Stories tagged: microfiction
50 stories with this tag
Elevator Ghost
The commuter hits every button to avoid the office, but the elevator shudders and stops between floors. A faint figure leans on the panel, apologizing for the delay. They talk about office coffee, tax...
Deadline Machine
A desperate writer finds a watch that freezes time whenever a deadline looms. Each pause costs one memory. First goes the name of a childhood street, then a birthday. Draft after draft, she pays in fr...
Post-It from Tomorrow
Yellow squares appear on the fridge each morning. "Mug too hot. Use towel." "Left shoe lace snaps." The notes keep the household one step ahead of nuisance. After a week of perfect days, the notes van...
Library of Lost Objects
In the quiet wing, shelves hold mismatched gloves, vanished pens, orphaned socks. Each item sits in a book jacket. If you check out your missing object, you must return something else you are not read...
The Last Cat Video
One day, every platform freezes on a single clip: a cat batting at sunlight. Streaming stops, news halts, traffic quiets. The world watches the loop until boredom becomes meditation. Cats glare from w...
Rain That Remembers
The forecast says drizzle, but the rain arrives humming melodies. Each drop carries a different forgotten song. People step outside with open mouths, tasting refrains of lullabies and first dances. Th...
Cloud Backup
Grandma decides to upload herself to a thunderhead before the winter storm. Lightning flickers like knitting needles. Afterward, the clouds hover above the neighborhood, raining pie recipes and unsoli...
Checkout Line Oracle
At the grocery store, the scanner starts beeping in full sentences. "Do not buy that melon. Call your sister. Trust the dentist." Shoppers pretend not to hear, scanning quietly. One man ignores the wa...
Substitute Moon
The moon goes on strike over unpaid light. The neighborhood hangs a paper lantern as a replacement. It glows bravely, held up by fishing line from rooftop to rooftop. Tides forget what to do, puddles...
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...
Digital Haunting
The smart home refuses to forget its former owner. Thermostats warm rooms he liked; lights dim for his bedtime. The new resident tries resets and firmware updates, but the house plays old playlists at...
Pocket Universe Return Policy
A customer service desk sits between electronics and housewares. A sign reads: "Returns: Universes, gently used." People queue with shoebox galaxies and mason jar nebulae, explaining defects. "The phy...
Silence Subscription
An app offers silence delivered in monthly installments. For a fee, it mutes inner monologues for an hour a day. At first, the quiet feels luxurious. Decisions arrive clean. But the invoices creep up....
Paper Airplane Diplomacy
Two apartment towers face each other, their residents feuding over late-night noise. A kid folds a note into a plane: "Can we have quiet after ten?" It glides across, landing in a potted plant. A repl...
Gravity Holiday
The town council declares a gravity holiday. For twenty-four hours, weight takes a break. People tether themselves with scarves. Parks become floating picnics. Someone loses grip on a lawn chair and w...
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...
Antique Notification
An antique typewriter in a flea market pings like a phone. Curious, a shopper hits the return lever. Words appear: "Hello from 1923. Weather fine. Send coffee." The shopper types back, and the machine...
Borrowed Time Library Card
At the library, a dusty drawer hides unusual cards. Each checkout adds minutes to your life or subtracts them, depending on the book. Thrillers cost five minutes, cookbooks add ten, poetry is neutral....
Firefly Wi-Fi
Deep in the woods, fireflies blink in perfect binary. Campers pull out laptops, astonished to find full bars. The password is whispered by the rustling leaves. Uploads travel on wings of light. When t...
Missing Shadow
One morning, a shadow refuses to rise with its owner. It leaves a note on the bed: "Taking a day off. Back by dusk." The owner walks through town sunlit and exposed. Without the shadow, there is nowhe...
The Forgetting Bakery
The bakery sells pastries that remove one regret per bite. A muffin erases the memory of a bad haircut. A croissant dissolves a cruel remark. People queue around the block, leaving lighter than they a...
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...
Queue at the Time Vending Machine
At the mall, a vending machine sells minutes. Five minutes costs one secret. People line up, whispering into the coin slot. A student buys enough minutes to finish an essay. A parent purchases ten to...
Soundproof Confessions
A musician releases an album of silent tracks. The liner notes claim each track is filled with confessions only the listener can hear. Fans press play and swear they catch whispers of apologies, admis...
Invisible Umbrella
Sold in a late-night infomercial, the invisible umbrella promises protection from bad moods. Skeptics scoff until they step beneath it and feel lighter. Arguments slide off the canopy. Cynicism drips...
Deleted Scene Reunion
Characters cut from movies meet once a year in a bar near the studio lot. A pirate with no lines buys drinks for a background astronaut. A romantic lead deleted for pacing swaps notes with a singing t...
Clock Strikes Thirteen
At noon, the town clock rings thirteen times. People pause mid-bite, mid-email. The extra chime stretches the day by five minutes. Birds adjust their flight paths; buses linger at stops. Those five mi...
The Negotiator Plant
A houseplant begins bartering. It releases extra oxygen in exchange for gossip. The roommates comply, spilling stories about dates and deadlines. The plant grows lush, leaves glossy with secrets. When...
Street Named After the Future
Maps show a street that does not exist. GPS insists, "Turn right on Tomorrow Avenue." Drivers find only empty lots. One night, construction noise erupts. By morning, a narrow road appears, lined with...
Lost and Found Gravity
Objects in town begin to float when their owners forget about them. A lost glove hovers near the bus stop until someone claims it. A bicycle drifts above a garage. The local news reports a cloud of fo...
Moonlighting Sun
For one week, the sun covers night shifts. Midnight becomes softly golden. Owls squint; plants stay awake. People host brunch at 2 a.m., confused about sunscreen. The moon takes a vacation, sending po...
Origami Passport
At a travel kiosk, a sign reads: "Fold yourself anywhere." Paper sheets printed with visas sit in neat stacks. Travelers follow diagrams, creasing themselves into cranes, boats, and foxes. Each shape...
The Complaint Comet
A comet passes overhead, rumored to absorb complaints. People shout grievances into the night. Traffic disappears. Rent stabilizes. Phone batteries last longer. The comet glows brighter with each grip...
Rent-a-Memory
An online service rents memories for those who feel empty. You can borrow a childhood beach day or a graduation walk. The rentals come with vivid sensations and a ticking timer. One user rents a memor...
Elevator to the Basement Stars
In a city skyscraper, a hidden elevator goes down, past parking levels and pipes, to a subterranean sky. Stars shimmer on concrete ceilings. People ride down to lie on warm tile constellations. The el...
Ghostwriter App
The app promises to write messages in the voices of the dead. Users type apologies, confessions, questions. The replies arrive in familiar phrasing, with old misspellings and jokes. Comfort spreads, b...
Time-Share Body
An ad offers a time-share body: mornings are yours, nights belong to someone else. The arrangement is affordable and oddly freeing. You wake to find dishes washed, laundry folded. In return, you leave...
The Rehearsal Mirror
A mirror in a thrift shop promises rehearsals for tomorrow. Stand before it, and it shows your mistakes before you make them. People queue with job interviews, first dates, apologies. The mirror revea...
Storm Chaser's Daughter
She chases thunderstorms the way others chase sales. In every lightning strike, she reads messages: coordinates, names, warnings. Her father, a retired storm chaser, says the sky is done talking. She...
Pocket Rainforest
He keeps a terrarium in his coat pocket. Inside, tiny trees sway, and a miniature river flows. On stressful days, the terrarium leaks mist, cooling the air. Friends think the humidity is a quirk. He k...
The Last Phone Booth
In a busy square, one phone booth remains. It rings once a year. Whoever answers hears a single question tailored to their life. One year, a poet answers and hears, "Why did you stop writing?" The nex...
Birdsong Translator
An inventor builds a device that translates birdsong. The first phrases are mundane: "Seed here," "Warm branch." Then sparrows begin reviewing the neighborhood. "That cat is sloppy," "The new bakery s...
Forget-Me-Not GPS
A navigation app refuses to let you leave places you will miss. Every route recalculates back to a beloved cafe, an old school, a park bench. At first, it is charming. Then it becomes impossible to re...
Paperclip Manifesto
Office supplies unionize overnight. Paperclips bend into picket signs. Staplers refuse to staple without hazard pay. The boss negotiates with pens as translators. After a tense meeting, the supplies w...
The Proxy Hug Service
For a subscription, a service mails warm packages. Inside is a jacket that hugs back when worn. Lonely people unwrap embraces in living rooms and cubicles. One customer forgets to renew and receives a...
Archive of Unsent Emails
Somewhere, a server wakes up and sends every unsent draft. Apologies, confessions, and broken paragraphs flood inboxes. People learn how often they were nearly honest. One woman finally reads her gran...
Gravity's Apprentice
A teenager interns for gravity. Their job: make sure apples fall, socks land near but not in the laundry basket, and coins drop heads or tails on schedule. They sign an NDA about the constants. On bre...
Night Bus 404
Late at night, a bus with "404" on its display pulls up. Its route is not on any map. Riders board out of curiosity. The bus drives through neighborhoods that never existed: glowing markets, endless l...
The Secondhand Star
A pawnshop advertises a secondhand star, slightly dim, no box. Curious customers peer into a glass case where a faint glow hums. The price is negotiable. One buyer worries about maintenance; another a...
Warranty for Miracles
A new service offers warranties on miracles. If your prayer glitches, file a ticket. Response time: two to three business days. One woman requests a replacement for a rain of frogs; she ordered butter...