Literaryfiction Stories

In the tranquil waters of Hawai'i, Hokulani and Nikau wonder if it's possible for a song to go on forever. ***** For as long as Hokulani can remember, she's always felt like she's treading water. Everything she loves becomes a means to escape from what's happening around her or, worse, the unsteadiness of her mind. She even finds her passion for music slipping through her grasp, though she tries her best not to completely let that go. And even though the arrival of an up-and-coming musician from Aotearoa causes waves, she's unable to fully enjoy her life. Unable to release that breath she feels like she's been holding onto ever since her father passed away. When her family is hit with complicated news, the Kahananui woman must make difficult decisions for themselves, including one Hokulani isn't sure she fully understands. But even when their choices are made, they bring up memories they've all been trying their best to forget, forcing them to face the reality deep inside the family's hearts. Hokulani takes refuge in the comfort her shared feelings with Nikau bring, but just because she wants something, doesn't mean it's enough. She knows she has a lot to work through on her own, and with the understanding that his year on the island will eventually come to an end, the two of them spend endless nights wondering if they can somehow make a song go on forever. ***** 2025 AMBYS GRAND FAVORITE | contemporary 2025 ASTANIA AWARDS FIRST PLACE WINNER | wild card » featured on @wattpad @romance @ContemporaryLit @SocialThemes and @Ambassadors « All rights reserved © Stephanie Midorii, smidorii

At fifty, life feels fleeting. Years of laughter, loss, and longing have left their mark. Through reflections on joy, heartbreak, and the road not taken, Ariadne journeys back to the moments that defined her, and the one love her heart never let go of.

A man enters Temporal, a place where time can be revisited and even undone. Instead of changing events, he chooses to walk through his past searching for understanding rather than correction. As he confronts childhood, guilt, harm, and growth, Temporal reveals that answers are not always found by fixing mistakes, but by facing them honestly. The story asks whether peace is possible without altering what came before.

Jake once ran toward a future. Now he runs from his past. Homeless, injured, and carrying a mistake he can't outrun, Jake drifts through the city with nothing but a mismatched pair of running shoes and a memory that won't let him breathe. But when he discovers a pair of discarded runners behind a gym, something stirs something he thought he lost forever. Strides Between Us is a contemporary novel about resilience, mentorship, fatherhood, and second chances. Through the quiet moments and the hardest truths, Jake must confront the life he left behind... and the daughter he still aches to protect. For readers who love: • emotional, character-driven stories • running culture and comeback arcs • themes of homelessness, chronic pain, and hope • the bond between parents and children • redemption stories grounded in real life This preview includes Chapter 1, with more chapters to follow. Educators & reviewers: To request the full ARC or the Grade 9-12 curriculum alignment companion, contact: 📧 stridesbetweenus@gmail.com

A short story about boy staying in his uncle house. after problem with his uncle, he went to meadow by his trumpet. but as he blow the trumpet, he met stars that talked to him. the stars followed him and the stars invited him to the surrealist, dreamlike world where the labyrinth shouldn't existed. inspiration from J.L Borges, M.C Esher illustration and the owl house character.

A promised "high-paying IT job" lures thousands across borders. For Zhou Musheng, it becomes a descent into scams, captivity, and crimes beyond imagination. In the shadows of the Golden Triangle, he holds the one truth powerful enough to bring an empire down. [TRIGGER WARNINGS: human trafficking, forced labor, organ trade, violence, psychological trauma. 18+ only. Reader discretion advised.]

Hanggang saan ang kaya mong isakripisyo para mailigtas ang taong mahal mo? Nang mangailangan si Elena ng labinlimang milyong piso upang mailigtas ang buhay ng kanyang ama, isang alok ang dumating na hindi kayang tanggihan - at hindi rin kayang kalimutan. Isang gabi. Isang desisyon. Isang kapalit na hindi niya inakalang babayaran habang buhay. Isang maikling kwento tungkol sa pag-ibig, sakripisyo, at ang presyo ng kaligtasan.

This is not a story of victory. It is a story of duty, love, and the price everyone paid. DISCLAIMER This story is a literary retelling inspired by the Ramayan. It is written to explore emotions, relationships, and human experiences, not to challenge or reinterpret religious beliefs. Any resemblance to traditional texts is used with respect.

Elias Thorne does not cry. He wakes up at 6:14 AM. He measures his coffee grounds with the back of a knife. He walks the same route to his archival job, counting the cracks in the pavement to keep the world from falling apart. At 38, Elias has turned his life into a museum of habits. His apartment is perfectly quiet, a sanctuary maintained for a ghost: the fading water ring on the dining table, the empty side of the bed, the coat in the closet that smells like cedar and memory. He believes that if he controls the small things-the temperature of the water, the lock on the door-he can survive the absence of the one person who made the silence bearable. But structure is fragile. When a lightbulb burns out and the seasons begin to change, Elias is forced to confront the dust settling in the corners of his life. This is not a story about moving on. It is a story about the friction of survival, the weight of a teaspoon, and the quiet geometry of a life lived in the aftermath.

She writes herself through places, seasons, and fractures. Fragments of becoming - rage and composure, love and absence - blunt lines blurring together, cities too loud and rooms too honest. Not diaries. Not confessions. Just moments that couldn't bear silence.

His heart is completed through three lifetimes. He was once a Camel, carrying weight that wasn't his. Then a Lion, powerful yet painfully imperfect. And finally... a Child, learning the courage to soften again. Each life left its own scars- buried anger, unexpected betrayals, quiet forgiveness, and fragile hope. But every path led him toward a single lesson: "We heal when a heart meets another heart." Now, as a dentist in the human world, he meets fear-stricken patients, broken smiles, trembling hands, and eyes that hide stories deeper than pain. And for the first time, he understands what his three lives were teaching him: Compassion is a form of power. Kindness is a kind of wisdom. And healing... is a shared act. This novel reads like a fairy tale in warmth, a poem in clarity, and a philosophy in depth. Once you begin, you'll feel it- this isn't just a story. It's a quiet act of healing.

A young woman, consumed by first love, pursues a long-distance relationship with a boy still tethered to the ghost of his childhood best friend. As the seasons change, so does he-kind, then cold, present, then distant. Through lonely months and dawn car rides, she tries to grasp what love means when she is always second to a memory. When he finally opens his eyes to her pain, it seems too late. And just when she thinks they've survived it, she uncovers the final betrayal: he's been imagining her through other women's bodies. This is a story of delusion, longing, and the aching realization that some people love the idea of you more than you.

Some houses shelter you. Others teach you how to disappear. In Part One: Then, Paris is a teenager navigating high school, first love, and loyalty to a family that is quietly unraveling. Inside a house ruled by control and unspoken fear, she learns how to stay alert, how to endure, and how to look steady even when nothing feels safe. What happens there will change her forever. In Part Two: Now, Paris is older-and no longer willing to let the past speak for her. With clarity and distance, she revisits the memories she once survived without understanding. She examines what silence protected, what it cost, and what it took to finally unlearn it. This is not a story about waiting to be saved. It is a story about what happens after survival-about memory, agency, and reclaiming the voice that was once forced underground. The House That Taught Me Silence is a powerful, emotionally layered novel about growing up inside harm, stepping beyond it, and choosing where the story lives next.

"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 ___________________________________________ Update: Every Thursday and Sunday Draft: 26 July 2025

Eleanor has spent her life in the shadows of Everridge Hall, a quiet maid with a heart full of unspoken dreams. When William, the young heir of the estate, begins to see her in ways no one else ever has, their secret bond becomes a fragile rebellion against the world that keeps them apart. But war steals William away, and a long‑buried truth about Eleanor's past threatens to upend everything she thought she knew about herself. As letters go missing, loyalties shift, and grief reshapes her future, Eleanor must choose between the life she was born into and the love she cannot forget.

He built an empire by controlling everything - except the memories that refuse to let him go. Between power, silence, and a woman he should never reach again, some absences demand a price.

Huijin raised the boy. Watched him step, hesitant, into the place meant for his older brother. But the boy is no longer a boy, and Huijin no longer knows how to reach him. After the haunting at Caodi village, Yin Yue returns to Yuchi Court changed. The old monk Huixin believes a strange talent stirs within him, a power Yin Yue refuses to name. But there is little time to seek answers in the quiet arts of Sheng. When an honored friend is taken by brigands, tensions with Clan Mao threaten to ignite a war. Yin Yue, ever softer than the world allows, pleads for peace. But peace is brittle in a land so full of ghosts. What awaits in the brigands' lair is not mere man's cruelty. When an ancient presence awakens, not all leave the mountain alive. In the aftermath, wounds fester. Trust fractures. And as whispers spread, a question begins to form: Was this misfortune, or design? And who, unseen, is shaping what's to come? SYNOPSIS VOLUME 1: Grief is a restless ghost. Left untended, it festers. Left unspoken, it haunts. Yin Yue was never meant to lead Clan Ming. That had been his radiant brother's fate, until the former zongzhu of Ming met his end in disgrace. Now, the weight of the disgraced clan rests on his narrow shoulders, his every step watched by Huijin, the man who raised him and the man who cannot forgive him. Alongside them walks an aging swordmaster, oathbound to a boy he knows he cannot protect. When a village is stalked by the ghost of a beast, Yin Yue is obliged to intervene. But the land remembers what men forget. Old wounds seep beneath quiet soil, and not all spirits can be banished. As the past sharpens its teeth, Yin Yue must ask himself: is the haunting in the village, or in the people he calls his own?

"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."

In the silence of the Haworth parsonage, Emily cannot write. Her inkwell is dry. Her gentleman will not come alive. So she dreams. And on the moors, a figure emerges. Heathcliff. But creation has costs. When Emily imagines a woman fierce enough to match him, she loses them both to each other. Night after night, she tries to unmake what she made. Night after night, Catherine will not dissolve. What remains when your characters outgrow you? This is my entry for The Wattpad "WutheringHeights" Movie Reimagined Contest. It is under 3000 words, rated for readers of all ages.

Why do we keep trying? Yunmi notices a wall most people ignore. It isn't hidden or guarded. It's just a part of the street, part of daily life. People pass it, lean against it, and build around it. No one expects anything from it. Yunmi does. She believes things exist for a reason. That patience, effort, and persistence must eventually lead somewhere. So she returns to the wall again and again, convinced that if nothing happens, she simply hasn't done enough yet. The wall never reacts. It never resists. It never changes. As Yunmi gives more of herself to something that offers nothing back, she begins to face a quieter truth - not about the wall, but about herself. And about why we stay, long after nothing is answering.