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Discover weekly, the best short stories

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 7 of 10

The Machine That Remembered Her

Submitted to Contest #303

They lifted it from the trench at 9,000 meters, where pressure folds time and light.No metal should have survived intact.No geometry should have arranged itself like that.They called it ME-4, logged it as a non-responsive mechanism of indeterminate origin, and summoned experts.Charles Babbage, architect of the not-yet engine.Ada Lovelace, his not-quite disciple.Together, they were the closest thing to understanding the impossible. Or they liked to think so. One time, after hours of decoding what they believed was a message from another world...

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Deep Diver of Arctic Seas - Voyages of the Destiny's Dreams

Submitted to Contest #302

Deep Diver, the 4,000 elephant seal, swam through the twilight zone of the sea near the Arctic, where sunlight disappears in the water's depths.The Ice Age melt raised the seas where Deep Diver swam.He had a magnificent nose like the beginning of an elephant's trunk.It flopped up and down when he tossed his head. Deep Diver liked to inflate it with air to make it even larger. Then he could look more threatening when he faced rivals in battles on beaches.He and his kind were sensitive to patterns, currents, and flows in the ocean system.Each...

39 likes 12 comments 12
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Behemoth

Submitted to Contest #302

In the courtroom of the universe, at the end of it all, we’ll be weighed against our sins, feathers to lead, giant super cosmic judges all agreeing we’ll have been wrong all along. But down here, down now, right and wrong are written by whoever’s loudest in the room, and we carry our sins on shoulders and chests proudly, displaying them like weapons won in duels and armors recovered in conquered lands and jewels pilfered, to whomever’ll look, to whoever’ll listen to our songs of gleans and sparkles and prides misplaced: Saved for now, nothi...

7 likes 2 comments 2
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Same, but Different

Submitted to Contest #302

Beneath the sapphire sky of a scorching October morning, two troops of baboons would stumble into battle. The inevitability of the day's events has been much debated in the circles that it has been discussed. Tensions had been rising since May with the departure of the rains and preliminary skirmishes were of the ordinary kind: border clashes, nothing more, but they were the seeds of eventual strife. As the dry season persisted, and resources grew scarce, the rains to germinate the sown seeds of wrath had fallen heavily. The two sides in thi...

5 likes 2 comments 2
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THE BAD SAMARITAN

Submitted to Contest #302

It can be cold in London; damned cold. On such a night as this, fifty years ago, I was in the Limehouse district, down by the river, heavy fog wreathing everything in vagueness, mingling with the foul smoke of coal fires drifting past to make a choking, almost unbreathable atmosphere. I had my scarf wrapped around my face but it had little effect. I began to cough. I needed to get away from this poverty-stricken area of the City. I tried to find a hansom cab, but none were likely to come into this area. Haggard prostitutes lined the damp str...

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Working Girl

Submitted to Contest #302

Working GirlThe newly arrived settlers had been making sacrifices to accommodate requests made by the Southern Kansas Stage Line. They were considering accepting the offer of opening a rest station for the company and had generously served some of the passing stagecoaches even though they had no accommodations built yet on the land they recently claimed. Only the wagons the pioneers arrived in provided food and lodging so far. Mr. Pike, the company's agent visiting the homestead, thought maybe he should stay until the next stage came on the ...

16 likes 14 comments 14
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Kids and Their Epics

Submitted to Contest #302

This short story will have mentions of war and potential derogatory language.I sneak a look at Sawyer Thompson from across the room, where he polishes the apple Nurse gave him with his grey cloth handkerchief. In the bed next to me, Brendon is watching eagerly, waiting for the same thing I am. Sawyer does this same routine every day; he scrubs his red apple until it shines under the ward’s stifling white lights, then keeps polishing it with such vigour that he eventually drops it. The apple tumbles off the creased linen blankets covering Saw...

11 likes 4 comments 4
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The Exit Strategy

Submitted to Contest #302

Note: This story contains references to Holocaust-era persecution, antisemitism, war-related trauma, and brief depictions of emotional distress and dehumanizing language used by Nazi officers. Reader discretion is advised. *** The little boy indicated to me that he was thirsty and pointed to the bottle that popped out of the zipper of my backpack. I handed the bottle to him and got a soft and tired ‘Danke’ in return. I smiled and watched him gulp down whatever water remained. It was a sad sight, but things were going to get better for him a...

15 likes 4 comments 4
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Linguistics of Love

Submitted to Contest #302

My office is on the top floor of a brick building which used to house the staff who lived on campus in the early days of the university, but has now been converted into the offices of the Anthropology and History departments. It still has the charm of the original architecture on the outside, with a wrought iron railing along the front stairs and painted shutters encapsulating the windows.I make my way inside, preparing to get back to work as soon as I sit behind my desk. Whenever a puzzle is laid out before me it takes over. I think that’s ...

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Adventures in unhealthy Scepticism

Submitted to Contest #301

I stared around the small box of a cell from a lumpy mattress, which, despite the lack of evidence, my crawling skin refused to believe was not full of bed bugs. My friend Frank’s gift of the understatement had obviously rubbed off on me because I wryly quipped to my new crustacean bed mates – “this was not part of the plan.”To be perfectly honest, the entire trip had been rife with twists, culminating rather spectacularly I thought in the first arrest of my life landing in a foreign jail at that. My first portent of doom, that should have b...

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Ocean Tsunami Surge Carries Away the Ship Destiny's Dreams

Submitted to Contest #301

White sails glided through the marine layer and into the bay.The promise of a peaceful anchorage beckoned. The 1800s wooden ship under square canvas sails waltzed over the waves like a sleek, beautiful woman.She was the mythical vessel known as the Destiny's Dreams on her world voyages.The sea reflected the sun's sparkle. The air caressed the skin with a light, warm touch. The ship settled at anchor with sounds of happy ripples on the water.But unseen rhythms of the sea were bringing changes.Soon the day turned into chaos.Earlier that mornin...

41 likes 20 comments 20
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Dear Yuri

Submitted to Contest #302

TW: references to violence and alcohol ────୨ৎ──── Dear Yuri, This isn’t my first draft of this letter. Or the second. Or the third. But eventually, I found a way to convey the deep pool of my feelings, even if it’s only a dip in shallow waters. To be honest, I don’t know why I’m writing this. I don’t know where I would mail it to, or if you would be able to read it, or even where you are right now. In the end, I think I’m writing this letter more for myself. It’s healthy to get all your feelings out on paper, I’ve heard. I vividly remember o...

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Midsummer Rain

Submitted to Contest #301

Jin- seon inhaled sharply, groped weakly at the long spear pinning her to the ground, blood spilling from underneath her iron chestplate, shirt already soaked with blood. The demon stood over her, face blurred and just out of range of her jikdo, not that she was strong enough to hold up the four-feet length of sharp metal in this state anyway. With a leering grin, the rakshasa stomped on her chest, making her gasp painfully. Slowly, torturously, the demon began to pull the spear from her stomach painfully, having the audacity to laugh as it ...

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Agis vs the Modern Toaster

Submitted to Contest #301

Agis had been trained since childhood for battle. Back in the days when the agoge meant wrestling bears and dodging spears instead of spam emails, he earned his stripes through brutal fights, harsh winters, and a regimen that made your gym membership look like a meditation retreat. He'd fought foes across distant lands and even attempted to wrestle a bear once—not successfully, but the story killed at dinner parties in Sparta.None of that prepared him for his most fearsome foe: the modern toaster.Yes, a toaster. A sidekick to breakfast, an a...

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Capital Gains

Submitted to Contest #301

Thursday, August 9, 1984I made an honest mistake. I was going to Boston for a deposition of a key witness in an upcoming trial. After forgetting to wind my fickle alarm clock, waiting for traffic and a long search for parking, I was late, running through the terminal with a briefcase in one hand and a gym bag stuffed with a change of clothes in the other. The doors to gates E and F were a few feet apart, and I saw the last of a line of people going into the door on the right. I joined the line. If I tried this today, a hundred safeguards wou...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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