The Thing Inside Pluto was displeased. So was Aimee. Its roiling muscle-goo made her queasy, and she’d dressed for pilates, not for two bland government spooks kidnapping her to negotiate with an alien. She lit a cigarette to block the ozone smell. …

Mrs. Bhatia was five when the first colony began on Mathuria. On her birthday, her father started a savings account in her name and began working nights and weekends to fund it. She was sixteen when he got lung cancer, the year before the government mandated the use of respirators outdoors. “Today, Delhi is uninhabitable. […]

Enjoy the magical realism of literary flash fiction by Shara Concepción. Be transported to the Spanish neighborhood of young girls finding their own magic.

That it has long been our joke that our hair lengths are inversely proportional, and cannot exceed the same cumulative mass it possessed on the day we met; That our faith was bound by this same Law, your exuberant pantheism balanced against my quiet nihilism; That this Law does not apply to beards; That you […]

A historical flash fiction inspired by trench warfare between the British and Germans by Brian Trent. Friendship in unlikely places.

A science fiction flash fiction story by Lina Rather (reprint). The last night in space when transmissions from Earth cease.

A science fiction flash fiction story by Emily McCosh about family and growing up on distant worlds in the November 2017 issue.

A dark fantasy flash fiction story by Sheila Frances for the November 2017 issue. A baker imbues his bread with magical powers

Step 1: Dig for parts in the Gearwoman’s scrapyard, through dead frames and the rotted pages of old schematics. Find one of her bots, with thin limbs not yet rusted, intact and broken like yourself. Collect, and run away. * * * Step 2: With no schematic, put him back together. Shape his face with […]

There’s this story we like to tell on Deck 3—we, the quiet ones. The voiceless dishwashers and short order cooks and house musicians who scrub and busk in grimy bars on a space station full of grimy bars. It’s about a girl who was quiet too. One night, this girl met a trader, just like […]

Read this science fiction short story by Steven Fischer. Only one man can see the oncoming apocalypse, the world turned to ash, including his love.

A disaster filled tale about a church knitting circle gone wrong (or right) and a wormhole. Prepare for the Apocalypse and bring a casserole. Read it now!

Read this poignant yet bittersweet love story by Travis Burnham. Apple trees, shoe golems, & his wife's ashes make for an unforgettable road trip.

Time and space have nothing on this issue. Stories from Stewart C Baker, Andrea Corbin, Wendy Nikel, & Travis Burnham. Editorial by Anna Yeatts

A caper about friendship across space and time ... and polar bears. Read this flash fiction by Andrea Corbin in Flash Fiction Online.

This is what it was like, in the beginning. You come home from school one day, and a wall in your house is missing. It might be the front wall, leaving your door suspended in space and the neighbors too able to see in. And seeing, comment. It might be in the kitchen, where […]

When Sara asks me if I wanted to go doom-spotting, I say yes. Of course I say yes. The Edge Lookout is dark and rocky and romantic, and I usually say yes to anything Sara suggests. And I’ve been addicted to doom-hunting ever since I was nine and got my first telescope. “Why do […]

Jacob is searching for the word he lost: for the sound of it, the feel of syllables and consonants and vowels in his mouth, for the noise and tremble it made in his throat and inner ear as he spoke it long ago. The sparrow is watching him. It’s perched on the barbed wire fence, […]

The two women are sitting in their beach chairs in the shallow water, low waves and foam lapping at their bare calves. They are both wearing striped, old-fashioned bathing suits, complete with goggles and swimming caps; the tall, thin one is wearing black and white stripes, the other one is striped red. They look to […]

The Terrible installed a conveyor belt exclusively for her. It carried Invulnerabella along, wriggling helplessly toward the metalworks’s blazing furnace, her sinewy arms bulging against carbon-titanium cables. Her curse stole her strength whenever she was bound; the material was purely showmanship. His trap would immolate her in the same metalworks that had forged these cables. […]

JULY 9, 2018 Big progress today. Despite worries, experiment was complete success: walked under ladder with rabbit’s foot in hand, was missed by lightning strike on other side. Measured distance between self and scorch mark on ground: 2.7 meters. Weather report suggests lightning strike was likely, even before tests began; as such, near-miss should be […]

Enter the fantasy world's best flower festival in this humorous short fiction piece by S. L. Saboviec. The path to floral fame has never run smooth.

As part of our Women Destroy Science Fiction! special issue, we opened up Lightspeed to flash fiction for the first time. The flash fiction section was guest-edited by our long-time assistant editor, Robyn Lupo. Half of the flash selections are available online, while the other half are exclusive to the print/ebook edition.

Read this heart-rending love story of a lover cursed to reincarnate again and again as a rose, waiting for their lover's touch. By A. Merc Rustad.

Survive your next horror movie with the ironic wisdom you'll learn in this all-new short story from returning FFO author, Barbara A. Barnett.

Do read this new horror short story by returning FFO author, Paul DesCombaz. Don't sleep. Do be scared. Don't say we didn't warn you.

The Headless Child built a gas chamber out of Legos and now cannot sleep. Only the dead truly sleep his mother says, and this doesn’t help. A black wind batters the window, an owl cries in the storm. It is the Headless Child’s past that upsets him. He recalls The Episode With The Plastic Bag […]

The Yankee comes in the back, brushing by my casket in his creased wool, smelling like he’d just swum in his leather-and-pine cologne. He fishes his way through the mourners who stand around fanning away the July heat and takes up a spot, nonchalant-like, along the back wall, opposite where my body’s laid out. Next […]

Nothing is more satisfying than a soul-satisfying bite of flash fiction sized horror. Editor-in-Chief, Suzanne W. Vincent serves up plenty in this editorial