Romance Short Stories

The Dive

It was much heavier than Chelsea remembered. The steel diving cylinders pulled down on her body so that her legs wobbled and threatened to collapse. This was just another reminder of what…[...]

One of Fifty

This story contains depictions of pain and hurting oneself, though not for reasons stemming from self-hatred or desire to inflict harm. She breathed into her back, softening her neck to…[...]

Build A Husband

After reels became completely flavorless, Jessica ran out of things to do. Her thumb window wiped her phone, back and forth and back. Youtube. Instagram. Reddit. Google News. She chewed…[...]

Shattered Honor

In the heart of Higashi, where mist clung to the pines and the air was thick with the scent of sakura, there lay a town forgotten by prosperity. Its name,…[...]

An: Ahh, morning is breaking. Light but not yet enlightenment. The fresh fragrance of moss. Yes, I am surrounded by moss, even buried in it. I shouldn’t care, but this garden at Sanzen-in is cozier…[...]

What We Have and What We Have Lost

tw: brief suicidal thoughts, verbal abuse, war and mentions of death It was impossible to think in this sticky heat; but they had had but five hundred arrows left to…[...]

With Love, From Home

“The Cherry Hotel. Walk down the pavement, turn right, and it’s the first building on your side of the street.” There was wind on the other end of the line,…[...]

The White Dragon – Part 1

In ancient China, there was a special vocation for transporting important items from one point to another. Usually, the items can range from a huge amount of gold to important…[...]

The Tree Remembers

Trigger Warning: Verbal abuse I was fourteen years old when I left my mother. Or rather, when she abandoned me. It was a wet spring morning when Mother called me…[...]

The Arrangement

The Arrangement Back to India for Christmas, the overwhelming humidity in the air is always a welcome-home banner. The familiar road to my ancestral home, a coffee plantation-laden landscape, is…[...]

An Epiphany

An Epiphany'Sorry dear, I can't do it.'Pawan yanked the sticky note sheet from the bathroom mirror, and read the message again – ‘Sorry dear, I can't do it’. He could…[...]

Aaliyah

Chapter 1: Aaliyah It was early morning, and Aaliyah, still rubbing her eyes as usual, stepped into the blinding sunlight as warmth began to crawl across her skin. Younger than her…[...]

Chapter 39 of “Sengoku”: Kennyo’s Revenge

This is chapter 39 of a book I am writing titled "Sengoku." The book is based off real life warlords from Sengoku era Japan. In this chapter, the famous monk…[...]

Chapters 45-47 of “Sengoku”

These are chapters 46 and 47 of the book I am writing titled "Sengoku". This is based off real warlords from Sengoku era Japan. Please enjoy and share any feedback…[...]

Crimson Blades

**DISCLAIMER. THIS STORY CONTAINS SCENES OF GRAPHIC VIOLENCE AND ELEMENTS OF CHILD ABUSE.** The stench of blood and iron sat in the air. As Kojiro passed through the slaughtered village,…[...]

Chocolate- Mint Whiskream

Do not make a sound. I successfully stifle the sneeze but not the tears. They well up in my eyes when the sneeze is forced upwards instead of outwards in…[...]

Flamingo

A young man with a pimple-pocked face placed a grey plastic cup filled with iced lemon tea before me. I explained—or tried to, at least—that I had ordered milk tea,…[...]

The Blue Wall of China

South of Yanshan, between Beijing and Chengde, the Great Wall of China runs through the North China Plain. What few people know is that between a crook in a river…[...]

Harajuku 2026

It’s raining children and their lifeless bodies pile up on the side of the road. That’s the horrifying vision I see as I walk home along the tree-lined, majestic boulevard…[...]

THE DAY THE LIGHT WENT OUT

THE DAY THE LIGHT WENT OUT The wind; it has always been the wind. His one, true companion throughout his sixty years of life. He knew it as it knew…[...]

Bagong Taon (New Year)

December 27th, 1:09 PMWind PaperThe spirit of the windguides a piece ofpaper softly to awindow sill,where I am sitting.I feel the smoothlines in the paper,as though it hadbeen crumpledup several…[...]

Sticks and Twine

It was a balmy midmorning on the cusp of spring and summer, the air smelling of magnolia wood and blooming jasmine, and Yelena was sweating. Her pale arms were starting…[...]

A Silent Intelligencer

"Cheat, steal, lie but don't get caught doing it." Is what my instructor always told me. In this industry, you have to do whatever it takes to survive and get…[...]

The Red Mirror Project

Elena waited anxiously at the meeting point in front of the Yuantong Temple gate. Standing outdoors on the high plateau that Kunming is situated on, the refreshing coolness of the…[...]

Kage’s Creation

Before the first drops of rain fell upon the soils of the world, and even longer still before the wars of heaven and gods, there was the eternal darkness we…[...]

The Resurrection of JD

It has been almost three years since his mom passed away. Two and a half since the miscarriage. And two since the separation. If the miscarried baby were a girl, it…[...]

and lower your head

"...and lower your head." You tilt your head instead. After all, she isn't talking to you. You gaze over at the two kneeling strangers. Their heads are indeed lowered and…[...]

The Coach Crash

You are on a coach when the news about the crash pops up on your phone. 25 dead. 20 injured. You wonder if you could have been among the dead, or luckily,…[...]

Five Stages In Hong Kong

DenialJune 1997 Raymond Mok’s parents believed the world was ending when the Chinese flag was raised over Hong Kong in 1997. Friends had fled to Vancouver, but the possibility of leaving…[...]

Sila-pattikaram – (“The story of the anklet”)

Sila-pattikaram ("The story of the anklet") I recently read an English translation of the above Tamil epic purported to be written in 1 CE . This epic relates the revenge…[...]

The Phoenix Tea

The sound of rain hitting the tent perfectly mirrored the mood of a dejected-looking woman sitting inside it. It vibrated on the tent’s plastic material, mixing with the chatter and…[...]

Bargirl

Turning into Soi Cowboy is a full out assault on the senses. You leave the stink of noisy tuk-tuk traffic fumes and it’s replaced by hot oil cooking chili-flavoured street food.…[...]

Jet Lag

I lay in bed looking at the ceiling and sighed. I could not get to sleep. I knew jet lag was a thing but I had no idea how much it sucked…[...]

Phoenix on wheels

We put in blood, sweat, and tears for you to just give up now! It’s not about losing the match. You know I’ve never liked tennis! I muttered. So what…[...]

Arranged

ArrangedIt was 1974, and Priya was getting ready to get married to Rahul; a boy she barely knew. Her father and his uncle knew each other since childhood and worked…[...]

Aka

Oh. You’re awake. Bit sooner than expected but…oh well. Must have got the strength wrong. I’m not exactly experienced with using chloroform, only tried it twice so far, and once…[...]

In The Snow.

Suzuharu Yuto (スズハルユウト), at 27 years old, was a man steeped in tradition, a vestige of a bygone era. With raven-black hair and a countenance that mirrored the classic…[...]

Barefoot

On Skype, Mom’s eyes were closing, her drooping eyelids covered by silvery strands of loose hair. She was slipping into a doze. “Tell me about the Four-Cleanse, Mom.” I brought…[...]

The Real Illness

He lay inside the pink mosquito net on a rickety bed near the window, pale and thin. He would turn over to the window to welcome the new day. He…[...]

The girl from yesterday

Every year, in the third month of the Lunar year, Vietnamese flock to cemeteries in the occasion called “Thanh minh” period. Seldom do they leave modern life for traditional values…[...]

P.S. 1

P.S. 1 Salon Tango Mi Vida is buzzing when I walk in at 10:25 p.m. Early, really, when you consider that the true maestros come well past midnight. I have slipped away from…[...]

Punchy Nirvana Under The Tree

A Punchy Biography. ---------------------------------------------------------------- "Once upon a time, in a little kingdom somewhere between the Ganges and the Yamuna rivers, I was born. Siddhartha Gautama, they called me. Yeah, I…[...]

A Lesson in Dreaming

Shen had never fought so hard in his life. His legs quivered, and his arms barely held themselves up, much less his wooden training sword. His teacher, Master Fukuhashi, stood…[...]

Running Away?

Running Away? Grace let out a sigh as she prepared. One may be tempted to ask what she was preparing for. The answer to that was a little more complicated…[...]

Five Minutes

Higher and higher. Numbers are climbing up the scale. Almost every minute that goes by, another number increases. One minute, the radio read 36.9℃, the next it read 38.3℃, and…[...]

Welcome home

“Just landed，didn’t take much time at the customs today since I was drown in the crowd there last time. Anyways，waiting for my Grab now，miss the heat so much！” Jadex walks…[...]

Call of the storm

Rain streaks down the hospital window, fogging up the city beyond it. The blurry neon signs appear like a hallucination. He scrolls through the weather forecasts for the upcoming months.…[...]

Merlion Dreams

31st of AprilToday is April 31. I still can’t believe it! They really changed the dates. But if you think about it, it makes so much sense. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime…[...]

Lingering Haze

Sensitive content: Organized crime “The cured water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant radioactive reactors meets the safety standards and has been released…”I turn off the TV immediately. I…[...]

Operation: Lunch Break Hostage

I’ve been going to this place for a while now. These ladies are telling me to “choose the work I like” and always stopping me from doing the fun stuff.…[...]

The Woman Who Wouldn’t Sign Her Name

The Woman Who Wouldn’t Sign Her Name The first time my mother said it, I thought she was joking.“That’s not mine.”She held the pages the way you hold something you…[...]

The Kiss of the Cherry Blossom Petals

3 months, 6 days and 12 hours. That's how long it's been since I heard her voice beckoning me to hold her, when the world felt dark. To hold her,…[...]

Paper Wings

Ren commands the paper into intricate folds. The amber sunlight streaking through the window by his desk illuminates the softness of his dark eyes. Serious. Meticulous. Inspired. His collection of…[...]

Where the Sun Goes to Hide

"Tell me a secret, Beni."Beni only half-noticed what had been said to him. His mind was caught elsewhere, somewhere scarlet and bloated. He glanced across at Aminata, and the departing…[...]

Onogoroshima

From treasured annals of the Kojiki, to the hallowed tales of the Nihon Shoki, on an island named Onogoro far from the lands of the rising sun, where the whipping…[...]

Snow at the Yalu

Soldiers waited along the Yalu River, expecting an announcement from President Truman or General MacArthur at any time about their total victory in Korea. The Yalu was beautiful, but it…[...]

The Candidates

Dowager Empress Xiao adjusted herself in her seat and without asking, her head lady-in-waiting repositioned her headdress to give it better stay on her thinning hair. “Thank you, Lingli.” Her…[...]

Joss paper and jade

The rows of washed-out pink chairs were mostly occupied. The hot humid air filled with traces of incense, burned paper and disinfectant. Ghost Month didn’t make it easier to breathe…[...]

As The Tea Brews

It is an early fall morning. The air is starting to crisp as the wind blows cool. Leaves from the bamboo thicket begin to find a home in a clearing.…[...]

Water Freezes at 150mph

Water Freezes at 150mphby Kenneth Bryan VillagonezaLiving almost my whole life as an orphan, I am fascinated watching how family’s bond get so strong. How sometimes they bicker on simple…[...]

Whiskers in the Wind

It had been three days since Ojisan passed. Legs curled, proper and quiet against the shuttered rooftops. Sora couldn’t bring himself to leave. If he sat still enough, the morning…[...]

Anand’s Lamp

Anand knew the snake wanted to eat him, even if his mother said it only ate the cats and dogs scurrying over the trash pile. Anand held up one open hand, and…[...]

Autumn Rain

Trigger warning: Talk of self-harm and suicideHave you ever had this feeling? Like you’re a helium balloon with your string cut. A rotting piece of wood adrift in the vast…[...]

28 Letters

A gem can not be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials. Sejong swept his books off the shelf. Rain pelted the world outside. The king opened one of…[...]

buried in saipan

There are still rusted bayonets to be found in the dirt. Alongside broken firearms, canteens, and bullet-struck helmets. At times, still attached to skeletons. The deep-sea team would occasionally find…[...]

I Must Live

The rabbit burst from the undergrowth in a spray of snow.The fox followed.The forest raced past in flashes of grey trunks and white earth. The rabbit darted beneath fallen branches,…[...]

The Most Important Person in Bluff-by-Sea

When Mellene Whump was 12 years old, she told a teacher how the town of Bluff-by-Sea could improve access to its harbor. She had noticed ships often had to do…[...]

The Devils Meet at High Noon

The woman rode toward the town on a white horse. She came from the desert. She rode alone except for the horse. And as she rode into town, the Lord…[...]

The Princess Who Wouldn’t Kiss the Frog

By the time Florian lowered himself into Princess Amelia’s teacup, he had already tried everything.He had waited on lily pads, hoping she was one of those girls who believed in…[...]

Dead Man’s Hand

I consider myself a purveyor of hard-to-find goods. I roam from village to town scouring for specific items for my clients. When I find an untold treasure, I liberate it…[...]

My Memories of Lives: A Hennoire

My Memories of Lives: A Hennoire Part 1: Houston FloodsThe water is seeping in. I am starting fights with my brethren of cages so they don’t lose their spirit. We…[...]

No Regard

This story contains themes of child loss and death. Thank you. I do not remember my parents’ faces. It’s something I had to accept long ago, being the first truth…[...]

Boolean

We blitzed the city streets. My heart beat at my chest. My pupils dilated and my breath was sharp. I was alive. Even beneath the suppressive canopy of New York…[...]

The Purger

‘A man can lose himself entirely in the darkness,’ my master tells me as we pass the cells and interrogation chambers on the first level of Stonehaven Keep’s dungeons. It…[...]

My Dear Grigor

Lord Vamperio defeated yet another slayer and basked in the glory of his stake-snapping and garlic-crushing bloodshed for five minutes, monologuing on and on as his golden locks swayed like…[...]

Gone ‘Squatchin’

Today we’re going on a hike, something I REALLY dig. We’ve made the long journey, been buckled-in and on the road for hours. To top it off, it rained the…[...]

The Last Vampire

A war that ravaged the land like a hungry mouth laid upon its first meal in a century. It was won by a miracle only. Humans lived on without the…[...]

The Price of Prosperity

At the edge of an ancient, dark, misty forest sat the village of Isanthan. It was not a small village, nor a sprawling city, but just large enough to be…[...]

Midnight Oil

A holoscreen shed a pale light on Kori’s eyes, burning the edges. She rubbed tears away and concentrated, but the image still buzzed. She stood and her legs went stiff,…[...]

Rik’s Burning Desire

Deljon Gint hated it when his boss started in on "mentorin'". Deljon wasn't sure what the word meant, but he thought it must at least partly mean "more work". "OK,…[...]

Grimoire Mishaps at the Library of Baba Yaga

Rule #438 of the Library of Baba Yaga: Damaged books will be finedHecate, grant me peace. Aradia clasped her pendant, running her thumb over the serpent’s ridges, as she gingerly…[...]

Sector Eleven

The farmhouse had served as a battalion post for three days before it was abandoned; whoever left did so in haste. A half-eaten meal of sausages and cheese remained on…[...]

Elevator Operator

Ever since they could remember, best buds Jes and Daniel had the cliché dream to hop in their car with a single suitcase directly after high-school graduation and move to…[...]

The Paperweight Library

Mavis was now in her second year of retirement. Most days, she found things to do, but to be honest, she felt bored. Money was tight; it always had been.…[...]

The Little Bear

My parents loved me. I knew they did. However, in their quest to remain young and relevant, they failed spectacularly to embrace that I would, inevitably, grow older. At some…[...]

The Game

Freezing bark scraped against my face as I balanced two-thirds of the way up an oak tree. Winter had made the branches brittle, and the rough wood cut into my…[...]

Blackberrying

The two cloaked sisters entered the greyscale forest. To E, the youngest, it was just the forest. A world without colour was all she had ever known. A was just…[...]

Green With Envy: The Turning of a Friendship

“Grover?” I asked, looking at my friend and noticing how content he looked lounging from under our favorite willow, his arms crossed behind his head.“You know I hate that nickname,…[...]

End of Bouncy Pink Life

End of Bouncy Pink Life By Will Willoughby Once upon a time, two bouncy boy toys lived a wonderful life on the shady porch of a sunny house facing a…[...]

Tastes Like Yellow

The summer sunshine flooding Liam Lambert’s bright yellow kitchen perfectly suited the fragrance of his special lemon-infused cookies, fresh out of the oven. Even so, Liam was feeling anything but…[...]

How Long Is Forever?

"How far away are the stars?" Daphne gazed into the dark sky and wondered aloud. It was a perfectly clear night in August, two weeks left of summer vacation. Her…[...]

Green is…

GREEN Is... The fingertips went first.Maren noticed it pulling into the driveway. A cold pinch at the ends of her index and middle fingers on her left hand. She squeezed…[...]

Darkest Before Dawn

“Hey Bill, better wake up Tommy. My paper’s not here.” “Morning Pat, he’s out there, probably goofing around. Don’t worry, you’ll get your paper.” “Sounds good, thanks.” A few bites…[...]

The Purple, Yellow and Orange of my Stevie…

CW: Grief On April 10, my sister Jennifer's birthday, she picked up Stevie's ashes from the funeral home in Albany and brought them to us. It was so emotional and…[...]

Ahuizotl

Chapter 1This lake has been my home for as long as the gods have existed. I was created for them, as a messenger. “The Snatcher” is the name on the…[...]

the ground beneath me

The school bell rang, signaling the end of the day, but I never went straight home. I always went to the park behind the school, a small place not many…[...]

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…[...]

Imishi and Khapur

Long ago, two mountains stood facing one another across a wide valley. They were vast and ancient, and their names were Imishi and Khapur. It was the wind that named…[...]

Bottom Feeder

The tidepool where Ane Anemone lived was as beautiful and peaceful an environment as any anemone could imagine. It was her paradise. Cool, shimmering currents of water flowed over her…[...]

Where Forgotten Things Go

“Can we go home now? We’ve been out here for hours.” Nancy whined, stabbing her shovel into the dirt. Despite her lack of tact, she was right; we’d been digging…[...]