Presenttense Stories

"By the way, Forger." Somehow, Anya thinks Damian's face has gotten even redder. Whether it's the alcohol or the second step she takes closer to him, she can't be sure. "Yeah?" Damian swallows hard, avoiding her eyes. "I, uh... I wanted to say that you-you-ah, shit." He runs a hand through his hair. "You look-" "Damian? Is that you?" (Or: Anya. Damian. A party. Will anyone be able to say what they're thinking?)

"I'm so sorry," Becky cries, voice cracking. "I'm so sorry, Anya, I'm so sorry-" "Don't apologize!" Anya presses her forehead to Becky's. "Don't you dare be sorry for something like this." And Becky suddenly has a feeling Anya knows, has always known, has known all along, but she needs to say it herself. (Or: Girls like girls like boys do, nothing new.)

All things taken together, Anya considered herself an expert at managing her asthma. Which makes this stupid slip-up all the more embarrassing. (Or: Anya has an asthma flare-up. Damian is there, but all she wants is to be alone. Doesn't she?)

They took me at the age 5 and made me an assassin. It's been ten years of hard training. I am almost done, and soon I'll be running the gang. But the Boss has a secret. And when I find out , it won't be a game of power anymore. it'll be a game of making him bleed.

Sixteen-year-old Sarah hasn't seen her sister Allie in nearly a decade thanks to a family feud she can hardly remember. But the world waits for no grudge; around the time of Sarah's birth, a race of aliens known as the tanta made first contact with Earth, launching humanity into a new star-faring age. Most people embrace tantic innovation, but Sarah isn't so sure. Growing up on her family's multi-generational dairy farm, she's learned nothing can replace blood and tradition. Personal crisis meets global catastrophe as Allie pays her family a surprise visit on Christmas Eve. Can they bridge the distance between them before it's too late? The Floating Cradle is a novella of 26,000 words. Featured on the @WattpadExplorer "Hidden Gems" reading list! Featured on the @StoriesUndiscovered "Go Beyond Space" reading list!

(Free to read + a paid bonus chapter) In a time when kidnapping is a common occurrence, Nora is about to become her father's science experiment. Nora believes she's starting a new job, working alongside her father, but instead, she's trapped inside of a dream with other humans. Besides for a small group of dreamers called Lucid, no one realizes anything is wrong with their new world. But dreams reveal who someone really is, even the secrets they didn't know, and Nora is not an exception. Charlie's father, Richard Pace, is the lead scientist. As a Lucid, Charlie is ordered by his father time and again to betray his own kind. And Nora is his next missions. But when Charlie discovers just how far his father's plans for Nora go, he'll have to choose between his freedom or his morals. Is it possible to escape when you don't even know you're trapped? Winner of the Candice Coghill award and the Royal Palm Literary award.

-short story- waking up tired and confused, i find myself lost.

The Man stands, confronted with the nothingness surrounding his landscape. A landscape unfamiliar and strange.

A young boy by the name of Marcus Quin or Mark wakes up to a catastrophic event in his village, he escapes with his parents to a cave but is found by the one who caused the catastrophe and kills his parents trying to use Mark as a vessel for power but Mark escapes to a new world, The Modern World.

Eve has a secret. No one knows - not even Jasper, her Best Friend. Today Eve has reached breaking point, and she makes a decision that will change her life forever.

I'm just trying to survive school, tuition, and a crush I don't have the energy for. My life is painfully ordinary, and I like it that way. At least I think I do. Then one evening refuses to stay normal.

Lucy cannot explain what drew her over to these five, what made this halfling girl stand out in the cafeteria like a perfect snowflake amongst sleet, but she trusts it was divine intervention. Kipperlilly extends her hand to Lucy. "Welcome to the High 5 Heroes, Lucy." "High 5 Heroes." Lucy shakes Kipperlilly's hand. "I like that name." For a reason she can't explain, part of Lucy doesn't want to let go. (Or: Lucy Frostblade and Kipperlilly Copperkettle. Two lives that twine through time.)

The Dorombo gang, after selling fake tropical fish to people (they were regular goldfish painted to look exotic) find out the location of another Doruko Ring. It's up to Yatterman to stop them from stealing it!

Addie lives in a world where vampires not only exist, but live openly among the human population. On her way to give blood a compulsory practice all humans must partake in, Addie meets a 'leach lover' - Her own affectionate term for a person who actively wants to be Chosen by a vampire. She is sickened by the idea of being a vampires walking blood bag and when her own little sister Nancy is Chosen Addie loses what little sense of self preservation she has left. With a little help, she begins to plot a rebellion against the vampire race but its not long before her plans are dashed at Blood Bank. A club run by leach lovers and sometimes even frequented by the leeches themselves. *****UPDATES... SOMETIMES****

"Is it distrust of me," Aang says, "or distrust of the Avatar?" A bitter laugh escapes Zuko's lips before he can stop it. (Written for Day 3 of Zukaang Week 2022: Sacred, hosted by @ zukaangweek on Tumblr.)

Some mistakes take months or years to collapse. Some take centuries... The elven kingdom of Marsdenfel is poised on a precipice. Its father, Breidentel, has essentially collapsed and become its child. Salles, its old longtime alley, has been chafing from years of rule by conquerors who ignored the realm's class divisions, and the current ruler has been missing for months. The crown heir is consort of another realm--Grehafen, an enemy of Marsdenfel from its very founding, which more recently enslaved Marsdenfel and even now claims a bastard of Marsdenfel's royal line for its queen. And just before the king of Salles went missing, a nearby island of slavers assassinated the king of Marsdenfel, kidnapped that king's son, and left a teenage boy as ruler of Marsdenfel. The entire region is like tinder awaiting a spark. And it might have just found one.

Enter a world where beings of tales and folklore come to life, as young Derrick Conrad struggles to fit in with his mother's Native American tribe but then discovers a way to win the tribes' trust and admiration through an ancient legend. He will make his way through physical trials, racial prejudices, and supernatural forces to prove his worth, but at what cost, is it too much of a gamble? Give praise if you really feel like it deserves it. Remember to give it a star if you like it.

When Kodiak Graham is snatched from his cozy town of Holwell and dropped off hundreds of miles away from his home, Kodiak has to make due with what he is given, or die trying to get back home.

A little story about a girl who woke up in the wrong body and she needs to get back to her own