The Ninja from the Suburbs
Note: Contains scenes of violence and brief mention of mental health"I am sorry, ma'am, " the out-of-shape, African-American woman FAA officer interjected my mother politely. "We can't let you carry…[...]
Read More
Resolution
Keerat pursed her lips and grimaced. She turned her head to the left and then quickly to the right, doing her absolute best to avoid making eye contact with the…[...]
Read More
Boiling Point
He gazed absently at the black kettle, his reflection looking back at him like a stranger. Nice cup of tea. That’s what we need. A faint humming of a song…[...]
Read More
Guess what? I’m related to Frankenstein
“” That was the last text message Amir sent me. I had so many questions like “Isn’t Frankenstein just a story?” and “How’d you find out?”. But he left me on…[...]
Read More
Friendship Matters
My name is Ria. I'm British Asian with Mauritian roots, the founder and CEO of HR Matters. People tell me I have everything, brains, beauty, love and wealth. But what people…[...]
Read More
A Father’s Tale
A Father’s TaleTrigger warnings: Mental health, substance abuse, physical abuse, and harsh language. “Ashik, what is wrong with you? How can you be so stupid?” I exclaim. Ashik looks over at…[...]
Read More
The fairy lights
Sumathi was a neighborhood tailor. The kind you would find virtually in every street corner in India. Not the fancy boutique variety, but someone who would stitch your sari falls,…[...]
Read More
Margaret Fraizer – A Memoir in Progress
Margaret Fraizer sat in the old weathered Adirondack chair on the beach in front of her cottage at the eastern end of Long Island. Bundled up against the frigid wind…[...]
Read More
Where’s the Can Opener
? Time is ticking down. The end is near. Grandma rechecks her list for the umpteenth time. Candles with lighters and matches Radio / Ham radio Flashlights; lanterns; batteries, all…[...]
Read More
Another Brick in the Wall
“Miss Chandler, Miss Chandler. The boys are at it again.” Third-grader Tali Grumble hurried over to her teacher at recess. “What are they doing now?” Miss Chandler inquired. “Playing baseball…[...]
Read More
Sixties Teen
My husband, star of my epic love life, “Hey, Hon. Let's get Sirius.” “Let's see. We have been married going on twenty-eight years. We've combined our retirement benefits. We have…[...]
Read More
The Guy On The Nineteenth Floor
I was walking down the paved road, struggling to hold my umbrella in one hand and my files and handbag in the other. It was raining heavily accompanied by strong…[...]
Read More
Woollen Suits and Face Cream
He was always there, in the sounds of his suggestions, in the unspoken glances when she acted out of turn, the cheeky winks he gave when he made a joke…[...]
Read More
Picture Perfect
Although there had been a nice, cool breeze the whole day, the crumpled paper that smacked her in the face with that sudden gust of wind was totally unexpected. It…[...]
Read More
Bittersweet
Warning: This story contains themes of childbirth.By Amanda StogsdillToday's the day! Scrambling out of bed, I rushed to the window. Not a cloud in sight! In my open kitchen with…[...]
Read More
The Goat Bite
She was different today. It is astonishing to witness a new side of someone you have spent years knowing and living beside. You question whether you had ever known them…[...]
Read More
Visit to the British Museum
(Note: Contains Mild Language)My grandfather had two outfits. One was a kurta-pajama, a traditional Indian outfit that he wore at home, and the other, for outdoors, was formal attire consisting…[...]
Read More
The Temple of Ancient Whispers
The middle-aged lady hurriedly walked along the crowded market streets, passing through the strong scent of turmeric and chilies. The seven-year-old child, whom she had been dragging along, slowed down…[...]
Read More
Destined Sparks
Location: Hotel Radisson Parking Lot, ChennaiTwo buddies, Mudit and Sanleen, are hanging out in the parking lot of Hotel Radisson. They're here for their college alumni meet, and while reminiscing…[...]
Read More
Breaking the cycle
There are always two sides to an argument. Sometimes three. sometimes four. If you ask me, they are messy little things. They are often too complex to understand since people lie…[...]
Read More
Dream away, my child.
"Freshly cut mangoes, dosas, people, kids cycling, the breeze of fresh air, scooter, colony friends, grandmother, love, laughter, and a mountain of memories."Raji types this, looks away from her laptop,…[...]
Read More
Nine Steps to Jeeves
When my gait freezes, I gently kick the trash can. What wouldn’t I give to trash all these dementors hovering around my foggy brain. But now, that is not important.…[...]
Read More
1861 – A Reunion in Calcutta
CW: Racism, Religious fervor Is that the perfume gifted by your captors who snatched you away from your kingdom that’s wafting in the air, my darling boy? It stinks and…[...]
Read More
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…[...]
Read More
The Retold Story of the Teenaged Girl
Momina was known throughout the school as the girl with no portable device, no social media, and had never made eye contact with a boy. The neighbourhood filled with mostly…[...]
Read More
Such a Nice Girl
Sitting there in the packed living room with its faux leather black and white sofas and improbably- bad green, leopard print rug, all of it shipped from China like slow-release…[...]
Read More
Myth and Miasma
Lost, his eyes try to pierce through the fog. The unearthly, all-enveloping mist that had settled around him and brought with it a bone-chilling cold. The kind of cold that…[...]
Read More
Tycho Brahe’s Labyrinth
This story can also be read as the continuation of my previous submission Metamorphosis************Unlike most of the helipads which are built for show but never used, the pads on Tycho…[...]
Read More
Evolving Draft
I remember the foggy morning I had clothed you in a cyan co-ord set, handed you over to the conductor of the preschool bus, and waved goodbye as you struggled…[...]
Read More
Lemons, Ginger and Garlic
"Does the presence of something outweigh its absence? Or is it the other way around?" I said to no one in specific, communally munching on Garlic Naan and Haleem with…[...]
Read More
A STORY OF LOVE AND DESTINY
“I have always believed in the power of destiny, Radhika! I sincerely hoped that one day I would call you my own. But I now realized that we are not…[...]
Read More
A Cold Day….
A Cold Day… It has started raining again. And it is bitterly cold. Looks like Delhi is heading towards a severe cold wave, with the night temperature plummeting to near…[...]
Read More
Corner Art
For as long as she could remember, tendrils, peacocks, and rangolis ran amok in Suchi’s head. And leaped out at her notebooks. The public school she went to, close to…[...]
Read More
A Tense Dinner
“So how was the ride here?” “Good.” “That’s good.” Shit! That’s all I had. I turned my attention towards the kitchen behind us, they were lining up the buffet trays.…[...]
Read More
The Crazy Psychologist
Disclaimer: The following contains graphic scene involving snakes as well as abuse and strong language. Reader discretion advised.Varun Sharma had life long fear of snakes. Black mambas, anacondas, rattle snakes,…[...]
Read More
Bani’s Tree
Code 278.43A. That’s where ‘Lady Grace’ was, right behind the stunted tree that hit the ceiling and hid an owl in its hollow. In a ladylike fashion, Bani hopped on…[...]
Read More
Party Time
On the day of her flight, Sarlaben set out on the same morning walk to the Radha Krishna temple she’d taken for the past 43 years. Her driver, Santosh, could…[...]
Read More
The School Topper
Initially, I’d held my head high in the deep green, silver-bordered saree I was wearing. But walking through the gargantuan crowd of hundreds of students in the school lobby, every…[...]
Read More
Safety First – A girl’s first lesson in how love reshapes freedom
They can sense our fear. Keep your spine straight. Don’t be afraid. Don’t hesitate to look them in the eye. And in the worst case, always remember to pick up…[...]
Read More
The Wedding Pact
-- By Neelam Chohan-Jagait Chapter 1: The Dinner Party A warm drop of sweat trickled down Samira’s spine as she poured herself a generous glass of chilled Californian white. She…[...]
Read More
What I Meant to Say, Was
Fahim glanced over Samara’s shoulder, careful not to wake her. The clock had just slipped past two. Her neck rested comfortably on his arm, her breathing slow and even. He…[...]
Read More
The Delicate Straw Hut
Dawn. Tara walks to the well outside the village, a pot in her hand. Two years into adulthood, her green bangles clink as the pot bounces against the side of…[...]
Read More
The Gravity of Being Upright
I think it had started to happen a long time back—bit by bit—but I only noticed it this morning. Gravity was dead. Like Queen Elizabeth. Both of them. Yesterday, it…[...]
Read More
Moonlight and Madness
Your eyes pour the moonlight on my path as I turn my back to you. In the dead of the night, I walk with my family, away from my home,…[...]
Read More
Letters from Lucknow, 1886
“Intercultural Book Club. Join us! Every Sunday 6pm.”The poster hung alone on a blank wall in my dorm building. As someone who had just moved in and loved novels it…[...]
Read More
The Adventures of Gavin Pepperdeck
Part 1: The First TacoApril 4th, 1995 The sky sharted on my head as I exited the cab, but when I looked up, I saw that it was just the…[...]
Read More
Athletic Geriatric
‘What the hell’s this?’ Grandad throws it – BANG - against the wall, like a punch in the gut. ‘Bloody NHS walking-stick,’ he hisses, spewing saliva and spitting sweary curse-words.…[...]
Read More
TYR’s justice
It started wth the legislative assistants, interns, and paralegals. One task by one tedious task, we gave computing power more and more to do. Introduced in 2031, legislative skill and…[...]
Read More
Frederick Steele’s Last Case
Photos of Detective Chief Inspector Frederick Steele sit on his home office wall. There are newspaper clippings of successful cases, headlines like “Steele Resolve, Beats the Bandits,” and “Interrogation of…[...]
Read More
Ghosts Like Hot Dogs?!
Welcome readers!As I am sure all of you know a mysterious string of food stall robberies has occurred in our otherwise uneventful town. It has been all over the news…[...]
Read More
Mrs. Warner Goes to the Bank
It could have been the cape. It could have been the long johns. It was probably the mask. What was odd was the sticker on the automatic glass door when…[...]
Read More
Christmas Spree
“Whirr…whirr…whirr” The alarm startled me as I walked out of the department store. I was prepared for the anti-theft alarm to sound, but each store has a distinct sound, so…[...]
Read More
Good In a Pinch
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” - Yogi Berra Milo is pacing the hallway outside the classroom after the exam waiting for the results to…[...]
Read More
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…[...]
Read More
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…[...]
Read More
According To Tara’s Statement
Romantic comedies are bullshit. Don’t distill those ninety-minute lies into dating advice. Instead of slipping my fingers into warm, silky panties, they dangled below cold metal handcuffs. I watched the…[...]
Read More
Ocean’s 89
Virginia rubbed her gnarled fingers across the headstone that read: Bill William Williams IV1939-2002A father, husband, brother, son, and friend, beloved by all. A tear slid down her face. It…[...]
Read More
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…[...]
Read More
The Treasurer
The first irregularity was not large enough to name."It's a rounding issue," said Daniel."It's not rounding," Priya said. "Rounding does not accumulate.""It can," Daniel said."Not like this."We were reviewing the…[...]
Read More
The Voyage
The Campbell's had rented a farm for several years, and it was having another great year. Their crops had always done well, year in and out. Their garden's success had…[...]
Read More
The 4:14 Man
Ring!It was 4:14am. The time when the alarm goes off and Caspar Motley-Finch wakes up.Not 4:00, which might suggest military discipline. Not 4:30, which might suggest approximation. 4:14, which suggested…[...]
Read More
I Didn’t Mean to Become Head of Operations
I didn’t mean to get involved with the world's biggest villain corporation. It just happened, the way things usually do. One small, avoidable mistake followed by several much worse ones.In…[...]
Read More
A fake accountant in the fog of Ferrara
A lady with long wavy blond hair that fell just below her shoulders and a flashy baylage A lady with long wavy blond hair that fell just below her shoulders…[...]
Read More
The Shepherdess
The Budweiser girl on the vintage clock smiled down on her flock. Like any shepherdess, she was on the lookout for danger. Her faded skin suggested she might have been…[...]
Read More
I Can Explain!
“Right, just keep on driving. Don’t mind the flaring lights and the man screaming into the cone,” the cop yelled through the megaphone. My eyes flick to my rear-view mirror…[...]
Read More
Dispensary Heist
It was 10:00pm, an hour after the cannabis dispensary closed its doors to customers. Every employee besides Emily had already gone home thirty minutes earlier, leaving her to finish the…[...]
Read More
Honed Hero
No sounds were heard, only a steady foot-pedal vibration every few seconds.Thump thump. Clay Rigby held his head inside a barrel of ice water. The sun shone on the back…[...]
Read More
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…[...]
Read More
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…[...]
Read More
THUMP-THUMP
[violence-gunfire-death] . -THUMP. -. “What is that thumping?” Andy said to himself. Wherever he was, it was dark. He tried to move, but it felt like his arms, legs, and…[...]
Read More
Chased by the Dead
CW: violence, drug use Jack wakes up in a cold sweat, alone in an unfamiliar room. Turning on the dim bedside lamp he sits on the edge of the bed…[...]
Read More
A Grandad’s Confession To His Grandson, 1888, London, England
Here in my hand, lad, lies the letter of admission of my guilt for some very grave crimes that stumped law enforcement and scared the prostitutes of the impoverished White…[...]
Read More
Hello, Mr.Hitman
100,000 dollars. If I killed her, I would get paid 100,000 dollars.It was the highest paying job I’ve ever received as a hitman. It was so simple as well. I…[...]
Read More
Oasis, 1979
Light pours through the motel windows, creating an illusion of solid blonde, obtuse triangles that will either eat your arm or burn it off. The A/C is on, and the…[...]
Read More
A Little Salt
Trigger Warning: hints at physical/mental abuse, mention of death The sunlight streams into their bedroom.The wife, Margaret, always wakes up before her husband just as she did today.“Paul, darling?” she…[...]
Read More
One of the Best People
Three days ago, I was bitten by a mosquito. It was an especially painful bite, and the mark it left was more swollen and itchy and alarming than anything I’d…[...]
Read More
The Notebook
DANIELSlow is steady and steady is fast. That’s Daniel’s philosophy. Take your time. Be patient. Do it right. He picked the lock to the front door with ease, and siddled…[...]
Read More
The Last Straw Of Schadenfreude
My name is unimportant. The players are the opposite. The events that I transcribe are real. Let me set the stage. I dwell in the heart of Stalithe, a city…[...]
Read More
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…[...]
Read More
NIGHTMARISH CUSTOMERS AND CUNNING PLOYS TO STEAL THE OWNER’S DATA
The room and breakfast in Ferrara, in the Emilia-Romagna region, represent a category of structure as a guesthouse very clear in the description: it is an apartment with two or…[...]
Read More
Something There
I live a different life. One thing my family does not know about, and if I told you, we’d both be killed. When I sit at the table with my…[...]
Read More
The Drunk Fish
was no different from other Yorkshire pubs in the late nineties. Divided into two rooms – or ‘bars’ – they were separated by doors, but shared the same bar counter.…[...]
Read More
Tennessee mind reader’s Federal Agent
As the days turned into nights, and the events that surrounded Delta's home grew into something more serious. Delta's family and a few other locals, who knew She was connected…[...]
Read More
The worst kind of time capsule
Thunk. The shovel’s progress through the dirt ceases. It’s replaced by two soft hands scrabbling at the dirt. A finger nail bends, breaks, leaving a trail of blood. Undaunted by…[...]
Read More
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…[...]
Read More
INNER BEAUTY
John Stenheimer wanted to kill someone. And not just anyone. He wanted to kill a Black man or a Jew. Either one would do; it didn’t really matter. As the…[...]
Read More
The Loyalist
In a country named Landfar, there lived a man by the name of Jerry Tinone. Jerry was a long-time supporter of the country’s government, which was described by their neighbors…[...]
Read More
The Undertaker’s Friend
I was a little apprehensive about trying a new dating app, but the guys I was finding on Hinge just weren’t cutting it anymore. Their profiles would either be completely…[...]
Read More
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 –…[...]
Read More
What Happened To Father?
Chris Flynn2,135 words What Happened To Fatherby Chris Flynn It seems like it’s been forever in the desert. My mind and my heart are in two totallydifferent places. My emotions…[...]
Read More