15290+ Best Fantasy Short Stories to Read Online for Free - Reedsy Prompts

To Be Someone’s Muse

Submitted to Contest #307

Look, but never touch. That was the mantra Mimoza told herself every night as the rag she held flew over another marble bust in the hall. Every movement she made echoed through the halls of the conservatory at night. It was its own kind of music… in a way. One of the teachers passed. With one hawk-like glare, they looked down their nose past spectacles. Mimoza lowered her eyes to continue cleaning, pretending she was scrubbing away at some speck of unsightly dust on the face of some long-forgotten composer. She looked into the eyes of the bu...

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Brittle Teachings

A _

Submitted to Contest #307

The beasts craved our knowledge. My hands hadn’t ceased their quaking since I deduced where my fellow scholars and I had been discarded deep into the night. We knelt in the damp earth at the mercy of our fate. Looming over us, swallowing our shadows, were monsters of lore. Their alluring bodies were naked, and they stood impossibly tall amongst the forestry. Their skins were dark like the tree trunks—the same rich shade as ours. We were in the presence of beautiful, feminine creatures: mockeries of women. “Hello.” My brows dipped low at the ...

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A Thesis in Secrets

Jacob B

Submitted to Contest #307

When made privy to a secret, it becomes a sordid affair, perverse in its intimacy. It nestles into the fabric of the mind, inspires us to fight tooth and nail to maintain its dark hold. Secrets, despite this darkness, do not live alone in the dredges of night and may be discovered, as this one was and will again be, in the quiet stillness of the depths of an ancient library, under a wash of warm daylight filtered through a half-fogged and half-mottled of ivy window mounted among the high-lofted rafters of the ceiling.Sat at a table, lodged b...

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The Waiting Room

Beth Leor

Submitted to Contest #307

Every school worth its salt had an entrance exam. If anybody would know, it would be Herbert Richard Beaumont III nay, Bert. He had done his research a hundred times over and this place, he was sure, had to have the most arduous, mentally taxing, physically demanding admissions process of any academy he had ever applied to. It was exhausting, but Burt thought he had come to understand it. They had to weed out the weak after all. Bert fiddled aimlessly with his checkered tie. He had only worn it once before today and the feeling was unfamili...

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Echos of my Soul

Izzy Dizzy

Submitted to Contest #307

Cecelia sat on a cliff watching the sun set. Below, she watched the river carrying stray sticks and leaves. Her hands still shaking, wet from tears she couldn't wipe away. Next to her lay a vial and a sword, his sword. If you held it up to light at an angle, you could still see the blood, or maybe only she could. She closed her eyes and lay back. Memories came flooding back. Her talk with Nicholas and, more importantly, Damien. Despite what he said, it was her fault; she knew it was her fault.She, along with Ophelia, Nicholas, and Kai, had b...

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The Trials of Desorta Minon

Lauryn Turk

Submitted to Contest #307

The Trials of Desorta MinonBy Lauryn Turk The person before her stank with the scent of death. Their sunken eyes a milky white, and their hands weathered and worn. Cancer, or some other vile disease that ate you from the inside out. You must complete the task in order to continue in the trials. The voice sounded as if it came from everywhere and nowhere at once. Desorta wanted to turn away from it all. Turn away from the chance to study with the godlike beings of this world. Turn away from that alluring voice beckoning her to commit an at...

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Twisted Reflections

Jennifer Springs

Submitted to Contest #307

Being twenty-four with braces isn’t exactly an ideal situation. None of my friends, acquaintances or peers had them; either they went through the process in middle school or were lucky enough to never need oral corrections at all. Certainly, my favorite social media influencers - or any influencers, for that matter - didn’t sport braces: all they ever wore was makeup and a good filter. Perfect people in a perfect world. My parents didn’t have the money to get me the orthodontic help I needed at the “right” age. But as it happened, I came int...

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The Overload

A.E. Caswell

Submitted to Contest #307

Elara crept along the bookshelves in a darkened, dusty corner of Pembroke’s library, frantically skimming the surnames on each spine. Easton, Ellis, Ellsworth… She had to squint in order to read them. A few warming lights dotted the stone walls, along with the gentle glow of lamps stationed at every table, but the dimness of the library made the spines nearly indecipherable. Each time her shoes hit the polished wooden floors, she winced. Every step, every page turn, every furious scribble of a pen could be heard as each student studied for P...

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The 49th Floor

Kyle Gardner

Submitted to Contest #307

Hector stopped halfway up the long, winding staircase to look out the window. The sky was veiled with wrathful clouds that threw down rain like heavy artillery. Thunder boomed, shaking the glass, and he could see tiny bolts of lightning hitting the lake in the distance. Trees were being toppled over by hurricane-force winds, but Hector was unnerved. This was just another Sunday to him.When Hector had first arrived at the University of Magi—what, three years ago now?—the violent weather had terrified him nearly to the point of tears. But he c...

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Freedom

Yasmin Youssef

Submitted to Contest #307

I ignore my racing heart as the two other sinners prepare for the trials ahead. “Survivor wins freedom.”This was the promise. The hope that kept all of us alert behind metal bars, waiting for our turn. Though no one had ever survived the “Rehabilitation” to taste that liberation, there was always the possibility. We lived off that possibility.To my right was Kilo, whom I hated. He was a self righteous dreamer. Who ever heard of a person smiling in prison? To the left was G. A frail waif who could blow over if the wind was at just the right a...

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Wyatt vs Beelzebub

Lisa Lange

Submitted to Contest #307

Principal Jones. Short. No neck. Gravitationally challenged. The strong scent of bully covered by stronger perfume. We used to say she sumo-ed her way to the principal job. She was the reason we called Franklin Middle School, Alcatraz, because of the way she pushed everybody around, students and teachers. I once saw Ms. Bright in tears, leaving Jones’s office. And Noah wet his pants—for God sakes, he was thirteen—and all she did was look at him with that wonky eye that wandered in a different direction from her other one, like it was looking...

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The In Between

Altair Griev

Submitted to Contest #307

A young kid skidded to a halt in front of the tavern. As he slipped through the front door, a pair of harried, sweaty soldiers rumbled past, scanning the streets for their quarry. The kid watched the soldiers disappear into the distance. “Hey!”The boy’s relief faded in an instant as he turned to face the owner of the gruff voice.A grumpy old barkeep. He saw dusty tattered clothes. He saw the countenance of a cornered animal. He saw trouble.“Get out of here, trash. This is no place for you,” the barkeep snarled.The young kid’s eyes franticall...

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My Escape

Anya Sanders

Submitted to Contest #307

It had been around three weeks since I had been trapped in this cave. Lanora Elder, one of the most powerful witches in the Northern continent, had locked me in a cage only about 6 by 6 feet wide. Barely large enough for me to lay down and sleep without having to curl my knees to my chest. The floor was but a slat of metal that riddled me with icy coolness every time I laid down. It always took me a few minutes to adjust to the temperature at the end of each night but I had slowly learned to get used to it.I had hardly understood why I was t...

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The Calibration

Lin C

Submitted to Contest #307

The scraping of students’ chairs echoed across the gigantic hall as each name was called to receive their test results. Sunlight poured through the glass ceiling, glinting off the white marble desks of silent students wearing carefully blank faces, dressed in the magocratic academy’s formal robes. The sun shining off the desks illuminated their faces within little spotlights, as if this was their stage and tonight was the performance they had been practicing for all their lives. Stiff navy wool pressed into Evelyn’s neck where the silver cla...

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The Pillars of Divinity

(He/Him) Mark Higgs

Submitted to Contest #307

Vena Veritas—the vein of truth. One drop of that blood is to venture into the mind of God.I only know a couple of faces at the clubhouse, mostly other students from classes we share. The lights are low—flickering electric candles—and gold panels split the room like a heat sink. Bodies lean in close on cream upholstery, and fingertips play softly on skin.I smile my best “don’t mind me” smile and shuffle through the crowd, trying to act casual while the whole time pretending to check my phone. Cilicia slides her way across the room toward me.“...

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15290+ Fantasy Short Stories to read

Fantasy Short Stories – Page 2 of 1020

To Be Someone’s Muse

Brittle Teachings

A Thesis in Secrets

The Waiting Room

Echos of my Soul

The Trials of Desorta Minon

Twisted Reflections

The Overload

The 49th Floor

Freedom

Wyatt vs Beelzebub

The In Between

My Escape

The Calibration

The Pillars of Divinity