Scenes Without a Final Act
These short stories are presented as incomplete artifacts, offering the reader a view into a scene without the comfort of a conclusion. They function like overheard conversations or discovered letters—rich in detail but lacking a final destination. This structure relies on the audience’s capacity to envision the missing pieces of the timeline.
Defined by the intersection of human creativity, interdisciplinary arts, and applied artificial intelligence research, this project acts as a laboratory for modern writing. It highlights the role of digital tools as partners in the creative process, aiming to refine storytelling techniques and enhance digital literacy workflows.
The selections for this post traverse time and reality, moving from Dystopian futures to the grounded realism of Contemporary Fiction, Slice of Life, and Historical Fiction. Authors Jamie F. Bell and Tony Eetak have contributed their work to this collection.
Take some time to inhabit these unfinished tales. We encourage you to conceptualize the ending that these characters deserve.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
At the intersection of grimdark fantasy and contemporary fiction lies our mission to innovate within the publishing industry. Through the use of creative technology, we curate short stories that enhance digital literacy while providing deep engagement. Whether delving into the shadows of a mystery, the harsh realities of a dystopian world, or the quiet reflection of slice of life and historical fiction, our AI-assisted narrative approach ensures a unique reading experience. We are dedicated to exploring new frontiers in storytelling, offering a blend of romance and speculative fiction that defines the next generation of literature.
Aetheric Drift
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Mystery | Genre: Dystopian
The city of Veridia hunched under a sky the colour of tarnished pewter, the kind of perpetual twilight that felt less like evening and more like a permanent state of atmospheric failure. A crisp, damp chill, redolent with the smell of wet concrete and burning refuse, clung to everything. Leaves, brittle and rust-brown, skittered across the pavement like panicked insects, driven by a wind that promised nothing but further entropy.
The Resonance of Empty Chairs
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Grimdark Fantasy | Genre: Contemporary Fiction
The air, thick with the damp scent of fallen leaves and the distant, acrid tang of woodsmoke, pressed against the windowpanes of the community hall. Outside, a bruised-purple twilight was bleeding across the sky, stripping the last defiant golds and oranges from the maple trees that lined the unkempt car park. Inside, the heating clanked to life with a rusty sigh, struggling to chase the pervasive autumnal chill from the large, echoing room. The fluorescent lights overhead, too bright and unforgiving, hummed a low, constant thrum, casting a sickly sheen on the rows of cheap plastic chairs that sat, mostly empty, awaiting attendees who might never arrive. Every scuff on the polished linoleum floor, every faded stain on the beige acoustic tiles, seemed to absorb the light rather than reflect it, adding to the room’s deep, quiet exhaustion.
Bentonite Pixels
Author: Tony Eetak | Category: Slice of Life | Genre: Slice of Life
A freezing garage in Northern Ontario turned into a high-tech editing suite, filled with the hum of overworked computers and the smell of stale coffee.
The Seaplane and the Sickbed
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Historical Fiction | Genre: Historical Fiction
The air hung heavy and still, the kind of summer heat that made your clothes stick to your skin even before dawn. The East Main Post awoke with a familiar rumble, the ‘Fort Rock’ preparing for its journey. My boots crunched on the coarse gravel as I walked towards the jetty, the scent of damp earth and woodsmoke clinging to the morning air. Already, the bay water shimmered with a dull, coppery sheen under a sky promising another relentless day.
The Thawing Bloom
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Romance | Genre: Contemporary Fiction
The air in the university lecture theatre hung heavy and dry, recirculated heat doing little to combat the biting Winnipeg winter that pressed against the tall, grimy windows. Fluorescent lights hummed a low, persistent note overhead, casting a pallid glow over the rows of students hunched over laptops and notebooks. Outside, the Exchange District was a canvas of muted greys and whites, another January storm threatening to descend, mirroring the quiet tension within the room.
About the Project
By design, these stories have no beginning and no end. Many stories are fictional, but many others are not. They are snapshots from worlds that never fully exist, inviting you to imagine what comes before and what happens next. We had fun exploring this project, and hope you will too.
The Unfinished Tales and Short Stories collection is part of an experimental, creative arts and research program by The Arts Incubator Winnipeg and the Art Borups Corners collectives. Each chapter is an interdisciplinary arts and narrative storytelling experiment focused on two key areas: AI-Assisted Scriptwriting, where researchers explore using AI to generate story ideas, plot structures, and alternative story arcs to enhance creative development; and Talent Development and Training, where the project studies the necessary skills for creative professionals to manage AI and immersive technologies in production, helping to inform future training curricula. The project was made possible with funding and support from the Ontario Arts Council Multi and Inter-Arts Projects program and the Government of Ontario. We thank them for supporting the arts, digital transformation research and innovation in Ontario.
About the Author
