Lead Blanket
By Jamie F. Bell
Stan's dorm room has become a gravity well of depression and dirty laundry, isolating him from the superhero academy outside.
Superhero Short Stories
10 Stories
The Lacquer of Still Moments
By Jamie F. Bell
The sound was not a scream, but the colour of one. A piercing, synthetic violet that sliced through the thin walls of his quarters and scraped directly against his teeth. It was the sound of something that should not be, the official tone for a category of problem that had no business existing within the agreed-upon laws of physics. It meant broken time, and it meant he had less than three minutes to be armed, armoured, and operational.
The Unfolding Permafrost Veil
By Jamie F. Bell
The low, guttural hum began like a rumour across the frozen tundra, vibrating through the soles of Skyler's insulated boots long before it reached her ears. A weak, bruised sun, barely clearing the horizon, cast long, distorted shadows across the endless expanse of snow-dusted spruce and rock, turning the world into a study in desaturated greys and purples. The air itself felt brittle, sharp with the promise of frostbite, each breath a painful contract with the sub-zero reality of the deep North. Something was fundamentally out of sync with the age-old rhythm of the winter, a mechanical discord in a symphony of silence.
A Sprouting Secret
By Jamie F. Bell
The spring air in Winnipeg held a specific crispness, a promise of warmth that hadn't quite delivered. Down Corydon Avenue, the usual city hum—a blend of distant traffic, snippets of conversation from sidewalk cafes, and the metallic clang of a passing streetcar—created a familiar, if somewhat dull, soundtrack. Simon walked with his hands in his pockets, shoulders hunched against a breeze that still carried winter's bite, oblivious to the subtle shift beneath his feet that would soon irrevocably alter his carefully constructed reality.
A Theory of Dissolving Spoons
By Jamie F. Bell
All John wanted was a quiet Americano and the Saturday crossword. What he got was a lesson in spontaneous entropy reversal. It started, as it often did, with the sugar. He didn't even take sugar in his coffee, but he liked the neat, ordered geometry of the cubes in the bowl on the table. Today, however, that geometry was refusing to remain static. One cube, then another, was sliding from the pile with no discernible propulsion, arranging itself on the dark wood of the table. He was sure of it. This coffee shop was a localised anomaly, a tiny, baffling pocket of defiance against the laws of the universe.
Where the Condensation Gathers
By Jamie F. Bell
Linda believed in the truth of maps. They were her life’s work, the careful translation of chaotic reality into elegant, understandable lines. But the maps that appeared each morning on the large window of her coffee shop were different. They were not translations; they were truths unto themselves. Formed by the dance of morning condensation, the intricate swirls and rivers of moisture would resolve, for a few precious hours, into a perfect, impossible coastline. A land she had never seen on any chart. Today, a new mountain range had appeared in the south, jagged and formidable.
The Petal and the Resonant Frequency
By Leaf Richards
The plant was Linda’s greatest failure. For fifty years as a botanist, she had coaxed life from the most stubborn seeds and resurrected flora on the brink of extinction. But this thing… this thing was a silent, emerald insult. It had been a gift from a former colleague, discovered in a geological sample from a deep-ice core. It had leaves like polished jade and a stem like coiled wire, but in the five years she’d owned it, it had not grown, not wilted, not changed in any discernible way. It just sat in its pot in the corner of her coffee shop, radiating a profound and ancient indifference.
Frozen Echoes
By Jamie F. Bell
The crisp, frigid air of Central Park bit with the familiar sting of a Winnipeg winter, painting breath into transient clouds. Snow lay thick and undisturbed on the park's sprawling expanse, muffling the usual city hum into a distant thrum. Bare branches, claw-like and stark, reached towards a sky already fading into the bruised purples of late afternoon. Suddenly, from the deepest shadows beneath the ancient elms bordering the frozen pond, a shimmering, almost liquid light pulsed, an unnatural violet against the encroaching twilight, then vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
All the Seconds Are Wrong
By Jamie F. Bell
Another Tuesday, another flat white. John settled into the worn leather of the armchair, a throne from which he conducted his daily surveillance of the mundane. The air in ‘The Daily Grind’ was thick with the reassuring smell of roasted beans and damp wool coats. Outside, the city of Manchester presented its usual grey, rain-streaked face. But John wasn't watching the traffic. He was watching the second hand on the large wall clock, and for the third time this morning, it had just stuttered, jumping backwards two full ticks before resuming its placid journey.
The Tremor in the Porcelain
By Jamie F. Bell
The thing about tradecraft, Terry mused as he watched the street, is that it never really leaves you. It’s a cancer of the soul. He sat with his back to the wall, a clear view of the door and the large plate-glass window. The little bell above the door was his early warning system. The window, with its reflection of the room behind him, was his rear-view mirror. ‘The Daily Grind’ was an excellent location: two exits, predictable morning traffic, and coffee strong enough to strip paint. It was, for all intents and purposes, a perfect place to receive a warning.