Thrills, Daily Lives, Dark Minds, and Hidden Agendas
Herein lie unfinished tales, presented as pivotal scenes lacking full context. Each piece is a moment captured, an opening into a potential world without a definitive beginning or end. They are designed to spark curiosity, encouraging readers to envision the broader story that these moments belong to.
The project’s objective is to explore the creative interface between human authorship and artificial intelligence. It operates as an experiment demonstrating how digital tools can aid in the development of new narrative structures, enriching the forms of storytelling available and cultivating improved digital literacy.
This post features a dynamic array of genres: from high-stakes Action-Adventure and grounded Slice of Life to unsettling Psychological Horror, sharp Satire, and covert Espionage / Spy Fiction. Jamie F. Bell, Tony Eetak, and Leaf Richards contribute these diverse unfinished tales, each with their distinct voice.
We invite you to experience these stories as springboards for your own creative contributions. Imagine the missing pieces and forge the complete narrative in the landscape of your own thoughts.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
Journey through dynamic short stories in Action-Adventure, Slice of Life, Psychological Horror, Satire, and Espionage / Spy Fiction, including Gothic, Domestic Thriller, Science Fiction, and Stream of Consciousness categories. Our mission is to enhance digital literacy by exploring AI-assisted narrative and employing creative technology, paving the way for the future of digital publishing.
The Porcelain Tithe
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Gothic | Genre: Action-Adventure
It wasn’t a proper cold. Not the kind that bit your nose and made your lungs ache. This cold was smooth and quiet, like the inside of a glass marble. It didn’t seem to want to hurt you; it just wanted you to stop moving, to become a still and silent part of the endless, frozen landscape. Before him, the chasm breathed out a plume of pale blue air that smelled of ozone and forgotten sugar.
The Rec Hall Basement
Category: Domestic Thriller | Genre: Slice of Life
A group of youth and community members are at a kitchen table, excitedly brainstorming plans to convert an old, disused recreation hall basement into an arts and culture space, while an underlying sense of mystery and unease slowly builds for one of them.
Static on the Ice
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Science Fiction | Genre: Psychological Horror
Outside, the wind howls, a physical wall of white against the reinforced windows of Arctic Research Station Epsilon. Inside, the silence is broken only by the hum of the recycler and the quiet click of Cassie’s keyboard as she runs diagnostics. She’s been alone for three weeks.
The Glutton’s Graveyard
Author: Tony Eetak | Category: Stream of Consciousness | Genre: Satire
The forest pressed in, a sprawling, indifferent cathedral of amber and rust-coloured leaves. The air, crisp and tasting faintly of pine resin and wet soil, offered a fleeting chill that promised winter. Jesse swung the axe, a rhythmic, satisfying thud against the stubborn trunk, a physical conversation with something that had stood silent for decades. Sweat beaded on his brow, mingling with stray pine needles, a small rebellion against the cool air. It was a good ache, a honest one, unlike the dull, systemic thrum of his own unease with… well, everything else.
The Grey District Ledger
Author: Leaf Richards | Category: Espionage / Spy Fiction | Genre: Espionage / Spy Fiction
The air hung heavy and still, thick with the scent of damp concrete and the memory of countless forgotten lives. Outside, the city shivered under a thin blanket of winter snow, its usual clamour muted by the early morning hour and the pervasive, bone-deep cold. Inside the old building, dust motes danced in the sparse slivers of light, painting a tableau of neglect and a slow, creeping decay.
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.
