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

4890+ 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 260 of 327

An Old Sort of Library

Submitted to Contest #91

There was a stirring on the far end of the building, and Miss Naila wasn’t having it. Naila understood the variation in response that people had for the collection, but she would not have disrespect of the halls. So now at attention, she went about finding the source. As it turned out it was a pair of children, one bold, one meek. The meek one shivered at her appearance, which Miss Naila felt was good manners. “What is it that has you in this little Din?” The meek one cowered, as the Bold one said, “what’s it to you?” “I’m the librarian, tha...

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Meaning of Life

Submitted to Contest #91

I will return this library book, Tom thought to himself. No, I am returning this book today. Today, I am returning this book. Today, I am returning this book. He repeated the phase in his mind as he worked shampoo onto his scalp for the first time this week. It wasn’t so bad. The week starts on Sunday, so having a full shower today meant he was off to a great start. Perfect day to return a library book. Start the week out right. He seemed to have picked a good therapist this time, and she was doing wonders for him. He wished he’d heard about...

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The Survivor

Submitted to Contest #91

The Survivor A new day, Julie's sun shines on it with the same pain and suffering that she has lived with for more than five years .. a lean, tired body, a pale face .. and eyes that have thinned out staying up for long nights .. Jolie opens the window of her room at six in the morning, and looked at the sky asking God to get a new result about her blood tests which will come out today, contain the true diagnosis that will eliminate her confusion and bring her back to life again .. - Oh Lord, stop this pain that invades my bones .. Stop th...

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Marietta’s pages

Submitted to Contest #91

Marietta’s pages. 4 days to my 20th birthday I woke up at 6:30 today because my pillow felt uncomfortable, didn’t go back to sleep again. Lay on my bed staring at the ceiling for 15 minutes. Grandma had Alzheimer’s and I didn’t tell my sister. Didn’t have breakfast today. Wore a black shirt and blue jeans , made sure I had all that I had packed all I needed to go for my one hour daily walk. I hated leaving something behind, it disturbed me in ways I couldn’t explain . Watered the plants, locked all the doors then checked again and again ...

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Spring Cleaning

Submitted to Contest #91

They call it “Spring Cleaning,” but I’ve been at this for the better part of a decade. I had so much clutter built up from my entire life and my parent’s that I did not know what to do with it. I am almost finished now, though. Just half the basement, and I will be done with this. I threw out so much garbage: picture books, year books, text books, cd’s, tapes and what-have-you. So much clutter I kept for idiotic sentimentality. I don’t read those picture books anymore; I haven’t read them since I was 12. I don’t plan to get in touch with any...

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Planned Obsolescence

Submitted to Contest #91

His cover was at the moment flexible and secure.  mostly. There were definitely some faults in his joints.  Zedd could trouble shoot that though, a bit of the fix-it paste on it now should do the trick. He would rather avoid a wardrobe malfunction. He knew what it looked like, an android trying to skate on an old wadding cover, avoiding ‘maintenance’ but Zedd also knew the difference between an actual problem and a cheap way into a chopshop. If the answer is even potentially tacky, or fabric based it was worth it.  Besides tem...

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The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Time Travel and the Multiverse

Submitted to Contest #91

Sarah was manning the front desk of the library when the zombie-killer walked in. In truth the person probably wasn’t a zombie-killer; the library windows took up an entire wall, and there was no sign of the chaos and bloodshed expected of a zombie apocalypse outside. There was a small part of Sarah that wished there was a zombie apocalypse though. Then she’d be able to march into the backroom where Dena, her manager, was playing Candy Crush and say “look, zombies. Guess it wasn’t a waste of time me borrowing all those zombie stories last we...

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The Fruits of Our Labour

Submitted to Contest #91

The walls are charred to pitch, burnt books crumbling on the stone floor as the last tendrils of smoke crawl upwards from the curling pages and wisp away.It happened again. Pietro remembers to hide this time, setting himself behind the mahogany desk with his blindfold bound tight around his head, hands pressed against his ears. It took him a few times to get used to the sight, the blaze so wild and blinding it felt akin to barrelling towards an eclipse. The sound came next, the pop and crackle and fizz drumming in his skull, ricocheting...

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Smiley's Revenge

Submitted to Contest #92

Sometimes you just can’t catch a break…    My name is Smiley. Yes, Smiley. I am a humpback unicorn with no real reason to smile, yet that is my name. My friends call me Smi and my enemies call me “The One-Horned Camel”. Well, they do until I run my one horn where they least expect or want it. My body is the pure white of most unicorns, and my mane and tail are a beautiful cream. My one true flaw is my back. I don’t know why it has a huge hump. I wasn’t born with it and no one in my family has ever had one or heard of one. It...

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ANGEL

Submitted to Contest #92

ANGEL             Every spring bringss with it an aura of promise.  The newness can be seen in the tree blossoms, the crocuses lifting their heads above the ground to breathe new air, and the melodic chirping of birds whose song had been stifled by the cold winter.  None of this is new, but rather a renaissance of what had occurred many times before.             I looked forward to springtime. &nbsp...

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When it's Not Just an Outage

Submitted to Contest #92

The Long Walk Home comes out tomorrow. This is an edited version of the first chapter. Enjoy! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0938KHPMV It was Friday morning and I was headed to the break room for my coffee, then back to sitting in my office. I was almost back to my office when the lights flickered, then went out. “Well, shit,” I muttered. I made it to my office with the light coming from the front windows. As I picked at my doughnut, I realized how quiet it was. I grabbed my flashlight and headed out to the front of the store. There were n...

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In The Moonlight Hollow

Submitted to Contest #91

Moonlight.It shone an icy-silver layer of velvet over absolutely everything, bleaching out all distinct shape and colour and light from life until it appeared effectively as a clinical, slumbering world. Morbidly surreal in its new flatness, illusions conjured out of the darkest depths of the unknown mind, flesh abandoned nature, turning to polished stone and gravel until they lost their viscosity, becoming pools of mirrors laid flat against the palm of emptiness.Silence descended upon the edge of abyss, ensconcing the guarded area insi...

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Match-Making

Submitted to Contest #91

There was an eagerness in the air and the shadows; a specific eagerness that hovered just near enough the doors as if to kindly usher out the last folk as the library closed.A sunny, summer twilight softened the sky and those very shadows near the doors deepened and shifted, taking a form that was good at seeming human and bore a happy, gleeful look.               Leaola skipped forward with a squeak, flinging out her hands and arms to take in her surroundings. This w...

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If You Believe, It Will

Submitted to Contest #91

The librarian hushed the girls, who just giggled again. The young man closed his eyes and tried to breathe. The bills stuck together from his sweat as he fingered the edges of it again. His breathing echoed and rebounded and filled his head and surely, surely . . . Thud! Then more of the same as other books fell. A hulk of a man with a rose tattoo pulled another shelf down. He thrust his hands to the back of the wooden shelving, searching for the secret compartment. “Sir!” The librarian steadied herself on her desk, edging around it til...

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Shhh!

Submitted to Contest #91

What I’m about to tell you is going to sound weird. I mean really weird. But it happened. I almost envy you, not living through it. Being blissfully unaware. But I need to tell you and you need to believe me or it will just happen all over again. It began when me and my friend were in the campus library ‘working.’ And by ‘working’, I mean we had our books open in front of us, of course, but we were really procrastinating and doing anything which didn’t involve having to read about Carl Jung’s mirror theory. We thought we were being quiet, b...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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