Author: literallystories2014

All Stories, Historical

Shakespeare Meets the Macbeths by Michael Bloor

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In 1601, James VI of Scotland (soon to be crowned James I of England) summoned Shakespeare’s company, The Lord Chancellor’s Men, to give performances of their plays in Edinburgh and Aberdeen. In Aberdeen at least, the visit seems to have been highly successful: on October 9th, the registers of the Town Council show that the company were awarded ‘the svme of threttie tua merkis’ and Laurence Fletcher, a shareholder in the company, was elected an honorary burgess of the town. It is not known for certain whether Shakespeare was with the company, but as a shareholder and owner of the company’s stage properties, it seems quite likely that he travelled North with the rest.

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All Stories, Horror

Aeris by Zachary Schwartz

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They broke through the jungle canopy at midmorning, damp with sweat and soft declarations of wonder. The jungle made everything softer. The air, the light. Even thoughts, if left untethered long enough. The air was thick with that sweet, vegetal stillness that only comes miles from roads, wires, and clocks. Every breath tasted green.

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General Fiction, Short Fiction

The Brawler by Héctor Hernández

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That last blow turned my head inside out and scrambled my brains. I didn’t have a fucking clue where the hell I was, but instinct kicked in and I started bobbing and weaving—a moving target would be hard to hit. I figured I could buy some time until my head cleared. But I was so wrong. Or maybe I was right, and it was this asshole who didn’t get that a moving target was supposed to be hard to hit because the bastard clobbered me with another whopper—this one to the side of my head—making me see double, triple even.

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All Stories, Fantasy, Short Fiction

Movies Can’t Show What is Like to Live with a Dragon by Ann Yuan

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The dragon must be hundreds of years old. She leans on the door frame and spits a flame just big enough to light her cigarette.

 “Don’t expect me to fight for you,” she says.

I look at the no-smoking sign on the door and tell her I don’t expect that kind of thing from a roommate. Game of Thrones is so overrated. Never be a fan.

She nods, passes by me, and walks into the apartment as though she owns this place.

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Fantasy, Short Fiction

One Hellava Morning By John Doble

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It all happened once upon a time about, oh, two and a half years from now. It was a warm summer morning, a Saturday it was, in the backyard of an ordinary house on an ordinary street in a most ordinary town, Sandusky, Ohio to be precise. But that’s all that was ordinary about it; the little girl certainly wasn’t. And as for the stranger… well, he was aptly named.

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All Stories, General Fiction

By Sevens by J W Goll

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When you ask me to take off my pants I agree and drop them to the floor, white undies shining brighter than the clouds, which I hope will blind you to my shyness. Then I see the mantis on the doorjamb leading to the treehouse deck and say we need to stop. I’d seen one on grandma’s body right before she died. Seconds before. She saw it too, said adios, and was gone. I know a sign when I see one.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Paranoia   by Matias Travieso-Diaz

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Sometimes paranoia is just having all the facts.
William S. Burroughs

One of Henry’s daily routines was to surf the internet’s social sites in search of interesting stories to read and – although he knew this was a long shot – search for lost friends and relatives. He ignored the barrage of political palaver and the innumerable solicitations that offered to sell him stuff, make him rich, or restore his health and looks to the days of his youth. “I am pushing ninety. Unless anyone can prove that he has rediscovered the Fountain of Youth, I have no use for commercial come-ons” he told himself.

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Short Fiction

More Disco Than Death by Haley DiRenzo

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Emmaline arrives back in Michigan for her mother’s funeral to discover the airline has lost her luggage. Through the fog of her grief, she makes it to a Target, which used to be the Dollar Store, which used to be the bike shop that her brother worked at for a summer. She would walk by while running errands for her father’s flower store, which is now a Starbucks. The cemetery behind her old house is still there, but people must buy their bouquets from the Target now.

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