Stories

Zach was looking for a quiet night of cruising at a dive bar. He thinks he's found the perfect hookup with a cocky meathead—until a surprise Father's Day Strip-Off and his attention-seeking himbo father turn everything upside down. A story in three parts.

Fresh out of his master’s, openly gay Marc dives into a high-pressure Munich consultancy and straight into the orbit of his cold, closeted boss, Frank. When a “running group” becomes their private ritual, breathless runs, heated glances, and charged locker-room moments ignite a tension neither of them can outrun.

When teenage logistics clerks Leo and Julian accidentally trigger a catastrophic reality warp at work, an enigmatic, waistcoat-wearing capybara named Barnaby steps in to help them untangle the timeline. Their reality-bending adventure ultimately leads the boyfriends to unexpected corporate power and a very lavish upgrade for their favorite grumpy resident at the local zoo.

This one comes from Prompt #71.

Write a short story featuring only one character. No secondary characters at all. You might drop them in the woods and see how they fare, or come up with your own idea, but only one character is allowed.

Fraser Vogel knew it was dangerous to parachute in high winds. He wasn’t left with too many options in his Cessna 182 Skylane when its yoke seized and the engine failed.

Jump or crash? Pretty easy choice.

Cwtch is a Welsh word, translated into English it means a hug, but the meaning is deeper and more profound than a simple hug. When you give someone a cwtch you also give them a safe place and this is what twenty something Londoner Harry gives Welsh farmboy Aled. The story tells how two souls find each other, and recognise one another immediately. It is attraction, but also love at first sight, although true love is never easy.

This story is also published under the title Eighteen Years by E K Stokes.

Kintsugi: is the Japanese idea of taking a broken pottery, vase and fusing the broken piece back together with gold

Aboard a storm-tossed vessel, scholars Christian and Julian pivot from deciphering a ledger left by Barnaby—a time-traveling capybara who accidentally visited their era—to test an advanced gift he left behind: a collection of protective sheaths. In their lantern-lit cabin, a clinical experiment into friction and viscosity rapidly escalates into a vigorous study of mechanical boundaries

Gabriel Foster has a problem; he's a high-priced assassin known only as Robert. Senator Elias Hutchinson got in the way of a broker named Mehmet, who hired Robert to eliminate him. When Robert turns down the assignment, a mysterious man begins stalking him. As he races to stop this unknown shooter, he meets Sean, lead singer of Mysterious Neon, a world-famous boy band. Now he has to elude the Yakuza and a persistent Homeland Agent while juggling his feelings for Sean. Everything comes to a head at Hershey Park as he races to stop his replacement before it's too late.

Caught using his dad’s Fleshlight on Father’s Day, Luke expects the worst. Instead, the forbidden toy becomes the thing that pulls them together in the hottest, tightest way possible.