Category: Fantasy

All Stories, Fantasy, Historical

One Last Act by Gail Boling

literallystories2014

The execution notice tacked to a wooden fencepost flapped in the wind as early morning light crept through the tree branches. Soraya tried not to slow her pace or even to glance at it. She already knew the details and her heart grieved for her only son. Pulling the faded cotton scarf tighter around her head, she walked in a hunched-over manner befitting her age, taking a circuitous path to make sure she was not being followed. The Janissaries had posted notices of the execution for today. They intended a very public message that rebellion and insurrection would not be tolerated. The Sultan of the Ottoman empire had spoken.

Continue reading “One Last Act by Gail Boling” →
All Stories, Fantasy

June’s Miniature Mart Off Highway 101 by Sage Tyrtle

literallystories2014

Her box on the shelf at June’s Miniature Mart is getting dusty. She watches through her plastic window on the world as her aisle is put on sale. “50% off! Get ’em before they’re gone!”

Continue reading “June’s Miniature Mart Off Highway 101 by Sage Tyrtle” →
All Stories, Fantasy

The Grim Morass by David Samuels

literallystories2014

They say you’re a paladin, but all I see is a fool.

Look at you: armored like a crawdad with the brains to match. One wrong move on that poleboat and you’ll sink to the base of the swamp.

Gimme your hand. Let’s get you back on solid ground—if you can call this pier solid. The stilts wobble in the sludge, so watch your step.

Not a talker, clearly. Don’t bother unrolling that scroll. I know all about your oath of silence. Word travels fast among us Marshmen. As the village shaman, I was among the first to learn about your little quest. You seek redemption, yes?

Then go home. Adopt a war orphan and get on with your life. Truth be told, you’d have better luck floating in that platemail than slaying the Bogroth.

Continue reading “The Grim Morass by David Samuels” →
All Stories, Fantasy, Science Fiction

A Hunger in the Depth by Patrick O’Connor

literallystories2014

After the universe had expanded for eons and after the birth and death of uncountable galaxies, the last star burned dim. A creature stirred in this black void of space at the end of time, curling tightly around the star–taking the last vestiges of energy as its own.

Continue reading “A Hunger in the Depth by Patrick O’Connor” →
All Stories, Fantasy, General Fiction

Pie Eyed Peety the PDQ Pilsner Pigeon by Leila Allison

literallystories2014

-1-

I am a Pen Name, which means (unlike it is for “real” writers) there are little cracks in my mind that lead to places where strangely imagined circumstances are reality. Within one such crack turns a world exactly like our own except for one significant difference: On “Other Earth” the post WWII nuclear testing conducted by the US military out in the American southwest desert did result in the creation of  the gigantic ants, mammoth scorpions, huge tarantulas, scores of Godzilla-sized lizards and a smattering of profoundly effed-up human beings that we see only in 1950’s science fiction films. Among the traits these creatures have in common (besides experiencing the enlarging effects of extreme radiation) are an immunity to conventional weapons and insatiable appetites for murder and destruction.

Continue reading “Pie Eyed Peety the PDQ Pilsner Pigeon by Leila Allison” →
All Stories, Fantasy, General Fiction

Jack’s Back by David Thomas Peacock

literallystories2014

I’d just walked into the office and hadn’t had time to set my coffee down when Vicki stuck her head in and said, “HR wants you to call them, it’s about Jack.”

“Is he here?” I replied.

“In his cubicle, talking to Eileen.”

Continue reading “Jack’s Back by David Thomas Peacock” →
All Stories, Fantasy, General Fiction

Band of Barnyarders by Leila Allison

literallystories2014

1-

22 August. According to my Writer’s Calendar it was Dorothy Parker’s birthday. Mrs. Parker was famous for her wit, light verse, stories, book and theatre reviews, A Star is Born, dogs, as well as alcoholism, suicide attempts, failed romances and a hodge-podge of emotional problems of varying severity. She was the sort of human who was aware that she was human and desperately wished to surrender and join the other side.  Although she already knew that such a thing was tantamount to squaring the circle, it didn’t keep her from trying.

Continue reading “Band of Barnyarders by Leila Allison” →
All Stories, Fantasy

The Cormorant and the Misophonyx: A Feeble Fable of the Fantasmagorical by Leila Allison

literallystories2014

Prelude 

There are three music Spirits. First you have the Tintintinabulator. Tins were classically trained pianists in life who haunt specific keyboards (pianos, organs, harpsichords, etc.) in death. Tins are generally friendly, but being artists they are hypersensitive to criticism and require reassurance full time. Next we have the Chimespeak. Best described as self-taught travelling minstrels/buskers in life, Chimes are nomadic Spirits who wander from here to there and affect anything from the grandest church bells on down to kazoos fashioned from handkerchiefs and combs. Tastes aside, these two Spirits classes are equally talented even though the Tins tend to look down on the “prolish” Chimes, who in turn wonder how a Tin can look down on anything with “its” head so firmly tucked up its own buttocks.

Continue reading “The Cormorant and the Misophonyx: A Feeble Fable of the Fantasmagorical by Leila Allison” →
All Stories, Fantasy, Short Fiction

Mary and the Photobomb Fairy:

literallystories2014

An Epic Season Finale Feeble Fable of the Fantasmagorical by Leila Allison

Mary and the Photobomb Fairy 

Mary was lying on a couch at a psychiatrist’s office, getting her head explored. It was your typical wood panelled and diploma-laden psychiatrist’s office, the kind you see in films, TV and  New Yorker cartoons. There were the already described walls, the couch containing Mary, an occasional table on which lay a box of Kleenex, and a seated shrink, who, if she resembled Dr. Melfi from The Sopranos one atom more, might prompt a lawsuit. No creativity was spent on the presentation of this office, for it was borrowed from the Public Domain Library for use in this story. In fact the sloth in this paragraph alone is so prevalent that your author hasn’t bothered to look up whether Dr. Melfi is a psychiatrist or a psychologist. It’s because all that’s required of this paragraph is for the author to get across the image of a woman named Mary getting her head explored by a professional in that field (from here, “Dr. Morley”) at a place where such explorations normally take place.

Continue reading “Mary and the Photobomb Fairy:” →

All Stories, Fantasy

The Wee People by Frederick K Foote

literallystories2014

My Family Values – Tess Overland

I love my family.

My family is the most important thing in my life.

My family is the wings that keep me aloft.

My family, sometimes, on rare occasions, can be a bit too much for me.

The accumulative effects of dealing with my family can be exhausting.

My family is getting on my last fucking nerve.

##

Continue reading “The Wee People by Frederick K Foote” →