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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 265 of 327

The Annual Thing

Submitted to Contest #90

"Get away from me! I don't know you!", I screamed as loud as I could. Pleading to get away from the woman that claimed to know and hold me as she wishes. I panted hard. Trying to find ways to escape her right before I stumbled. My eyes are wide and I'm breathing hard. Sweat dripping down my faces. A dream. I look around. I don't know how I got here but here I am. On a train. Surrounded by unfamiliar crowds who are looking over at me like I'm some sort of non-human creatures. Is it my unorganize outfit? Is it my dark eyebags that indicate t...

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A Tree's Century Renewal

Submitted to Contest #90

*featuring characters from "Escaping the Fool Virus" and "A Spirit Set on Revenge" Aayan knocks gently on the trunk of the ancient tree before him. As a prince of the sea, his knowledge of things on land was limited, to say the least. This usually didn't bother him. But... he glances from his mother Kalena to her dear friend Iolana. The two wore identical expectant expressions. "So." He draws the word out. "This is what you wanted to show me?" Kalena takes hold of her son's hand and squeezes it gently. "Sweetie, I love you, and you're n...

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The Herdsman.

Submitted to Contest #90

The herdsman has lived his whole life off his livestock, he even believes that he was birthed by the first of his cows for the sole purpose of being her herdsman, and the herdsman of her children. He believes that after the world ended, and all that was left was her and others of her kind spread across different parts of the world (these ‘others’ are the livestock he now refers to as her children). That she had looked up to the heavens, reminiscent of the old days with tall green grass, when men with staffs guided their path and she was neve...

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Earth Didn’t Wait

Submitted to Contest #90

My mom used to tell me this story about her home planet, Earth. She told me all about this once magnificent planet, but when I looked out of my spaceship window, all I saw was a scary ball of flames that used to hold beautiful, green trees, vast oceans, and oxygen that seemed to last forever. The humans needed to eat for fuel, drink water to live, and oxygen to breathe. Mom said that Earth was home to many families, children went to school, and everyone was happy at one point. But one day, Earth changed. It wasn’t all of a sudden, but certa...

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The Tale of the World Through the Eyes of The Oak

Submitted to Contest #90

I do not remember when it was that I tasted the light of the sun for the first time - if such a moment even existed. But she was there each time I began anew, bathing me with her luminescence, fueling the desperate growth of my fingers trying to reach her, the determined burrowing of my roots deeper into the earth, and the ever-widening girth of my trunk. I do not remember the first but the cycle is always the same, and it has been happening for ages far longer than the furthest stretches of my memories. The oldest memories I have are of c...

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Destination Mind

Submitted to Contest #90

Panting for breath, I ran through to double doors of the city L train just before they closed and a grabbed on to the nearest handle available and held on to it as the engine cranked to life and I, along with the rest of the passengers on this sort of grungy conveyance with half broken seats and musty windows felt the ourselves swaying backwards as the the train lurched forward. "Excuse me" I mumbled to the gentleman to my left after I bumped into him. The other man grunted from underneath his small tweed hat which he had pulled downwards,...

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A Most Deadly Trap

Submitted to Contest #90

Today, humanity still feels the impact of a young girl's death from almost 12 years ago...In some distant way, I'm a bit horrified by how little names matter anymore.Families will see her picture on the news, say to themselves oh no, what a tragedy, and go right on eating their dinners.Some years ago, I'm sure they'd agonized over those little details.Or maybe not.Maybe it's always been this easy for them to swallow whatever they hear.Standing in the dimly-lit kitchen, I glance outside, squinting to see past the rain splattering against the ...

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Restore lovely earth

Submitted to Contest #90

Robert is a smart young man of 25 years old. He has completed graduation from journalism. From the childhood, he would like to be a journalist and finally, he will be able to be a part one of them. One day, he gets a call from Ria, his best friend; for an interesting news. They heard about a community, who has worshiped nature's mother. Now, it will be a golden chance for that report; to be written perfectly. Mom-Dad, I am ready to move. Don't worry and pray for me. Ria is also coming. Ok. dear! take care and call us about the update ...

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The Tree Song

Submitted to Contest #90

      “How long did you say it would take to grow Daddy?” Thessa asked. The eight-year-old girl brushed dirt off onto her ripped shorts. The father-daughter pair stood in the front yard of their small house in the middle of a wealthy neighborhood. A one-story family home didn’t belong in a neighborhood with million-dollar mansions.           “Many years. I might not be here to see it when it’s done.”         &nbsp...

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Mourning the Wrong Man

Submitted to Contest #90

“... and then you push the shovel down with your foot nicely into the snow, lift and throw,” said Dmitry, illustrating the steps involved in digging a grave in the snow.Aisha shuddered as she glanced at the motionless body fifty feet away. She wondered whether it belonged to a man or a woman, old or young. It was hard to tell with the many layers of winter clothing, the gloves and the cap.“Let me dig for a little while,” she said to avoid thinking about the task she was involved in.“Okay, here you go.”Dmitry handed the shovel to Aisha and sa...

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Elysian

Submitted to Contest #90

Once, there was a tree. That tree was a beautiful one; it had a dark oak trunk, and it was shiny with scented oil. The leaves were a dark purple, ranging from light lavender to the deepest violet of space, and the branches were the same, glossy oak as the trunk. The roots wove in and out of the universe, back and forth, forth and back so you couldn’t tell where it was anymore. It had a soul inside of it, of whom no one knows, but there was a soul that begged for companionship, to not be lonely anymore. It had laid there to rest so many years...

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The Estate

Submitted to Contest #90

Nellie fidgeted with the buckle of her satchel as the train swayed beneath her. It contained all of her worldly belongings; a second faded dress, a book of rare flowers, and a packet of stale biscuits Mary had slipped her as she was leaving. She had felt a bit of guilt when she took the worn book from its place on the shelf in what the orphanage deemed was a library. Nellie had lived in that building her whole life, but she knew that a single warped shelf with seven books was no library. Six books, now there were six left. She shook her head...

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MAYA: THE BEE

Submitted to Contest #90

        MAYA: THE BEE    So this story is about a bee named Maya and her family and how she would lose her family due to humans. Maya used to live in a jungle with her family and friends and they use to collect nectar and turned it into sweet gold called honey. And they all were happy and satisfied with it. They use to wake up and start searching for flowers, when they found flowers they use to come back and tell other members about the location and they all use to collect food from them...

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Just Thinking

Submitted to Contest #90

“Mr. Jacobi, I am Belvedere Johansen from the Icelandic Review. We appreciate your attendance here today as who honor our planet and the life that resides upon it.” “Yes, Yes, what is your question?” “Do you believe we have the ability to analyze the benefits of technology, while continuing to consider its effects on the planet, while we continue to strive for what we are told will result in a better world, a better life?” "Are you alright? You appear to not be well." A better world? A better life? I had to question the premise of wha...

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The Cure

Submitted to Contest #90

They said this day would come, but they never really believed it. When they started wearing masks, they said it would go back to “normal” eventually, but instead we reached a new, devastating normal. The world population is unsustainable - at nearly 20 billion, we are overcrowded. Forests are gone, except for a few rare stands constantly battling those trying to plunder them. We grow food in tall buildings hydroponically, and the question of being vegetarian or not is moot. Where would a cow graze? Who has the space for a chicken, much les...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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