Tag: short story

Haunted Passages: “A Guide to the Land of the Mist,” a hermit crab short story by Casey Reiland

*Ed.’s Note: click on images to view larger sizes. Casey Reiland’s work has appeared in trampset, On the Seawall, The Puritan, and elsewhere. She lives in Washington, DC, and you can find her on Twitter @CaseyReiland. Image: scifinow.co.uk
Haunted Passages: “Ghost of Girl,” a short story by Morghen Tidd

The house is beautiful they say but bathtub flows over water spilling in drops then steady stream swallowing the all of the floor around the claw feet. candle light flickers night drawing down through the open window blows crisp breeze in the room. listen carefully crowing of a bird mixes into wind a haunting howl.…
“Dad’s House,” a short story from The Future by Hugh Behm-Steinberg

I go to the café with my machine, but I’m followed by a smell. No one else around seems to be bothered by it, and though it’s intense, acrid, sour, like my dad’s dirty toothbrush (how could he have kissed our mother after shoving that thing in his mouth?), I make myself get used to…
“Lurking,” a short story by Tam Nguyen

For P.A, C*, J, P, D, and friends The campus’ hallway remained silent since the university’s closure earlier this year. Education was halted after the coup took over. As soon as different parts of the country slowly turned into battlefields, faculties and students got together and constituted a union, partially to create a self-didactic community,…
“Ghost Town,” a Haunted Passages Short Story by Chris George

We stayed in the van while our mom gave the ghost tour. These nights scared my sisters. They didn’t believe in ghosts. One of them had told me once that they were staunch materialists. They were precocious, having an otherworldly knowledge of things they shouldn’t know. It was child’s play stoicism. But these nights they…
“Catalog of Nameless Girls,” a short story by Madeline Vosch for Haunted Passages

I have been sleeping with a married man for the past few months. I know, I know. But hear me out: I have been lonely. Joe is barely married. Separated. Almost divorced. When I met him, his wife had already moved out, already taken their daughter to a new house on the other side of…
Bad Survivalist Short Story: “Bear, Flower, Ferryman,” by Margaret Redmond Whitehead

For a long time that morning, the bear occupied herself with a cardboard box. Its walls were plushy and wet—soaked from the night’s rain—but rigid enough that it held its shape. It was on its side, with both ends open, creating a tunnel that was just barely too small for a bear to pass through.…
“Widower,” a Haunted Passages Short Story by X. Luma

One spring afternoon, while Widower was gathering lettuce from the garden, his daughter Lew called out from her siblings nearby. “Dad, I’m tired of playing in the grass.” “Well?” “Couldn’t I play in the woods?” Widower eyed the woods. “You may. But take this head of lettuce.” “Lettuce?” “Lay the leaves as you go to…
The Future: “The Wormhole Nextdoor,” a short story by Tara Campbell

A story about potholes, black holes, wormholes, and cats, told in the form of a Nextdoor thread, in hope of a friendly interstellar future. Click on the animated GIF to begin! Or click here to read “The Wormhole Nextdoor.” Tara Campbell (taracampbell.com) is a writer, teacher, Kimbilio Fellow, and fiction editor at Barrelhouse. She received…