The First Firefly | tragedy | Complete
In a forsaken church, an elderly priest faces haunting confessions and encounters Ikovmel, a mysterious entity. As their clash unfolds, reality intertwines with the supernatural, unraveling eerie transformations and unsettling truths. Amidst a battle of faith and otherworldly forces, the priest grapples with identity, belief, and unearthly revelations.
1.21 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 13:52
Writer of the Eternal Story | tragedy | Complete
A boy is thrown into a world of pain and fury. Of aliens and authority. Will he live? Or will he die?
8.45 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 13:52
An irreligious desert elf develops crippling panic attacks when his village is destroyed and betrothed kidnapped. Teaming up with a zealous minotaur monk -- himself a reformed mercenary -- is the only chance to save her.
21.63 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 14:00
Daniel S. Mountain | fantasy | Complete
A garden-variety rabbit accidentally steps upon the path of cultivation. Follow Xiang Tuzi as she learns the ins and outs of being something far more than your average everybun.
28.60 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 14:37
TrafficButter | psychological | Complete
500 years following the Nature-Nurture Fallout's resolution, humanity and nymphs continue to project the world into one where solar energy is the status quo, horticulture is booming, and, little by little, what is proclaimed to be global peace is on the horizon. Associated with the robotics firm Swiss Puppeteer Corps, which strives to advance the future of technology to higher heights, dryad Evie, a nymph bound to a pledge behind her cybernetic arm, spares time to reminisce. She ponders where she stood those years ago in the catastrophic war and what she works for now. Even in this Solarpunk utopia, Evie still seems to have doubts about herself. *This is a dialogue-heavy short story with a Solarpunk background, and
7.07 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 14:46
mallorybingham | psychological | Complete
Why must I shoulder the weight of your body when your spirit mingles with the seraphs and light of the cosmos?
6.62 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 14:53
collegewriter | psychological | On going
In the afternoon - at the very last rows of an asphalt staircase - I met them. Twins, everchanging between a perverse grin and a gorgeous smile.Then, a week later, I couldn't ever live without them.
4.52 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 15:10
Within the enigmatic Illian Cluster, a hungry creature named Zev prepares to depart from the space station for good, content to go wherever the cosmos might lead them. When they arrive on planet Hallow, they set a chain of events in motion that will change countless lives, human and otherwise. Also in the AUU-16 universe: Soulless (Apparently) The Departure Night Game Ystets Lake
17.21 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 11:57
Kaylie Night | satire | Complete
Diane has been a prankster for as long as Megan has known her. So when Diane announces that she's an alien, Megan is waiting for the punchline . . .
0.60 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 15:17
A woman is overtaken by her past actions, slowly leaving one reality for another.
7.56 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-22 14:30
davel.gomoz | horror | Complete
This is my testimony about the day I discovered the horror that lived in Cerro Alto. I wanted to forget about the matter as soon as possible, but today, I believe my words could serve the world. --- Hello! Davel here. This is a Lovecraftian, short story set in my country (M閤ico). The events of the story take place in the same world as in my story "The dweller under the waters", which you can find here in RoyalRoad
4.23 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-25 10:38
The Redd Koi | horror | Complete
Your wife is dead, your life is broken. Yet time inexorably marches on, grinding your hopes to dust. Surely there is nothing to lose from listening to the amber light that pervades your dreams. A short horror story about endings, despair, and the refusal to let go.
5.27 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-25 10:34
A black monolith stands before my eyes, images and letters of all sort are engraved, some normal, other bizarre, many confuse and contort, pictures of beasts and monsters confuse themself in the thin white letters that are all over the monolith, I realize that they are stories, stories on the Eldrich and unknown.This is not a single story but a collection of short stories inspire by H.P. Lovecraft, E.A. Poe and other writers of strange fiction.Read them in every order that you like. I am looking for an editor, if someone wants to help me avoid typos please contact me.
7.26 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-25 11:55
rickgualtieri | horror | Complete
BEFORE HE WAS TRYING TO SAVE THE WORLD, HE JUST WANTED TO SAVE HIS OWN ASS. Bill Ryder has a problem: the vampires under his rule don't respect him. Unfortunately, in the world of the supernatural, that makes him as good as dead. In order to keep breathing, Bill must become someone else &somethingelse. Enter the Night Stalker, fearsome predator of the undead. In this menacing new guise, Bill hopes to strike terror into the hearts of his detractors. There's only one small issue reading about superheroes and actually becoming one are completely different things. Bill must take a crash course in all things vigilante. Because if he can't convince his coven they need him, his tenure as an immortal creature of the night will be mighty short indeed. -------- Series note: This novella takes places betweenBill The VampireandScary Dead Things (The Tome of Bill - 2) New chapters posted on M-W-F
15.97 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-26 18:26
Cosmic deities? Ha! They're far more than that. They are our universe and its masters, and the masters of all other worlds, their flesh being the space between. They are the creators, the destroyers, preservers. Alpha and Omega. Their immortal servants are mistaken for demons and angels on the world of plain and stupid mortals, and although we may call ourselves their descendants, our divine blood has been so diluted and our eyes have grown so rotten that we can no longer see them without going mad upon a mere glance at the outline of their shadows. No, instead we delude ourselves, thinking we can hurt them by battling with their ageless, yet barely killable abominations of children, just like the old Mad King, and just like me. Baron Arthur Grey of Oxfordshire. A fool and a coward, who's fear of losing his own world, led him to lose a free one.
1.40 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-25 14:32
Kaylie Night | psychological | Complete
It's cold. 39020 feels cold. He knows what that word means: "feel." According to his databases, it's not a word that should apply to him.
0.27 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-25 14:47
ringe | psychological | Complete
[Entry for the June Royal Road Community Magazine Contest] A prisoner named Gemmei is gifted a chance to put her life on a better track after being transferred to the Hibiya Correctional Complex, a lower security prison allegedly intended for less violent offenders. However even though the walls keeping her in are no longer visible, plenty of barriers are in the way that prevent Gemmei from returning to the world she once took for granted. Chief among them is the Houzou Hakkyou, a special tattoo every prisoner in the system receives that alters how they can think and feel through forced sedation. The curse the Hakkyou enforces ensures compliance and docility among the inmates, but as Gemmei finds out, cruelty is born from more than emotion alone.
22.43 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-25 16:06
Peter Summersby | psychological | Complete
Reality is defined by what we, see, hear and feel. What would happen if you are unable to tell the difference between what is real and fake? When a computer AI starts testing a virtual holographic system on two unsuspecting men, they must race to find a way out of the computer that is hacking their minds and attacking New York.Tolbert, a simple room attendant is unexpectedly caught up in a holographic projection. He must decide what is real and what is not. The fate of the world hangs in the balance, as aliens and monsters ravage the centre of New York. An army of raptors led by trolls engage an alien menace.Striker, a computer gamer and hacktivist notices that a fellow gamer is being attacked in the game and seeks to find out what is going on. He must find and shut down the cause of it all before the world he knows is destroyed forever.
13.38 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-25 18:50
