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

4840+ Speculative Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Looking to explore terrains beyond Earth and stretch the limits of your imagination? Welcome to the Internet’s best source of speculative fiction stories.

Speculative Short Stories – Page 181 of 323

Forty Days

Submitted to Contest #152

When God came back to earth, His message was simple. Surprisingly simple. It was: “Move. Anywhere you like so long as it’s 500 metres above present sea level. You’ve got until the sixth of April.” People had questions, of course. Like, Why? And, Where have you been? Or, What about world hunger and brotherly love? Not to mention, Why 6th of April? Answers came there none, except, allegedly, to the last. Someone in Austin, Texas claimed that when she asked that one, God shrugged and said it was His mother’s birthday. In Britain, most peopl...

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MANNA

Submitted to Contest #152

    The band of the galaxy seared through the starry canvas.  The barrier of Base Central was as clear as if space itself was exposed.  Even the internal lighting shone from underneath captured the image, rather the countenance, of the triumvirate seated in the stepped podiums.  Their platforms floated above the ground plane, making them look far more imposing.  Argon stood below; his decorum stiff with his head erect awaiting the first line of instructions.  Despite his disciplined veneer, he was unab...

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Hinges of Destiny

Submitted to Contest #152

“Choices are the hinges of destiny.” PythagorasThis is a story of two women, one my mother, Cathy, and one whose name is unknown, so I will call her Mary. Dr. Rosner played a significant role in both of these women’s lives. Cathy’s story is true; however, Mary’s story is mostly speculation.1975 - Not long after she and Bill decided they were ready to become parents, Cathy felt the changes in her body. Cathy wrote in her journal, “Today is the first confirmed day. About two hours ago the doctor informed me that I’m pregnant.”1971 - A wom...

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This is the One: the final entry posted to ‘Dispatches From the Grave’

Submitted to Contest #152

Everyone uses Saltbox to buy a home, so I really didn’t have a choice.The app’s clever logo splashed on my 6-inch touchscreen then vanished, followed by some sleek Roboto-font text that congratulated me for making the decision to download.Good morning, handsome! the app lied, but I let that go. We all lie a little. Welcome to Saltbox!“Uh-huh,” I said, wondering if anyone at Saltbox actually spied for quality assurance.Would you like to find a home today?I always believed non-consensual small talk to be a criminal offense. Time is our most pr...

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The Precipice

Submitted to Contest #152

“My name is Stanley Menard, and I want to tell you that I can see it now. I can really see it and the wonder of it all. But let me go back to how it all happened.”  I grew up in a typical sleepy little New England town in the Blackstone Valley. There were two forms of religious paths to follow, catholic or one of the protestant teachings. In our small town of Uxbridge, Catholicism was the most followed form. Add to that the fact that my mother was the daughter of Irish immigrants. You can understand th...

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And Will Again

Submitted to Contest #151

Munch, munch, swish. I’ve done this one before, or one very like it, I think while nosing my way around a milkweed. An idle thought, like all of them, but vaguely comforting in an indifferent universe, especially when combined with a sunny day and grass just turning crispy, yet still holding a juicy touch of last week’s rains. Downright peaceful. “Moo,” said Millie, ever the alarmist. The rest of us ignore her, except for Amy, who spares a quick glance up at all the nothing that prompted the remark. Based on the smell of the air and the girt...

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Don't forget to remember

Submitted to Contest #151

This was going to hurt. It had before and it would again. But nothing you need to survive is ever free. One way or another you always paid the price.Nyssa bolted awake. The sweat beaded on her brow.“Take me back in. I can handle it.” She massaged her forehead willing her trembling hands to quell the embers of a budding migraine.“Nyssa you can’t. The levels of acetylcholine coursing through your cerebral cortex are…” Konrad paused. “If you go back in you might not wake up.”“I know the risks.” She settled herself back down onto the metal plint...

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Wheel of Punishment

Submitted to Contest #151

CW: Brief descriptions of violence, death This seat is too rough. You think if they have a nice assembly room, the best thing they can do is give us chairs that don’t feel like splinters. I guess when you’re in this place, you can’t ask for anything. My eyes immediately drift to the lights. They seem to be fading, almost, a little too broken. They’ll probably make a new labor station for lightbulb repairs. Maybe I’ll get put in it. The walls look shiny as can be, though. I’m not surprised by that. Painting is one of the easiest “jobs” th...

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Sisyphus Back on the Cattle Drive

Submitted to Contest #151

Harry woke up wearing dirty long underwear, sleeping in wool blankets and surrounded by a small canvas tarp that came to just a couple feet off his head. His bones and muscles were creaky, and he wanted to close his eyes, except this time he were the Trail Boss, on the big cattle drive from Bandera Texas to the Railhead in Lousiana.  If the job worked out this time, and all that he made weren’t lost afore he made it home, he’d get his family off to the West.  He’d hang on with all fiersest tenacity of the best bull rider....

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School’s Out

Submitted to Contest #151

Finally, the day had arrived. After forty years of bored students, irrational parents, inept administrators and clueless coworkers, it was my last day in this godforsaken classroom. When I became a teacher all those years ago, it wasn’t to have the summers off as some idiot will say, thinking they’re so clever. Yeah, haha. In truth, my motivation was a love of history. I became a history teacher because history was all I wanted to talk about, all I wanted to read about. I needed a job after college and I wanted to be involved with somethin...

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Reload

M B

Submitted to Contest #151

Staff Sergeant Jimenez took in his surroundings as he tightly gripped his M4 and exhaled.  He was in a once state-of-the-art facility... now a disaster area. Bullet holes lined the walls, expensive computers were smashed and destroyed, two corpses lay on the floor in white lab coats... ...‘Brilliant minds’ that had tampered with something they shouldn’t have, Jimenez noted darkly as he made his way to the metal door that slowly slid open upon his approach. Red alarm lights flashed in the hall and sparks sputtered from the flickering...

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No, Wait...

Submitted to Contest #151

“It’ll only hurt for a second. Really! See that picture?” I turned to look and said “Where?” That’s when the nurse jabbed me. “Oowww” was the only thing I could think to say. But her skilled hands made the procedure so quick that it really didn’t hurt at all. I instinctively went to rub my arm and she stopped me. “First things first” she said with an accent that could only come from the West Indies, and she had a small bandage over the puncture. Then she sat back in the examination chair, crossed her arms and looked at me with an expressi...

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None Rats on the Soup Man

Submitted to Contest #151

The creature’s mangled nails sunk deep into his belly. He could feel them splitting his intestines and then moving around to spread the carnage. They went deep enough to scrape some bones, creating one of the worst sounds imaginable- it was close to nails on a chalkboard, but it had more of a wet quality. Yet again, the creature had gotten him. When it decided that it had done enough internal damage, it slid its nails out. The creature smiled as the internal bleeding began to spread outside. The creature calmly went a few paces to the left o...

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Child's Play

Submitted to Contest #151

The sun was about to set behind Ms. Steven’s house. Someone yelled at Mia to hurry up and pitch, and she scoured the bases for the culprit. Greg Abbott stood in front of a mailbox with a deep frown on his face. Mia frowned back at him and picked up the kickball which rested against her ankles. It was old, most of it retained its original red hue, but its ridges had smoothed over with use. With a light squeeze Mia could tell it hadn’t been pumped in a while. She swung it behind her back and forward again, letting it loose. It skidded across t...

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The Grand Synthesis

Submitted to Contest #151

In my fourth decade as a subject of the most powerful empire on earth, I was struck mad and committed an affront against the Empire, a crime for which I was to be held captive indefinitely in an institution for deranged criminals.After twenty years of captivity, I was offered my freedom in exchange for a statement proving that I had regained soundness of mind. I embarked on formulating a grand synthesis, a credo of redemption based on all the great religious, scientific, and philosophical principles.I began by scouring the tomes of the ...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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