Category: Short Stories

Eleanor Blackwood, slender and pale in her dark dress, adjusted the wilting lilies on the freshly turned earth. The Ravenwood air hung heavy, a damp, misty shroud mirroring the knot in her stomach. A low, guttural caw ripped through the somber silence, a raven landing on the headstone. Then, it wasn’t alone. Another, larger raven… Read more

Evelyn Harper, fingers tracing the intricate carvings of the strange key, sipped lukewarm tea in her cluttered study. The diary, bound in faded leather, lay open beside it, its cryptic entries a familiar torment. A sudden, sharp rap echoed through the quiet. Annoyed, she set down her mug, the porcelain clinking against the wooden desk.… Read more

Alexandra’s slender fingers danced across the holographic display, lines of code blurring beneath her touch. She wasn’t just debugging; she was building, crafting a bypass into New Avalon’s antiquated security net – a ghost in the machine. Suddenly, the console flickered violently, spitting out an error message in archaic script. The room plunged into momentary… Read more

Amelia Hawthorne, fingers stained with ink, meticulously cataloged the Ravenwood Historical Society’s dusty archives. The scent of aged paper and forgotten stories clung to the air, a comfort she usually found solace in. Today, however, her focus wavered. A frantic pounding echoed from the main hall, shattering the quiet. Marcus Bennett, his face pale beneath… Read more

The luminescent domes of New Atlantis shimmered through the perpetual twilight, usually a sight that filled Alex Ryder with a sense of belonging, a positive hum against her skin. But today, the air crackled with an unsettling energy. A distortion, shimmering like heat haze, rippled across Sector Gamma, a quarantined zone. Alex, her anxiousness a… Read more

The mist clung to Ravenwood like a shroud, each tendril a ghostly finger tracing the damp cobblestones. Elaine Brooks, slender and pale even in the weak light filtering through the fog, felt a familiar chill crawl up her spine. It wasn’t just the damp; Ravenwood always evoked a sense of unease, a lingering negativity that… Read more

The neon-lit canyons of New Arcadia bled a sickly pink onto Alex Mercer’s rain-slicked trench coat. Anxious energy thrummed beneath his skin, a familiar counterpoint to the city’s monotonous drone. Monolithic skyscrapers, their peaks lost in the perpetual fog, pressed down on him, mirroring the isolation he felt. He took a long pull of his… Read more

The shattering of the Crimson Orb jolted Elara awake, not in her straw bed, but amidst swirling amethyst tides. Above, a colossal yellow sun blazed, mirroring the fractured gemstone that had been her village’s ward. Silhouetted, avian forms wheeled against the cerulean sky, their cries echoing her own fear. This was the Between, the liminal… Read more

Elara, no older than seven, clung to the mossy bank, the chill of the whispering lake seeping into her bare feet. A monstrous, shadow-winged beast, its eyes like molten gold, swooped low, snatching at the glowing star clutched in her small hands. This was no ordinary star; it pulsed with the last vestiges of a… Read more

The thief moved like a whisper through the moonlit cloisters, each echoing step a potential death knell. Anya, barely seventeen summers old, gripped the hilt of her ancestral khanda, the cool steel a familiar comfort against her sweat-slicked palm. Below, the Amrit Sarovar shimmered, a black mirror reflecting the star-dusted canvas of the night sky.… Read more