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Every story published in 100 Word Fiction. Search by title, author, or a half-remembered phrase; filter by year, tag, or contributor.
Showing 18 of 92 stories
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Circling the Drain
Finally, I find my fiancé at a roulette table in a shabby off-strip Vegas casino. I push myself between him and the skinny brunette who’d been patting his butt. We watch the ball circle the wheel. It drops into red 27.…
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Strong Foundations
"You must build your houses in brick. Strong foundations!" she said. "Every friend you make is a brick in your house.Choose wisely."I'd only ever lived in clapboard houses. Easy enough to fix a…
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Rehabilitation
A single green sprout rose from a sea of dark potting soil surrounded by chipped grey concrete. Belinda dug her dark hands into the loam around the sprout, making sure that the space was clear of weeds and dead plant…
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Resolution
The creature slithered from the coal seam at dusk. A sinewy specter of leathered wings and spiraling horns, squatting in the square.Panic throttled the town, cresting alongside the moon. By dinnertime, police assembled…
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Face to Face
My scars tell a horror story. Children screamed when they saw my face. Mine would have too if they’d survived the war. I lost my daughters, my husband, everyone. Kind people in a foreign land raised money so surgeons…
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What Happens in the Library
The door-latch clicks. Into the dimness comes the faintest of whispers, a scratching like someone writing words with iron gall ink, a goosefeathered quill. Her round-toed walking shoes come to a halt, and she leans…
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The Inter-Planetary All-Night Gas Station and Antiquarian Bookshop
The three of them crowded round the nosecone. "Nasty. Those heat shields won't hold." "Gus'll sell you filler paste..." "I've got to get to L17-Terraform..." "Might not…
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Little Red Church
After six surgeries, I stumble over the church’s threshold for the first time in years. How to explain this reborn need? I have wandered cathedrals, their great reaching arches only stones; through the reliquary glass I…
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Responsible Spending
Corey takes a limo to work every day now. Not an upgraded Uber. Not a “car service.” A limousine - smoky dark glass and a driver in a black suit. He can’t afford it in the conventional sense. It’s not fiscally…
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Homefront
New lumber. No stain. Built this porch yourself.County don’t require permits.We ain’t from the county. Must’ve been hard to build this at your age.Another Marine vet helped. Y’all serve?We serve the homefront. Semper…
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Songs for the Drowning (A Mermaid Mother’s Tale)
I search out the damaged people. It’s a favor to them, and the world, when I come. I don’t hurt them, don’t frighten them. I find them sleeping fitfully under the bridges, huddled in nightmares down by the piers. I sing…
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Liminal
Liminal The whoosh-whoosh eclipses our still apartment. My weather app announces a cloudless sky, a quiet mind, but still: a windy whoosh-whoosh.“Is that you?” My husband’s head swivels from me to the ice maker. We…
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The Vine That Strangled the South
The day the kudzu cut the power, Adeline shrugged and carried her ledger to the sweltering porch, because another Wal-Mart had opened in Magnolia County, the family general store had suffered its worst month in 48…
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After the Funerals, the Dancers Speak
You and I will soon escape from our dirt-encased homes. Bone will show through the wound from your car accident, while my lungs will still bear the marks of that fatal tumour. Free now, we will climb over the…
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Reality Isn't Like on the Telly
It seemed simple. A walk down by the river; I'd drop behind slightly, pick up a rock. One swift blow, then back to my car and across country. No-one knew I was here. It wasn't like that. Evolution knows. That…
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Baggage Claim
Daily, she haunted the airport from first light till hunched men spun floors clean, circling circling carousels at baggage claim, shoulders shouldered by hurried travelers, searching each face for… her, lifting, like…
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The Undertow
Each month, the smear of first blood pulled me back, the undertow beneath my days. I kicked against the current, my head dipping below the surface in the fight against the memory of Zoe.I had been one of four…
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Shadowcasting
Marcus fell in love with an Algerian girl named Raina. They never spoke to one another. Raina mended clothing for small sums. In the evenings Marcus tore holes in his shirts with a metal toothpick. In the mornings he…