The Unspoken Promise

14 August 1977 Dearest Sia, The mountains are silent tonight. The air is thin and bites at my skin. I’m writing this by the flickering light of a single kerosene lamp, tucked into a corner of our

I got adopted?

"No way, you got yourself a sugar mommy." Steph said, I groaned. "Why did Zack agreed to this... He knows how much I hate rich people." I said, I squeeze the teddy bear me and Steph had found in a t

Apocalypse

road of Lieren City echoed with the moans of the undead, their mangled forms seemed to be wandering aimlessly through the drizzle. In the middle of the chaos, a body lay sprawled on the asphalt, its

A story of extra character life

“Is anyone there? Help me! Hello? Hello? I’m trapped here… let me go!” “Stop screaming. No one is coming to save you, Flora.” “Shut your mouth. I know Jack will come for me. Of course he will. I am th

Seen

She was fourteen, username @starbaby_14, bio read: “Pisces sun • manifesting my glow-up • DM for $5 mini readings 🌙”. Phone propped on a stack of dog-eared manga, ring light haloing her braids like

Grave Fare

The app pinged at 2:17 a.m. on the Third Mainland stretch—same pickup spot as last week, same drop-off in Ikeja, same passenger name: A. Bello. You’ve driven that ghost ride four times now. Each time

Borrowed Air

The voicemail was three minutes of breathing. Not heavy. Not panicked. Just… there. In and out. Like someone trying not to be heard. It came from my own number. I played it twice before texting mys

Salt Under Tongue

We found the church keys inside a Ziploc bag of table salt. Mara said, “Don’t— don’t touch it like that,” but she was already holding it, the plastic puckered with damp, the metal shapes pressing lik

We Keep the Volume Low

The baby monitor picked up a second heartbeat six weeks after Ro's daughter learned to sleep through the night, and Ro told herself it was interference. Isla was two and a half and went through a pha

Mouth Full of Someone Else

The grief counselor had a habit of finishing your sentences, and at first Dara thought it was kind. "When I think about Marcus, I feel—" "Present," said the counselor. Her name was Dr. Veth. She wor

Crimson Whispers

The French windows of Patal Bari looked out over the Hooghly River, which shimmered like liquid silver. Inside the old mansion's courtyard, the air was thick with a fragrant mist of crimson and gold.

The Tart and the Trade-Off

Meghna sat on the steps of the Grand Place in Brussels, her breath misting in the cold air. She’d always imagined her European summer with more, well, summer. Instead, she was drowning in a stack of a

Beyond the Embers

The roar of the pyre and the heavy smell of ghee and marigolds were the last things I experienced as Mirabala. At eighteen, I was a child-bride in 18th-century Rajputana, tied to a man three times my

A girl

From childhood, she chose paths she believed would lead her to what she wanted. Day by day and year by year, she walked those paths, hoping to find love, care, heartfelt presence, support, and much mo

𝗝𝗨𝗦𝗧ᴩᴀꜱᴛ_𝗕𝗨𝗧ʜᴜʀᴛ

Why is it so hard to tell someone what u are feeling how they are making u feel like... Hiding everything inside thinking that they will get hurt. Uh.. How dumb of me, in the end it's just me alone s

The Sweet-and-Sour Syllabus

If the universe had a sense of humor, it showed on the day Nidhi Chatterjee and Shreyash Mukherjee got married. They sat on the traditional Bengali wedding dais, or basar, surrounded by marigolds and

The Secret of the Newlyweds

Part 1: Thenia and Kevin had been childhood sweethearts, engaged to each other for many years. But who would have expected that at such a crucial moment, an unexpected scandal would erupt — On the day

According to Island Law

Chapter 1 – The Lure The knock came at 1:47 AM, sharp and impatient, the kind that said the person on the other side had already decided the hour didn't matter. Evan Clarke didn't even bother sighin

Where our years colide

When Elena met him, she was twenty two and certain she knew exactly how the world worked. Or at least she pretended to. It was her first week in New York, fresh out of college, surviving on ambition

Never his

She first fell in love with him when she was eight years old and he shared his orange candy without breaking it in half. That was the beginning. Not fireworks. Not violins. Just sticky fingers and a