Welcome to my archive of free short stories I’ve written that take place throughout my fictional universe. I tend to write speculative fiction, urban fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and weird fiction stories, but you’ll find an eclectic assortment of works here.

Stories here are sorted in alphabetical order by title. For the latest tales, browse the short stories tag. For short movies, jump over to the short films page. I’ve also tagged stories with reoccurring characters, making it easy to find other works with that character. You’ll find those tags at the bottom of each story. You can also check out the Serials section for stories that build upon each other. All of my fictional stories here take place in my 16th Pheonix Universe, which involves multiple planets and periods of time.

If you love my work, join me on Patreon, and follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, and YouTube. You can also check out my store to buy t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and more featuring characters from my stories.

All stories may not be reposted or published without permission.

Happy Adventures!


Adventure Granted - art by Bienvenido Julian at Design Pickle

Adventure Granted

Be careful mocking eccentric small business owners, asking them for an adventure because you might find yourself on an alien planet. 

The Argument at Mercury Theatre

A pair of time travelers meet in the past at the infamous Mercury Theatre and end up getting into an argument about history; unaware people are listening to them.

The writing group Janet is a part of takes a turn for the weird when two strangers interrupt with peculiar questions and challenges Janet’s curiosity to walk through a mysterious golden door.

Because I’m Not Dead

Upon seeing a news story about his death, Jason visits the crime scene for answers.

Bleeding Fear - The Blue Hotel - art by Janine De Guzman at Design Pickle

Bleeding Fear

In a fantasy world where everyone gains a power of light on their 17th birthday, a group of adventurers searches for a place to rest for the night after destroying a laboratory performing harmful experiments on people. The boutique treehouse-style hotel they do find has some secrets of its own. 

Body Drop - Kruder Hotel Courtyard Party - art by Chen Kang at Design Pickle - colored

Body Drop

A Story with The Sounds

A surprise date night takes a wild turn when a dead body falls onto the dance floor. The couple tries to solve the mystery using a music player that allegedly predicts the future using song titles.

Broken Hourglass - art by Janine De Guzman at Design Pickle

Broken Hourglass

While digging for resources on their polluted planet, Talus finds themself in a cave filled with hourglasses.

During a race to get back to camp first, a pair of teens stumbled upon a paper cube that grows a monster.

The Case of Statue Trail - art by Janine De Guzman at Design Pickle

The Case of Statue Trail

A Story with Detective Psychon

A freelance private investigator is hired to determine why a client’s wife was transformed into a statue.

The Cat’s Warning

While preparing for a hot date, the visiting cat warns him that his date will kill him.

The Clock Tower’s Purpose art by Henry Yusman at Design Pickle

The Clock Tower’s Purpose

After the initial chaos of a clock tower falling from the sky, it faded into normalcy with only a reporter keeping tabs on it until one morning when its lights went out.

The Cursed Photo from the Barbershop - art by Janine De Guzman at Design Pickle

The Cursed Photo from the Barbershop

During a walking ghost tour, a photo taken of a barbershop in downtown Norman has consequences for a young couple.

Curious Dream Beginnings

A conversation with a philosophy professor about a repeating dream beginning prompts a revelation. 

Death and Coffee - art by Janine De Guzman at Design Pickle

Death and Coffee

Death visits a coffee shop for their espresso machine during the Norman Music Festival.

The Dragon with the Time-Traveler Tattoo

The Dragon with the Time-Traveler Tattoo

When a herd of dragons visits the small town of Valley, the mayor decides it’s his civic duty to greet them, only to get caught in a mystery. 

Dog-Sitting Cerberus - art by Chia Yee Liow at Design Pickle

Dog-Sitting Cerberus

With business to attend on another planet, Hades hires Sally to dog-sit his giant three-headed dog, Cerberus. As Sally takes the dog for a walk in the Underworld, they discover a locked away secret.

Don't Go Inside - art by Chen Kang at Design Pickle - Dual Colored

Don’t Go Inside

A typical movie night between two girls turns weird when the characters on the screen began to hear them.

Ego’s Street Magic Show (Comic)

Ego’s Street Magic Show was an interactive sprite comic series that was started in the SoaH City forums. Follow SoaH City’s Mayor who puts on a street magic where anything could go wrong or awesome. Not even the creator of the series knows what’s going to happen because people keep adding to the story! People have raved such comments as, “for the win,” “I actually lol’d,” and “this topic was great, we need more of these.”

Emergency Alert

An emergency alert instructs everyone in an apartment building to leave their home.

Eternal Mist

Eternal Mist has a bit of Edgar Allan Poe’s style of spookiness, fear, madness, and mystery – especially from stories like The Tell-Tale Heart and The Raven. Taking place on October 31, 1938 – during the War of the Worlds radio broadcast – a man leaves the city from the alien invasion only to encounter something else.

Festival Suggestions

After finishing a project for her history class to modernize an ancient Greek festival honoring Dionysus, she jokingly makes a toast to him, and the god appears. 

Five Minutes Ago - art by Janine De Guzman at Design Pickle

Five Minutes Ago

A Story with Gia

A jogger is out on a run, paranoid someone is following, only to discover her stalker is herself.

A Forgettable Retrieval - art by Janine De Guzman at Design Pickle

A Forgettable Retrieval

A day in the life story following a skilled thief on the Red Planet whose bloodline has been cursed/blessed to be easily forgotten. 

The Gifting Dog story art drawn by Tin at Design Pickle

The Gifting Dog

Olivia’s dog always seems to bring her exactly what she needs for the moment. Tonight, her dog brought a sword, which she doesn’t own.

A parade of skeletons

The Ghost Child from the March of Flaming Skeletons

A Story with Gia, Raven, and Slayer

Three time-travelers visit a Halloween parade when a young spirit starts to cause mischief. 

Happy Ending

The perfect gift: a feast of humans for two vampire lovers with a truly happy ending.

Hashtag Cult Problems - art by Janine De Guzman at Design Pickle

Hashtag Cult Problems

A Story with Gia

A cult’s ritual goes wrong when their sacrifice doesn’t die.

The Herculaneum Coin - art by Bein Julian at Design Pickle

The Herculaneum Coin

During an archaeological dig, Hyria found an unusual coin that she shared of photo of on social media. By doing so, she attracted some unwanted attention, forcing her dog to reveal he can talk.

Five young adults are gathered around a campfire on a full moon night as one of them stands up holding up a card with a skull as they tell a horror story

The Horror Prompt Card

A writer is gifted with a mysterious card that will inspire them if they toss the card in a fire while sharing a scary story.

I’ll never walk Sutton Wilderness in the dark again - art by Mikey Marchan at Design Pickle

This is the story of why I’ll never walk Sutton Wilderness in the dark again.

The Impossible Exit

All Emma wanted was a relaxing bath after a long week, but her apartment elevator wanted to lead her down an impossible hallway.

Interview Spoilers

A time traveler’s interview goes sideways when the interviewee accuses him of having previously met over 100 years ago.

Intruder Detected - art by Janine De Guzman

Intruder Detected

While hiking outdoors through a prairie grass field, a voice warns Elijah and Jacob about an interlude in the building.

Key-Changed

A college student shows her dorm mate a mysterious cabin in the woods that changes its inside based on what key is inserted.

A Killer Among the Spaceship Game Show - art by Henry Yusman at Design Pickle

After being laid off during the pandemic, Alex responds to an online ad to be a contestant in a spaceship-themed reality TV series with game show challenges. Unbeknownst to Alex, they learn one of those challenges is to stay alive.

During her morning jog, Janelle comes across a mysterious new boutique selling personalities.

Lost Angel - art by Mikey Marchan at Design Pickle

Lost Angel

While several deities prepare for a game night in Hades’ library, an angel crash lands in the underworld, bringing a mystery. 

Loyalty

A detective morns their partner.

Motion Activated - art by Janine De Guzman at Design Pickle

Motion Activated

Nathan wakes up to a motion-activated alarm with a video of him several minutes into the future, pounding on the front door.

The Red Cube Decision

Three close friends decide to ask their science teacher about a mysterious red cube that nearly leads to interplanetary conflict.

A Rescue Request to Santa - art by Bienvenido Julian

A Rescue Request to Santa

While doing her rounds as captain of the spaceship, The Glimmingdrift, Alvas checks in with the docking bay to find an unlogged vehicle consisting of eight reindeer and a red sleigh.

Missing Stars scene

Missing Stars

A Story with Slayer

While driving her through the countryside to visit her parents for the holidays, Jacqui realizes there are no stars in the sky.

Moral Compass

After returning home from a business trip, Chuck is greeted by a foul smell that leads him to a dead body that looks like him and killed by a compass he had written about in his book.

Mother’s Warning

“I should’ve listened to my mother about visiting the train tracks alone at night.”

The New Windows at The Last House

A Story with Gia and Slayer

Gia is brought back to the end of time by a friend to investigate the new windows at The Last House.

The Oak Tree Box

After months of dreaming about a mysterious figure burying a box in front of a gnarled oak tree, Sydney stumbles upon the same oak tree during a jog.

One Hour Future Photo - art by Janine De Guzman at Design Pickle

One Hour Future Photo

A couple buys an antique camera from another planet that they realize takes photos one hour into the future.

The Pacific Northwest Podcaster - art by Mikey Marchan at Design Pickle

A serial killer mistakenly targets a true-crime podcaster.

Pompeii Snack Stand (Patreon Supporter Exclusive)

An archeologist intern is punished when he sits his apple on the newly unearthed thermopolium found in Pompeii. 

A drawing by Mikey Marchan with a blond woman holding a lyre who is angry with the purple alien in a white lab coat for giving her the cursed object.

The Problematic Lyre

Peyton was warned the lyre would empower her emotions.

The Problematic Shovel - art by Janine De Guzman at Design Pickle

The Problematic Shovel

While driving to visit his parents for Mother’s Day weekend, Junfeng finds himself on an alien planet where he is gifted with a shovel with the power to bury any problem or dig up the solution to any problem.

Real Spells for a Fake Witch - art by Janine De Guzman at Design Pickle

Real Spells for a Fake Witch

A mysterious man offers a woman dressed as a witch a device that allows her to cast real spells on Halloween. 

A drawing of a young adult woman waking up in a fancy train high that's in outer space as two people on a TV screen explain that she is on a game show.

Resurrection on the Oriental Express

People from various worlds wake up on a train where they have to solve who is reviving people from the dead in this reverse murder mystery game show.

Sacrificed - art by Janine De Guzman at Design Pickle

Sacrificed

Alexia should’ve been dead, as one cannot survive while being chained to a sculpture of the deity the farmers wanted to please.

Saturday Morning Interrupted - art by Janine De Guzman

Saturday Morning Interrupted

A programmer’s Saturday morning ritual is interrupted by a loud knocking from a soldier in Legionnaire armor with the ancient city of Rome behind him.

Script Thief

A Story with Detective Psychon

Detective Psychon arrives on The Glimmingdrift, where he works with a client to solve who has been leaking their play scripts to the press.

Snow Shovel Inc.

In 1992, two nine-year-old boys have an adventure-filled day saving the planet, shoveling snow, and catching a criminal.

The Spiral Staircase in the Woods - art by Janine De Guzman at Design Pickle

The Spiral Staircase in the Woods

During a morning jog, two friends detour to explore a mysterious spiral staircase leading to a trap.

The Stranger in the Dark Suit

The man that has been haunting Tyler’s nightmares for the past several days takes the same bus as him. Inspired by current events from COVID-19.

Testing Predictions on an Abandoned Village - art by Mikey Marchan at Design Pickle

Testing Predictions on an Abandoned Village

A Story with The Sounds

After overhearing an urban legend about an abandoned village, Haley “The Sounds” Riot and Robin Bee set off to test Haley’s future predicting music player to uncover the mystery behind the community.

Through the Washing Machine - art by Henry Yusman

Through the Washing Machine

During her birthday party, Krystal hides in a new and mysterious giant washing machine at an immersive art gallery, only to enter a strange world.

TwinCities - art by Mikael Marchan and Janine De Guzman at Design Pickle - colored

#TwinCities

One night while closing up the ice cream shop in Hell, Michigan, Sally stumbles upon a social media hashtag of people sharing photos of portals connecting to other cities with the same name. Curious, she leaves work to see if there is a portal in her town.

An Unbound Library Halloween Party

A group of librarians in possession of a book that can make characters come to life decide to have a big Halloween party, and in true literary fashion, everything goes wrong.

Upgrade Cave - art by Janine De Guzman at Design Pickle

Prompted by a mysterious advert, a pair of mermaids travel to a cave that promises to make people better in every way.

Who Killed the Toymaker Aboard Starbringer 2 - art by Janine De Guzman at Design Pickle

Who Killed the Toymaker Aboard Starbringer II?

A Story with Detective Psychon

Detective Psychon isn’t a fan of working while on the way to a job, but when the ship’s captain threatens to toss him out of the airlock if he doesn’t help solve the murder, he figures he should help.

Welcome - art by Janine De Guzman at Design Pickle

Welcome

The nearest beach was thousands of miles away from Jake, but somehow he woke up on one with no knowledge of how he got there and a text from an unknown number that simply said, “Welcome.”

The Winged Letter - art by Mikey Marchan at Design Pickle

The Winged Letter

With a pounding headache, Samantha wakes up in her New York City apartment, unable to recall yesterday. As she tries to piece her memory together, a paper airplane flies into her studio apartment on the 15th floor. Written on the wings in red capital letters were the words “open me.”

The Wooden Staff and the Black Envelope

Upon returning to his home office after getting a snack, Roland finds a magical staff and a black envelope with a dire warning.

You have 1 unread prophecy - art by An Thuy Vu at Design Pickle

“You have 1 unread prophecy”

On the train home, Skylar gets a mysterious notification on their iPhone that says, “You have 1 unread prophecy.”

You Have 2 Unread Prophecies - art by Janine De Guzman at Design Pickle

You Have 2 Unread Prophecies

After getting off the San Francisco trolly, a young woman receives a notification on her phone about two unread prophecies. Her curiosity compiles her to investigate the second one when the first one comes true, despite its danger. 

You Have 3 Unread Prophecies - art by Janine De Guzman and Mikey Marchan at Design Pickle

You Have 3 Unread Prophecies

A morning news show host receives three tips on his phone about the future as he spends time with his sister.


Upcoming

My Multiverse of Dreams Madness (Working Title)

A movie causes a photographer to have a series of weird dreams.


All of my fictional stories here take place in my 16th Pheonix Universe, which involves multiple planets and periods of time. I’ve tagged stories with reoccurring characters, making navigation easy to find other stories with that character, and there is a Serials section too. If you enjoy my work, become a patron supporter to get early and exclusive content. Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, and YouTube. Be sure to check out my store for 16th Phoenix Universe t-shirts, hoodies, hugs, and more!