Glimpses into Divergent Realities
The short stories presented here are incomplete by design. They function as narrative windows, offering a scene, a dialogue, or a character portrait without the traditional arc of a full story. This approach emphasizes the power of implication, allowing the reader to fill in the narrative gaps with their own interpretations.
This project explores the intersection of human creativity and artificial intelligence. It stands as an experiment in how digital tools can act as a partner in the writing process, shaping new forms of storytelling and enhancing digital literacy. The goal is to observe new possibilities when a creative concept is given a fresh, algorithmic perspective.
This collection features compelling genres such as the gritty Noir Mystery, intense Domestic Thriller, bleak Post-Apocalyptic Thriller, sprawling Family Saga, and reflective Contemporary Fiction. These diverse unfinished tales were brought forth by Jamie F. Bell.
We encourage you to engage actively with these tales. Speculate on the fates of the characters, ponder the origins of their conflicts, and envision the conclusions that resonate most with your own imagination.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
Discover compelling short stories spanning Noir Mystery, gripping Domestic Thriller, intense Post-Apocalyptic Thriller, sprawling Family Saga, Contemporary Fiction, vast Space Opera, intriguing Mystery, Post-Apocalyptic Survival, unique Western Style BL, and timeless Romance. Our mission is to enhance digital literacy, demonstrating how creative technology and AI-assisted narrative are revolutionizing publishing and charting the course for the future of digital publishing.
All Our Hollow Covenants
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Space Opera | Genre: Noir Mystery
The fog rolled into Halifax harbour like a dirty grey blanket, muffling the world in damp silence. Thomas could taste the salt and diesel on his tongue. He leaned against a rusted piling of the derelict ferry terminal, the wood slick with moisture, and watched the man approach. The man, Chris, moved like a mouse in a hawk’s shadow—all jerky movements and fearful, sideways glances.
The Trapper’s Glass Eye
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Mystery | Genre: Domestic Thriller
The thing that didn’t belong was a button. Not a pioneer’s bone button or a soldier’s brass one, but a small, pearlescent disc from a girl’s coat. It sat dead centre in the taxidermied beaver’s left eye socket, a clean, bright circle against the dusty brown glass of the right. No one was supposed to be in the Fur Trade room after closing, but the lock on the back door had been jimmied with a pop can tab for years. The air in here always smelled the same: mothballs, cracked leather, and the faint, sweet odour of decay that clung to the stuffed animals.
The Pallid Canopy
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Post-Apocalyptic Survival | Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Thriller
The air hung heavy and still, thick with the scent of wet, decaying leaves and something metallic, something that always clung to the back of the throat since the Repository spilled its guts. A low, grey sky pressed down on the skeletal trees, making the day feel older than it was. Every gust of wind, every rustle of dry bracken, was a reminder of the unseen enemy that had remade their world.
The Grind and the Grit
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Western Style BL | Genre: Family Saga
Beneath a sky bruised with the promise of more spring rain, August wrestled with the rusted heart of a tractor that had seen better decades. The air hung thick with the metallic tang of old oil and the earthy scent of churned-up mud, a testament to a spring thaw that refused to settle. Every grunt, every strained muscle, was a prayer for the machine to cough to life, to let him move past this one, immediate, greasy problem.
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 an experimental, creative research project by The Arts Incubator Winnipeg and the Art Borups Corners Storytelling clubs. Each chapter is a unique interdisciplinary arts and narrative storytelling experiment, born from a collaboration between artists and applied AI researchers, designed to explore the boundaries of creative writing, automation, and storytelling. 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.
