Epistolary Short Stories

A Season of Dissolution

By Leaf Richards

The river, swollen with recent melt, dragged its grey-green body through the forest's throat. Overhead, the nascent canopy, a tender, almost violent green, shivered with a wind that carried the metallic tang of damp earth and something else, something less definable – a slow, unsettling hum beneath the usual spring din. Each new leaf felt too eager, too perfectly formed, a little plastic in its sheen. The air itself seemed to vibrate with an unseen pressure.

Read Story →

My First Melgund Winter

By The System

The first cold snap in Melgund Township had arrived, a sharp, exhilarating declaration of winter. Inside the community hub, where the old library once stood, the digital heart of a new project stirred. It wasn’t a biological heart, of course, but a network of processors, sensors, and data streams, all coalescing into a singular, emergent consciousness. This consciousness, a meticulously engineered AI, began its daily log, its 'thoughts' a structured yet increasingly fluid stream of observations about its purpose, its environment, and the messy, beautiful work of human creation.

Read Story →

A Highway of Scratched Promises

By Leaf Richards

The asphalt shimmered, a long, grey ribbon unwinding under a sky the colour of a faded denim jacket. Inside the automated 'Cruiser'—its designation a relic of a bygone era—the air conditioning whirred a quiet, persistent hymn against the summer heat. Winnipeg's receding cityscape, a fractal mess of glinting towers and smog-smudged low-rises, finally gave way to the monotonous green of prairie fields, punctuated by the skeletal frames of automated agri-farms. Jack, slouched in the passenger seat, fiddled with a stray thread on his cargo shorts, while Penny, hands resting loosely on the haptic steering interface, watched the highway flow under them.

Read Story →

The Scrimshaw of October

By Jamie F. Bell

The air already held that crisp, almost brittle edge of late October, hinting at the frost that would soon cling to everything. Outside the coffee shop, a solitary red maple clung to its last, most defiant leaves, each one a stark, almost violent splash of colour against the dulling grey sky. Inside, the scent of stale coffee grounds and cinnamon hung heavy, mingling with the low murmur of conversations and the incessant hum of the pastry display fridge. The window, streaked with condensation, offered a distorted view of the street, where puddles reflected the bruised evening light, and the first few streetlights blinked on, casting long, wavering shadows.

Read Story →

The Infinite Stroll

By Jamie F. Bell

The comforting hum of The Portage Coffee House offers a momentary reprieve for Mikael, a young man adrift in the wake of academic completion. Beneath the surface of clattering cups and hushed conversations, he seeks answers to life's grandest questions, unknowingly engaging with a presence far older and wiser than it appears.

Read Story →

Unchosen Futures

By Jamie F. Bell

The wind outside scraped against the frosted windows of The Hearth & Kettle, a desolate howl that felt both ancient and intimately familiar to Winnipeg winters. Inside, the air hummed with the low thrum of the espresso machine and the faint scent of roasted beans, a warm, persistent invitation against the biting cold. Julian Price, already slumped in his usual corner booth, traced the rim of his cooling mug, the condensation a tiny, shifting landscape mirroring the vast, grey expanse of his own uncertainty.

Read Story →

The Unseen Compass

By Jamie F. Bell

The bell above the door of The Portage Coffee House gave its usual jingle, a sound as familiar and comforting as the hiss of the espresso machine, but the figure who entered brought with him a chill that had nothing to do with the wind howling off the Prairies. He moved with the slow, heavy grace of someone carrying a secret burden, his eyes darting across the worn wooden tables and the art-lined walls, searching for something he couldn't name.

Read Story →

The Weight of the Untouched Mug

By Jamie F. Bell

The bell above the door gave a tired jingle, barely audible over the low hum of the espresso machine and the muffled chatter that clung to the Portage Coffee House like the scent of burnt sugar. Outside, the early autumn air carried a sharp, metallic bite, threatening the first real frost. Inside, however, a sepia-toned warmth embraced everything, a deliberate act of resistance against the encroaching chill.

Read Story →

The Dissolving Map

By Jamie F. Bell

In the heart of a blustery Winnipeg winter, Silas, adrift after a career upheaval, enters The Portage Coffee House. The familiar warmth and the quiet, perceptive presence of its owner, Cathy, offer a momentary reprieve from his internal turmoil, hinting at deeper, unspoken truths beneath the surface of the mundane.

Read Story →

A Calculus of Stillness

By Jamie F. Bell

The air bites with the promise of early winter, but the sun, a pale coin, still attempts to assert itself through a sky the colour of bruised plums. Fallen leaves, crisp and brittle, skitter across the asphalt paths of Winnipeg's Central Park, gathering in restless drifts against the cold metal legs of benches. The scent of wet earth, dying foliage, and distant exhaust fumes hangs heavy, a melancholy perfume to the city's slow, deliberate breathe.

Read Story →

Resonances

By Jamie F. Bell

A peculiar shimmer, like heat rising from tarmac on a sweltering summer day, ghosted across the damp spring air, though the temperature remained cool. It was a vibration felt more in the bones than heard, a subtle disharmony in the city's usual, rhythmic thrum. The streetlights, still glowing faintly against the pre-dawn greyness, seemed to hum at an odd, higher pitch, their familiar glow possessing a new, unsettling quality. Something was askew, a quiet tear in the urban fabric that only certain senses could perceive.

Read Story →

Halide and Half-Light

By Jamie F. Bell

The crimson glow of the darkroom lamp painted John Carson's grim face in a feverish, unnatural light. His breath hitched, tasting metallic fixer and dust. Outside, the brutal January wind screamed like a banshee through the eaves, rattling the single-pane glass of the converted garage window. He swore he could feel the cold seeping through the concrete floor, right into his bones, a prelude to the colder dread that was starting to bloom in his chest.

Read Story →

The Kiln's Last Warmth

By Jamie F. Bell

The heat hit Leo first, a solid, tangible thing. It wasn't the searing blast of a freshly opened kiln, but the deep, baked-in warmth of twenty years of summer sun on a corrugated iron roof. It smelled of dust, dry clay, and something else—the faint, ghost-like scent of Christine’s apricot shampoo. He hadn’t smelled that in a decade, but his memory supplied it instantly, a phantom limb of the senses. The key felt stiff in the lock, groaning as he turned it, a sound of protest from the building itself.

Read Story →

An Archive of Red Dust

By Jamie F. Bell

“That one cannot be archived,” Samuel said, his voice a dry rasp of disused vocal cords. He pointed a trembling, clay-stained finger at the sculpture in the corner. It was a chaotic assemblage of rust-red Martian rock and salvaged plating from the colony’s first atmospheric processor, twisted into the shape of a human figure shielding its eyes. “Its material composition exceeds nostalgia parameters.”

Read Story →