Romance Short Stories

Astronaut’s Eyes

I’ve grown tired of seeing my reflection in the glass of my helmet, a stranger with her gaunt eyes and cracked lips staring back at me. At least I won’t…[...]

Meeting in the Living Room

The air in the room was heavy with the scent of lilies and the collective weight of things left unsaid. Most of the guests wore black, a uniform of mourning…[...]

Postnuclear Gothic

There’s two ways out of the valley and that’s north and south. If you had nothing much to carry and buckets of rope east and west would work, too, but…[...]

CW: Inspired by classic German Folktales, popularized by the Brothers Grimm. Nestled beneath the Arnsberg Castle on a spring afternoon, the Vehmic court was in session. The accused siblings, nervously…[...]

Planetary Comet

Warning: Vague descriptions of gore/self-harm pertaining to the story. I could taste the light upon the walls. I could taste the purples and blues that trickled down from the moist…[...]

A Sky Full of Stars

(This story contains suicide and strong language) I don’t remember how to look at the stars anymore. Looking at the stars may not be something you learn how to do,…[...]

Synaesthesia

Synaesthesia The wind shrieked through the air on a cold, October night. The moon peeked in and out clouds, as if the argument that was about to unfold below was…[...]

We’re Not Dead Yet

Caela Rhys entered the boardroom with her hands clenched into fists, the only betrayal of tension beneath a mask that remained unbroken. Emric Solen stood abruptly, every motion rehearsed and…[...]

Still Human

Heilick sat down on the lumpy armchair, breathing a sigh of relief. He had been on his feet all day, doing recon in the Beta sector. He was sure he…[...]

A Sky Full of Stars

(This story contains suicide and strong language) I don’t remember how to look at the stars anymore. Looking at the stars may not be something you learn how to do,…[...]

Not My Story to Tell

It’s a funeral. I don’t know what else you want me to say about it. They all go the same way, don’t they? People are sad. They dress up, then…[...]

He Believed in Everyone

The restaurant was called The Green Parlor because thirty years earlier a newspaper critic had praised the ferns near the entrance, and the owner, who trusted praise more than instinct,…[...]

The Final Courtesy

The message arrived just after dinner. "She’s in critical condition. It’s only a matter of hours now." It sat there in the family group chat beneath old forwarded prayers and…[...]

Blind Date With a Demon

The late afternoon light slanted across Columbus Circle, turning the stone edge of Central Park gold. Though most people could appreciate this aesthetic–Augustin Fontenot could not–because he had been born…[...]

What Once Was Mine

Warnings for themes of death, grief. When you’re young, you have all these dreams and passions. As a young lad, I wrote and created stories with my very best friend-…[...]

The Seven stages of Loss

(TW: grief,death,loss,mental struggles,true story) They stand and stare at her, she-sealed behind the glass with a face white as paper and lips purple blue, lying in an oak coffin, cold…[...]

Nobody Mentioned Alfred

Samantha Clay felt anxious that Christmas Eve. It was the first time her family was meeting her fiancé Oran. Or rather, she was worried Oran was meeting them.Samantha loved spending…[...]

The Jaws of the Common North American Alligator

Author’s note: This story contains strong language and the views of an openly racist character, which are portrayed in a negative light. “Well, look who the gator dragged in.” The…[...]

Therapy For the End of The World

John noticed a slight change in her voice tonight. Over the countless hours of sessions they have had over the years, Clara’s tone had become warmer. There was a clinical…[...]

Where Do I Begin?

I don't want to start. I truly don’t want to.So I delay this task by playing WORDS on my phone. Then move onto Elevate. Nobody sees you. Nobody judges you.…[...]

A Still Thought

It was almost the big day, the day that the Deep Cs would go on the mission. Corey didn’t really know why they were going on the so called “mission”…[...]

Down the Hall

It was a face emerging from the woodgrain of our office door that captivated me. Throughout the workday filled with mundane tasks of checking emails, typing punch lists, and fielding…[...]

About to Fall

A thick fog envelops Hyde Park as I ride my ginger pony around the deserted kiosk at Speakers’ Corner. Winter Wonderland closed last week, leaving its muddy footprint stamped on…[...]

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.…[...]

Pending

A few years ago, a new law was enacted: ‘It is forbidden to open an animal’. No one had thought about surgeries. When an annoying journalist raised the issue during…[...]

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 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…[...]

Stay

Disclaimer: story contains themes of abandonment and distress, and an implied death. I love riding in the car. The world gets so big when we G-O. I wonder if we're…[...]

A different type of remembrance day

Today is April 31Or at least I believe it to be. I’ve done my best to keep track of each day since ‘the change’ began. Ironically this all began on…[...]

Seeing Red

I remember warmth.A life full of it. Faces of a family I once loved, now blurred and distorted. The world I first saw through rose-colored glasses is long gone. Now,…[...]

DO YOU REMEMBER HIM? A POLICE NOTIFICATION AND MEMORIES COME BACK

On March 6, 2026, a notification from the state police arrived at the apartment in Centocelle, in a small and quiet street close to the main street of Via Castani.…[...]

The Companions

The Companions I glanced out the window as night fell. Towering charcoal thunderheads slid low and fast toward Ravenhill House, from across the untended meadows and forests of the estate’s…[...]

My Two-Way Ticket To Suicide Station

Trigger Warning:This story contains themes or mentions of gore, suicide, and violence. Central Florida, USA - 2026When I was 7 years old, I'd left my younger brother to die, and…[...]

APRIL 31

Today is April 31. That’s what the breeze-torn calendar says, pinned to a tilting wooden post with a hunting knife. A dark red streak cuts through the black ink of…[...]

A Path Through Nothing and Memory

Is heat the absence of cold, or something else entirely? I think of fire. Heat.I recall the feeling of sunlight flickering across my closed eyelids as I would lean against…[...]

Its bravery didn’t equal its resilience.

I couldn't enter where the light touched, so I descended into the shadowy part of the fishbowl.I'd crossed the black between the stars carrying nothing but the ashes of my…[...]

The Door He Kept Knocking On

In Igatpuri, cottages were designed in such a way as to be comfortable. There were small cabins with little trails leading to each cabin, with dimly lit yellow lights showing…[...]

Unfiltered

“No… where are you going? Don’t leave me, please, I’m your wife! Wait!!!”I can’t believe it… My baby left me!I never thought this day would come. I always thought we…[...]

Jim

It could be worse.I gazed below me at the crests of waves crashing against the cliffside. The birdcage-like structure in which I was trapped dangled in the air, projected from…[...]

The Undead Walk of Shame

Bottles clang against each other in the distance. The stench of liquor burns my nose. I open my eyes to see the legs of tables and chairs, some turned over.…[...]

The Distortion of Belief

# The Distortion of Belief: Section 1 The Basin’s body of water was more salt than liquid, a stagnant mirror for the orange-bruised sky. Below the ridges, BasinTown clung to…[...]

Angel

“Hurry! Angel!” “Rainy! Slow Down!” Angel pushed through the tall grass, Rainy’s petite figure barely visible as they ran. Her distinct giggle led his way rather than the sound of…[...]

When the Oven Gets Cold

Today is April 31. At least, that’s what it feels like down here. April 30 was yesterday but, for us, May might never come. So here we are, trapped in…[...]

The Fugitive

Marcus woke suddenly to the loud clatter of beer cans banging together. The room was dark, and the clock on the bedside table read 2:10 a.m. He sat up and…[...]

From the Ashes

A fine, grey powder coated the dead Earth. Ash fell like snow… soft, constant, suffocating. It coated everything: the broken highways, the hollow buildings, the silent cars still frozen where…[...]

The Weight of the Wall

The heavy-lift passenger drone touched down at the old International Airport, its rotors screaming against the humid Jakartan air. Mark looked at the smoking horizon where his towers were tilting…[...]

Project: Bird Cage

Today is April 31.Only two days have passed, yet it feels like an eternity.If I had known this was how it would end, I never would have held the elevator…[...]

For as Long as it Takes

There was one person who knew the codes, Alexander Vanderhoff III, and he died officially of a heart attack at 3AM on December 17th surrounded by the half-naked, luxury-pill-popping party-goers…[...]

The Man Behind the Badge

I have five rounds in my magazine, which is not ideal when a horde of zombies is tearing into my makeshift gondola fort. The shrieking combined with the pounding of…[...]

Perfidy

(I am so sorry for the structure of this. This is my first time and I have no idea what I'm doing) “I’m starving, Erik, let’s just check out one…[...]

Observers

Today is April 31st, which marks 365 days (355 sols) since transmission from Earth abruptly stopped.The Martian humans noticed Earth’s silence immediately, of course, but they marked the sol in…[...]

One Man and the World

In a peaceful world known as Farhome, a lone human man sits at his table alone with his thoughts. Named James Rune, he had been sitting in his house for…[...]

The Message

TW: Mild body horror. Today is April 31st. I know April doesn’t have thirty-one days because my birthday is April 30th and my baby sister’s was May 1st. Memories that…[...]

When Nature Wins

Nature decided to rear its ugly head in a last bid to bring destruction to the very society that took too much. Grotesque vines twisted through broken windows and trailed…[...]

Love is a Longevity Factor

“Are you sure about this, Ollie?” Olivia winces as she tightens the laces of her boots. The only thing she’s unsure about is what hits her harder; how even beneath…[...]

Trouble in Paradise

Clarity came crashing in. She looked down at the wriggling fish, a jagged chunk missing from its flank. The mixture of briny seawater and oily flesh in her mouth made…[...]

Roja Lupa

She was to blame for this. For all of it. Roja had come back to the pack. Not as a full fledged lupin but a full blown traitor. Willing to…[...]

Jonas

Jonas had never really thought of himself as a man who believed in the paranormal. Superstition and other such nonsense was for the weak minded and those he deemed inferior.…[...]

The Great Wind

It was the 18th Supreme People’s Committee since the high-level state steering committee was reestablished. It was a big deal, and all members of the elite cadre in attendance knew…[...]

The Pembar

Racetrack Hollow contains a remote branch of Norris Lake cradled by the Tennessee hills. It is so quiet there that you can hear the airflow over a bird’s wings. Today…[...]

Youth

They say wisdom comes with age. That’s what I’ve been telling myself ever since my hair left town without so much as a forwarding address. None of the rodents had…[...]

The Hidden VC

The Hidden VCBy Lee Kendrick Captain William Sterling of the British 1st Airborne Division, had just parachuted from one of the 358 gliders for Operation Market Garden; into a blustery…[...]

The Weight of the Laddle

The stew was bad, the fireplace was smoky, and there stood Silas. Silas was a man who would whisper sorry to the floor just for walking on it.He’s spent mastering…[...]

And Then I Saw It

Everything changed the day I went on the plane. It could’ve been different. I should’ve known what was to come. It all started with my parents' idea to fly me…[...]

George Anston Gets the Point

George Anston was preparing for his clandestine meeting across town. He knew there would be danger at every step but nothing would stop him from reaching his rendezvous. He sharpened…[...]

Author

David had never written anything good in his life. Not in his school essays, not in his postcards, not even in his diary. He had always found something to blame…[...]

You Did What?!

It’s right around the corner there. JESUS CHRIST! Where’d you get your license? A Kinder Surprise? No, stupid, Kinder Surprises are illegal. As is stealing a suitcase full of money…[...]

Out of Reach

Elaine noticed the road first. Nothing had changed, not exactly. The same turns were there, the same stoplight, the same gas station on the corner. But it took longer to…[...]

The Accidental Robber

There were a pair of police officers checking security over a local bank. The bank had just been robbed about five minutes prior and the two officers were tasked with…[...]

Letter Nº 14

So, do you really think what happened to me in 1860 deserves a place in a book? Fine, go ahead, but on one condition: you must not publish anything before…[...]

I’ve Said Too Much

Martin Hale didn’t speak immediately.He just watched Aaron. The city flickered behind him, reflected in the glass like something alive—restless, electrical, waiting. Aaron felt it in his chest before he…[...]

My Time

My TimeNina SwansonContent Warning: Contains death, psychological distress She is running because it is the only way out of this mess. Her breathing is heavy. She simply can not stop…[...]

Nothing Left Wild

Content note: This story contains themes of emotional distress and implied self-harm involving a child I got down on two skinny knees that morning, with shag carpet pressing into my…[...]

Collectibles

The figurines were lined up neatly on the shelf. All had the same shape. At first Matilda thought they were tiny bells. But on closer inspection they were depicting a…[...]

The Missing Piece

I pull the box out of the garage because the dogs need to go out. That was my excuse. The truth is less organized. I let them into the yard…[...]

The Bargain

Fame had become like a spotlight that bleached everything that was human about him. In the dark of the old Victorian house, he saw his reflection through the rain-pattered window.…[...]

Mixer

Trigger warning: Contains a birth scene. 6 months before: I felt the chill first, then saw bright lights shining orange through my eyelids. A sharp, astringent smell bit at my…[...]

Fragments of Yesterday

To Alex, memory was simple. Reliable. Things happened. He remembered them. Even the details that didn’t seem important at the time stayed with him. Which is why the feeling that…[...]

The Bystander

The boat left and twenty students in the retired seniors class were on the lawn. One of them asked me if I was the monitor. Sure, I said, and slipped…[...]

The Drug

A Soul for a Soul

The green splintered door has called out to me day after day as I pass it on my way downstairs. Today, the call is stronger. It echoes through my bones…[...]

Pulse of the Fool

Pulse Of The Fool I KEEP WRITING, keep trying, hoping that every effort will be something more than it was from the time before. Yet, who am I really? What…[...]

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN CLOSING TIME AND MORNING

‘’See you tomorrow, Angie", she said, waving goodbye to her as she left the café exhausted. Hazel's shift had ended; it was 11pm. Her feet and back hurt because she…[...]

The Inevitable Entropy of Ink

The truth will remain.He wrote the words without knowing why, only that they felt heavier than the pen that carried them. For a moment, he watched the ink settle into…[...]

Exactly As Written

She realized it the third time.The first had been easy to dismiss.Lila had written, almost absentmindedly, “I wish the rain would stop.” She’d been sitting at her kitchen table, pen…[...]

Trapped Inside

The squeaky wheel on Nurse Betty’s medicine cart always sent a chill down my spine. It indicated the beginning of another day trapped inside my own body, wanting to scream…[...]

Father’s Daughter

It was a month ago when I first heard the screams. I should say ‘scream’ because that first night it was just the one, prolonged sound that pierced the night…[...]

The Color Black

I wake to the sound of church bells. They fill the air with their chimes and dings, signaling the eighth hour of the day. There are voices outside, shouting something…[...]

LifeTime Inc.

Mason Fleece’s eyes opened to silence for the first time in years. Screetches from his alarm clock had pulled him from dreams of rainforests and mountains every morning for the…[...]

A Fatherly Experiment

The first thing I felt was a deep warmth that spread like a wildfire through my body. Once I felt it in my fingers and toes, my body jolted with…[...]

Maps for the Unlost

Once, in a house at the edge of an ordinary street, a mother wrote by lamplight while her daughter slept. The lamp was brass and old and threw uneven gold…[...]

Rows of Longing

Taryn trusted abandoned things more than she trusted people.Abandoned things did not ask her why she was quiet. They did not stare too long at her clothes or her hair…[...]

The Blue After the Storm

April 23, 2026 - 6:20pmIt’s been gray and overcast today, which I honestly love. As an Arizonan living in Oklahoma now, I love the days where rain is expected. I…[...]

The library of imagination

The wind rustles through the forest. Above my head the trees crack like old bones in a body. The crisp morning smell of the pines enters my nose. One of…[...]

An Unfortunate Patient

“It was such a bizarre scene. I’m tempted to call the market and see if I can get some details,” said the host. “She was sobbing. I mean really sobbing.…[...]

Call Your Father

The wall stared without question or expectation.There were scars hidden beneath its caked layers of paint, every one a silenced story consumed by the beige expanse. It stood despite them.…[...]

Static in the Garden

I’ve been in bed for two days. My body feels heavy—clunky, as if my limbs have been attached incorrectly. The room is nearly empty: just a bed, a table, a…[...]

Cracked Empties and the Ridge She Wanted Back

I set the bead against my temple and the reef-valley opened.Salt air. The sort that comes off water moving slow over living stone. A cousin’s hands in front of me…[...]

Stone-Smell the Glass Wouldn’t Give Up

I went to the counter for enzyme on the second count. Onia was at the tray. I’d been buying enzyme from her twice a week for two years.“Morning,” I said.“Morning,”…[...]

Growth-Scripts Fed

I set the tissue-sheet on the bench and picked up the pheromone-stylus. Thin reed, split at the tip. Most cousins used them for wall-writing. I used mine for growth-scripts.The sheet…[...]