Flash Stories

Threads of Fate

hamed Jan. 21, 2025, 5:20 p.m.

The jacket was perfect: 70s leather, caramel-brown, with just the right amount of wear. Clara spotted it first on a tiny thrift store's Instagram page, its post tagged “DM to bid.” She immediately sent her offer.

Then came the notification: Sorry, another bidder just offered $80.

Clara scowled at her screen. This wasn’t her first thrift war, and she wasn’t about to lose now. $85, she typed, her fingers flying.

The reply was almost instant: $90 from the other bidder.

Her heart sank. It wasn’t just anyone—it had to be VintageVincent. His account was her biggest competition on campus. While Clara’s ThriftedByClara specialized in funky boho finds, his page leaned into edgy retro pieces that always seemed to outsell hers. Of course he wanted the jacket.

She gritted her teeth and raised the stakes. $100.

Minutes passed. Then a new reply: The other bidder is offering $110. Final offer?

Clara …

The Garden at Dusk

hamed Jan. 18, 2025, 6:48 p.m.

Every evening, as the sun began to dip behind Tehran’s skyline, Layla sat by the window of her small florist shop, watching the world bustle outside. The city was noisy, filled with cars, honking horns, and people rushing from one place to the next. But inside, surrounded by the scent of roses, jasmine, and carnations, Layla found solace in her solitude. The flowers never judged her, never made her feel lonely.

One evening, as she watered a potted orchid, she noticed a street cat sitting on the sidewalk outside her shop. Its fur was patchy, and its eyes gleamed with a knowing, almost human quality. Layla had seen this cat around for weeks, but it always kept to itself. Tonight, however, it did something peculiar.

It stared directly at her through the window, and as the sun touched the horizon, the cat spoke.

"You’re not meant to be alone, you …

Roots and Resilience

hamed Jan. 21, 2025, 5:22 p.m.

Cassie first noticed Liam at a plant swap in the park. While most people grabbed hardy pothos or trendy monstera cuttings, Liam reached for the saddest, half-dead succulent on the table—a shriveled Echeveria with only two leaves left.

“You’re really going for that one?” she asked, unable to hide her skepticism.

He smiled, cradling the plant like it was a treasure. “Every plant deserves a second chance.”

It was the kind of answer that made her pause. By the end of the swap, she’d left with a jade plant and his number.

Their relationship blossomed quickly, fueled by trips to nurseries, swapping propagation tips, and late-night texts about overwatering disasters. On their third date, Liam gifted her a tiny Haworthia in a ceramic pot he’d painted himself.

“This one’s tough,” he said, grinning. “Like you.”

Cassie rolled her eyes but kept the plant on her windowsill, where it thrived.

Months …

The Playlist Connection

hamed Jan. 21, 2025, 5:12 p.m.

Ava never expected much from Spotify’s "Collaborative Playlist" feature, but when her friend added her to one called Serendipity Vibes, she decided to check it out. Among her friend's typical indie picks, one song stood out: “Moonlit Bridges” by an artist she'd never heard of, Wilder Coast. Its haunting melody and whispered lyrics pulled her in like a quiet conversation meant just for her.

Curious, she checked who added it. The username read: ElliotDares.

Ava hesitated, then added “Only in Dreams” by The Drowned Pines—her favorite late-night driving song. Within a day, ElliotDares added another track, and another. Soon, the playlist became a private dialogue of shared discoveries. Neither spoke, but their choices felt like sentences. The crescendos and key changes carried emotions neither could articulate in text.

One day, Ava noticed a new song title: “Come Find Me” by Wilder Coast. The artist was playing at a small indie …

In Real Time

hamed Jan. 21, 2025, 5:19 p.m.

At first, it was nothing special—a stranger’s face in the background of Theo’s BeReal. Just another blurry figure in a café, hunched over a laptop. But the next day, she was there again. Same café, same seat by the window, this time holding a croissant mid-bite.

Her username popped up on his feed: SiennaMaybe.

Curious, Theo tapped to view her post. Hers mirrored his—a candid shot of herself and the café scene behind her. And there he was, accidentally captured, staring into his phone.

He chuckled and left a comment: Guess we share a caffeine addiction.

To his surprise, she replied within minutes: Guess we do. Same time tomorrow?

And so it began.

Every day, their BeReals aligned: Theo on his morning run, with Sienna blurred in the distance walking her dog. Sienna in a park, with Theo in the background reading on a bench. They joked about it at …

The Late Bloomer

hamed Jan. 21, 2025, 4:20 p.m.

Elliot had always been a dreamer. As a child, he wanted to be an astronaut, a scientist, and a novelist—all at once. In his twenties, he dabbled in startups, wrote a blog about renewable energy, and even tried his hand at documentary filmmaking. But no matter how hard he worked, success always seemed just out of reach. By his late forties, Elliot was exhausted. He had a modest job in IT, a small apartment, and a mountain of regrets. He felt like he had failed to make the impact he had always dreamed of.

One rainy afternoon, while cleaning out his closet, Elliot stumbled on an old journal. Flipping through its pages, he found a list of goals he had written at 22: Change the world. Inspire others. Leave a legacy. His chest tightened. He hadn’t done any of those things—at least, not in the way he had imagined.

That …

The Pivot

hamed Jan. 21, 2025, 4:13 p.m.

For years, Marcus had been the go-to web developer for small businesses in his city. He built sleek websites for bakeries, boutiques, and even a local zoo. His clients loved his work, but the grind was relentless. Late nights debugging code, endless revisions, and the constant pressure to meet deadlines left him drained. He was good at what he did, but he wasn’t happy.

One evening, while scrolling through tech forums to unwind, Marcus stumbled upon a thread about affiliate marketing. People were raving about how they earned passive income by recommending products on their blogs. Intrigued, he dug deeper. He learned about tech review sites that earned thousands of dollars a month by linking to gadgets, software, and hosting services. It sounded too good to be true, but Marcus was desperate for a change.

The next morning, instead of opening his usual project management tool, Marcus started sketching out …

Roots Entwined

hamed Jan. 21, 2025, 5:13 p.m.

The morning mist clung to the forest, making everything feel fragile, like the world might break apart if they didn’t act. Nora adjusted the chain around her waist, her hands trembling—not from fear, but from adrenaline. Across the clearing, another protester secured his chain to a towering oak. He had tousled hair, a smudge of dirt on his cheek, and the kind of resolve in his eyes that made her chest tighten.

“First protest?” he asked, catching her looking.

“No,” she lied, straightening her spine. “You?”

“Not my first tree,” he said with a lopsided grin. “But definitely the prettiest one I’ve seen today.”

She rolled her eyes, but her cheeks warmed. Before she could respond, the sound of engines roared in the distance. The logging crew was coming.

“Here we go,” he muttered, pulling his chain taut and sitting down at the base of the oak. Nora mirrored him, …

"Ctrl+Alt+Defeat"

hamed Jan. 21, 2025, 5:16 p.m.

The crowd roared as the final match of the Nexus Invitational began. On opposite sides of the stage, Kira "PixelQueen" Nakamura and Alex "VoidKnight" Chen adjusted their headsets, their fingers hovering over keyboards. The announcers hyped up their rivalry—two of the best Starforge players in the world, destined to clash in this best-of-five showdown. What no one knew was that their rivalry ran deeper than the game.

Kira’s heart pounded as the match loaded. She glanced across the stage, catching Alex’s sharp jawline and the faint smirk he always wore. She hated that smirk. It was the same one he’d had when he’d beaten her in last year’s finals. But tonight, she was ready. She had to be. After all, she couldn’t let him win—not after everything.

Months ago, Kira had joined a Starforge Discord server to blow off steam. There, she’d met "Voidling," a witty, sarcastic player who shared …

Pixels and Promises

hamed Jan. 21, 2025, 5:18 p.m.

Elliot had always been the quiet one. He liked his life small and contained—cozy coffee shops, late-night movie marathons, and the occasional hike where the only audience was the trees. But Mia? Mia was a storm of energy, her laughter echoing through every room she entered. She was the kind of person who could make friends with a stranger in line at the grocery store. And lately, she’d been obsessed with TikTok.

It started innocently enough. A clip of her dancing in their kitchen, a silly rant about pineapple on pizza. But then her follower count began to climb, and so did her ambition. One evening, as they sat on the couch, Mia turned to Elliot, her eyes sparkling. “Babe, what if we did a couples’ series? Like, ‘Day in the Life of Us’? People would eat it up!”

Elliot froze, his spoon hovering over his bowl of ice cream. …