Top-Ranked Stories (Sorted by Average Rating)
January 24, 2026
A New Kind of Year
To the writers of Retlaw and Drummond’s Almanac, I’d like to thank you for the vestige. Your county map, in its textured patchwork of onion yellow and copper goner green, was among the last to list my fair town by name. Of course, I understand why that needed to stop ...
November 1, 2025
Damneus and the Kingdom of the Flayed Ones
In a faraway future, across limitless desert wastes, living in the ruins of the old world, lay the emaciated colonies of the new one. The feral lands of Zimitra. The land of forgotten knowledge. The land where the memories of the ancient world were lost to the sands of time, ...
January 13, 2026
Damneus and the Jinns of Shadow Valley
Born from smokeless fire, they straddle the line between seen and unseen, good and evil. They move betwixt those spaces between life and death. They may choose to help or destroy on a whim. Beware in the shadow valley, the cursed Jinn. Chapter 1 “A Den of Iniquity” Fists hammered ...
December 29, 2025
A Unifying Theory
ONE Unlike most psychiatrists, Fiszman didn’t have a sofa or a chaise longue in his office. Nor did he have a bookshelf. Nor were there any sharp objects on his desk like pens or paperclips. He didn’t wear a tie, either, or shoelaces. In fact, anything that could be used ...
December 29, 2025
Charles Bonnet Syndrome
I suffer from a condition called Charles Bonnet Syndrome, or Visual Release Hallucinations if you want to get more technical. It’s a condition that’s far more common than you might realise — it’s estimated that as many as half of people with gradual loss of vision will experience one or ...
December 29, 2025
The Strange Gunshots of Logan County
This autumn, a couple of work friends are going deer hunting. It’s been the talk of the office for two months straight. It became the conversational watering hole, and everyone who doesn’t take part is left to dry out in the sun. Hell, even Vicky, the receptionist, is coming along ...
December 29, 2025
Overgrowth
I fear the hulking giant that waits just outside my home. I'm too afraid to even look up at him in his full size. He stands two, maybe three stories tall, silently watching me, his silhouette a pitch-black void against the starry night sky. At any moment, he could rip ...
December 29, 2025
The Djinn in the Horse Head
I can’t explain why I was drawn to that thing in the antique store; I just knew I had to have it. By outward appearances, there was nothing remarkable about the horsehead bookend - smoothly carved from black stone, expression unreadably bland. The weirdest thing was its lack of counterpart, ...
December 29, 2025
The Brooding Star
Part I “Who is he?” my son inquired, pointing to the tall figure drawn upon the dusty, nearly crumbling page. As a reproduction of a reproduction of a reproduction, the history book could have easily been mistaken for the mad scribblings of troglodytes in their firelit caves. “A great leader,” ...
December 28, 2025
How I Met Milou
I was born a burden. My parents said it jokingly, but I could tell it’d always been on their mind. Even as an infant, I had bronchiolitis, hypersensitive skin, and several infections. My mother used to say that I was made as if God was tired of looking out for ...
December 20, 2025
My Daughter’s Imaginary Friend Knows Things He Shouldn’t Know
Lily told me about her friend on a Tuesday. I was making dinner. Pasta with jarred sauce, the kind of meal you make when you’ve worked a double and your feet hurt and your daughter has been at aftercare for nine hours because that’s what single mothers do. Lily sat ...
December 6, 2025
The Portal
Dane McBride stared at the glow of his monitor, the tab count creeping upward in a scatter of job searches, overdue bill reminders, and half-finished troubleshooting logs. Midnight had passed an hour ago, but his clients expected things fixed before sunrise, and the invoices he’d sent out that month hadn’t ...
December 6, 2025
We Made the Past Our Playground
I last saw my girlfriend around seventeen years ago. Although for me, it was last week. I know that doesn't make much sense. I'm not even sure why I'm writing this. It's not like anybody will believe it. And even if they did, the truth would only make things worse ...
December 3, 2025
Late Night Ice Cream
I grew up in a small town just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. Technically, it was in South Carolina, but still a part of the metropolitan area. We were close enough to the city to enjoy some of the city amenities, but far enough away that we weren’t bothered by ...
November 29, 2025
The Taxidermist’s Children
Part I Sara didn’t realize how much of the town was gone until she hit Main Street and found more plywood than glass. The old diner was a vape shop now. The hardware store her mother used to drag her through on Saturdays stood empty, windows painted over from the ...
November 29, 2025
The Pit
Part I Dana Quill first heard the name in a voicemail that cut out halfway through. “The Pit,” the caller said, his voice low and ragged. “They’re not doing cage fights down there. They’re… growing things. If you want a story, this is it. But don’t come alone, and don’t—” ...
November 29, 2025
The Second Skin
Part I Mindy Ayers noticed the new girl’s reflection before she noticed her. The conference room’s wall of glass caught everyone at the table in unflattering profile, except for the woman near the head. On the far right pane, Mindy’s own reflection blurred where the fluorescent light broke across it: ...
November 29, 2025
The Bouquet
Part I Shawna Coleman rode home from her own wedding with the bouquet in her lap like contraband. The car’s interior still smelled faintly of hair spray and champagne. A few stray grains of rice clung to the fabric of her dress. Drew drove one-handed, his tie loosened, the corner ...
