Tag: fantasy

All Stories, Fantasy

The Trolley Workers by Paul Kimm

literallystories2014

A neighbour two down from us was the only person we directly knew who lost someone. A family member that is. Even though just a distant cousin of theirs, it tore their family apart. Just like it did many families, and how it changed the whole fabric of how we live. Looking back on it now you wouldn’t think such an innocuous job could matter so much, that it could change everything about how we live, but it did. Of course, the tragedy of so many going like that is the main thing, the sheer lack of explanation to this day and how we do things now is borderline unfathomable. Most of all though, I think about our neighbour’s second cousin, just one of thousands, an estimated sixteen thousand, but knowing someone who knew one of them, who left us on that day, just makes it so close.

Continue reading “The Trolley Workers by Paul Kimm” →
All Stories, Fantasy, General Fiction

Pulse by Gregory Golley

literallystories2014

Before data can be captured, it must be desired
Steve F. Anderson

He came out of the tunnel and there she was, perched at one of the patio tables of the Greenleaf Café. Even from that distance her long, jointed legs and oversized sunglasses recalled the grasshopper he’d met that very morning on the bike path.

Continue reading “Pulse by Gregory Golley” →
All Stories, Fantasy

The Toll Collector by Jack Kamm

literallystories2014

“There’s a toll for everything…the toll for happiness is often sorrow.” — James Carr

Would you opt for a different life if you had the choice?  This is the question I asked myself, a question so burning that it dampened my palms; it’s also the question I needed to ask my best friend, Charlie, because we both hated our lives—just as much as the guy who pulled up to my booth on that icy evening. Under the amber lights, his red Jaguar gleamed like a ruby. Decked out in a fancy camel-hair overcoat, he told me he was gonna jump off the bridge.

Continue reading “The Toll Collector by Jack Kamm” →
All Stories, Fantasy

The Monster at the end of this Tale by Mohammed Babajide Mohammed

literallystories2014

Growing up as a Nigerian meant that your parents filled your head with all sorts of supernatural phenomena. When we were children, my mother would tell us these euphoric stories, a lot of which kept us up all night, like they kept a lot of other kids around us up at night as they too were being told these stories in their own homes.

Continue reading “The Monster at the end of this Tale by Mohammed Babajide Mohammed” →
All Stories, Fantasy

Threshold by Amy Tryphena

literallystories2014

Ghosts of the old world make their presence still known upon the moors. Known by their ancient stone walls and standing stones that still litter the landscape. The walkers, incongruous in their primary colours, garish symbols of the twenty first century.

Continue reading “Threshold by Amy Tryphena” →
All Stories, Fantasy

Friendship by Brooklyn Peters

literallystories2014

In a house in the woods, smoke churned and twined through the red bricks and out into the cold autumn air. A very pale girl sat on a sloping hill and watched the smoke huff and puff and disappear.

She remembers now. It does not always stay with her, like a word on the tip of your tongue. She can almost taste it but in the end it evades her, staying silent and unknowable. Today is different.

Continue reading “Friendship by Brooklyn Peters” →
All Stories, Fantasy

Twin Sisters by Doug Hawley

literallystories2014

I knew I wanted her for a model when I saw the portrait selection at the Portland Art Museum.  She was painted hanging out of the passenger seat of a car waving at something unseen by the museum visitors.  I don’t know if I’m right, but I thought of early Marilyn Monroe.

Continue reading “Twin Sisters by Doug Hawley” →
All Stories, Fantasy

 Dive Right In byJames Flanagan

literallystories2014

On the canvas, the sun glints off the edge of the pool where the turquoise water meets the azure sky. The palm trees almost sway in the sea breeze, the water shimmers as if tickling the sides of the pool. In a dimly lit room, towards the back of the museum, a single spotlight in an otherwise empty gallery focused its beam on a painting of a swimming pool.

To the left of the painting sat a lifeguard.

Continue reading ” Dive Right In byJames Flanagan” →
All Stories, Fantasy

The Wolf and the Lamb by João Cerqueira

literallystories2014

Ruth is forty-six, of medium stature, with brown hair and blue eyes. She is a biologist specialising in wolf behaviour. A week ago, she received a scholarship from a private institution to write a book about these animals. Ruth maintains that by means of howling, communication can be established between our species and theirs. Wolves can pass on lessons of cooperation, solidarity and affection. The Secret of the Wolf is the title she intends to give the book. This is why she is living alone in a cabin in the woods. Having gone through two divorces, and having no children or close family, wolves became her only passion; she even confessed to a colleague that she prefers their company to that of humans – “wolves don’t lie,” she said.

Continue reading “The Wolf and the Lamb by João Cerqueira” →