- drama◐ Teen
The Substitute Season
Marcus sat against the headboard, his right hand wrapped in plaster and pins. The painkillers slurred his words as he tried to dictate his college essay. "Say I learned grit from football," he mumbled, then drifted off mid-sentence. Theo sat at the laptop, the cursor blinking. The deadline was midnight. His brother couldn't type a single word, so Theo would have to do it for him.
5 writers - mystery◐ Mature
The Ledger of Borrowed Names
The lawyer slides a worn brass key and a deed across the table. Mara stares. Her father owned a storefront she'd never heard of. Inside, the air is dry and still. Two filing cabinets, both locked. The first opens with the key: forty years of plain, honest invoices. The second won't budge. She bends a hairpin and works the lock until it clicks. One thing sits inside — a single black book. She opens it. Page after page of names, none of them her father's.
5 writers - romanceEveryone
Letters We Mailed to the Wrong House
The envelope jammed in Wren's mailbox wasn't hers. Same street, wrong number: 14 instead of 41, the digits swapped by some tired hand at the sorting office. It was addressed to a woman named Cordelia, in looping handwriting. Inside, a letter began, 'Darling, I know it's been too long, and I owe you the truth.' Wren stood on her steps, holding a stranger's letter, not sure what to do.
5 writers - horror◐ Mature
The Understudy Always Knows the Lines
The Verrick Theatre sits an hour past the last gas station, a black stone box with no sign out front. They gave Mara the lead after one phone call. The actress before her, Lenore, walked out mid-run, and nobody will say where she went. In her dressing room, taped to the mirror at eye level, is a single index card. The handwriting is Mara's own. It reads: "You will read this and not run. Good. We start at eight."
5 writers