Mystery
Unto The Child
I never knew what to say, so eventually I stopped saying anything. People accepted my silence so easily, as if they had forgotten they had ever heard my voice. Since I could reply, there was no need to hear the endless voices around me. I shut them out and met conversation and connection with silence and vacant stares. It didn’t take long for people to accept that, too. I was alone in the world, like a moving art piece. People saw me and moved along, recognizing I was not one of them. Understand without knowing that I couldn’t contribute on any level to the lives they were leading.
By Leah Suzanne Dewey2 days ago in Fiction
A House with Good Bones
The house was the strangest thing I had ever seen. The 'for sale' sign had come loose and hung lopsided, waving slightly in the wind. How unusual that the agent had never bothered to mention this lovely place, or make it a priority. As we drove by, she casually alluded to it, noting that it was on the bottom of her list, trying hard to pass it off as a joke, but not succeeding.
By Novel Allen2 days ago in Fiction
Nothing in Stock
The automatic doors sighed open like they were tired of pretending. A burst of refrigerated air hit my face—cold enough to promise milk, to swear on the gospel of dairy—but the first thing I saw was a tower of cartons labeled WHOLE, stacked in perfect family rows, each one feather-light. A woman in a beige coat lifted one, gave it a little shake, and smiled.
By Flower InBloom3 days ago in Fiction
THE EXTRA CHAIR
The first time the chair appeared, it was already set for dinner. Marianne noticed it when she brought the pot roast to the table. There were five place settings instead of four. Five forks aligned like silver ribs. Five water glasses catching the yellow light.
By Lori A. A.3 days ago in Fiction
The Hands That Rocked The Baby Killed Its Daddy
The Hands That Rocked The Baby Killed Its Daddy They said she was gentle. They said she had the softest voice in the ward, the kind that could calm a fevered child with a single hush. They said she was patient. Devoted. Harmless. They never listened closely enough.
By George’s Girl 2026 3 days ago in Fiction
THE QUIET RULE
(A family keeps one simple rule: never go into the basement after 9 p.m. But when something begins knocking from below - patient, deliberate, and alive - the real horror isn’t what’s waiting in the dark… it’s that everyone else has already accepted it.)
By Lori A. A.4 days ago in Fiction
THE SIREN THAT NEVER STOPS
The siren began on a Tuesday at 9:17 a.m. It was a clean, mechanical sound; steady, mid-pitched, not urgent enough to demand panic but too present to ignore. It rose above the hum of traffic and threaded itself through open office windows, bakery doors, classroom vents.
By Lori A. A.4 days ago in Fiction
