Whispers in the Pines
The morning air smelled of pine resin and damp earth as Mara stepped off the rusted bus, her boots crunching on gravel. The town of Black Hollow lay sprawled below, its rooftops bleached by sun and time. She hadn’t returned…
Literary Fiction
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The Bloom After the Storm
The chipped Formica felt cool under Leo’s palms. He kneaded, pushed, folded—each motion a futile attempt to work out the knot in his chest. Rye dough. It smelled like…everything. Like his grandmother’s kitchen, like Sundays, like a life he couldn’t…
The Sight of Janek
The fever rattled Janek’s bones. Not the heat, though that clung like wet wool, but the *seeing*. It began with soot. The way it swirled from the flues, settling not as darkness, but as… shapes. Patterns. Like the butcher’s tally…
Echoes of Home
The chipped ceramic mug warmed Leo’s hands, the steam fogging his glasses. He didn’t bother wiping them. Budapest blurred nicely anyway. Across the cramped table, a woman traced the rim of her own cup, her knuckles white. Her gaze held…