Singles · 23 stories, standing alone

Fiction

Last-Mile Optimism

The delivery bag sat on the apartment building steps like evidence waiting to be logged. Small. Tamper-evident seal.

Marie-Hélène Lebeault · Mar 2026

Fiction

The Repossessed

“A promise is a direction taken, a self-limitation of choice… if no direction is taken, if one goes nowhere, no change will occur.

Amita · Feb 2026

Fiction

Planetary Tech Support

H3L-PR arrived in low Earth orbit with the quiet precision of a machine that considered efficiency a form of morality.

Marie-Hélène Lebeault · Dec 2025

Fiction

The Second Glossolalia

The city was still when I woke up, hours before the place would gradually come to life. The weather was gray, and people’s minds matched it.

Sachin · Dec 2025

Fiction

Incident Code: EC-71f – Unauthorized Emotional Non-Compliance Subject: Tessa Vaughn, Resident ID #HLV-847392 Location: Halverton Smart City, Cognitive Efficiency Zone 3 Time: 0947 hours, Local Preference Time Reporting System: Partial Oversight Network v4.2

Marie-Hélène Lebeault · Nov 2025

Fiction

Mr Cork and the Red Bus

Mr Cork took a sip of his pint at The Victoria pub, near Paddington station. He’d be lying to himself if he didn’t admit that he was a little nervous.

Kannen · Oct 2025

Fiction

Mismatch

“I used to think we were the perfect couple who enjoyed spending time together and maintained a deep bond,” I said, lying on the bed with my fiancé, Karim.

WriterRamprasath · Oct 2025

Fiction

Consensus Nightmares

Chainpoint was founded on a single principle: Code Must Govern.

Spencer Nitkey · Oct 2025

Fiction

Hardwired

The sound began not as a whine, but as a change in air pressure – a high-frequency vibration felt in the teeth before it was heard.

George P. Burdell · Oct 2025

Fiction

Towel Uprising

INCIDENT REPORT #SC-2407-TOWEL-VIOLATION Violation Code: Sun-34b – Unauthorized Lounger Occupation Location: Aqua Vista Resort & Protocol Compliance Center, Pool Deck Alpha Time: 3:47, Local Pool Time Reporting Officer: Towel Integrity Officer Martinez, Badge #TIO-0089

Marie-Hélène Lebeault · Sep 2025

Fiction

Circadia

The dream begins, always, with the corridor. Glass-walled and humming faintly, it stretches forward underfoot like a spinal cord lit from within.

Afeez · Jul 2025

Fiction

Necrophoresis

Ants bury their dead. Scientists insist that this does not constitute mourning. Necrophoresis is a sanitization practice, not a religious or spiritual one.

Spencer Nitkey · Jul 2025

Fiction

The Reverie Loop

Olen had skimmed the onboarding packet—buzzwords like serendipity, self-directed frameworks, and repatterning. None of it mattered.

Marie-Hélène Lebeault · Jul 2025

Fiction

The Hungering Circuit

The Registry of Conveyance brooded beside the rail‑canal like a calcified lung, its limestone façade marbled with soot and anemic verdigris.

Protocolized · Jun 2025

Fiction

The 40-Hour Work Week

The plane was still taxiing. Three rows back, a woman stood up and opened the luggage compartment. A flight attendant shouted at her to sit down.

Étienne Fortier-Dubois · May 2025

Fiction

EGREGORETEX™️

In a cluttered design lab above a forgotten bookstore in Toronto, four minds melded under the glow of soldering lamps and the pale, ghostly pulses of holographic neuron simulators.

Timber Stinson-Schroff · May 2025

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