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Looking for a steady supply of historical fiction short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

150+ Historical fiction Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Whether you’re looking to step back into ancient civilizations, the 19th-century, or anywhere in between, our collection of historical fiction stories is here to keep you riveted.

Historical fiction Short Stories – Page 2 of 10

The Dastardly Crimes of Eden Mandrake

Submitted to Contest #307

WARNING: SENSITIVE CONTENTSUBSTANCE ABUSE, PHYSICAL VIOLENCE, GORE, AND ABUSE I consider myself to be a very impatient woman. But to put it simply, I consider myself to be quite an intelligent woman as well, even if it may not seem like so to some, due to the manner in which I speak. The fact of the matter is that men rule our world. They have dominated countries, braved the strife of war, and therefore have made it so that everything revolves around them. I am not against this. In fact, I adore it. This is what makes a woman like m...

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Bees and Tea

Submitted to Contest #308

With gloved hands, Juliette settled the mesh around her face before lifting the hive’s wooden lid. The gentle droning soothed her spirits as she carefully lifted out the honeycombed shelf, inspecting the honey collected there. “Superb,” she murmured. This would do nicely, indeed. “Oh, Miss Juliette, you will be stung all over! Let Perkins do it.” The horrified voice came from behind Juliette and had her rolling her eyes in amused affection. “Nanny, I am one and twenty, there is no longer a need to coddle me like a child.” Besides, she must d...

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Secret Society for Journalistic Terrorists

Submitted to Contest #307

Louis typed like ticker tape. Click click click. His ginger hair jittered like fire and his fingers worked in a fury of resentment. Beside him, drafts, abandoned, scribbled in red pen, scrunched into balls, folded into origami, paper planes and cranes. A pile I’d have to burn later. Somewhere a telephone rang. He looked up, cigarette dangled, grey ash curling backwards towards his lips. ‘Don’t answer that,’ he said. ‘What if it’s Jules,’ I said. A pause. Louis nodded, keys pressed down again like automatic fire. I squeezed between two le...

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[THE BONE OF CONTENTMENT]

Submitted to Contest #307

Peckham Industry had won a contract to redo the railroad by Ulster Avenue, following an explosion that had happened a week ago. In charge of this operation are Alfonso Jackson and Lorenzo Esposito. Alfonso was a 52-year-old Jamaican man with dreadlocks and a temper reminiscent of a rude boy. Spends a tremendous amount of his time with family, well, when he is not at work. Lorenzo, age 50, a dark skin Italian man with a low fade haircut, a down-to-earth attitude, and very loyal to Alfonso. Hence, the reason they are both on this job! Manageme...

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San Luis Bright

Submitted to Contest #308

December 1969 Lucy,Before Pinkie went off to war and never came back, he revealed to me the mystery of geodes. We were sitting on a log at Pebble Beach, where all the river rocks are jumbled up. The beach was so close to my bedroom that at night in the unseeing San Luis dark, I heard splashing rivulets slapping the shore. Sometimes a truck rumbled through the dark, his noisy passage obscuring the splash, his headlamps refracting blue and white.I was throwing rocks, enjoying the satisfying plonk as each stone broke the slapping surface. ‘Did ...

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A stange story covered in the mists of time

Submitted to Contest #307

A strange story covered in the mists of time.It was one of those glorious, peaceful and tendered summer evenings when all is still and nature is preparing for nightfall. The leaves on the trees showed fatigue after a long day in the hot sun. Even the birds were silent, enjoying the last rays of sunlight. Georges was on his evening walk enjoying this rare moment when one feels in harmony with your surroundings. He felt a great sense of peace after semi-retiring from several years on the London foreign exchange market. He was just passing the...

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In Vivo Veritas

Submitted to Contest #307

Gaslight flickered along the tiled walls and danced across the faces of the professors in the gallery above, perched like birds of prey. A portly man stood in the first row and stared gravely down at Thomas. Thomas kept his eyes fixed on the man’s waistcoat button, which was threatening to burst at any moment. The man cleared his throat. “Mr. Greaves, it is a pleasure to see you come this far in your medical education. This nation finds itself in no small want of capable young physicians. I took up the profession myself in the years followin...

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Letters in time

Submitted to Contest #307

Isabel Cameron looked around the cosy room of the stone cottage. The property known as Limekilns now belonged to the estate of her brother Donald. As administratix, it was up to her to resolve the impasse for herself and her four siblings. Isabel frowned as she held the letter from the government in her hand. The amount of compensation offered by the government for their family home was paltry. “My family worked hard for this land,” she thought indignantly. Letting the document fall from her grasp, it wafted slowly to the floor. Isabel and h...

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Store Directory

Submitted to Contest #307

I was born in 1973. Concrete slab.Forty-eight stores. One Orange Julius. People drove from three towns over just to walk around inside me and eat something fried on a stick.Before me, this was called the Pine Woods. Just trees and deer and sky.People used to hunt here. Teens would throw parties or park and neck. Kids built forts out of fallen branches and old mattress springs. This was the kind of untouched land where memories were made and legends were whispered on late summer nights.Then came the vote: shopping center or subdivision. Back ...

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The Thirteenth Key

Submitted to Contest #307

I never intended to join a secret society. I was only looking for a decent antique map.It began in a dusty bookstore tucked behind a row of boarded-up shops in Edinburgh's Old Town, where tourists rarely ventured. I was drawn in by the smell—musty paper, wax polish, and something vaguely like lavender. The bell didn't chime when I opened the door. In fact, I wasn't entirely sure the door opened at all. One moment, I was on the street; the next, I was inside, blinking in the dim golden light.An old man sat behind the counter, spectacles slipp...

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The Dunce’s Warning

Submitted to Contest #307

Young Sarah Mathews wasn’t what you’d call the apple of her teacher’s eye. Ever since her daddy went to sleep in Davy Jones’ locker, it seemed like the whole world had gone as haywire as a busted pocket watch. Why, even the stars hanging high above the Texas night sky looked to have turned their backs on her, leaving her to wander through the days feeling as lost as a calf in high weeds. While other young’uns stood straight as fence posts reciting their lessons, Sarah’s mind had a way of drifting off like tumbleweed on a breezy day. The rust...

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The Coral Crown

Submitted to Contest #307

The Coral Crown 1830Plaine Magnien Sugar Plantation, Mauritius The OverseerI wake before the bell, like always. The air presses on my chest, thick and wet, mosquitoes whining at the shutters. Another day, another hundred souls broken on the rocks.The letter from England lies crumpled where I left it. Mary’s handwriting has run, the ink blotched by the island’s damp. She begs me to return home. The tropics didn't suit them. Too much fever. Too many insects. They left. I stayed.I lace my boots and step into the half-light. The grass glistens u...

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The Founding of Perdition

Submitted to Contest #307

I WAS SITTING in a corner of what’s now one of the town’s respectable dining establishments, with linen napkins and decent wine. The floor still tilts in back, and the original bar leans like it’s remembering a poor bet, but travelers and tourists don’t mind. They come for history. For stories.One of them, a young man with a notebook, tracked me down. Said he was writing a story for a newspaper back east—The Founding of Perdition. Wanted it from someone “here since the beginning,” especially, his words, not mine, “the town’s highly regarded ...

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The Ghosts of Zargos

Submitted to Contest #307

The Ghosts of Zargos“So these ghosts” said Shu Ping, “these ghosts”, he repeated to make sure he got my attention, “what were they doing way out there? and I've never heard of a ghost donkey before, in anybody’s experiences, ever”, he emphasisedAnd to be honest I didn't really know, and I was a little annoyed at her question like she was challenging my ability to distinguish between reality and the possibility of spirits existence however far fledged it sounded.The cheek of it I thought, after all Shu Ping is herself a fictional narrator, me...

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Four Years

Submitted to Contest #306

May 20th, 2023 I signed up! Today, the Marine recruiter came to school, and mine was the first name on the paper. Telling Mercedes was hard, but we’ve already talked about it so many times. She knows enlisting is my dream. We both knew we’d face this eventually, and we decided we would work harder to stay together. There were tears in her eyes, though. I think she might be changing her mind… I think I recognized the recruiter from one of dad's dinner events, but I didn't say anything. I know I could say something ...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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