Category: Fantasy

All Stories, Fantasy, Short Fiction

The Promise by Russell Fee

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The lake breeze chilled the back of his neck as he bent over the boulder to inspect the patterns of lichen spreading on its surface like an ink spill. This was the one he was to find. As the receding waves sucked the water from the sand around it, the rock sputtered and gurgled as if it were alive, a nursing infant or a dying soul. He had trekked almost three miles from his cottage to reach this point on the beach, the farthest out on this side of the island. From here it was fifty miles to the mainland over the surface of an inland sea. He removed his clothes, tossing them into the water. He was to carry nothing. Standing nude, he waited, facing the dunes that rose to the stretch of trees above the beach.

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All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller, Fantasy

Baby Blues by Jack Powers

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Cass had been on the Cold Case Time Travel squad eight years when I replaced her partner, Hoss. We’d done things differently in Present-Day Homicide so I shut up and listened. Cass was a pro, by the book mostly–she could even fix the damn machine! And since no other towns could afford the traveler fees, we’d be in ’60s Harlem one day and ’30s Greenwich the next. I’m guessing they brought me in for the Harlem cases. Brothers don’t tend to open up to two pale folks from the future. Of course, they weren’t supposed to know we were from the future, but occasionally our Era Lingo implants malfunctioned.

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All Stories, Fantasy

Orville Baumgardner and the Morning Glories byJames Hanna

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Author’s Note

Orville Baumgardner is the chattiest of men. He grew up in an Indiana farm town, graduated from a small rural college with gentlemen’s Cs, and used his gift of gab to get elected to the Indiana House of Representatives. Orville prides himself on having read over two hundred books, including most of the classics, yet sustained a career as a populist politician by promoting deep state conspiracy theories to his constituents. After twenty years, Orville gave up politics because he had a crisis of conscience. He has since lectured on numerous topics, including abortion, book banning, and corporate corruption, and his spiels have appeared in many literary journals. Although he has recently left this world, he continues to lecture in the afterlife.

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All Stories, Fantasy

Sin Eater by Tarri Driver

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I once was a young woman who, for some years, didn’t eat animals in any shape or form. I felt irresponsible and cruel eating them. That’s not the whole story, but that’s the relevant truth. I was troubled knowing that there were animals living in suffering on gridded farms overflowing with flies and shit as far as the eye could see. I didn’t want to ingest all of that pain, brutality and filth. That was too much for me to eat.

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Editor Picks, Fantasy, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Week 506: A Big Announcement; Surreal the Deal; Five Great Values; Crystal Ball Questions

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A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

First, before the Big Announcement, our thanks go to Doug Hawley for taking the helm last week. We look forward to extending further invitations to do so to our frequent writers and site friends!

Next week will feature our annual anniversary post. This year is special because it marks ten years for Literally Stories. There will be the many special features we add to our anniversary wraps plus an abundance of new ones. We have been working on this since summer and we hope to see one and all next week. As always, bring the kids, show up drunk, clothing is optional.

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All Stories, Fantasy

Where Do Lost Memories Go? by Rinanda Hidayat

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Somewhere in a land where only the forgotten remembered, stood a river flowing with discarded memories. Tears cry above it, ever begging for the one who shed them to return.

Sometime between now, today, and never, a man burst out under the river––let’s call him M. He splashed around, thrashing his arms, kicking his feet, but all was unnecessary, for the river never had the will to drown.

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All Stories, Fantasy, Short Fiction

On Monday Nothing Seemed Out of Place by Antony Osgood

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On Monday, the most enthusiastic girlfriend in the world had left late and rushed to work at Nicky’s. Running through a cloudburst I’d cheered her from the balcony. I was busy tidying our apartment in readiness for cleaning, after which I’d head downstairs to begin a few maintenance jobs for the building owner, when I glanced out of the floor-to-ceiling window, which my girlfriend calls ‘the French doors’ (she longs for a garden) to see the weather clearing and the sun had begun to tumble-dry the world.

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All Stories, Fantasy, General Fiction

The Miracles of San Batista

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One could argue that, as a native Batistan (even though I currently reside and work in Bocay), my opinion of the events I am about to recount must necessarily be tainted by local prejudice and distorted by personal involvement. And, in a sense, it would be accurate. But rest assured, I will tell you what happened as best as I and my fellow Batistans remember, local prejudice or not.

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All Stories, Fantasy

The Battle Below by Bridget Goldschmidt.

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In the third year of the Sectarian War, Colonel Childress’ party arrived early to get the best possible position on the rocky outcropping above the weed-choked field. The battle was due to begin at 10 o’clock sharp, according to the colonel’s sources; although retired, he still retained his military contacts. He checked his large silver fob watch.

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