The Cost of a Son by Huina Zheng In my hometown, a man without a son is a man who has failed. My First Uncle once had everything. My grandmother had seven children, three of them sons. My father is the second among the three brothers. In our Chen family, First Uncle was once the…
Mayhem by Tom Kropp As Scot walked away his sense of danger triggered. He glanced back. Out of the night in the pale moonlight numerous dark entities were converging along his flanks like wolves ringing an elk. They ghosted closer closing in. Scot’s hand under his coat stroked his Colt 45 revolver. By flashing cash…
Landslide by Henry Simpson Margaret and I ignored the rain and drove down the coastline from Goleta to check Oxnard real estate. We hooked up with an agent and viewed a few houses, and nothing piqued our interests, so we stopped at a restaurant for a late lunch before returning home. On the TV above…
July and FreedomFiction.com Hey, No, I am not out riding a motorycle, enjoying the thunderstorms and torrential rains over my corner desk of the planet. I have had to curb my enthusiastic ventures to find focus and future for it all. FreedomFiction.com is the proudest thing I have collaborated on, and for 18 years since…
June Wolfman on People and Perspectives FreedomFiction.com has published six short stories by author June Wolfman. Two of them including the very first one published at FreedomFiction.com was included in the Editor’s Choice section for exceptional writing. The Fish Story by June Wolfman was nominated for the Pushcart Prize last year (year 2025 for 2026…
Open to your story: Stories by June Wolfman In just one year, since April 2025 to present, June Wolfman has captured our hearts and minds with six stories published at FreedomFiction.com including a nomination for Pushcart Prize. There are also other stories appearing in various popular online publications. SPOILER ALERT Read the stories here:https://www.freedomfiction.com/tag/june-wolfman June…
Becoming an Adult by June Wolfman Chandler couldn’t focus on Physics 2 or Calculus 4, despite the exams coming on Friday, because it was another night of drinking for the pledges in his fraternity. He voted against drinking as a thing for pledges, but he was alone. He decided he wanted to check on the…
The Portrait of the Artist as a Gill Man by Knowcebo “C’mon, Jay Jay, tell her about the watermelon,” said Clark, dripping in the shallow end of Nadia’s swimming pool, the blue water jiggling with sun gleams all around him. That wasn’t me. I had changed my name a few weeks before Nadia and I…
Vampires by Dale Patrick Smrekar “You look terrible for a vampire, Leopold,” Maurice said while strutting toward him in the dimly lit alley on his way to his next meal. He stopped and looked down on the resting Leopold, situated between two filled-to-the-brim metal trash cans. Old white meat wrappers, newspapers, and bits of lettuce…
Freedom Among The Mesas by Anthony Americo Angrisani A Fictionalized Account of Historical Events in Seventeenth Century Spanish Santa Fe Governor Antonio Rivera de Obregon and his wife, Doña Carlotta de Miramontes, had opened a trading post upon arriving from Mexico City several months ago. He had been in Santa Fe eight months already and…
The Sloppy Baby by Kofi Akan Brown Slop donned the Buck-Buck Food delivery backpack, then adjusted the Buck-Buck cap in the mirror. He looked like a deliveryman, well enough. Next, he tucked his energy pistol into the back of his pants, then double checked to make sure it was there. He couldn’t ever be too…
Droste Effect by James Rumpel Iteration 1A – 0 Intersections. “I told you it was a bad idea to cut through the Physics building,” complained Dusty while trying another door, only to find it locked, just like all the others. “It’s raining,” replied Kyle. “This is better than getting soaked walking back to my dorm….
Tech, Future and Cosmos with a Twist: Interview with Author James Rumpel FreedomFiction.com presents an interview with author James Rumpel. His worlds explore unique aspects of technology, humanity and possibilities of what exists in the undiscovered universe. FreedomFiction.com has published as many as 16 stories by him since June 2016 to June 2026. A 17th…
Brainssss! by David William Jurgenson The child services case worker frowned. “I’m concerned Conner’s teachers think his poor grades are due to his underdeveloped speech. Mr. Stone, you’re teaching Conner ASL at home, we think he should be concentrating on developing his speech at school. He’s only six-years-old. That’s a very critical age for language…
We are celebrating the fiction of author James Rumpel for the coming week, as the Author Spotlight is on him. Master of the Cosmic Twist: An Exploration of James Rumpel’s Fiction James Rumpel has been a consistent contributor of www.FreedomFiction.com, delivering a highly consistent output of speculative genre fiction spanning from 2019 to 2026. My…
The Forbidden Floor by Denise Diehl Rachel crept up to the forbidden sixth floor, paused before the door, readjusted her glasses, and swept her long, untidy hair into a ponytail. She glanced behind her, took a deep breath, and pushed through, gasping at the sheer size of the place and the number of archived specimens….
Coyotes by David Collier-Brown It was morning, I was at work, and the phone rang. I said “Hello, Adrian here.” “This is Detective Sergeant Collier, could you come in?” I immediately thought, “Something bad’s happened. I wonder if they’re looking at me as a suspect.” “Hi, Alan. If I work through lunch I can come…
A Personal Choice: Interview with Author Sandra J. Kolankiewicz A very deep insight into the crafting and understanding of a story and its elements by author Sandra J. Kolankiewicz. A moving personal view from a personality with over 600 published works. We hope you enjoy and educate yourself as we were delighted to be part…
21 by Isabel Night It started six months ago. Out of the blue, I got a call from my dad’s old Army Staff Sergeant. He was inviting the surviving men of his battalion to join him on a ‘Healing Tour’ of Vietnam. At that moment, I remember clutching the phone in silence. My mind was…
Night of The Vampire Wolves by Arthur Davis Theron stepped out of the small trench he had dug in the middle of the broad expanse of the Morland Basking Plain. Dry and measured to perfection, a place for him to wait. The craftsmanship looked like it was created by the hand of God. The year-old…
They Watch Us, You Know by Todd Glasscock “They watch us, you know.” Lowell scratched his forearm as he stepped off the porch, then lit a cigarette once we were both outside. “Who?” I asked. “Your space people?” Our daily walks around the neighborhood were supposed to be for Lowell’s benefit, meditative, prescribed by his…
The Visitation by Gary Beck I was definitely feeling pleased with myself. I made it to the private clinic without the usual escorts, for a check-up that would tell me how to deal with my upcoming departmental physical. It was a rare treat to be alone for a few minutes without any responsibility. There was…
Trust Me by Dan LeichtA Charles Splints Case Halfway through ironing a white shirt using the bottom of a hot frying pan, there was a knock at my door. I pulled the shirt over my shoulders and dropped the pan into the sink on my way over. The man through the peephole wore a long…
Before It Gets Cold by Dan LeichtA Charles Splints Case I woke up at noon. The sun attacked me through the spaces between the blinds. All I had left was enough instant coffee for half a cup. The cupboards were empty. The refrigerator was still frozen over. Some luck. The life of a private investigator…
