A collection of poetic / lyrical English short stories to read.
By Tony Eetak
The wind carried the brittle scent of freezing pine and something else, something metallic and sweet. Snow, fresh and undisturbed, stretched out like a shroud, broken only by the sharp, stark silhouette of the evergreens. It was a canvas, thought Graham, where someone had painted a very specific, very cold picture.
By Jamie F. Bell
The boreal forest, a canvas of burnt orange and fading crimson, felt different now. A chill, deeper than the autumn air, had settled amongst the spruces, carrying with it a faint, unplaceable scent – like burnt sugar and damp batteries. The quiet hush of the woods, usually a comforting blanket, had frayed, leaving behind a persistent, low thrum that vibrated in the soles of boots and the marrow of bone, drawing two small figures deeper into its unsettling core.
By Leaf Richards
The sluggish river, a ribbon of murky green, meandered under a suffocating summer sky. The air, thick with the scent of wet earth and distant urban decay, pressed down on the narrow bank where scattered debris clung to the roots of an ancient willow. Humidity clung like a second skin, promising no relief from the sun's relentless glare, making every movement a minor act of defiance against the oppressive heat.
By Jamie F. Bell
The air, thin and sharp with the metallic scent of approaching rain and decaying leaves, burned in Paulo’s lungs. Every ragged breath was a failure, not quite filling the screaming space in his chest. He pressed himself harder against the corrugated metal of the shed, the cold seeping through his thin jacket, trying to make himself smaller than the fear that was making him huge and clumsy.
By Jamie F. Bell
Dave felt the forced smile on his face start to ache. It was the same smile he wore at parent-teacher interviews and when making small talk with neighbours. He pointed towards the Johnston Terminal. "They've got some cool shops in there. A great kite store, I think. Or we could, you know, get some food first?" He was trying for 'enthusiastic dad', but the tone landed somewhere near 'desperate game show host'.
By Jamie F. Bell
The hum of the dehumidifiers in the provincial archives was a constant, low drone, a sound designed to preserve paper but which always made Pete's teeth ache. He sat at a heavy oak table, the only person in the reading room. On the grey foam cradle in front of him lay the diary of one Alistair MacLeod, a surveyor who had the profound misfortune of being in Winnipeg during the great flood of 1826. The book itself was a wreck; the leather cover was warped and stained, and the pages inside were a mottled brown, the ink bleeding into spidery, illegible fractals.
By Jamie F. Bell
The wind coming off the Red River had a damp chill to it, even in late August. It carried the smell of diesel from the tour boat and deep-fried onions from a food kiosk. Mike felt the grit of the concrete plaza through the thin soles of his boots as he tapped his foot, trying to find a rhythm that wasn't there. His guitar, an old Yamaha with a crack running through the varnish, felt heavier than usual.
By Jamie F. Bell
The air in the Manitoba Museum was a carefully curated blend of controlled humidity and the faint, papery scent of things long dead. It was the kind of quiet that felt heavy, a silence built from the reverence of schoolchildren and the shuffling feet of tourists. Dawson felt the counterfeit potshard in his jacket pocket, its smooth, fake glaze a small, cold point of reality against his hip in the otherwise historical dreamscape.
By Jamie F. Bell
The Henge Stones were humming, a low-frequency thrum that vibrated up through the soles of Kaelen's boots and settled in her teeth. This was the Fulcrum, the point around which the year turned, and it was her responsibility. From her vantage point on the ridge, she could see the Unravelling beginning: a patch of green grass down in the valley blushing to a premature, impossible orange, while fifty feet away, a field of late corn withered under a pocket of shimmering, localised heat.
By Jamie F. Bell
The corn was a dry, rasping sea under a sky the colour of a fading bruise. Caleb walked the row between his family’s plot and the Millers', his boots crunching on the parched earth. It was the last week of August, and the air was thick with the dusty, sweet smell of dying stalks. In Haven's Reach, this was a sacred time. A time of gratitude. To Caleb, it just felt like an ending.
By Jamie F. Bell
The padlock on the main gate was a joke. Finn clipped it with a pair of bolt cutters from his dad’s shed, and the chain fell away with a tired, rusty clatter. The sound was swallowed by the rhythmic shushing of the waves under the pier. Inside, the Oceanville Fun Fair was a graveyard of summer memories, its rides hulking like sleeping metal beasts under the weak security lights.
By Jamie F. Bell
The 'No Trespassing' sign was more rust than paint, its warning bleached by a decade of August suns. Chloe pushed past it without a glance, her worn boots sinking into the soft pine needles that carpeted the path. Maya followed, the empty jam jar clinking against the trowel in her bag. The air under the trees was already cooler, thick with the smell of damp earth and decay—the first hint that autumn was winning.
By Jamie F. Bell
The air over Port Blossom had that specific late August smell—a mix of salt rot, diesel from the fishing boats, and the cloying sweetness of the last of the wild roses clinging to the dunes. Leo sat on the breakwater, the rough concrete cold against his thighs, and turned the thing over and over in his hands. It was heavy, like a fossilised heart, its surface pocked with tiny holes that whistled faintly when the wind hit them just right.
By Jamie F. Bell
The river, swollen with spring melt, surged with a relentless, cold power. Its sound, a low, continuous growl, swallowed all lesser noises, forcing Owen's world into a contained pocket of damp air and the rhythmic crunch of shale under his boots. The sky above was a bruised lavender, pregnant with the promise of more rain, and the skeletal branches of the cottonwoods lining the bank seemed to reach, almost pleadingly, towards the coming deluge.
By Eva Suluk
The weight of the canvas messenger bag was all wrong. Kyle had been a bike courier for six months, and he knew the feel of documents, hard drives, lunch orders, and illicit party favours. This was different. It was a dense, irregular weight that shifted when he moved, accompanied by a faint, metallic clinking. The instructions from his handler, a man he knew only as 'Mr. Pat', had been explicit: 'Don't look in the bag. Don't be late. Don't be noticed.' He was failing at the last one already; his sweat-soaked t-shirt was plastered to his back, and he felt like every tourist's camera was pointed directly at him.