Our Editor's Top Story Picks

18

vote

COMP

PhilU

Welcome to Reality

Is this the real life?

I stare at my own reflection, still not convinced that that is really me. It’s not how I would usually picture myself; not how I usually saw myself. My eyes seem duller than usual. The hair on my head not quite so lush and verdant, but more hair than I’m used to everywhere else. My chest somehow thinner and not as toned. And, as my eyes roam down the reflection, I don’t quite recognise my...Read On

21

vote

COMP

MadMartigan

Third Class Super or Provisional Super Villain?

not your typical superhero tale

Got the letter today. Guess what? Third time ain’t the damn charm… still not a Super. Dear Applican’t, (is probably what they wanted to write), after careful review of an impressive candidate pool, blah blah, we regret (sure) to inform you that your application is not competitive enough for entrance into Supers Academy; however, we are considering you as a candidate for blah. I scan...Read On

28

vote

COMP

WannabeWordsmith

The Edge of Control

The masquerade ball offers the perfect opportunity to test her sexual boundaries.

The digital readout on the no-brand hotel TV advanced a minute, the room silent save for my erratic panting. My head thrashed left on the pillow and I caught sight of the wildfire in my chestnut eyes from the nearby mirror above the desk. They shone from the eyeholes of a snug Venetian lace mask that extended from inky hairline to the tip of my button nose. I wasn't sure who was staring...Read On

35

vote

WannabeWordsmith

Thirteen Steps from Heaven or Hell

Sheltering from the storm leads to far more temptation than he can take.

The rain tore from the sky, fat droplets hammering the driveway and bouncing almost to my knees as I rapped on my neighbour's front door. Royal blue, I noted, like those short, summer dresses she favours. Like the polka dot number that barely reached her thighs the other day while I was crouched washing my car wheels. The memory was as clear as the sky had been ten minutes before. She'd...Read On

18

vote

COMP

PervyStoryteller

Revelation

Sometimes no mask in the world can guarantee anonymity

“There’s a condition.” “What’s that?” “When my husband and I arrange these little sessions, we always invite someone to watch?” “What there? In the room?” “No. It’s like a cam show, only private. It adds spice.” “How many would be watching?” “Just the one. Unless you’d like there to be more ;)” “Who?” “Just some guy.” Just some guy. Some sad, lonely guy sitting at...Read On

19

vote

Cydia_

The Other Other Toy Story

When in trouble, call the customer service hotline.

“Thank you for calling the Honeysuckle Ltd telephone information service! This hotline provides information and assistance to all of Honeysuckle Ltd’s business and franchise partners, authorized sellers and customers. Honeysuckle Ltd. specializes in...” “Yeah. Yeah, interesting. Please. Come on, hurry up.” “...mer services. Please hold.” “Ha. I am holding. Holy shit, I am holding so...Read On

40

vote

COMP

browncoffee

Freefalling

Sometimes I wonder If traces of us Will still linger in The places we love If people will ever hear Echoing midnight laughter Dancing through the tired rooms Of uninspired hotels Where our worlds fade out Clothes following doubt Onto the laminate floor Unrelenting fingers digging Into the tanned sand of my skin Searching for a way in And I’ve missed the bliss Of your persistent kiss As you...Read On

27

vote

COMP

elliotlacey31

I Can Always Read Your Skin

I can always read your skin... But I want you to first be a whisper soothing us in the deep dark night, I want the closing proximity to ache until your body begins to scream. Until that slow heat rises and you remember the embers which continuously smolder in the absence of my touch, the constant note of desire threading through all that you are. It becomes a harbinger of flesh crying out....Read On

54

vote

COMP

Liz

Dark Rain

Set ablaze in the cool rain of a summer’s night

Beams of lazy light sink into pools as amber droplets cascade and puddle, shimmering on the rain-streaked asphalt, chasing away the night one street-light at a time. The rustling branches of overhanging trees like secretive whispers in the darkness bow and sway in the evening breeze, their leaves wearing the beads of rain like the diamonds of queens. Your heels click on the dark,...Read On

53

vote

COMP

Saucymh

Fallen Angel

She doesn't dance to music; she snakes her hips to the base throb pumping from the heart of the club, her grinding moves keeping time to the thumping beat bombarding the walls. Remarkably poised, she arches and bends, a wave smoothly undulating through her lithe body, peaking with a flip of her ripe peach ass. Winking at me, she slaps her backside, then, grasping the pole,...Read On

31

vote

COMP

Emerys

little death

i'm dying— there can be no other explanation for the way my heart beats against its bone cage the way my lungs tighten and swell as your tongue maps the arch of my throat descends to the curve of my breasts. i'm dying— burning to death as your hands fan my ribs, nails bite into my skin, tongue departs to explore the burning apex between my thighs leaving a trail of fire in...Read On

43

vote

browncoffee

Borderline Love

Lia wasn’t old enough to remember the wall being built and until recently, she’d never even been near it. Standing twenty feet tall and stretching hundreds of miles along the border, it separated the two countries perfectly. Khaki-uniformed soldiers patrolled at thirty feet intervals, sweating under the weight of heavy guns. It must have been a lonely job, Lia thought, standing alone in the...Read On

38

vote

COMP

Verbal

Beneath

She touched nerves never before touched.

Lena lay naked on the sand in the middle of the night, right on the tideline, where the shore met the sea. She dozed on the edge of dreams, more in the water than out of it now, though when she first lay down only her feet were submerged. The tide had risen since then. Each wave took the water incrementally closer. Her feet and ankles grew wet first, her long legs followed, a few inches at...Read On

23

vote

Frank_Lee

Little Dog and Mrs. Drake

Rosalia found the dog right around mid-afternoon a couple miles past the iron scorpion. The studio was in the garage stall of an old service station. The doors were open and the space was full of scrap metal and half-finished sculptures. Everything smelled like burnt iron. It was a hundred and five but he was leaning over welding one chunk of scrap to another. She didn’t want to shout over...Read On

29

vote

COMP

Delphi

No Mercy

Tonight is the night. It has to be. Anticipation drew in her soul tight. Celeste stared through the statue’s eyes at the crumbling red brick below. Spanish moss clumped at her cracked toes, early morning fog saturating what she could see of the air in her peripheral vision. Molded in place, she had all her senses and none of her muscularity. It’d been three hundred years. ...Read On

61

vote

COMP

browncoffee

Black and White

It was a late night and Raine was tired. She looked down at the expensive flower arrangement in her hand and pressed the apartment's doorbell for the fifth time. No answer. Only when she turned to walk away did the door finally open. “Hey,” The man was tall, wearing a t-shirt over boxers. His dark hair looked damp. “Sorry for the wait.” He smelled like soap. Raine didn’t quite look at...Read On

31

vote

COMP

Green_Man

Murder on the River Thames

The river may hide many secrets.

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900 ***** "The Queen is Dead! Long Live the King!" What more important change than the death of a sovereign. At least, for the nation. Perhaps not for individuals. The end of the Victorian Age. The beginning of the Edwardian period. Would this country continue to be successfully powerful, or would...Read On

48

vote

COMP

Ping

Vanilla Scream

When both desired and undesired change pushes one past the point of no return…

I Green eyes. Contacts, he thought, but he could only see one. It looked unnatural. Not blinking. Just staring. Staring at him. It had better not be another Cyclops. His silly thought made him chuckle. Who are you? Was it envy? Or maybe, guilt? He hadn't felt anything like guilt for almost two years. Bitterness, insecurity, and resentment. Yes. Embarrassment and shame. Absolutely....Read On

15

vote

L8LastNight

Apartment Eight Has A Golden Rival

Vasily's mysterious and attractive houseguest annoys Carie to action

“Fuck.” Carie tilted her head to the side and repeated, “Fuck.” She observed her lips in the mirror carefully. “Fu-uck.” She frowned momentarily before shaking her head side-to-side, tossing her lengthy cascade of sable hair into a seductive mess. She popped a brow, angled her chin over her bare shoulder, and cast a sultry, flirtatious gaze towards the mirror. Lips rounded, she loosed...Read On

40

vote

COMP

curvygalore

Earthly Bounties

The Reverend Tobias Whitmore was perplexed. Not that this was a particularly unusual state of affairs for him, he mused, as his relatively short life seemed to be lived in a condition of relative confusion. As the third son of a minor branch of a noble family with pretensions to faded gentility, he was always destined for the church from birth. This had nothing to do with his character,...Read On

35

vote

COMP

Just_A_Guy_You_Know

Shoot

An older neighbour talks a married young woman out of getting implants

It was just past six when I was returning home to my apartment from my morning jog. The late September air had cooled the sweat on my skin, and I was looking forward to a nice hot shower. As I opened the door to the lobby, Dan exploded from the elevator, and pushed past me in a hurry. “Hey, Dan,” I said. “‘Morning.” Dan Farber was a new tenant in the apartment down the hall from me. He’d...Read On

43

vote

COMP

browncoffee

Life Enhancing

It would be an overstatement to say India Cole had the best tits in the world but she definitely had the best tits in London and nobody knew this more than renowned plastic surgeon Simon Ryder. Simon worked out of Harley Street. He’d started his business with liposuction and Botox but beauty salons run by minimally qualified entrepreneurs had bitten hard into the market and the...Read On

26

vote

COMP

RumpleForeskin

A Bookish Love Story

she wanted him, as a man, and wanted him now.

The dream had returned--so had the eyes. They hovered in an angry sky just above the horizon, seeing everything but focusing on nothing. Amy knew those eyes—knew a time when they’d been filled with happiness and a love of life. But that had been before her brother came back from Vietnam. Young, naked, and skinny, she stood alone and vulnerable on a hill surrounded by flames where...Read On

33

vote

COMP

Lupus

A Labour of Lust

One man's hot day at work.

Heaving the last two lengths of timber onto my bare shoulder came as a relief. The empty pickup bed was something I'd dreamt of for hours. My feet set off down the narrow stone-paved walkway on auto-pilot, retracing my footsteps for what felt like the four-hundredth time. The path opened into the expansive, beautiful garden that backed onto the house, meandering between luscious lawns...Read On

42

vote

fuzzyblue

The Library is Closing Now

The article about the library shutting its doors appeared in that day’s newspaper. When Tom had read it – it was a short piece – he folded the paper and leaned back in his chair. After a minute he rose, shuffled to the sideboard and in an orderly way pulled out its drawers and placed them next to each other on the floor of his kitchen-diner. He searched through them in turn, like a fox...Read On

69

vote

COMP

Burquette

Gutenberg

I’m good at my job. That’s what got me into trouble. The New York State Library found a partial copy of William Blake's First Book of Urizen , and they called a team of experts to authenticate it. I was one of those experts and I was the only one to identify it as a clever fake. It turns out, I was right. That’s what made me famous in the world of rare book antiquities. Six months later,...Read On

20

vote

COMP

TheTravellingMan

A Life Half-lived

For Eloise, a chance discovery provides advice from a dearly departed friend.

“I found this upstairs.” Box-shaped and covered in grey dust, he placed it on the kitchen table. Eloise frowned, “Mmm, what is it?” He shrugged, “I dunno, I’ve not opened it. I found it under some floorboards.” It felt heavy in her hands and her heart leapt with anticipation, “Interesting. Thanks Joe.” He nodded to where he came from, “Erm, I’ll get back to it. It’s going well so...Read On

20

vote

TouchOfGray

Mieko: A Catalogue

Portrait of the artist

The Great Kings of Persia “A phrase keeps going through my mind: The Great Kings of Persia.” “What is it? Is it a story? A poem?” “It’s nothing,” she said. “Nothing at all. Just a phrase. A title.” “Storm drift. Something. It could be something,” said Dash. “That’s how ideas work. That’s how inspiration works, right? Something out of the blue. Unconnected, arbitrary. Unrooted.” “I...Read On

63

vote

COMP

browncoffee

Lost Enough

I felt weightless. Beautiful. A hushed silence had fallen over the audience at the 90th Academy Awards as the nominations for Best Actress in a Leading Role were announced. I knew I would win. Everybody knew I would win. The critics had been raving about my performance since the star-studded premiere of Desiccated Coconut . I glanced to my left at my date and co-star Daniel Carlton....Read On

32

vote

COMP

RavenStar

Second Saturday

Once a month, Kitty plays hard.

Kitty's phone pinged with an incoming kik message. It was a change from the hundreds of notifications she'd been getting all day from her Insta feed. Second Saturday always brought more hits. She eyed the screen as she leaned over her makeup table, applying her signature red to plum ombré lips. The sender's name was all she caught before the screen blacked out again; it made her plump,...Read On

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Editors’ Picks

Welcome to Reality

Third Class Super or Provisional Super Villain?

The Edge of Control

Thirteen Steps from Heaven or Hell

Revelation

The Other Other Toy Story

Freefalling

I Can Always Read Your Skin

Dark Rain

Fallen Angel

little death

Borderline Love

Beneath

Little Dog and Mrs. Drake

No Mercy

Black and White

Murder on the River Thames

Vanilla Scream

Apartment Eight Has A Golden Rival

Earthly Bounties

Shoot

Life Enhancing

A Bookish Love Story

A Labour of Lust

The Library is Closing Now

Gutenberg

A Life Half-lived

Mieko: A Catalogue

Lost Enough

Second Saturday