Glimpses Into Untold Realities
This collection presents a series of unique, unfinished tales. Each piece offers a vivid glimpse into a larger narrative, much like an intimate diary entry or a scene paused mid-dialogue. We invite readers to approach these fragments with an open mind, ready to construct the absent beginning and potential conclusion.
This project is designed as an experiment at the intersection of human creativity and artificial intelligence. Its purpose is to explore how digital tools can act as a partner in the writing process, shaping new forms of storytelling and enhancing digital literacy in contemporary settings.
Today’s selection journeys through diverse genres, from the unsettling depths of Cosmic Horror and the stark landscapes of Post-Apocalyptic settings, to the sharp insights of Satire. Jamie F. Bell is the author contributing to this particular collection.
Engage with these stories and allow your imagination to complete the arcs, transforming these moments into personal, expansive narrative experiences.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
Explore our curated collection of short stories covering Contemporary Drama, Coming-of-Age, Cosmic Horror, Post-Apocalyptic, and Satire, often presented with Cyberpunk, Allegorical, Colloquial / Conversational, Action-Adventure, or Minimalist approaches. Our mission fosters digital literacy by investigating AI-assisted narrative and the innovative future of publishing driven by creative technology.
The Cold Breath of Fir and Exhaust Fumes
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Cyberpunk | Genre: Contemporary Drama
A thin layer of frozen drizzle clung to everything, turning the city into a landscape of treacherous sheen. The air bit with a metallic cold, tasting of petrol and distant pine, as the last vestiges of late afternoon light faded into a bruised purple, promising an even harsher night. Every breath was a small, visible cloud, quickly swallowed by the general gloom.
Cobblestone Fractures
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Allegorical | Genre: Coming-of-Age
The wind, a cruel, invisible blade, scoured Portage Avenue, whipping grit into our faces. Every breath was a painful negotiation with the sub-zero air. Snow, already grey from exhaust, clung stubbornly to the kerbside, reflecting the dull, industrial glow of streetlights that fought a losing battle against the encroaching dusk.
The Shape of the Exhibit
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Colloquial / Conversational | Genre: Cosmic Horror
The air in Gallery Three felt too thin, tasting of ozone and wet plaster. Outside, a late January blizzard howled, but within, a different kind of storm raged around what was once ‘Iteration 7’. Light, sharp and wrong, pulsed from the centre, carving impossible shadows.
What the Loom Remembers
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Action-Adventure | Genre: Post-Apocalyptic
The air in the root cellar was cool and heavy with the smell of damp earth and potatoes. It was a good smell. A safe smell. It was the smell of the present, the sanctioned reality. The smells Tanya worked with were dangerous: the faint, chemical tang of a piece of pre-collapse denim, the ghost of perfume on a silk scarf, the acrid scent of scorched wool. These were the smells of memory, and memory was treason.
The Paradox Seeded
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Minimalist | Genre: Satire
A biting spring morning unfurls over ‘The Verdant Citadel,’ an intentional community cobbled together from salvaged timber and earnest, if misguided, ambition. The air, crisp with the scent of thawing earth and nascent growth, carries a faint undercurrent of woodsmoke and damp soil. A small gathering has convened in the central clearing, a patch of churned mud still battling the last vestiges of winter’s chill, all eyes fixed on a canvas-draped crate that promises, or so the rhetoric insists, a new dawn.
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.
