to be coy about…[...]

Strange Fruit

Strange Fruit By Kailey Blount A tiny pot of water we can’t afford boils on the stove and steam puffs up in spits and sputters. I lean into the mist,…[...]

Where the Stars Kept His Name

The Archive had no floor.Not truly.It only pretended to, the way grief did when given rituals and names.Beneath Theia’s boots, black glass reflected a universe suspended above and below her.…[...]

Suitable Behavior

The years have passed, I kept some of the pictures of mom and dad. Their younger selves still smile at me inside the frame next to the stairs leading to…[...]

Anne-1

“Why can’t I move my arms?” The words come out faintly, almost a mumble, and the sound of my voice is already startling. It sounds like me… but then it…[...]

The Foam

You sit on the toilet for what should have been three minutes of silence.Your spouse is downstairs speaking on the phone in the careful voice used for bills, school matters,…[...]

Winter’s End

His eyes fluttered open and for a brief moment, he forgot who he was. A moment of respite, with neither pain nor anguish. The room was dark and he could…[...]

We Will Call Her Hope

We Will Call Her Hope Command Deck, Exploration Cruiser Bridger, Deep Space, Star System ED-163Mission Day 2130230 ST (Ship Time)A billion kilometers from a star, spacetime trembled with a flash…[...]

Orbit

You awoke much like you were born – slowly, reluctantly – taking small shallow breaths. Though I mixed the oxygen myself, blending a perfect match to the sea-level airs you…[...]

All the Best

“Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Pat-“ “No thank you, James,” the old man said. The room was just coming round. Yesterday’s air sucked out,…[...]

Out-of-Body Experience

My body had failed but my brain still had so much more to accomplish. That’s why I’m in this predicament now. It has been 157 years since I’ve seen another…[...]

Hoard to Death

“You know, I feel like we have this… incredible connection,” Gary says. He’s leaning across the table to reach for my hand. I settle for the tips of my fingers…[...]

It Knows About the Brown Butter

The signal came in on a Thursday. Thursdays were mine. Reconstituted lentils in a foil pouch, one cup of coffee that tasted like hot drywall, the methane storms rolling across…[...]

No Blue Butterfly

I saw a beautiful blue butterfly fluttering outside my window. I laughed, then cried. So the scientists were wrong, the worst scenario was wrong. The world was still intact. I…[...]

Yet another Mars ticket

By 2142, Mars had become profitable.Priya and Ethan were sitting at their Martian desk, scrolling through the piled-up tickets. To improve efficiency, support staff had been relocated to Mars. Managers…[...]

Eternal Explorers

Gennaro felt honored to be the Chief Science Officer on the Chrysalis for its maiden voyage. Their mission was to explore the Alpha Centauri system and to help set up…[...]

From the brink

I had never known a darkness like this……….and this ‘muggy’ darkness would have an eeriness that would question your inner, and ‘never before used’ with such intensity, mental strength!I would,…[...]

Coming Home

He gazed out across the vast landscape in front of him. The checkered fields of alternating green, yellow and black created a patchwork pattern of the new double-pronged rows of…[...]

The Heartbeat in the Void

I haven’t spoken a word for three days. Not since I buried them. What would be the point? Alone in a room speaking to myself? Seems redundant. Then again, most…[...]

Haint Blue Homecoming

By the time I turned off County Road 12, the kudzu had swallowed the mailbox whole. Green vines thick as rope curled around the post like something claiming a body.…[...]

Hello, Eternity. I’m Isaac

A ship exited hyperspace in the middle of the starry seas of space. Frothing waves of nebulas crashed into black holes, schools of shooting stars dispersed as supernovas chased them,…[...]

Luna’s Lunar Breakdown

Loneliness. It waxes and it wanes. I look around at all that I have. All of the moon is mine now. I had friends, but they turned into aliens. Since…[...]