tense - Stories

Owen has never met his best friend.

For four years Xavier has been a voice in his headset. Xavier knows about the dog Owen lost at nine. He knows which voice Owen uses when he's lying about being fine.

Xavier lives two thousand miles away. That's what Owen believes.

At midnight, when a man appears under the tree across the street and won't leave, Owen calls the one person who always picks up.

Xavier tells him to breathe and stay away from the window, and promises he's safe.

Xavier means every word.

He's lying about almost everything else.

After his wealthy twin brother dies under mysterious circumstances, Oliver assumes his identity to uncover the truth. But Adrian’s glamorous life is filled with secrets, enemies, and betrayals—and the deeper Oliver gets, the harder it becomes to tell where the deception ends and his new life begins.

In a world where humans and orcs are forced to live in symbiosis, not everyone can choose for themselves how to live their life. And often enough it's forced to take an unexpected turn, same for Susanna and Dremakk. Some turns are negotiable, though...

In a 1990s cruising park, a young AIDS outreach volunteer approaches a middle-aged man who looks like someone’s dad. What starts as a simple condom hand-off escalates into something more risky as one decision leads to another in a public restroom.

Content Warning: This story contains explicit M/M sexual content, power imbalances, and themes related to the AIDS crisis including cruising, condoms, and unprotected sex. Characters navigate complex realities, including sexual risk.

Noah Wayward has built a fragile life with his boyfriend Shane, held together by prescription pills, emotional walls, and the careful suppression of a traumatic past. But when Noah's estranged older brother Joshua, freshly released from prison, appears without warning, the equilibrium shatters triggering something primal in Noah. Something that's been waiting, silently, patiently, for a way out...

In the fragile aftermath of battle, literal and emotional armor comes off, leaving Robert and Chad to navigate a landscape of vulnerability and unspoken truths. Intimidated by the prospect, Robert steps into a sleek corporate promotion, using it as a shield to isolate himself and keep Chad's fire at a distance. But the pressure of the impending Mecha Man relaunch pushes Robert’s stress to a boiling point, fracturing his control. What begins as a desperate, high-friction attempt to use a single night of physical release to burn Chad out of his system instead traps them both in a web of missed connections and mounting, unreciprocated feelings.

What happens when you have no idea you're being stalked. Why don't we find out?

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.