The Accidental Detective On Mars By Richard Wolfe Every day on Old Dusty is long, but today is the longest. Someone killed my friend. Someone murdered Tommy Lannigan. Only five years. Five short Martian years since we kicked Corpo out, since I sat at this table that Tommy sculpted from native stone. Sat with a…
LinkedIn Would Never by Shreya Verma She sat there nonchalantly, minding her own business and trying to focus on the task at hand. She was anxious she might not reach her goal, but she also had the conviction and determination that if she had come this far, she could make it. Tired from the party…
Shattered Beyond Repair by Shaine Greenwood le 8 juin 2951 07 h 00 The western wall and part of the roof of l’église de Bourg-sur-Gironde had been held together with plaster and metal supports for thirty years, after it was damaged in the Spring 2931 bombing of Cötes de Bourg. Monsignor Babineaux vividly recalled the…
The Jade Princess by M Pauchet The roan horse snorted and bobbed its head as John Henry Mackenzie’s piercing eyes scanned the rolling land to the Laramie River. Snowcapped Rockies ran north to south beneath an azure sky dotted with clouds. It was about as fine a day as a man could ask for….
Barry Garelick with Memories, Lives and Things People CarryAuthor Spotlight fiction review—Dey Barry Garelick’s fiction is quiet, humane, subtle and unusually interested in what happens after the dramatic event has passed. His characters are ordinary people confronting ageing, family tensions, illness, unemployment, bereavement, war memories, marriage, regret and the gradual disappearance of the past. Read…
Leave the Lights On by Rohat K. Chari She leaves my side like a dream as I awaken. Her nightgown gives her a purple outline that glides with her as she walks towards the sink.Rolling over to the edge of the bed, I look at the time. 6:47 a.m. But night hasn’t left the room….
Werewolves, Demons & Devils by Tom Kropp Orissa, the dark-scaled, giant demoness, put her back to the sheer cliff. Near Orissa were two of her fellow male dark demon giants standing over sixteen feet tall. Orissa stood fourteen feet tall. She was covered in black scales that were very tough to pierce. Her mouth was…
Judgments by Gary Beck The minute they walked into the store I knew they were cops, but not locals. Some kind of state boys come up from Cheyenne by the look of them. I started for the bathroom to avoid them, but the meaner looking one, in a blue suit that looked like he found…
The Echo Of A Purple Wallet by Shaik Asad Danish and his sister Rina had just entered the bazaar. They were walking along the roadside when a purple wallet hanging in front of a fancy shop caught Danish’s eye, and he was enchanted by it. There were all sorts of playthings hanging out there in…
Best Revenge by Tom Kropp Krane was a very muscular, short, bald good looking man with blue eyes and a goatee. He’d been in Iraq in combat for several years while young and had been an avid weightlifter and MMA hobbyist. But he had also been a drug dealer and his drug dealing had led…
Racing at Lafayette by C. Inanen I didn’t think much of the Lafayette Racing Grounds outside of Augusta. That wasn’t going to stop me from racing there, however. I nosed the Sturdevandt Special onto the track from the combined pit entrance and exit and accelerated down the back straight. I was the only car on…
The Freeze and the Thaw by Rhonda Schlumpberger The day had turned mean, with plunging temps and the smell of ice on a gusting wind. Freeze or no, I aimed to take flight. Whoever had portaled into the Holdgate using pirated credentials lay low. No message was the message. And I’d bet my next payday…
Humanity First! by J.D. Strunk Charlie walks dogs. It is the only steady work he has found since moving to Pittsburgh, his history degree having somehow failed to get him a leg up in his dream occupation (whatever that may prove to be). His primary clientele is university staff; scientists and professors who devote themselves…
Isaac and Barbara by June Wolfman Isaac and Barbara lay intertwined among their copper-colored silk sheets and bronze-colored satin covers. “Babe?” said Barbara. “Yes?” said Isaac. “Let’s play my favorite game, ‘Do you remember?’” A face, an old woman about Barbara’s age, appeared on the wide screen in front of the bed. It asked, “Barb,…
Longlist for the Pushcart Prize Nominations(not listed in any order nor ranking) Know what is the Pushcart Prize and its significance for small press; please visit:http://pushcartprize.com/nomination.html Have a look at the stories nominated last year at:https://www.freedomfiction.com/2025/11/pushcart-prize-nominations/ Originality in thought, concept and framing is the key theme this year as we really can’t help but revisit…
The Stories by Barry Garelick In the days following the death of Anne’s mother, Angela, many people would have stories to tell. There were stories about Angela of course, but many stories were about the people telling them. In either case, stories served as marker, dividing the lives of the storytellers into a before and…
THE LUNACY BY DALE PATRICK SMREKAR In Tampa, Florida, private eye James “Ja.. Ja..” James is hired by a mob-connected bombshell Honey Scarpelli. What begins as delivering brass knuckles to a doomed thug named Whiskey spirals into a bizarre, dangerous investigation. Honey and her beautiful wife, Ashley, are targeted with severed female body parts—sent in…
Apex by Megan Wildhood Shaw and Pope, together for a lifetime before they even met said everyone who knew them, moved into the beautiful old thing next to the structure that was the town’s Catholic (and only) church for over a century. The edifice that became Shaw and Pope’s home was constructed as a parsonage…
Werewolves & Warlords by Tom Kropp Suddenly Sharon shouted and pointed, “Scot, there’s lizard men coming up over there!” Scot called out a soft warning and readied his weaponry. Then the towering lizard men popped up out of two tunnels nearby. The lizard men looked like seven foot tall, highly-evolved, bipedal, green-scaled lizards with big…
Editor’s Note: This is another Scot and Sharon story from a rapidly expanding web of stories on the net. Read all about them in the transgalactic saga of Werewolves, Monsters, Aliens and Humanoids, not to mention the Ghost. Tom’s diverse fiction on display as well. Click here and explode into this fantasy mayhem online. Homicides…
The Day I Became The Sea by Oindrila Ghosal The sea and I were not suspended from the same umbilical cord. We did not lie next to each other in the same womb either – brushing our toes, clutching our hair or caressing each other’s beating hearts. In fact, when I had toppled out in…
Brown and Burgundy by Callie J. Smith Emma glanced up from her sink of dishes. A lanky blond boy with a red hoodie stood in the doorway, watching her. She smiled at him. “Hi, Ben.” She often left open that door between the kitchen and hallway. With a massage studio in the front room of…
The Third Letter by Tristen Eason Of the three letters my brother sent me from prison, this would be the only one I read before or after they hanged him. It alone called into question his guilt. Though, when the envelope passed from the wagon to my slender hand, my eyes viewed it the same…
For Now by Kelly Murashige The rules of romance are as follows: Every story must have a happily ever after—or, failing that, a happily for now. If there isn’t a happy ending, it isn’t a romance. It could be women’s fiction, could be good chick lit, but if there’s no forever, or at least for…
