Stories tagged: magic
14 stories with this tag
The Midnight Garden
Where flowers bloom in darkness
When Lily inherits her grandmother's house, she discovers a garden that only exists at midnight, filled with flowers that glow with their own light and a legacy she never expected.
Streetlight Pact
Streetlights agree to guide one late walker home. As she turns corners, bulbs blink on ahead and dim behind, making a breadcrumb trail of light. Cars slow, confused by the choreography. She wonders wh...
Wishful Recycling
The city installs a second recycling bin labeled "Wishes." Residents toss in pennies, eyelash wishes, and birthday candle smoke. Sanitation workers collect the dreams, rerouting them to those who need...
Meteorite Pen Pal
Children write letters and tie them to helium balloons. One note lands on a meteorite in a museum courtyard. Weeks later, a reply arrives, written in unfamiliar handwriting: "Space is quiet. How are y...
Antique Shop of Alternate Lives
In the back of Mrs. Lee's antique shop, behind clocks frozen at moments no one remembers, sits a glass cabinet of objects with price tags that read "If: $10." Each item, when held, offers a vision of the life you would have lived had you owned it. A...
The Laundry That Erases Names
In a neighborhood laundromat, a handwritten sign appears: "Warning: Washers may lighten names." People laugh until Mrs. Ortiz loses the embroidered "E" on her apron. The rest of her name remains. Others report faded letters on jackets, hats, even IDs...
Artificial Comet
Tech mogul Arman builds a comet for a marriage proposal. He hires engineers to launch a payload of ice and reflective dust, guided by thrusters, timed to streak over the city spelling "Marry Me" in radiant debris. Environmentalists protest; astronome...
The Ink That Refuses to Dry
Writer Sam buys a rare fountain pen from an estate sale. The ink flows smooth but refuses to dry on the page. Words smear, sentences slide. Frustrated, Sam leaves a draft overnight. In the morning, the words have rearranged into a story Sam never int...
Skylight to the Past
In her grandmother's attic, Sienna discovers a skylight that opens not to the sky but to a specific year: 1998. Through the glass, she sees her younger self drawing on the driveway, her grandmother hanging laundry. The skylight opens for fifteen minu...
The Pilot Light of the World
Deep beneath the old city, past tunnels forgotten by maps and rats, there was a flame no one tended yet never went out. Legend said it had been lit when the city was founded, a pilot light that kept the world from going cold. Plumbers joked about it during breaks. Historians rolled their eyes. Lina,...
The Cart Return Pact
Marcus started at the grocery store because it was close to home and paid just enough. His title was “Cart Associate,” but he preferred “Shepherd.” He chased stray carts, nudged them into lines, and kept the parking lot from becoming an obstacle course. He suspected most shoppers thought carts found...
The Bureau of Second Chances
The Bureau occupied a beige office building downtown, between a donut shop and a law firm. Its sign was small: “Bureau of Second Chances—By Appointment.” Most people assumed it was parole services. In reality, it issued official second attempts at anything: a test, a date, a career. You filled out a...
The Apartment Between Floors
Between the seventh and eighth floors of the Grandview Tower, an apartment existed where no blueprint showed. The elevator stopped there only if you pressed 7 and 8 simultaneously and hummed. Tenants whispered about it but few found it. Those who did entered a cozy space with mismatched furniture, a...
The Statue that Listened
In the town square stood a bronze statue of a woman holding a book. Legend said if you whispered a wish into her ear, she might grant it once. Most treated it as folklore. One winter, a child named Eli whispered, “I wish my brother would talk again.” The next day, his brother spoke his first words i...