Literaryfiction Stories

Anna lives a deliberately colourless life-one spent in the background, where asking for anything comes with a price she learned to stop paying long ago. At school, on the bus, at home, her world has been built on silence, routine, and the certain safety of going unnoticed. It's a balance she maintains meticulously, because being seen has never ended well for her. Then, one day, that balance fractures after a brief moment of accidental acknowledgement-small, meaningless, fleeting, and completely impossible to undo. Now, Anna is forced to confront the quiet life she's built. She begins to question whether survival is the same as living... and what it might cost to want more. She finds herself wondering whether the price is too low-or far too high. Because once you're noticed by someone, the world doesn't always let you disappear again. Highest ranking: #1 literaryfiction 01/03/2026 - Ongoing.

Life is like a rollercoaster, it has its ups and downs, but it's your choice whether to scream or enjoy the ride... When life's rollercoaster throws you off track, do you scream, or do you hold on tight? For Ira and Rudraksh, the journey is far from smooth: one suffocating under the weight of failure, the other nursing a heart shattered into pieces. Two strangers caught in life's ugliest turns, where every step forward is a fight against invisible battles. This is not a story of being saved by each other, but of learning to live despite the wreckage, of finding the courage to stand when the ground never stops shaking. But if their paths converge-bringing their emotions and differences-will they find solace in each other, or will those very differences pull them apart? ✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️ Copyright © 2026 Jambudweep. This content is protected under applicable international copyright laws. Unauthorized reproduction, adaptation, translation, or redistribution on any platform without the author's explicit written permission is prohibited. Original publication: Wattpad.

"Karena terkadang, mata manusia terlalu pengecut untuk mengakui apa yang ditangkap oleh lensa." - Endra Maheja 📷 SINOPSIS : DI ANTARA LENSA DAN LOGIKA Tahun 1997, Kania percaya bahwa cinta adalah sebuah garis lurus. Namun bagi Endra Maheja-fotografer idealis yang lebih suka bicara lewat bidikan lensa daripada kata-kata-cinta adalah tentang jarak, komposisi, dan kapan harus menekan tombol rana. Lalu di tahun 1999, sebuah perpisahan tanpa penjelasan terjadi di selasar wisuda. Ejha menghilang, meninggalkan Kania dengan segudang tanya dan sebuah tiket kereta api yang tak pernah terpakai. Lima tahun kemudian, Kania kembali ke Bandung sebagai wanita karier yang dingin dan profesional. Ia mengira telah berhasil menghapus seluruh memori tentang "anak Mapala" itu dari logikanya. Sampai sebuah proyek membawanya kembali ke sebuah studio tua di Cipaganti, dan ia menemukan kenyataan yang mengerikan: Bahwa selama tujuh tahun ia menghilang, Ejha tidak pernah benar-benar pergi. Pria itu ada di sana, di balik lensa, memotret setiap langkah kehancuran dan kebangkitan Kania dari kejauhan. Menumpuk ribuan fragmen rahasia dalam sebuah "Ruang Gelap" digital yang siap meledakkan kewarasan Kania. Di antara aroma pinus tahun 90-an dan dinginnya beton Jakarta tahun 2004, Kania harus memilih: Tetap menjadi objek yang diamati dari jauh, atau menghancurkan lensa itu dan menghadapi logika cinta yang selama ini disembunyikan darinya? ________________________________________ Nostalgia Bandung 90s | Unspoken Frames | Professional Conflict | Slow-burn | Second Chance. CATATAN : "Sebuah sekuel dari novel [Di Antara Lensa dan Logika] sebelumnya , namun dapat dinikmati sebagai cerita yang berdiri sendiri."

This is the tale of how Telikos, once a bustling, beautiful city, was turned into but a small, unnaturally-shaped town whose residents, if they had not already died, were those condemned to the galleys.

Margins Were Never Enough is a mythic chronicle of a woman who refused to compress her mind to fit the rooms she entered. Written in the tone of preserved manuscripts, this first chronicle traces the awakening of a voice once measured by narrow margins- and the architecture she built beyond them. Through archives of unsent letters, cathedrals of language, and winds that no longer explain themselves, the narrative explores articulation, discernment, and sovereign becoming. This is not a story of rebellion. It is a study of expansion. For those who have ever been told to shorten themselves, this manuscript offers something rarer than validation: Vastness A new chapter will be unveiled each week.

I Encountered Hui-Jeong - by EriaH Hui had never planned to live with anyone again. After years of learning how to control his life-his space, his routines, his boundaries-sharing an apartment with a stranger was the last thing he wanted. But one reckless night and a drunken promise later, he wakes up to a quiet man sitting in his kitchen... and a new roommate he barely remembers inviting. Jeo is calm where Hui is rigid. Observant where Hui struggles to read the people around him. He follows rules easily-except the ones that matter most to himself. At first they are simply two strangers sharing a kitchen. One cooks too intensely. One eat too slowly. One leaves messes everywhere. One quietly cleans them up. But as days turn into weeks, small conversations grow into something deeper. Through cooking, late-night thoughts, and the quiet routines of everyday life, Hui begins to question the way he sees the world-and himself. © 2026 EriaH. All rights reserved.

A short story collection about tales from magical realism, surrealism and places that held our minds. All shorts stories was based on Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Jorge Luis Borges, Haruki Murakami and others stories. Art styles were made by me and inspired from fpe. This short story collection had nothing to offense everything and anyone. Also there's grammar and bad writings but you captured those stories later.

"They say the war is over. So why is the world still so loud?" For Matthew, 29 July 1944 isn't just a birthday, it's a mark of shame. In a post-war Norway that wants to erase every trace of Germany, Mattie is a reminder they can't burn. He only has two things left: a wooden boat in his dreams and Gutt, the teddy bear who knows all his secrets. This is a story of a boy trying to find a harbor in a world that has no room for a 'War Child.' Matthew is a Lebensborn child a product of a history the world wants to forget. Now, as the dust of World War II settles, he must navigate a life of silence, prejudice and shadows. While others see a 'Little Nazi,' Mattie only sees a horizon. He is waiting for the adoption ship, hoping that across the sea, someone will finally look at him and see a son, not a sin. Was supposed to be the "Perfect Child". But when the flags of the Third Reich fell, he was left behind in the cold Norwegian soil a living ghost of a fatherland that no longer exists. With a tattered teddy bear named Gutt as his only witness, Mattie spends his days staring at the horizon, waiting for a ship that will carry him to a home where he isn't called a 'monster.' But in the aftermath of 1945, some wounds don't bleed they just whisper. First title: Mattie God's gift of Lebensborn Second title: Tyskerbarn In the land of snow ___________________________________________ Draft: 26 July 2025 I always update depending on my mood 🗿

In the Fall of 1991, after an electric one-night stand with someone from her past, Betsy Landry walked out of his home in historic Fontaine, Louisiana. She rejected him and she had a good reason for it. He was cruel to her in college when he was a doctoral student and she was a masters student studying vocal performance, but she was still drawn to him as she had been dreaming of him since she was 18. Their night together was something that never should have happened. It's 1992 now. She should let it go, but she can't stop thinking about Arthur. It's been around eight months now and he's still on her mind. And to top it off, she's dealing with her ex-boyfriend who has been leaving message after message every night on her answering machine, trying to get back with her after cheating on her. But one day at her new job at a fine-dining restaurant in Fontaine, she sees Dr. Arthur Wilcox walk in the restaurant to meet his new girlfriend.

Hari's dreams were dying, from continuous failed government-job exam attempts and the weight of his family's disappointment, he flees to the concrete heart of Mumbai. He isn't looking for greatness anymore-just survival. In the grueling heat of a suburban factory, he meets Babban. A man who has spent twenty years inhaling smoke so his son can breathe clean air. Babban becomes more than a mentor, he becomes the mirror Hari afraid to look into. While Hari has given up on his fate, Babban refuses to let him compromise with fate, pushing him toward one final, desperate attempt at the SSC exams. But Mumbai is a city of sharp edges. When a spark of local unrest ignites into a violent riot, the dream Hari worked for suddenly carries a devastating price. They say many people will come and go in your life, but some leave footprints on your heart. For Hari, Babban's footprints lead all the way back to the village he tried to escape-carrying a debt that success can never truly repay. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ -•-•-•-•-•-•-•-• -•-•-•-• Written for ONC 2026 Prompt No. 29 :-- You'll meet many people in your life. Many will come and go, but some leave footprints on your heart.

A woman stands at the edge of her reflection, caught between the life she built and the haunting promise of something more. The Illusion of Us follows Annie, a young woman still searching for who she is, as the world she carefully arranged begins to crack when she meets a man who carries the scent of freedom and the weight of memory. Mirrors that see deeper than skin, a theater that remembers what you try to forget, and a love that feels like both ruin and awakening. In a world of shadows and quiet unraveling, Annie must choose between returning to herself or remaining in the illusion she once called safety.

In the silk-producing valleys of the Kingdom of Naples, Renza, the daughter of a respected silk merchant, has been raised within the careful order of family and tradition. Lucien arrives as a restless outsider, marked by a past he cannot escape. Around them move others bound by secrecy and survival, including a spy for the Inquisition trained to live between two worlds. As tensions deepen and suspicion spreads through Silk County, their lives draw toward a tragic event history has nearly erased. Echoing the ancient myth of Galatea and Acis in a 16th century setting, Silk County explores how love endures in fragile and often dangerous spaces, where even the most delicate threads can bind souls across time. Updates ongoing as part of the #ONC2026 contest.

I kept every promise I made to Marcus. Including the stupid one. We were seventeen, drunk on stolen wine coolers, when he said: "If we're both single at thirty, we should just date each other." I laughed and clinked my bottle against his. "Sure. Deal." Twelve years later, three weeks before my thirtieth birthday, Marcus calls. There's someone he wants me to meet. Naturally, I did what any rational person would do: got drunk, stumbled into our old neighborhood park, and found a shimmering portal that sent me back to the night we made that pact. I have one shot to fix this. One chance to rewrite our story. I just hope I don't fuck it up.

Where brilliance attracts power and power attracts danger. Diamond reads the room. Coal controls the storm. The Dialect Series explores the minds that cross their path. Every encounter leaves a mark.

Fall, 2022: On the Bayou of Southern Louisiana. Ozzy, a 14-year-old artistic honors student, is looking forward to starting high school and the talented theater program. But a whirlwind trip to the ER and an MRI reveals Ozzy has a brain tumor - and later, a pediatric cancer diagnosis - changes everything. During a year-long fight for a cure in the hospital, hope comes to Ozzy and their Mama through art, music and letters from friends, family and even strangers. There are so many that some remain unopened, collected in a box that goes home with Ozzy after they are discharged from the hospital a year later. The box sits in Mama's closet for over two years. Neither Ozzy nor Mama have opened the box as they struggle to return to "normal" life when "normal" is no longer possible. Until today, 2026: when what begins as spring cleaning turns into opening the box, reading its letters, and finding a mysterious adventure in one that neither Ozzy or Mama ever saw coming. And it just may be the adventure 17-year-old Ozzy and their Mama need to reveal the unexpected, ordinary magic that can help them heal, move forward- and live. ONC 2026 Prompts Used: #79 (Main) - Additional: #16, #28, #69, #104. Stacie Eirich @spacetodream

1971. A country is being born, and a river is keeping score. When war reaches a quiet village in East Pakistan, a translator who believes in neutrality, a schoolteacher who believes in memory, and a seventeen-year-old boy who believes in action are forced to choose who they will become. Told through multiple voices and grounded in real history, this is a story about language, survival, and the small decisions that shape nations. The river does not judge. It remembers.

Laura just wanted to know the time. The wrong question, asked to the wrong person, at the wrong moment - and the world never quite came back. Now the clock reads 00:00. The neighbor waters flowers with a dry hose. And the voice echoing in her head isn't only hers anymore. The Endless Cycle is a quiet descent into a fragmenting mind - one that isn't sure it wants to be put back together.

Some loves don't end - they go quiet, until they find their voice again. Between "I have to" and "I love you," Athens keeps breathing, and the air still smells like old jasmine. A single comment under a forgotten photo wakes time up - before/after, before/after, like a pendulum. Andreas learned silence to survive. Charoula walked through fire - and stayed standing. Two people on the same avenue, in different lanes. Athens, at night. Bouzoukia, loss, second chances - and a love that keeps testing its own limits. Part of a broader narrative cycle. If this story stays with you, new chapters are posted every Wednesday and Saturday. A new novel is in progress. It will be released when it's ready. Thank you for reading. ✍️ Odysseas Nostos Part of the #JustWriteIt Challenge #odysseasnostos #athens #love #memory #drama #relationships #secondchance #nostalgia

"In 'When reality bites,' [Penelope Martin] embarks on a journey of self-discovery and heartbreak as she navigates the complexities of real-life love. Having grown up on fairytales and romantic comedies, she's convinced that her own life will unfold like a dream. But when reality fails to meet her expectations, she must confront the harsh truths of love, relationships, and herself. This poignant and relatable tale explores the gap between idealized love and the messy, beautiful reality of human connection."

They called it The List. Not officially. Never on paper. But every woman in the compound knew-when the gray van came, someone's name had been added. Folake wrote her own name down first. Kemi jumped from a balcony rather than be taken inside. Funmi has spent twelve years searching for a man who vanished. And Nneka kept a box under her bed for twelve years-until today. Now their stories are connecting. Through a notebook in Enugu. Through a forum post in London. Through a name no one has spoken in twenty years: Tunde Adebayo. The List was meant to erase them. Instead, it's about to make them impossible to ignore.