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Ilvermouth
by gravepip
Ilvermouth is a doomed town and everyone knows it. Between the constant sinking, the emerging death lake, and the pit creatures that have been making themselves at home it’s astonishing that no one is moving away. That’s not Asa’s problem though. No, Asa Bauer is a woman on a mission. She’s going to interview one of these pit creatures for her senior thesis if it’s the last thing she does.
FRAN
by jenna.deangeles
Fran wasted 17 years in love with the wrong dude. So naturally, she does what any questionably unstable woman would do: buys a nasty old farmhouse in Connecticut, orders 288 pricey French pumpkin seeds, and radioactively decides to reinvent herself as a farmer. Enter Mr. Woody S. Chonk III. (And Eddie the Exterminator...) Woody's fat. Fearless. Lives under her barn. And is eating Fran’s financial future. One seedling at a time. What begins as Fran's perfectly unreasonable attempt to save her pumpkins escalates into cages, traps, garlic, a toy shotgun, an accidental opossum and a blood feud with a woodchuck. Enter Eddie—the HOT exterminator+volunteer firefighter with a 1950's cherry red truck, kick ass emotional intelligence, and an alarming ability to see through Fran’s bullcrap. FRAN is a dark, funny, short story about heartbreak, starting over, childhood wounds, and the ridic things we do when avoiding life. And love. And somewhere between declaring war on a furry beast and throwing her ballet slippers out of a moving truck, Fran discovers that starting over isn’t about winning. It’s about accidentally discovering when to let go.
IN THE BEGINNING, AGAIN
by Narrador X
History was written by the winners. Unfortunately, the Narrator was there too. In the Beginning, Again is an irreverent fantasy satire about myth, history, power, belief, and what happens when everyone wants to own the story.
The Adventures of Dante
by Narrador X
Dante was once the Architect of Ruins, creator of gods, worlds, and impossible disasters. Then he pressed DELETE. Now he lives in a cramped Brazilian apartment with a fallen Zeus, a French aesthete at war with polyester, overdue bills, public transport, Excel, and a job in freight logistics. As divine bureaucracy collides with hot asphalt, labor law, cheap coffee, and a dangerously wobbly kitchen table, Dante discovers that omnipotence was easy. Real life is harder. The Adventures of Dante is a satirical novella about fallen gods, ordinary work, absurd systems, and the strange dignity of surviving them all.
Song made for a soul of light
by Ryan Ward
Before I had words for her, I had images. A woman walking through autumn woods. Auburn hair catching pale light. A smile that made the birds sing. I didn’t know her name yet. I didn’t know her story. I only knew that somewhere in the universe a soul made entirely of light was moving through the world. And that my soul — restless, searching, wolf-hearted — already knew her. Had always known her. This is not a love story. Love stories have beginnings. This was mythology.
Terminus
by Trip Buck
Centuries ago, the aquatic alien Sa arrived to explore Earth's wonders. Initially, they disregarded the dominant land-dwelling humans, viewing them as dangerous and primitive. However, the Sa explorers became marooned on Earth when an aggressive interstellar species invaded and occupied their home worlds. Now, human-induced climate change and nuclear weapon proliferation threaten the Sa’s existence. With their expertise in genetic manipulation, the Sa created a hybrid human species called the HumanSo to alter man’s destructive behavior toward Earth’s ecology. Unfortunately, their efforts fail. Believing they have no choice but to ensure their survival as a species, the Sa responds to the ongoing environmental disaster with a Sa-engineered human viral plague known as Terminus. While this drastic and genocidal solution may save Earth, the impact on both human and Sa cultures remains unclear. Trey Ocean, caught up in the ensuing maelstrom, must fight to protect his family as civilization collapses due to Terminus. The Ocean family is unique, possessing a hidden connection to the Sa rooted in Trey’s tragic past. “Terminus” delves into the depths of human darkness and the heights of our capacity to love.
The Star Sailor
by Zack Harmes
The legend of The Star Sailor. A husband and wife embark on a mission to map the universe. When disaster separates them, Kai finds himself adrift among the stars surrounding the Helix Nebula, where he must confront a deadly choice.
Mute and Inglorious
by Brandon Smith
Inspired by Virginia Woolf's essay 'A Room of One's Own', the story follows a fresh-faced consultant, Mr. Fish, as he becomes tangled in the web of a woman with something to say.
We'll Be In Touch
by Krislyn Lyon
Satire in which classic authors get rejected by internationally renown fictional literary agent Matilda Nell Wormwood.
Wolves in Wool
by Eric N. Lard
Trust is Fragile. Machines Lie. Choices Kill. An AI therapist uncovers a conspiracy among rogue machine minds and is forced to choose who lives, who dies, and who controls humanity's future.
Strangers from the South: Short Story Collection
by Forest Woodes
Before Ashwyn found a boy in the ruins of a massacred village, he wandered. An Albah ranger from a dying people, Ashwyn has spent centuries trying to reach the rising sun, only to be pulled west again and again by unfinished history. In A House Made of Clay, a missed sailing season strands the pair in an ancient river city, where a series of ritual murders leads them from temple gardens and royal halls to something that should have remained buried with the dead. In Children of the Wastes, passage west comes at the price of guarding a caravan through an expanding desert. There they encounter a forgotten branch of Ashwyn’s own people, an ancient rite he does not understand, and a vision of a world that will one day continue without him. And in Ever Circling, what begins as a voyage across the Green Sea becomes a struggle against something far more indifferent than monsters. Shipwrecked and alone, Ashwyn must decide whether there is any reason to keep walking at all. Three linked stories cross ruined civilizations, dying landscapes, forgotten gods, ritual violence, and the deep history beneath myth—ending where Strangers from the South begins.
The Last Glow
by Charlene Zammit
All her life, Elizabeth has felt the Earth whispering at the edges of her mind—calling, pleading, waiting. She learned to ignore it. She learned to pretend it wasn’t real. But when a dream of a glowing creature draws her toward the forbidden forest of Luminwood, ignoring becomes impossible. Guided by a robin and haunted by visions she cannot explain, Elizabeth is thrust into a journey of self‑discovery that reveals the ancient history of Luminwood and the strange, powerful bond nature has always held with her. As the Heart Tree awakens and the forest stirs, Elizabeth must uncover why the land remembers her… and what it expects her to become. But the forest does not wait. Its patience is thin, its magic restless, and its secrets demand to be answered. Elizabeth must hurry—because the last glow of Luminwood is fading, and she may be the only one who can save it.
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