Just Another Dead Girl Underwater
Trigger Warning: implications of death, violence and sexual harassment By the time the fisherman finds me, I will have been dead for thirty-three hours, six minutes, and twenty-nine seconds. Eighteen…[...]
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Rot and Reason
Elric’s strict training regimen began before he could walk.He didn’t know a life where his purpose wasn’t abundantly clear.While children his age played with blocks and jumped rope, he was…[...]
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The Resonance
It didn’t happen with a sudden, cinematic snap. Minds like Elias Vance’s don’t shatter like dropped glass; they erode. They wash away in microscopic increments, stripped by the elements of…[...]
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Where Memories Go to Lie
THE ARCHIVE Climbing is forgetting. That’s what they say on Kepler-62f. The higher you go, the less of yourself you carry. The mountain doesn’t just test your body—it reaches inside…[...]
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FALLEN ANGEL
The shutters, clattering against the bedroom window, wake him though he struggles to recognise his surroundings; vaguely recalling the faceless whore he’d picked up in a bar in Teotihuacan. Instinctively,…[...]
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Down the Drain
Down the Drain 1. Slam the door, engage both deadbolts, lean against the heavy, metal, soundproofed billet of a front door I paid four thousand for. Installed yesterday. I'm back…[...]
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Silence is Survival
Silence Is Survival Three-hundred years ago, our planet, Earth, was met with blazing stars in the night sky. Though, these were not the ones in which you wish upon. Nations…[...]
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Diary of an Unknown Woman
{TW: Miscarriage, Sexual Violence, Physical Violence, Death} Sextilius 4 1634 We are starving. Johannes is sick, and he isn’t getting better. Fortunately, Jack is a skilled hunter who never misses…[...]
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One Night’s Ripple
“Come on, Summer. You haven’t been out with me since before you dumped Paul!” The voice on the phone whined. “I’m afraid you can’t carry a tune anymore!”It wasn’t a…[...]
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Where She Buried Him
Flowers grew over the ground where she buried him.She groaned, rolling over in her mass of blankets, alarm-clocked awake by the shrill beeping. She slapped wildly at the damn off…[...]
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DANGEROUS GAMES
DANGEROUS GAME They were born in the same house, under the same roof, raised on the same rules. But Austin, Brooklyn, and Dallas learned very early that rules were only…[...]
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Cause and Effect
CW & A/N: Mentions of past child abuse, gaslighting/coercion, mentions of past drug/alcohol abuse, OD, cursing, absent parents, religious psychosis???, matricide.) (Also kind of ties into the prompt of: Center…[...]
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The One Rule
He only had one rule.Never open the red door.It wasn’t locked. That was the point. No chains, no warnings, no signs—just a plain red door at the end of a…[...]
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The Unexpected
A car sped down a dimly lit road late at night. The hum of the engine blended with the faint glow of the dashboard, casting soft light across the driver’s…[...]
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The Secret that Everyone Knows
You will know today. I tear the note to shreds, sprinkling the bits into a glass of water on my nightstand. Noticing the note’s envelope is still intact, I take…[...]
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The Devil Keeps Score – Snippet from Chapters 22 & 23
Content Warning: hints and mentions of suicide, self-harm, & death, but none visualized. Strong language. She checks the letter once more. The street signs on the corner matches the ones…[...]
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Who is Masson?
Everyone in this town knows the story of the O’bryan family. In the remote town of Whillertown, a tragedy occurred Twenty five years ago. Whillertown was a small place, the…[...]
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Always by your side
You know I’m always by your side Iris. The text message said. My lips formed a small smile. She always did that. Giving huge promises that even the dumbest ones…[...]
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Good Hand, Bad Hand
Tap Tap Tap Cesar gazed out the window of his room, the view overlooking the rest of the city. He stayed at the top floor of the fate casino –…[...]
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Revenge takes a turn into a painting portal
Revenge takes a turn into a painting portal “Thanks for coming to help, Aaron. This is my mom, Elsa” We left the hospital at the same time. This way I…[...]
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The Communication Tactics of the Universe
I never said I liked children. They’re noisy, industrious little fools bent on having their own way or nothing at all. Like little versions of their parents, or heroes, stuffed…[...]
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Destroyer of Worlds
"This is incredible." Vally tilted his emerald head sideways curiously, like a green golden retriever puzzled by its owner. It took most of Isabel's professional disciple not to blurt out…[...]
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The Perfect Whisper
April 13th 1977Cold war rages,Pentagon hasn’t been empty in years.Two hundred feet of reinforced concrete and bedrock above our heads, an armored door, and thirty soldiers waiting outside.The air was…[...]
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The Captor
The grimy beige walls surrounding me towered above, looking down, mocking the fact that some plaster was able to hold my life in its hands. My memory of how I…[...]
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Passs Me My Crayons I Can Tell You Everything
Pass Me My Crayons. I’ll Tell You All About It All rise for the honorable Judge Herbert Alan Noel Grant Zhemhol esquire. The bailiff barks out the command to courtroom…[...]
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Inheritance
The keyfob wasn’t where he set it last night. The countertop organizer displayed his wallet in one chamber, his wrist watch in another, and the curled lanyard attached to his…[...]
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Our Neighbourhood
Our Neighbourhood is quiet and sombre (and the scurrying of rats and the flapping and scuffling of quiet, purple not-quite-bats and...other things...is hardly enough to make it underserving of the…[...]
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The Upgrade
Out of blackness. To space. To specular.That was how the transition felt in his mind, though Lester Harns didn't have the vocabulary to describe it yet. The digital alarm clock…[...]
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The Testament of the Clock
Four village men staggered beneath the weight of the tall clock as they descended from the manor’s attic. “Gently now!” Professor Edward Darkmoor called as they navigated the staircase. Mortensen…[...]
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On an errand.
On an errand.It was early on a Saturday morning when I stepped into our little local grocery store. I have visited this little store many times.The employees who worked at…[...]
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Ghosts of the Past
Tears streaked down his cheeks as his eyes smarted from the smoke. He watched his father seated in front of the ceremonial fire casting into it a mixture of wood,…[...]
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An Error in Design
TRIGGER WARNING:Physical violenceGoreMental health Chapter 1: It felt right. I walked around the charred wooden table. She sat, tied up on the other end. Her name was Sadie Hobbes.I came…[...]
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Exactly As It Should Be.
The hum of the fridge filled the quiet of the house, steady enough that any change felt wrong before it could be understood.It was a sound Helen had grown used…[...]
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Are You Sure?
"Who are you?" she cried, as she saw him standing there.The guy pointed his gun at her, and she knew that whenever he wanted to, he'd pull the trigger, and…[...]
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Marksview Place
If I only could, I would plant myself, toes deep in the dampened soil, mine & the tree’s fingertips brushing together. There’s something special here, something that can’t be described…[...]
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The Echo Chamber
The fluorescent hum of the aisle lights was a direct vibration against Elaine’s headache. It was 11:47 PM. She was only here because she had, yet again, forgotten the single…[...]
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The Invisible Monster
The overhead lights didn’t just hum; they vibrated—a cold, electric heartbeat that thrummed right through the center of Elaine’s skull. It was 11:47 PM. She was only here because she…[...]
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The Familiar Stranger
“Who are you?” I asked the woman standing in front of me. She looked familiar, but in the way someone does when you’ve seen them as an extra in a…[...]
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It Was Waiting
The first message came from my own number. I stared at my phone, the screen illuminated in the dim light of my cramped apartment. The message blinked at me. "You’re…[...]
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Feel the Shadow, Hear its Cry
Run, girl, run.A harsh, raspy voice echoed in a young girl’s ears, unfamiliar and unseen. She looked up from her doll, startled.The girl was a pretty thing, with long black…[...]
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A Normal Human
Staring at a digital clock doesn’t quite have the same drama as watching the small hand move around the lines on the wall clock. No tick, tick, tick to count…[...]
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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…[...]
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Half the Battle
The large double doors swing shut behind Cassie. The sound reverberates through the darkness. The screams of Erin and Jayden on the other side worsen her already trembling nerves. She…[...]
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Before the End
“I locked them out; I opened the airlock; I sentenced them to death. Is that what you wanted to hear?” His eyes were tired and red, hair matted, and body…[...]
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Something Followed Her Home
There are many ways to measure a life’s happiness. This one keeps track of miles. Elaine noticed the road first. Not that anything had changed. It just took longer to…[...]
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The Penitent Attorney
A corporate attorney by the name of Sam Wilm thought about what his next decision would be about an important court case that was coming in about a month. He…[...]
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The Second Coming of Me
“Who are you?” I say as I look at myself in the bathroom mirror. I stare a while trying to process what exactly I’m looking at. Trying to process whether…[...]
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The One You Feed
What is it that makes us human? Is it our awareness of the life we live? Is it our intelligence, our use of tools? These are the thoughts that run…[...]
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The Caller on Line Two
I’ve hosted the graveyard shift on WVXR for eight long years. “After Midnight with Chuck Vale.” They call it public radio, but really it’s just me, a creaky studio in…[...]
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Recorded Interview – Subject Unknown
The following transcript was recovered from a digital camera found in the apartment of documentary filmmaker Eliot Vanog, reported missing on October 14.The identity of the interview subject remains unknown.…[...]
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I’m only human
I’m only human. People only say that after doing something they know is wrong. As though being human is a justification for their mistakes. I’m only human, like our tendency…[...]
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This is going to hurt
The sound of shattering glass—much like that of a window being hit with a blunt instrument—woke Pearl Gillespie out of a dreamless sleep.Ba-dum, Ba-dum, Ba-dum went hear heart.The nervous system…[...]
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What’s The Special?
Thump… thump… thump. My heart is throbbing in my ears, barely audible above the sound of street traffic. It isn’t a hole in the ground nor a hole in the…[...]
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The morning lied
Troy's grandmother had lied. Nothing looked better in the morning. The distant sound of footsteps outside the warehouse cut through the fog in his mind. Thin fingers of sunlight crept…[...]
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What I Would Sacrifice For You
He wasn’t supposed to stay dead this long.I told myself it was only temporary. Just until I could figure out a way to bring him back. But now, I’ve spent…[...]
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THE MIRROR
Had it not been through mirrors, I wonder what perception we would create of ourselves. Who are we? What makes me, ‘ME’? Not just the face but our sole sense…[...]
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April 31st
APRIL 31 The words were carved into the wall above the body.Not written. Carved.Deep enough that black plaster had split away, exposing pale stone beneath.TODAY IS APRIL 31Officer-Inspector Veyra Sorn…[...]
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A getaway to Bikini Atoll
It was a vacation cruise that many would consider themselves blessed to even be on board, a year long world cruise to tour the different ports of the world. A…[...]
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I’m Still Here
It's been days.I've been trapped down here for days.Maybe it's been weeks... I don't know. There is no concept of time down here.I've realized as time went on that nobody…[...]
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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…[...]
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What Remains of Us
A year ago, a virus spread through the world. Towns transformed into chaos, people doing whatever it took to survive. Hospitals were burnt down, buildings were destroyed, and once enjoyable…[...]
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Code Orange
Code Orange I slide my phone out from under June’s stuffed bunny when Dale calls. The tan bunny that smells of grape juice, my co-pilot for today.“This is Joe. How…[...]
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The Company Recorder
NOTE !Content Warning!: Contains The Following- Body Gore, Blood, Organ Gore, Detached Narrator, Medical Term Usage; (that may make many uncomfortable as I was writing it), Mentions Of Fictional War,…[...]
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The Red Cell
I hate this. Out of all the shitty side effects of this fucking curse, this is by far the worst part. The red. Everything, all the time, just red. The…[...]
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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,…[...]
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The Monument
Today is April 31. The year, according to the data left by the old gods, is 2110. Spring, yes that is what they called it I believe. It is, as…[...]
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April 31st?
"Today is April 31st," the nurse replied."That doesn’t make any sense," I said.The nurse, skimming my chart, looked up. “You’ve been out a while’.""How long," I replied."About Three years," the…[...]
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In The Shadows Deep Within
Thump Thump, I felt my heart beat quicker and quicker as the pain shot through my whole body. What has this human done to me? Why does my body feel…[...]
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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…[...]
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Letters to Earth
[TRIGGER WARNINGS: Physical violence, gore, or abuse, suicide or self harm] My father used to write letters. He said they were “to Earth”, though at the time the concept was…[...]
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The Mission
CW: Violence, religious extremism “I wasn’t sure I would have another chance to write in this journal. The last image I can recall is the outline of what I hoped…[...]
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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…[...]
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The Far Wall
Today is April 31.I know that’s not a real date. I know how calendars work. I probably know more about orbital physics than anyone here, which is four people and…[...]
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Chocolate and Nietzsche at the end of the world
The following is the re-telling of history as only the witnesses can tell it. Humans became putrid in these lands and died in droves. Doctors failed to diagnose the peculiar…[...]
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by any other name
“SHAPESHIFTER ON BOARD!” I screech, climbing down from the crow’s nest. “MONSTER! MONSTER ON BOARD!” It’s the dead of night aboard the Roger’s Revenge. The crew begins scrambling around, lighting…[...]
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Spider Lily
A small smile touched Vivienne’s lips as she thumbed through the knickknacks on the glass counter. Her thoughts drifted to the coming week. Spring break. No lesson plans. No grading.…[...]
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Playing House
Once. Twice. I blinked back against the warm sunlight spilling from my open bedroom window. Then, in a lazy yawn, stretched my arms against the bubblegum headboard. "You're finally awake..."…[...]
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The Script
The Script I’m on the phone talking with Phil, our recently recruited special effects wizard from over at CMT, Inc., (Well, wizard might be a little strong since he’s only…[...]
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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…[...]
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It’s all Over.
The first one Martin Kempt noticed was the one in the middle. The one with the straw-dry salt and pepper hair, crinkled back behind his ears - part of a…[...]
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Out of Options
“We’ll be in touch.”John let out a dry breath. They wouldn’t. He rested his forehead on the steering wheel and sat there to collect his thoughts. His mind replayed the…[...]
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Psychopomp and Circumstance
Ten thousand years of memory could not prepare the vicar for what he was about to see: The stone doors of the mighty ziggurat were open. Eons ago, he had…[...]
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The Writer Who Wasn’t Alone
I wasn’t supposed to be in the story.That’s rule number one.You create the world. You shape the characters. You decide what they feel, what they lose, what they fight for.You…[...]
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Ink that bites back
The first time it happened, Mara thought it was a coincidence.She had been sitting at her kitchen table, the cheap notebook open, pen tapping nervously against the page. Writing had…[...]
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