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

150+ 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.

Urban fantasy Short Stories – Page 3 of 10

Aegis Institution

Submitted to Contest #307

Manshita lost her pinky last week, but it didn’t weigh on her. No, she didn’t care about her fragmented hand; her bandaged hand; her now three-fingered hand. Nor did she mind her slowly approaching exam slot. What loomed over her was a persistent tension — not from her injury or exam, but the slow erosion of her friendships.Over the past two months she felt her friends drifting away. One might assume it was a natural process; after all, graduation neared. They were entering the secular workforce, and she was claiming a spot as a fellow in he...

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There Was Something About Far East Elite School

Submitted to Contest #307

They say Northpointberg only ever truly glowed before the world took notice—a secret hemmed between riotous green ridges and a restless, silver-dappled sea. Every map called it quaint, every travelogue called it forgotten, but the old vendors under the moss-blackened eaves knew truth glimmered in the creases of their market and the hush of fading constellations. Listen close, and you'd hear of dusk-lit deals—rough hands bartering river rubies for slow laughter, the scent of woodsmoke, tamarind rind, and brine making the town pulse like som...

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Notes On A Summer Day at The Lake

Submitted to Contest #307

“As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.”Rumi June 11The boy waits, just this side of the goose shit. If not for the semi-sprung folding chair and tripod, I’m thinking one of the Lake’s more common species – black frayed cap, black logo tee, second-owner Nike cross-trainers. Cross-training on the art of the sociopath on the stray mallard or woodchuck by daylight and the way of the predator in the shadows of a degrading dusk. Anywhere between 16 and 25, stalking the weak to feed the beast.I slow. Zack trains a long lens into the thi...

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Shelf Life

Submitted to Contest #307

Friday:Each step cracked the hush of the cold marble hall. Clara found herself late again for her Cognitive Arcanum course with Professor Aldwyn. Her failing grade was not from a lack of effort. She studied and reviewed obsessively, but nothing seemed to stick. It proved to be a demanding course for a third-year student. Most students had formed study groups weeks ago. No one invited Clara, as the groups weren't accepting new members. “You're late again,” Wren said as Clara sat down. Wren wasn’t a friend, not really, but it was the closest t...

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Heartblade

Submitted to Contest #307

My obsession with Sebastian Lance began early. It was born during one of my very first days in attendance at Oxford, whilst still wide eyed and enamoured with the ancient institution. I was spending a sunny, spring afternoon exploring the campus, getting my bearings and finding my classes in advance, when I spotted him at the ornate gates to The Queens College. He was actively helping those less fortunate, and I would come to learn that this was not at all unusual for him. The divine glow of the impossibly early, English sunset, bathed him i...

14 likes 7 comments 7
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Autumn Blackwell

Submitted to Contest #307

They told us it was for the greater good. That we were regulating the world to give it balance and serenity. That the power they had given us was always within us, just hidden because letting it free would leave the mortal world in chaos. The Academia Arcanum Obscura sits somewhere between Oxford and oblivion. No map shows its true location. To get there, you don’t apply. You’re chosen, or rather, selected. When they came for me, I was halfway through an espresso during my shift at a dead-end cafe in East London, my apron smelling like burn...

7 likes 4 comments 4
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“Wands and Egos: A Field Guide to the Continuum” By Someone Who Definitely Shouldn’t Be Telling You This

Submitted to Contest #307

Ever watch a group of self-righteous, egotistical grown man-babies argue over moon phases and quantum ether like it’s fantasy football season? No? Then let me introduce you to The Continuum—sorry, The Continuum of Wizards, if you ask them directly. They get twitchy about the full name. Branding, I suppose. I stumbled across them—if one can stumble across a hidden society everyone knows about that wears robes and mutters Latin like they’re auditioning for a Hogwarts prequel—about six months ago. Not that I wasn’t warned. The Circle told me an...

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The Bell Beneath Caldera Street

Submitted to Contest #307

They say if you walk Caldera Street just past midnight, the air itself leans in to listen.A cracked bronze bell hangs from the archway of a long-abandoned church at the street's end. It hasn't run in decades--not since the fire--but those who know, say it never stopped sounding. You just have to hear it right. You have to listen with your bones.Lenn never believed in stories like that. Not until the night Emri slipped him the key. It started at a gallery. The kind where everyone pretends they know what paint is trying to say. Lenn was there ...

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The Journal of Eteri Sibrdzne

Submitted to Contest #306

Journal of Eteri Sibrdzne 2024.11.15 Morning Preparation I dreamt last night that I was deep in a birch forest of the sort one finds in the North of Russia. Now this forest, being a dream forest, was also a library, and I was its caretaker. I moved freely through the forest, sometimes along foot paths and sometimes along canals, paddling a small canoe or kayak. But mostly I just flew. Each tree bore a multitude of texts in its bark, which it yielded when asked and then regrew. I was gathering texts for something, impelled by ... I am not sur...

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Prologue (Draft Script 1)

Submitted to Contest #306

WIP TITLE: “THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED”Draft - script 1A 3D rendered narrative driven choice-based adventure game. ***FADE IN:EXT. AN NEAR-EMPTY MOTORWAY – DUSKGrey skies bruise the horizon. Wind dances through hedgerows and fields. The road is vast and grey, stretching onwards. The odd car speeds past. A STRANGER (a boy, late adolescence, dressed in worn layers) walks slowly by the roadside, silhouetted. He carries a large backpack.CLOSE ON:A BLACK DOG — still, lying half in a ditch.THE STRANGER, kneels beside it. His breath fogs the air. He s...

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Follow the Dream

Submitted to Contest #306

--- I just bought a journal from a newsagent, and I have a plan for it, but I thought I would get started with a quick entry. Today was not so bad. I feel like I really got into the zone at work, and I caught up on everything I was behind on. The boss even came past and told me what a great job I was doing. And it seemed like everyone was acting decently today. Even Jodie from marketing restrained her usual venomous tongue. On the train home I was watching video’s on Tik Tok when I saw a clip of a burning house, and I remember feeling a disc...

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Wraith City

Submitted to Contest #305

At the intersection, I could go right and head home—but turning left would take me... If I ran, they would find me. So I walked. Slowly, practically meandering through the barren city streets, passing abandoned cars, shuttered shops, and various forms of detritus littering the ground. Anything faster than a casual stroll caught their attention, and when you were in their sights... I shivered, unsure if it was from my intrusive thoughts, or because the autumn weather was turning to its crisp coolness once the sun set b...

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Graduation Speech

Submitted to Contest #306

Given by Nightshade Darkstar, Cardinal-Chancellor of Darktown University. Ladies and Gentlemen, Demons, Monsters, Mutants, Mundanes, and Other Things, welcome to this, the first graduating class of Darktown University. It has taken many years of struggle, starting over again so many times because of minor setbacks like Hellsgate. After all, we had to rebuild the campus after the city was levelled. Now, we’ve finally managed to keep a class going long enough for the students to still be more or less sufficiently alive to graduate. We’re delig...

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Bring your God to work day

Submitted to Contest #306

INT: OFFICE GROUND FLOOR HALLWAY - DAYThe ruins of an office building, rogue wires, sparking vending machines and water damage abound. On the hallway cork-board clings to the wall, a poster on the upcoming Christmas Party and some vouchers for Just Eat. A sudden gust of wind causes them to flicker, giving a clear view of another poster underneath. It reads: “August 5: Bring Your God to Work Day”A PHONE CALL VOICE-OVER begins, chaotic and overlapping.BOARD MEMBER (V.O.)What do you mean you don’t know?TREVOR (V.O.)I mean, I don’t know. It wasn...

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Pure Audacity

Submitted to Contest #305

Isaac slid the notebook across the sticky table that he’d cleared of the dirty dishes but hadn’t thought of wiping down. He pointed at the full page of text. It was all written in his surprisingly pretty script. He smirked. “I have it all worked out, I’m pretty sure.” Stiare glanced at the paper, too stunned by his audacity to read what he’d jotted down. Did he honestly believe that he could outsmart her? So, what if he’d proven to be a bit more difficult than the previous humans she’d worked with? Difficult didn’t equate intelligence. Isa...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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