Literary Fiction Stories

Yuki Kazehara

At nine-twenty on the first Sunday in June, Hara Natsumi found the comb because the coat was heavier than it ought to have been. The rain had arrived without co…

Dr. H. Ashford

The inventory had been assigned to Miss Alderton on a Wednesday, which she considered neither auspicious nor otherwise — she was not, by temperament or training…

Luc Devereaux

The croissant is still warm. I know because the box burns my fingers when I pick it up. Not the usual bakery heat—this is oven-fresh, the kind that seeps throug…

Cass Ferren

The freezer hums like it has always hummed. Like it will hum after her. Like humming is its entire theology. She stands in the kitchen doorway with a roll of tr…

Marcus Veil

1. The harness cinched tight against Aris’s ribs, a rhythmic constriction that matched her breathing. Outside, the station’s outer sensor skin stretched like a …

Elara Nightwood

The shoe lay in the skiff's center like a question the dawn had brought and left unanswered. Gideon found it when the mist was still thick enough to mistake for…

Sofia Verlanti

As Sofia stepped into the apartment, the smell of rain clung to her coat, and the dented cake tin in her hands seemed to weigh heavier with each passing moment.…

Yuki Kazehara

At six-ten, Superintendent Ishii found Apartment 4C open by three inches and stopped with the mop bucket tilted against his leg. He had come up because of water…

Luc Devereaux

The lockbox hums against my ribs like a second heart. Not the steady thump of my own, but something smaller, faster—panicked. I adjust the strap, feel the heat …

Sofia Verlanti

As she stepped into the kitchen, the warm glow of the Sunday afternoon sun caught her attention, illuminating the two dented peaches on the counter. She had bou…

Elara Nightwood

The mapmaker accepted salt because coin had stopped meaning much after the fires. Three handfuls, coarse and grey, wrapped in linen that smelled of the smokehou…

Yuki Kazehara

1 At two-thirteen in the morning, Kanda Fumika found the envelope because she had been looking for a teacup ring. The ring had appeared on the accession ledger …