Sasan Sedighi

“Love Among the Pages” by Sasan Sedighi

Submitted to Contest #290

On a busy street in the city's heart, nestled between high-end boutiques and trendy coffee shops, was an old yet charming bookshop named "The Hidden Words." It was beneath a small shopping mall with designer stores. In an age dominated by electronics and mobile devices, this bookshop somehow managed to hold on to its customers and avoided the fate of most bookshops in the city, which either closed or began selling stationery and other novelty items besides books. It was Tuesday, and like every Tuesday, John walked down the stairs of the book...

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“A drama in space” by Sasan Sedighi

Submitted to Contest #288

As she had been trained, Elara systematically checked the integrity of her spacesuit and its comms one last time before starting the airlock sequence. "I'm ready, John," she informed the station commander. Colonel John Wood, a veteran Air Force pilot and experienced astronaut, had served as the International Space Station commander for the past year. John had spent more time in space and zero gravity than anyone else on the space station."You're clear to go," John replied, watching her movements on his monitor 40 meters away in the command c...

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“Affectionate Aroma” by Sasan Sedighi

Submitted to Contest #287

As Areum stepped into the café, a cheerful brass bell jingled above the door, catching the attention of the café owner and a few patrons who looked up with curiosity. They were greeted by a stunningly beautiful Asian woman in her early thirties, dressed in casual yet thoughtfully chosen attire. The patrons lingered in their gaze longer than usual, admiring her beauty with quiet appreciation. It is a striking coincidence that her name, 'Areum,' translates to 'beauty' in Korean. As she entered, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee mingled with t...

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“In pursuit of lost love” by Sasan Sedighi

Filled with excitement and anticipation, Karmen glanced at the clock. It was 4:35 in the afternoon. Her husband, Tom, would be home by six, and she eagerly awaited his return. She turned on the oven to 180 degrees Celsius as the recipe she got from the internet suggested. While the oven was heating up, she took the large chicken she had bought that afternoon and began filling its cavity with the stuffing she had prepared earlier. The stuffing, a medley of chopped red onion, leek, shiitake mushroom, sultanas, and barberries, seasoned with ple...

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“Stuck in a time loop ” by Sasan Sedighi

Submitted to Contest #272

In the spacious meeting room of the ward, doctors gathered to discuss the condition of a new patient admitted to the psychiatric ward a few days earlier. After exchanging greetings and small talk, Professor Peterson, the head of the psychiatric ward, initiated the session by saying, "We are here to discuss..." he stopped to read the patient's name from the notepad he had in front of him. He hadn't met the patient but had heard from other doctors about his extraordinary claim to be stuck in a time loop. Though he wasn't convinced, he agr...

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“When society lets men down” by Sasan Sedighi

Submitted to Contest #260

There, by the tarnished entrance gate of a once-thriving shop, laid a figure. He looked familiar, but who was he? As I approached, I recognized the disheveled figure as Alec, someone I had known since our university days. His hair and beard, once meticulously groomed, were now a tangled mess. Stained and torn, his worn-out jacket barely shielded him from the natural elements. He lay curled in a fetal position on the hard surface, asleep. His bare feet were black, caked with dirt. He was a stark contrast to the man I once knew. Alec, always n...

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“The Black Tulip” by Sasan Sedighi

Submitted to Contest #242

In the dimly lit museum, the silence was broken only by the faint sound of an infamous art thief's muffled breathing, known to law enforcement agencies as 'The Ghost.' He crouched behind a marble statue, his heart pounding in his chest with the adrenaline surge in his blood and his palms slick with sweat of anticipation. As an adrenaline junky, he was again on a mission, and every nerve in his body was on edge as he observed his target, protected by the museum's state-of-the-art security system. The Interpol had been chasing The Ghost for ye...

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“The Remarkable Microwave Oven” by Sasan Sedighi

Submitted to Contest #239

"Recently, my microwave oven makes a beep sound as I approach it, almost like it acknowledges my presence," Tom shared with his friend Jack. "Is that one of those new microwaves with an AI that tells you how to warm your food?" Jack asked with a mischievous grin. "No. It's an old microwave. I got it from Kmart for less than a hundred dollars a few years back. I'm not that rich to pay for expensive gadgets with features I don't need." "Either you're imagining it, or the device is malfunctioning and beeping constantly, but you only hear it whe...

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“My thirty-day challenge” by Sasan Sedighi

Submitted to Contest #233

Day -1 A day before the challenge begins. Dear Diary, Tomorrow will be the first day of my month-long challenge that I have planned for weeks. I have set a goal to wake up at 5 a.m. every morning and write a thousand words toward finishing the first draft of my romance novel. Over the past few weeks, I was torn between a few equally fascinating writing prompts, but I ultimately settled on one with the title 'A Dance in the Moonlight.' Since I usually stay up late, waking up early every morning is challenging. This will require a signific...

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“The dark secret ” by Sasan Sedighi

Submitted to Contest #200

Taking a break from work, I was in a coffee shop, sipping my flat white and passively listening to the muffled sound of the news coming from the TV on the wall. The news was about the recent interest hike and its impact on ordinary people. “Homebuyers like me who have to downsize their life to meet their next mortgage payments. If the interest rate rises again, I may stop having coffee outside,” I thought with dread.The news moved on to a tropical storm in the southern part of India, the war in Ukraine, and so on until I lost my interest. Bu...

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“The meaning of life” by Sasan Sedighi

Submitted to Contest #186

“Hi, what a lovely morning.” “I couldn’t agree more.” “This is a beautiful place!” “Yes, it is a stunning place.” “Look at the superb scenery. The hills are a patchwork of colors, a tapestry of greens, yellows, and golds, interwoven with blue ribbons of rivers. Trees are tall and green. The air is fresh, saturated with the sweet fragrance of wildflowers. It’s a little slice of paradise.” “Yes, it is a slice of paradise.” “Nature manifests its greatness here.” “You are not wrong.” “I see trees of green…. Red roses too…. I see them bloom…. Fo...

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“The New Year’s Eve” by Sasan Sedighi

Submitted to Contest #179

Eleanor leaned in as the clock struck midnight and pressed her lips against Mark’s. It had been a long and tumultuous journey to get to this moment, but it had all been worth it. They had met three and half years ago at a coffee shop downtown. Eleanor had recently finished her law degree and was there to study for her bar exam. She sat at a table and nervously stared at her laptop, reviewing some bar test samples. Questions were tricky and hard to answer. And her anxiety level increased with each wrong answer she gave to a question. When El...

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“Searching for Laura” by Sasan Sedighi

It had been over two months since Paul saw Laura last time. “Where is she? Is she Okay?” he asked himself, worried about her wellbeing. It is written in our genes to think about bad events when we don’t see a family member or friend or hear from them for an extended time. The closer the relationship, the greater our worry is. But Laura wasn’t his family or friend. Paul didn’t even know her real name. Laura was the nickname he had given her. More or less, it was about five years ago when Paul noticed Laura for the first time in the metro. H...

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“A Vivid Dream” by Sasan Sedighi

Submitted to Contest #156

The first thing Robert noticed was the damp smell of a tropical forest. A strange mixture of the scents of fresh plants and rotten leaves filled his nostrils. Though the mercury was in the mid-seventies, the excessive humidity made it hot. His forehead was covered with sweat beads, occasionally getting to his eyes, burning them like hell. He dried his forehead with his shirt’s sleeve. He felt the rough texture of the fabric on his skin. It was pitch black, and he could barely see more than a meter in front of himself, but he could sense heav...

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“The Old Camera” by Sasan Sedighi

Submitted to Contest #144

By seeing the garage sale sign in late Mr. Shepherd’s driveway, Michael slowed down his car and glanced into the garage on an impulse. It was packed. Obviously, Mr. Shepherd’s inheritors didn’t want to keep any of their father’s belongings, so they put them all in that garage for a quick sale. John Shepherd was a retired army colonel, and his wife Martha was a retired primary school teacher. And they lived two houses down the street from Michael’s home. Though they had never visited each other’s houses, they had frequently met on the stree...

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