There's a ton of amazing free fiction this morning And unless technical difficulties occur again, there will be more later!
Fiction
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The Colored Lens: "
The Right Game" by Zachary Tringali. Specukative Fiction.
"A motorized carriage trundled down the street, splashing dingy water and
filth onto the crowd. Avery waited until it had passed before crossing
the street, leaping over puddles and maneuvering around people. A man
stuck his hand out and Avery denied the entry to his inner jacket pocket
with a twitch of his wrist before slipping down the alleyway created by
two leaning buildings."
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Daily Science Fiction: "
Salvage" by K.S. Dearsley.
""Sebastian, come look!" Madeleine called her brother to come and see what she had found. It was not the first time.
"Not now, Maddy. Pitches'll sack me if I'm late again." Sebastian pulled on the palm guards he had made from a tire."
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Daily Science Fiction: "
Tiny Lives" by Alan Baxter.
"I twist the tiny cog into place, my old-too-soon fingers gnarled, golden
brown, and cracked, but true. Complete, I turn the miniature dog over
in my hands, the brass and copper of its construction shining in the
late afternoon sun. I lift it to my lips, breathe softly into its
mechanized heart and it stirs, shifts, and wags."
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Enchanted Conversations: "
The Clever, Wicked Girl" by Jazz Sexton. Holiday Fantasy.
"This
story is true, though you might not want it to be. There once lived a
girl whose father had died in the war, and whose mother was confined to
bed, and so the girl took it upon herself to earn money for her mother’s
medicine and food for her six younger brothers by weaving baskets. It
was of the entire town’s opinion that this child was pure and selfless,
but you and I know better when it comes to children."
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Enchanted Conversations: "
Forest, Snow, Memory" by Patricia Scott. Holiday Fantasy.
"I was powerful once. I was a God to them.
They feared me as much as they worshiped me, the ancient diety of their
deep, mysterious forests. In the darkest reaches of the wildest
over-growths I was rumored to dwell, waiting to slake my unending thirst
on those unwary and foolish enough to risk my displeasure by forgetting
to do me proper honor."
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Kasma SF: "
Consequences of a Clockwork Theology" by C. J. Paget. Science Fiction.
"Bishop Mayer isn't sure what he expected
Professor Hemington to be, but this pretty, red-headed woman dressed in
jeans, t-shirt and gardening gloves, definitely isn't it."
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Lightspeed: "
The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics" by Daniel Abraham. Fantasy.
"For as many years as anyone in the city could remember, Olaf Neddelsohn
had been the cambist of the Magdalen Gate postal authority. Every
morning, he could be seen making the trek from his rooms in the boarding
house on State Street, down past the street vendors with their apples
and cheese, and into the bowels of the underground railway, only to
emerge at the station across the wide boulevard from Magdalen Gate."
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Lightspeed: "
The Sounds of Old Earth" by Matthew Kressel. Science Fiction.
"Earth has grown quiet since everyone’s shipped off to the new one.
I walk New Paltz’s empty streets with an ox-mask tight about my face.
An acidic rain mists my body, and a thick fog obscures the vac-sealed
storefronts. Last week they hauled the Pyramids of Giza to New Earth.
The week before, Stonehenge."
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Nightmare Magazine: "
On Murder Island" by Matt Williamson. Horror.
"The north wind’s been spraying Mainland Runoff in our faces for days, but that’s nothing new, nothing worth complaining about. Here on Murder Island, we have a little saying: “If ever you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes and you’ll be murdered.” Or as the Weatherman likes to say: “Radar’s telling us to brace for more hot gusty winds, Mainland Runoff, and murder.” The forecast never changes."
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Short-Story.me:
"World's Best Zombie Slayer" by Paul Miller. Horror.
"Technically, I'll be laying in the bed I plan to be in when I swallow a
few year's worth of pain pills, but it all amounts to the same thing. I
know this may seem strange in such a time of renewed hope and
opportunity as we now live in, but you see, that's kind of the problem."
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Short-Story.me: "
Cannibalistic Freaks" by Caleb Stratton. Horror.
"Running foot claps echoed off the frost covered asphalt; she was rapidly
panting for breath--covered in blood spatter. Her thin arms rested on
her upper thighs, preparing to regurgitate from the absolute horror she
witnessed. Suddenly; he stepped out of the viscous ink like shadows,
revealing an outrageous spectacle of cannibalistic grotesqueness."
Audio
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Cthulhu: "
The House on the Borderlands, part 12" by William Hope Hodgson. Horror.
No description found.
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Drabblecast: "
How the Moon Got Its Cousin" by . Science Fiction.
"
Once upon a time, O my Best Beloved, when the world was one world
with one moon and the stars did scintillate and sparkle in the sky,
astronomers discovered a Beast of a Meteor flying through the vast black
toward the Sun."
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Lightspeed: "
The Sounds of Old Earth" by Matthew Kressel. Science Fiction.
Described above.
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Nightmare Magazine: "
On Murder Island" by Matt Williamson. Horror.
Described above.
Other Genres
- Audio at Crime City Central: "The Axiom of Choice" by David Corbett.
- Audio at Protecting Project Pulp: "Agent Andy" by Russell A. Boggs. Pulp Fiction.
- Fiction at Short-Story.me: "Patience" by Catina Noble.
- Fiction at Short-Story.me: "Bad Judgment" David Gilbert. Crime.
- Fiction at Short-Story.me: "Paco" by Michael J. Shanks. Crime.
• Audio at PRI Selected Shorts: "
Pushing the Limits" Dorothy Parker’s “
You Were Perfectly Fine,” Simon Rich's “
Unprotected,” and “
Center of the Universe,” and James Thurber's “
The Day the Dam Broke."
