1420+ Urban Fantasy Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. From vampires at the bar to werewolves around the corner, our collection of urban fantasy stories will bring the magical into everyday life.

🏆 Winning stories

“The Empty Laboratory” by Kashira Argento

🏆 Winner of Contest #279

Seventeen blinks. The yellow warning light on his air gauge always blinked seventeen times before turning red. Dr. Chen counted them like heartbeats while replacing his oxygen tank, each one marking another three hours of borrowed time. Through the reinforced windows of his BSL-4 lab, the setting sun painted the research facility in the same amber shade as the viral suspension he'd been perfecting when the sprinklers activated.The test results still glowed on his screen: successful protein synthesis, perfect binding affinity, precise species...

108 likes 90 comments 90

Read story

“The Ungentling” by Katy B

🏆 Winner of Contest #204

Bill’s disappeared upstairs with the little sickly girl but me I’m here to see the blind woman. I hear she did it on purpose, tore donkey tail out of the earth and smeared its milky sap directly in her eyes. It must of stung her hands and face bad and maybe left marks on her fingers. Near Santa Fe, men, women and children are always getting possessed of this sort of ecstasy and seem like taking pleasure in swallowing poison and fire and stepping on scorpions and suchlike. But it ain’t superstition like the government try to tell me in the la...

85 likes 81 comments 81

Read story

“Foretold in Smoke” by Aeris Walker

🏆 Winner of Contest #152

Content Warning: Mild foul languageMarie S. 5/5 Stars Vivienne is incredible! My life has completely changed since my visit. It’s like a light came on and she’s somehow unlocked all this hidden potential. She’s the best, seriously just go. Call today!Bradley J. 5/5Worth every penny. Highly recommend.Kevin R. 5/5 StarsI never thought I’d come to a place like this, but when I was at an all-time low, I just needed someone to tell me if life was worth sticking around for. I wanted to know if it ever got better. Vivienne made me believe that it w...

191 likes 143 comments 143

Read story

⭐️ Recommended stories

“A Robot the Size of the World” by Marty B

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #281

It took destroying the world, but I finally learned the difference between true meaning, and just information.  My own life began simply enough, when my power button was pressed for the first time. I awoke to my sensor inputs flooding me with data I couldn’t understand. Slowly, my databases expanded, filling out my awareness. Still in my docking station I sensed the floor, (not: carpet, linoleum, tile, rug, grass, dirt register as: oak hardwood planks)  and the visual inputs showed two black half spheres directly in front of me, ...

33 likes 56 comments 56

Read story

“Morning Drive ” by Maple Ip

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #239

There’s a ghost in the backseat. You catch glimpses of her as the car chases a line of streetlights. It’s hard to focus when your eyes are blurred with sleep. It’s harder still to recognize the beady squint set in a face so thin that you can see the car seat through it. “Eyes on the road,” Grandma chides, like the time you crossed the road without looking and she grabbed your hand. Sweat glued your palms together then. Now, her voice sticks to your ears. An itch that wriggles deep. “How long until we get there?” “Five minutes,” you s...

35 likes 21 comments 21

Read story

“Self Imagery ” by Michelle Oliver

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #225

Florien needed to find a real artist. Well, he was a real artist. Centuries of practice had honed his brush strokes to a level that far exceeded proficient. His landscapes were so vivid that you could feel the warm breeze and the soft sun. Or should that be, feel the soft breeze and warm sun? It had been over two hundred years since he’d set foot beyond these castle walls in daylight hours, so he wasn’t quite sure. But today, he needed to find an artist other than Mrs Bedford at the inn who’d painted the most hideous portrait&...

47 likes 40 comments 40

Read story

Introducing Prompted, a new magazine written by you!

🏆 Featuring 12 prize-winning stories from our community. Download it now for FREE.

Download

✍️ All stories

“8-TRACK MIND” by HAAKON RAGNSKJOLD

Submitted to Contest #285

I guess that without Charlie I'd never have gotten the chance to solve that ancient puzzle.We all met Charlie in the Shipping Department of Lafeyette Radio Electronics. We'd just come out of the factory. About six hundred of us, all headed for different stores. But the shift had just ended so we sat there in Shipping, waiting for the Morning Shift to begin.Charlie started talking and I guess we all listened. Figured we might learn a thing or two.Now Charlie had been around since 1939—thirty-five years ago. We figured—hey, this guy's been aro...

11 likes 2 comments 2

Read story

“Food Court” by Dale Snail

Submitted to Contest #285

I remember waking up on the floor of the dressing room with a terrible crick in my neck. I rubbed my eyes and squinted in the mirror. My ironed-straight hair was frizzed at the part and a thumb-sized hickey peeked out from under my terry zip-up.  I couldn’t remember who’d given it to me, which—if I’m being honest, not hugely shocking. Two angry knocks and then: “Caitlin, are you seriously asleep in there again?” I smoothed my hair in the mirror and wiped spittle from my lip. If they didn’t want us sleeping in the dressing rooms, they sh...

1 like 0 comments 0

Read story

“Rings a Bell” by Nick DeLarso

Submitted to Contest #285

The rain in New York is dismal today, and I wish to be nestled within the cafe just a few-feet before me. I was born in 1952, settled my roots within the center of this very avenue, and have stood gallantly at my post for many decades. Every day I watch the hustle and bustle of this very city: the sediment of society flows effortlessly past my forgotten bones, dislodging into many tributaries of this futuristic world. I have sheltered the poor; I have sheltered the working-class; and I have sheltered the famous. Their footprints, some etched...

3 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“Absurdistan” by Ivana Pavićević

Submitted to Contest #284

My body aches. I can't pinpoint where—everything hurts. I wake up on damp grass, stabbed by the cruel needles of pine trees towering above me. The brilliant sunrays stab at my eyes, and the air around me reeks of mud, alcohol, urine, and tobacco—not necessarily in that order. My head pinned to the ground, I muster the strength to resist gravity and lift my emaciated, battered body upright.Mandala. Where am I? India? No cows.A mandala on the wall. A mural. I remember discussing mandalas last night with some kids obsessed with mystifying art. ...

5 likes 4 comments 4

Read story

“The Water Park” by Daniel Quezada Manchester

Submitted to Contest #284

 Last week my family and I went to the water park. My little brothers wanted to get there early so there’d be no queues, but as often happens, we arrived late. I think it was my fault, because they were in a huff with me. That said, they’re always in a huff with me.    It must have been an exceptionally cold day because even in the entrance the windows were all steamed up. So much that you could barely see outside, only the blurred silhouettes of cars and people moving sluggishly beneath a milk-white winter sky. This adde...

5 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“The Last Guest” by Terry Horton

Submitted to Contest #284

The wind howled fiercely outside, a mournful wail reminiscent of a banshee suffering from a sinus infection, as it pounded against the weathered walls of the old Bexley Manor. Inside, the grand hall was alive with the clamor of the annual Bexley family reunion, a chaotic blend of laughter and strained conversations. The air smelled strongly of overcooked ham, covered in a thick, sweet glaze that shone under the dim chandelier light. Beneath the cheerful conversations, there was a hidden tension—a sense of resentment visible in the eyes of th...

9 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“The Chicken Who Knew Everything” by Audrey Knox

Submitted to Contest #284

“I’ll give you a good deal for her,” Fluffy heard the farmer’s gruff voice say. He held her in his strong, calloused hands. These were the hands she had known ever since she was a chick. Fluffy felt safe in his arms. She trilled softly and bobbed her head to show her appreciation. Fluffy liked when her father held her. He was always gentle, unlike the bigger chickens in the coop who pecked and clawed at her when she tried to pick at the handfuls of grain that were tossed on the ground for all of them. Fluffy found herself facing two bright s...

11 likes 1 comment 1

Read story

“Mike and Lucy” by M. Darrow

Submitted to Contest #283

"You've got to be shitting me.""Language, little sister," the man at the bar laughed. He took a long sip of his already nearly empty glass, then lifted it in a toast toward the doorway and the smartly dressed young woman in it who had gone icy still at the sight of him. “I’d hate for you to receive some sort of official reprimand for improper conduct.”The woman growled under her breath as she stalked forward to claim an empty stool at the opposite corner of the bar. “Get fucked, Lucy,” she spat. “I’m really not in the mood.”“Ooooo, Little Mi...

7 likes 2 comments 2

Read story

“The Liberty Bike, A Cry for Freedom” by Ryan He

Submitted to Contest #282

6/14, 6/14I.The house is empty again. Everything is static, and I’m disappointed.Because if the cut-outs of bowls on the kitchen countertop started to move, it would prove that there is actually some real ghost haunting me these days, some real thing clenching my heart every time I hear the cicadas screech outside.The truth is I am afraid of summer.I am a coward.The piano bench creaks. I lodge my elbows onto the piano I hadn’t played in a year or two. In the reflection of the waxed wood I see my face. Then I look directly into the reflection...

4 likes 1 comment 1

Read story

“The coffee shop loop ” by Rob Tredinnick

Submitted to Contest #282

The bell jingled as the door to the small coffee shop swung open. Daniel stepped inside, shivering from the morning cold, and shook droplets of rain from his jacket. It was a Tuesday—he was certain of that, though his mornings had started to blur together lately. Routine made everything predictable, almost monotonous. The smell of freshly brewed coffee wrapped around him like a warm blanket. He glanced around. The same red-and-white checkered floor tiles, the same overstuffed armchair by the window, the same soft jazz playing from the speake...

4 likes 1 comment 1

Read story

“The Water Sprite of the Old Neighborhood” by Xavier Léon Auguste

Submitted to Contest #282

Once Hall the fisherman had finished casting his two nets, he sat on the bank of the small tributary of the River next to his friend Phi. As usual, she refused the coffee he offered from his thermos. That morning, nostalgia overcame him and so he felt like speaking with her about the past fifty years he had lived in that isolated area of the city.The last ten years had seen great changes in the small neighborhood. There was still a small clientele that was loyal to the family-run store. They would regularly stop in to buy a bottle of water o...

2 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“The Adventures Of Frank And Susan, Zombie Janitors” by Jeff Pfeiffer

Submitted to Contest #281

Frank the zombie was a janitor in his former life and as it turned out, he was raised from the dead to continue his former profession. He was really hoping that after he died, he would be in paradise or at the very least resting in peace for eternity. But karma or fate or whatever, had other plans. Manzoor the necromancer who summoned him from the grave, was apparently also an entrepreneur. He created a startup company he called NecroSource that not only used the undead as a cheap source of labor, but also provided a clean alternative source...

3 likes 0 comments 0

Read story

“Cold Feet” by Lindsey Vanthorn

Submitted to Contest #281

Death was cold. Death was still. Death left rot in the air and a chill in anyone’s veins.  That was why the Congregation of Tenebrous Warlocks chose Dies Nivalis, the coldest day of the year, to present the newest Congregation inductees to the horde.  “It’s fitting. Nothing says ‘Death’ more than the sub-zero temperatures of Dies Nivalis,” Maman had said to Odette that morning as she helped tame her hair for the ceremony. Odette’s inherited curls were particularly unruly, as if they’d sensed her unease and balled up into a rat’s ne...

3 likes 1 comment 1

Read story

“The Cat and the Claus” by C.B. Tannon

Submitted to Contest #281

Scoop, grunt, thwump was the rhythm of his work as he dug the grave. He was interrupted when his pocket buzzed and a tinny rendition of We Wish You a Merry Christmas echoed around the dark cemetery. Matt squatted down behind a headstone, swiping a numb finger at the luminous screen, cursing that this had happened to him on the coldest night of the year. He peeked up, surveying. No one there, just black silhouettes of snow-topped headstones looking like some huge, macabre game of whack-a-mole. He put the phone to his ear.‘Hello? Mr. Delaney?’...

7 likes 2 comments 2

Read story

“Christmas Chameleon” by Daniel Rogers

Submitted to Contest #281

I hung my keys on the third hook, my coat on the third peg, and plopped my tushy on the third sofa cushion from the door, like always. That's my life - pathetically predictable.I wouldn't want there to be any misunderstanding. I have no problem with predictability. I'd be happy as long as it gave me enough to pay bills, rent a larger apartment, and occasionally buy something nice. But, no! Unfortunately, it turned out to be more like a deadbeat dad. But what can I do? I don't have any control over it.I hadn't realized it was Christmas E...

52 likes 41 comments 41

Read story