Ellie Yu

“the night shift” by Ellie Yu

tw: implied/referenced suicideYou’re alone in the grocery store again, fingers tapping out no particular rhythm on the checkout counter, feeling this strange dark hour yawn inside you.The windows have long since faded to a flat midnight blue, and the moon is a wrinkled paper crescent pinned to the starless sky. Inside the store, fluorescent lights halo the groceries lining the aisles. If there do happen to be any customers here, they’re swimming through the endless rows of groceries, out of your sight.You’ve never liked working at this time....

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“home of the brave” by Ellie Yu

Submitted to Contest #96

//tw: racismThere are only three words running through my head as I shuffle toward my bathroom: hair, teeth, face.My feet are bare as I flit down the hallway, barely making contact with the dirty carpet. Recently, this house has felt stifling, faintly reminiscent of a loudly distant aunt who demands a hug and holds on for far too long. When I look up at the dingy walls, the cloudy windows, I feel my lungs squeezing. Or maybe that’s the constant knot of anxiety in my stomach, tied tightly enough that it sits there like a rock all day, every d...

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“Brightly” by Ellie Yu

Submitted to Contest #93

TW: GUN VIOLENCESuffused in the street lamps' golden light, her sunny yellow dress pooling around her knees as she perches on the parking lot curb, Anastasia weighs her options.One: she could leave. She could clamp her hands around the wheel and steer her car through the evening-shadowed suburbs, back to her apartment that’s always five degrees too cold. It’s a home, but it’s not her home. It hasn’t been in months. And she doesn’t know if she can bear curling up in bed alone again.Two: she could go inside. Anastasia glances over her shoulder...

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“The Trick to the Moon” by Ellie Yu

Submitted to Contest #89

I shouldn’t be doing this.The steady glow of Caden’s phone is the brightest thing in his bedroom, brilliant blue against the dusky midnight gray. He can’t tear his eyes from the screen. I shouldn’t be doing this. I shouldn’t be doing this.His finger hovers over the call button. He wrenches it away. Shouldn’t be, shouldn’t be, shouldn’t be, his brain sings triumphantly.He shouldn’t be staring at Harper’s profile picture in his phone for the twentieth time, even though he’s already memorized the curve of his jaw, the sweet crescent of his grin...

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“The Beyond” by Ellie Yu

When Lark was young, before she truly felt the weight of this world, she killed a tree.She’d only been experimenting, of course, wanting to show her father what she could do. But when she intoned the words and let her voice flow out in a cadence, the tree withered instead of bloomed, and the life was bleached from its body like colorful cloth in water.That day took up its own nook in her brain, a yawning space that nothing else could fit into. It had been windy, and her father had held her in his arms as she cried and her tears gathered on t...

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“Sleight of Paw” by Ellie Yu

Submitted to Contest #87

There were a lot of things Mateo Alejo did not like, including but not limited to vegetables, cloudy days, sitting still, and the color blue. Not necessarily in that order.The List hadn’t changed in a while, since he had enjoyed every minute of second grade since it had started. But today, he decided he would add another entry to the List: spelling quizzes. He hated them. Especially when he didn’t pass. Especially when his dad sounded this disappointed as he tried to teach Mateo how to pass but it wasn’t working.“Stop staring out the window,...

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“The Author” by Ellie Yu

Submitted to Contest #86

The magicfolk make no promises.For all her life, the proverb had echoed through the kingdom, no matter which way she turned. It was a scolding used on children, a line tossed out by history teachers, but most of all, a constant whispering among the commoners. Every raindrop, every crack of thunder was because of those people. The magicfolk had been exiled from the kingdom centuries ago for breaking the natural laws, and they’d lived away from society in the wild ever since.Now the words roared to life inside Natalya’s head for the thousandth...

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“Unfurl” by Ellie Yu

Submitted to Contest #86

“Snow’s melting.”She looks up from the cobblestone path. “Sorry?”He clears his throat. “Snow’s melting.”“Oh. Right.”Somehow, he persists. “I guess that means spring’s coming."“Yeah,” is the only thing she can say, because it’s not a surprise to her. She has a calendar hanging in her college dorm, all colors and bookmarks and bright highlights leaping off the pages. It’s covered in space photography. She’s always wanted to cup the galaxy in her hands.He chews his lip for a moment. “Do you-” he starts, and then he trails off. She basks in the ...

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“With Her” by Ellie Yu

Submitted to Contest #84

springThe year starts in February. Their year, to be exact.Because it’s Spring Festival, the day when they make food together and pop firecrackers together and tell old myths that spin long into the night. Because she spends the day with her children and feels their smiles light her up brighter than the sun.Because today isn’t just another day, but a celebration of it. Because the world keeps spinning, and time moves on, and she was born to love this deeply. To walk hand in hand with life, her life, these lives beside her. Forever. Always.su...

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“All the Days We Planted” by Ellie Yu

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #81

The rose falls. It pirouettes and spins through the frosty morning air like some tiny dancer cloaked in pink. Julia watches it touch the grass and settle there, almost peacefully, as if gravity is only a suggestion. She holds the rest of the bouquet closer to her chest. She wonders if this quiet graveyard should scare her, with its headstones carved from gray reaching up from the ground. Perhaps she shouldn’t be noticing the wildflowers dotting the faded green. Jade would have picked them, she thinks, and she remembers her wife skipping th...

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