1400+ 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...

80 likes 78 comments 78

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“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

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“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

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⭐️ Recommended stories

“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...

34 likes 20 comments 20

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“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

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“In Search of Inspiration” by Michał Przywara

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #222

Finally, after months of waiting, after countless arguments with the shipper, with border services, with his wife Shirley and with his son Miles, and with his wallet to cover all the extra importing fees, Carl Jones’s package arrived and sat in his study. It was a dented cardboard box, basketball-sized, swaddled with duct tape, and it screamed nondescript. If he had passed it in the street he would have kept on walking, avoiding eye contact – were it not for the shipping label, which said: to Carl, from Industrial Creativity Corporation. “It...

46 likes 65 comments 65

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✍️ All stories

“A Deal is a Deal” by Caroline Poplawski

Submitted to Contest #280

“You’re not supposed to be here.” Now, Angelo, that’s no way to respond when a woman invites you for tea. Didn’t your mother ever teach you manners? Even if she hadn’t, I would have expected you to pick up a thing or two from Domenica, or Chiara. Come, join me. The tea will get cold if you stand there much longer. “I may not know manners, but I do know math. You’re early. I still have sixty years left and it’s not even the anniversary yet. What are you doing here?” Is it so wrong to be curious about what you’re up to these days? Maybe I like...

2 likes 0 comments 0

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“ROOM 132” by Fabayo Watkins

Submitted to Contest #280

Content warning: Physical intimacy, emotional manipulationHere we were, on a Friday night in the middle of time square arguing. My lover has been placing an enormous amount of pressure on me to leave my boyfriend of five years. As much as I would love to be with him, it’s Christmas time for heaven's sake. The fact that he is my boyfriend's best friend doesn't make this any better. I feel horrible but have gone too far down the road to turn back. Part of me feels like I have always wanted to be with Micah, but somehow Nairobi is the one who p...

4 likes 3 comments 3

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“Blood Moon” by R.H. Magdalena

Submitted to Contest #280

“Please, can you find our son?” The couple on the other side of Mel had been crying for days based on the red-rimmed eyes staring back at her. They weren’t wearing anything with designer labels like past clients who were desperate for anything they could use in the divorce. A nice, normal family. At least on the surface. Melanie Carmody, private investigator of fifteen years, wanted nothing more than to take her vape from its charger in her desk drawer and take a long intake of its customized contents. Sure, cigarettes had been in her rear...

6 likes 1 comment 1

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“The Goose” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #280

“Do I look nice?”She pulls down the front of her dress. When she purchased it, it fit like a dream. Those changing rooms seemed to exist in another universe. Everything was perfect, and then, once home, defects appeared. Love wasn’t trying to show too much cleavage, but she also didn’t want to look like a cloistered nun. Carter was laying on the bed, not dressed yet, on his phone like always. She walked over and pulled the dress down again hoping to catch his attention.“Carter?”“Mmm?”“Your girlfriend is asking you if she looks nice.”He peere...

33 likes 22 comments 22

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“The Veiled Woman” by Matthew Foster

Submitted to Contest #279

Jessica lay in bed, sweat staining her pillow and sheets. The bedroom was a chaotic mess, dirty clothes indistinguishable from the clean ones strewn about the floor. The ceiling fan creaked in a steady rhythm and she was thankful for the white noise. It drowned out the silence, which could be deafening at night. The silence was almost as bad as the darkness. Although she was well into her twenties, Jessica’s small room was lit by a soft night-light in the shape of a crescent moon. The darkness had a way of creeping up on her, and if she wasn...

9 likes 0 comments 0

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“Christmas Dream” by Isobel Cunningham

Submitted to Contest #280

CHRISTMAS DREAM?Isn’t it great to have the park right at your doorstep? It was true. The park close to Holly’s  new condo was a great consolation. As her daughter had put it so persuasively, “It’s very convenient, Mum. To your right the shopping center and to your left the lovely park for your nice walks.:Like coaxing an old dog, Holly had thought, “Walkies girl, come on!” They were all right, of course. She couldn’t quite manage her house and the garden any more. The condo was close enough to her daughter’s place – but not too close fo...

7 likes 0 comments 0

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“Willow’s Last Three Words” by Arora Gleans

Submitted to Contest #279

Willow turned her body in agony as the sun streamed through her bedroom window into her wide-open eyes. Although the sun rose a few moments ago, Willow had been awake the entire night, tossing, turning, and jolting up straight when her breath staggered.Today, Willow Church turned thirteen years old. For the past few months, the taste of being a teenager was all she could salivate about. Thirteen was entering a new era of blue-streaked hair and staying out later than she could at twelve.Willow was especially excited to go to school on he...

12 likes 6 comments 6

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“Retirement in the Post-Apocalypse” by Sophie Jackson

Submitted to Contest #279

My hand fell off again.I really must find someone other than Janice to try to sew it back on. You would think being dead would mean her arthritis was no longer an issue, but she still complains that it makes it hard to do fine work.“Arthur!”Janice’s grating voice drifted through the ruined building, summoning me as it had done for the last fifty years. Till death do us part the vows had said, yet here we were, dead and still bumbling along together just like we had done all through our marriage.I attempted to find my slippers, rolling over o...

9 likes 2 comments 2

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“Bloodsuckers Like Me” by H. Lee Russell

Submitted to Contest #279

Content Warning: References to distressing times, blood, violence, and death. Mention of dead animals, as well. There's no active, gratuitous violence in this story.Did they get you? Is the sun coming up shortly? If that’s the case, I’d advise you to listen. I, along with… the rest of the world, have been in your shoes. We can all testify that what follows isn’t so pretty. So, if you’d like a remote shot at survival, I’d suggest that you read and read fast. Time flies with a good story.I want to preface that if they didn’t get you and the in...

6 likes 0 comments 0

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“A Sickness” by Luciano Cortese

Submitted to Contest #279

(TW: generational trauma, PTSD, childhood trauma, all against the background of magic. )You learned a lot of things when you became a father. Especially when you were the primary caretaker. One of these things Isagani had long been forced to learn was that every child was unlike any other. They were quite like species of monsters-- each had their own weaknesses and strengths and abilities. All humans were like that, really, but children were on a whole another level. The rules one child considered fair could be abhorrent to another. In that ...

7 likes 0 comments 0

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“Vivamus” by Anne N

Submitted to Contest #279

Azzie trudged over fallen rubble and debris. Rain pattered against the dilapidated shell of the antiquated space. Thunder rumbled overhead as rainwater dripped from the brim of her hoodie. Gravel crunched beneath the soles of her combat boots. She kept her hands in the pockets of her rain jacket. She passed through the double doors leading to the main foyer and winced as one of the doors fell off its rusted hinge. The sound echoed in the emptiness as a plum of dust shot off the ground. Azzie stepped over the door and peered up the staircase....

7 likes 0 comments 0

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“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...

80 likes 78 comments 78

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“Coming Undone” by Shannon Haffely

Submitted to Contest #277

tw: blood, language, self harm (kinda?)Beneath my collar, the skin is red and raw, the deepening scratches burning with absence. Halter necks, collars with buttons at the hollow of my throat, or piles of laces that frill across my skin or hike up to my jaw—these have been my uniform for the last few weeks.When I'm home, I swap these exorbitant veils for the comfort of a faded pink crewneck sweatshirt. Age has loosened the collar. Not noose-tight, but it's tight enough. The sleeves are unraveling at the end: I can hook my thumbs through the t...

6 likes 0 comments 0

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“Sebastian’s Revenge” by Kyle Cox

Submitted to Contest #277

I picked myself up from underneath the tree where I was resting and climbed onto my best friend. My horse Bessie. I looked up at the horizon and saw burgundy clouds floating softly underneath the bluish rays of the sun. The skyline of the mountains looked like drinking fountains for the gods, as they spat glittering water from their peaks. I stared in amazement; as aqua flowed beautifully down those mountainous peaks and disappeared in its crevasses, like it had been my first time seeing Unitas, its nature, and all its glory.  I looked ...

7 likes 0 comments 0

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“The Outcast's Illumination” by Band Ha

Submitted to Contest #277

In a small village in Provence in the south of France, surrounded by endless lavender fields and wide wine vineyards, lived a boy named Lucas, fifteen years old, who was known in the village as "weird". His wild hair and deep dark eyes seemed to look into places that no one but himself could see. While the rest of the boys in the village spent their days playing soccer in the fields or riding bicycles through the vineyards, Lucas preferred to wander alone, an old camera hanging around his neck. He looked for the unusual and exciting: shadows...

7 likes 1 comment 1

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