37140+ Best Fiction Short Stories to Read Online for Free - Reedsy Prompts

Someplace Warm

Submitted to Contest #300

Someone once said the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, but that’s not really true. Everything they said I did was my fault, and I loved every minute. I was a monster on the loose in a frigid dustbowl under a graying lavender sky, a mix of death and beauty, only rivaled by my prey. I stalked a lifeless valley, once an enchanted forest, and stumbled over the broken bones of spirits that flew long ago. The empty, meandering path was strewn with charred splinters of magnolias and desiccated branches, which had once been lined with eme...

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The Teacher, the Starfish, and the Fire Eater

Rowan Wilder

Submitted to Contest #300

Mia never understood why her principal told the starfish story every year on the first day of school. She heard it seven consecutive Septembers until she finally had a theory as to why he chose the starfish story for his annual start of the school year stump speech. Standing tall on stage like an opera star about to begin his aria, he’d smile at all the teachers from behind the podium, tap the microphone a few times until it echoed throughout the auditorium, and then he’d start. “A young man zealously runs along the beach with hundreds of...

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Room 6

Andy Jordan

Submitted to Contest #300

Barreling down the highway at over 90 MPH with no real destination, Frank Marsheton pressed harder on the gas pedal. Ghastly blue moonlight revealed stretches of farmland around him as he took another pull from his beer.The windows were down. Cold night air rushed across his face, but it didn’t sober him. Beer dropped from his chin, and he wiped it lazily with the sleeve of his blue flannel before tossing the empty can onto the passenger floorboard.Resting on the seat was a manila envelope that changed everything. He grabbed another beer fro...

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Felis catus

Kira Gunpath

Submitted to Contest #300

Humans tend to overinflate their own intelligence leading to numerous scientific claims and discoveries that the human brain is capable of complex thought and feeling, something other species have apparently not achieved. Humans are wrong, of course. Felis catus, also known as the domestic or house cat is far superior in intelligence, a well-kept secret among felines worldwide. My ancestors, Felis lybica came close but evolution will stop with me because I have perfected it. My humans have been trying for the past ten minutes to trick me...

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Going Down

Jae Po

Submitted to Contest #300

TW: Contains sensitive themes, including sexual harassment and psychological manipulation“Hey, gorgeous.”The red-haired woman briefly glanced at Tim over her wire-rim glasses as she entered the elevator, barely stepped on, and pressed the button for her floor.“Oh.. hey,” she softly replied.Standing behind her, Tim smiled longer than the full 30 seconds it took for the doors to shut.“So!” he said as if they knew each other and had already been in lively conversation. “How is your day coming along? Beautiful out, isn’t it?”“Uh.. yeah,” the wom...

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The Constant Change

Mairin Smit

Submitted to Contest #300

Sophia stepped out onto the grassy shoreline. It felt cool and soft under her bare feet.Strange. For sure.Not like the gritty sand on the beach she'd come from that had baked all day in the hot, Mediterranean sun. Even at night, it still held a whisper of that heat.But this, this was different.The earth felt spongy under her feet, but not soaked. Damp, but not wet. Cool, but not cold.A smile caught the corner of her mouth. She wriggled toes in the grass with pleasure....This was the first time she'd smiled in the last few hours.Giannis had b...

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Merry Cruisemas

Kim Olson

Submitted to Contest #300

Sarah had dreamed her entire life of taking a cruise. At age sixty, she could scarcely believe she was finally stepping onto the second largest cruise ship in the world, the Sea Witch, where she would be staying in a deluxe suite with her extended family – son, daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren. They had decided to forgo their traditional Christmas celebration and instead enjoy an ocean cruise, a “Merry Cruisemas”. Sarah thought that festive play on words and the idea behind it was ingenious. Instead of exchanging useless Christmas gif...

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Ghosts

Kathryn Kahn

Submitted to Contest #300

Unlike many other California Gold Rush towns, Columbia never died. Perhaps it was still infused with the energy and optimism of the 1850s, when rich deposits of gold had briefly made it into one of the largest cities in California. Perhaps people here clung to their family histories, their deceased ancestors in the graveyard, the memories they held. But for many decades after the placer ran out and the miners mostly moved on, a few hundred people called Columbia their home.The tiny downtown itself was mouldering and on the verge of literal c...

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Destination Unknown.

Slim Khezri

Submitted to Contest #300

"If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there". Adam always believed that every path in life was set out like a roadmap, a clear direction from point A to point B. But on a cold November morning, with his breath misting in the pale light and the road ahead shrouded in mist, he realized that the path he had chosen was nothing more than a suggestion. He had once set off with certainty—to leave behind a city that had betrayed him, to find meaning and redemption somewhere out there in the wild unknown. Starting over. Yet ...

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A Song for the Road

Virginia Lawrence

Submitted to Contest #300

Mickey looks down into a pair of bright, beseeching amber eyes as Piper circles by the door of the campervan, giving him the look. With a sigh, Mickey switches on the blinker and lumbers over into the shoulder lane. Once the door is opened, Piper zooms out, intent upon her business. She disappears into the line of underbrush, stretching the retractable leash to its full length. Leaning against the hood of his dear Great West, Mickey pulls out a road map. Moving his finger along the red-markered line, he traces their progress. “Memphis is jus...

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The Dome

Elvis De Santiago

Submitted to Contest #300

The stone guardian must have been protecting the great dome and its buildings for a long, long time considering its begrimed condition. Elders tell tales of guardians who continue their duties even through the most numbing winters. From the treetop, Yuna signals Kubo, “Go now. Quickly.” Outside of view, they swiftly swung through the vines and branches around the protector of the dome. Kubo kept a hand on his pouch. He hadn’t sewn it as well as Yuna and thus the flap threatened to come undone and spill his fruit. Yuna motioned him to hurry...

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Lemolo

James Corson

Submitted to Contest #300

I cannot describeIt is hard to say howIt is unlike a thing you have seen.If I didn't know then,Then I know it well now–some places are true living things.They're as tender,as hopeful as we are–as unfulfilled,covetous too.And this place is its own,what it wants you will loanif It's got more cunning than you. “This place is gonna break our little hearts.” I said to the cat on my dashboard, her shining eyes all but pressed flat against the glass. I can still hear, whenever I like, the thundering drone of water crashing all around. Snow-melt ca...

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The Layover

Emily Casewell

Submitted to Contest #300

“Flight LH 1523 from Frankfurt to Warsaw has been cancelled due to weather at the destination.” The announcement boomed over the intercom. “Please see our customer service agents to be rebooked.”A collective groan echoed through the boarding area, pulling Diana’s attention from the lone stamp in her passport. Chaos erupted around her as people leapt to their feet and rushed to be first in the queue, leaving Diana and strewn luggage in their wake. By the time Diana joined the queue, half the flight was ahead of her, filling the mostly empty t...

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Mourning Murcia

Carina Caccia

Submitted to Contest #300

Picture this. You’re riding shotgun, speeding past kilometres of arid land, then dominoes of lemon trees, beds of sunflowers. There are remnants of walls, grey-white bricks wrapped with graffiti, as small as Monopoly houses beneath an infinite blue sky. There’s wind in your hair, sunshine on the dashboard and on your thighs. You’re Nora, and you’re leaving Murcia behind.Ignacio glanced over at her, eyes golden as resin behind his sunglasses, amber lenses projecting a sunshine scar across his cheek. Nora had insisted on paying him, but he’d B...

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Complicated Greif

A.B. Boatman

Submitted to Contest #300

The breeze was light, but cooling, as the sun tried to peak through the overcast sky. She felt content, bordering on giddy, still basking in the relief she had felt for days. The happiness only left a trace of guilt in her chest. Her black button-up shifted as she walked, lightly coming into contact with her torso at odd places, too stiff to do anything as luxurious as flowing in the breeze. The shirt was slightly over sized, borrowed from her brother. It hung low over her black jeans, making her feel like a child playing dress-up; a pretend...

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37140+ Fiction Short Stories to read

Fiction Short Stories – Page 2 of 2476

Someplace Warm

The Teacher, the Starfish, and the Fire Eater

Room 6

Felis catus

Going Down

The Constant Change

Merry Cruisemas

Ghosts

Destination Unknown.

A Song for the Road

The Dome

Lemolo

The Layover

Mourning Murcia

Complicated Greif