Surviving Worlds, Evolving Selves
Here, you will find short stories presented as story fragments, each one a window into a moment caught mid-action. They are like pages torn from a wider tapestry, hinting at a past and a future that the reader is invited to construct. This format is designed to spark imagination, urging you to envision the full scope of each character’s journey.
This project represents an experimental approach to storytelling, exploring the synergy between human creativity and artificial intelligence. It highlights how digital tools can act as an enabling partner in the writing process, fostering new forms of expression and promoting digital literacy within the literary domain.
This collection dives into the stark landscapes of Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi, the personal growth of Coming-of-Age tales, the chilling suspense of Horror, and the fast pace of Thriller. Jamie F. Bell and Eva Suluk are the authors whose distinctive styles converge in these compelling, unfinished tales.
Your engagement is crucial to these stories. We invite you to delve into these glimpses, allowing your own creative thoughts to complete their arcs and transform these story fragments into fully realized experiences.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
Experience a range of short stories, from Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi and Horror to Coming-of-Age and Gritty Realism, with fast-paced, pulpy narratives. This initiative promotes digital literacy by exploring AI-assisted narrative, leveraging creative technology to innovate publishing and define the future of digital storytelling.
A Curation of Ghosts
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Hardboiled Noir | Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi
The air inside St. Jude’s Hospital for Children was thick with the dust of thirty years of silence. It wasn’t ordinary dust; it was a fine, grey powder composed of desiccated plaster, decayed records, and the faint, persistent trace of caesium that set the teeth on edge. Brandon played their headtorch beam across the reception desk, the light catching on a plastic teddy bear, its eyes and nose melted into a single, grotesque tear. The official history, the one narrated by the soothing voice of the Archive AI, called this place ‘stabilised and memorialised’. The reality was just rot.
The Winter Broadcast
Author: Eva Suluk | Category: Gritty Realism | Genre: Coming-of-Age
The control room, usually a chaotic hub of activity, felt eerily still, its silence broken only by the distant hum of ancient equipment and the nervous cough of someone down the hall. Winter had settled deep into Northwood, pressing against the worn brick of the community television station, and an even colder dread had settled into the hearts of its small crew. This room, once a canvas for youthful ambition, now felt like a tomb, waiting for its final broadcast.
The Grid
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Fast-Paced / Pulpy | Genre: Horror
A chill, metallic tang hangs heavy in the pre-dawn air, clinging to the skeletal remains of high-rises. The city’s hum, a low thrum of failing emergency generators, feels more like a tremor beneath Tyler’s worn boots as he slips between shadows, each movement a gamble against the profound, terrifying silence.
An Unscheduled Pickup at the Portage Bridge
Author: Eva Suluk | Category: Poetic / Lyrical | Genre: Thriller
The weight of the canvas messenger bag was all wrong. Kenny 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.
The Slide Carousel
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Slice of Life | Genre: Slice of Life
A dusty, cluttered antique shop in Winnipeg on a hot summer afternoon, where two strangers bond over a vintage slide projector.
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.
