Tag Archives: fantasy

PATRICK MC LOUGHLIN: Alibi

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

“Where were you on the evening in question?”

Robert stared at the officer. He’d been in his car, waiting and dreaming. He’d been a musician giving a concert in Naples, a mechanic fixing engines in the Sahara, and Superman taking a short trip to Mars.

“I was everywhere,” he replied.

Patrick Mc Loughlin is an English Language Teacher in Ireland who dabbles in writing. He also dabbles in painting and music and someday hopes to do more than dabble. He lives in the west of Ireland, where it’s hard to concentrate.

JEFF STONE: Dark

Adventure, Amusing, Submissions, , ,

Father flattens old photos, my boyhood hair white as snow.

He looks at my dark head, asks again if I color it. All my friends have been gray for years.

I consider the truth: I’m expelling inner darkness that beckons demons. It exits through my hair.

“No, Dad. It’s natural.”

Jeff Stone has published several short stories and many poems. He has three novels in various stages of completion and loves learning too much for his own good. Albert Camus said fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth. Dark Hair is a short piece of fiction that resides somewhere in between.

RAN WALKER: Hunting Nightmares

Adventure, Submissions, Top Stories, , ,

Two unexpected things happened after Timmy killed the monster under his bed: (1) he ate it (and rather enjoyed it), and (2) he took to hunting the monsters under the beds of other neighborhood kids. After all, someone had to do it—and he’d already developed a rather insatiable appetite.

Ran Walker is the author of sixteen books. He serves on the creative writing faculty of Hampton University in Virginia.

DAVID-CHRISTOPHER HARRIS: Children of Ozymandias

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , ,

“You mustn’t play in the fields between worlds,” she warned. “One false step, and whoosh! The muddy abyss’ll swallow you up.”

The children are gone, now. All that remains are the scars in the soil where they fell: a dark, infinite wasteland of holes.

Down here, we call them stars.

David-Christopher Harris published the YA fantasy short story, “Falselight”, available at dcharriswriting.com. He enjoys cranberry juice.

MARY HAYNES: Navin’s Gift

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Navin brought the dragon to his lips and kissed her tiny nose. “It’s time,” he said.

The dragon nodded, unfolded her shimmering wings and launched. In ever widening circles, she exhaled over the frigid land.

Navin smiled as banks of white capitulated to a triumph of green and riotous color.

Mary Haynes splits her time between sailing in Florida and dirt-dwelling in Burlington, ON. She is currently writing short stories and plays.

DAVID RAE: The Hunters

Adventure, Submissions, , ,

Snaking roots snare your ankles pulling you under the mud. You grab hold of an overhanging branch and scream. More roots wrap over you and drag you deeper, down towards the underworld. You look to me, begging for help.

My hands fumble as I notch an arrow to my bow.

David Rae wrote this story. See more at davidrae-stories.com.

KARLA DEARSLEY: A Yarn with a Foreign Twist

Amusing, Submissions, Top Stories, Touching, , , , , ,

Emily knitted dreams into every row on the socks she made for her son Frank. Thoughts far away on palm-laced shores, she knitted and purled from toe to heel, ribbed a cuff of tropical sunsets.

Frank complained they made his feet itch.

He runs a bar in the Bahamas now.

Karla Dearsley’s stories, flash fiction, and poetry have appeared online and in print on both sides of the Atlantic. Her fantasy novels are available on Amazon and Smashwords. Find out more at ksdearsley.com.

MAURA YZMORE: Wayward Willie

Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

Wayward Willie was warned—woods were worrisome.

“Whatever.”

Wayward Willie walks woodward, whistling.

***

Wilderness.

Werewolf wanders, weary.

Werewolf whiffs, wonders. “Whistling wimp, walking woodward? Wonderful!”

***

Werewolf whiffs.

Werewolf waits.

Werewolf wallops wayward Willie. Willie whimpers.

***

Werewolf Willie wakes.

Werewolf Willie whiffs.

***

Wilderness.

Werewolf wanders, weary.

Werewolf Willie wanders, whistling, wayward.

Maura Yzmore’s day job involves quantum mechanics, dry-erase markers, and bad puns. She lives with her family in the American Midwest. Maura’s short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The Fiction Pool, Storyland, Microfiction Monday Magazine, The Dirty Pool, and 50-Word Stories. See more at maurayzmore.com.

TAMSIN SEYMOUR: The Minotaur’s Daughter Goes Home

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Her palate was broader than her father’s. On her thirteenth birthday she ate the entire cake. But she’d still not spoken. Too much sky up here?

I led her to the nearest cave and she clattered inside with a thunderous, visceral bellow. I feared it was the sound of hope.

Tamsin and Mark Farley decided to write sequels to each other’s most recent 50-word stories. This is a sequel to Fostering the Minotaur’s Daughter.

MARK FARLEY: The Stranded Mermaid

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

She carries
ten limestones
to the ocean,
each wrapped
in vine leaves,

and throws one
every minute,
counting the
seconds
between.

Today
it takes
seven
before he
crawls

from the water –
slimy,
salty,
steaming
in the sun.

His arms
are green
with algae
but all she needs
is his kiss.

Mark Farley writes novels, flash fiction and the occasional poem.