Male POV Short Stories & Novels

I'm a capybara. Yet, after taking a single nap, I wake up as the scion of the Kensington family, Drake Kensington. When I crawl back to the sprawling 32,300-square-foot villa, my entire family's scared stiff. Matthew Kensington, the Kensingtons' adopted son, points at me and screams, "There's a ghost!" Without even looking up, I deadpan, "Oh, yeah, I'm whatever you say I am." He passes out on the spot. Drake's biological father, Garrett Kensington, slams his fist down on the table and snarls, "Look at you! Do you look anything like the heir to the wealthiest family? Have you seriously forgotten how to walk?" I give his question some serious thought. Crawling does take less effort than walking, and having a lower center of gravity does make me feel safer. Hence, I answer truthfully, "Yeah, I have. Can you teach me?" Drake's older sister, Sage Kensington, strides up to me. "Drake, did you get water in your brain? You've been screwing around for a year, and now you come crawling back and pull this stunt just to get attention?" Come to think of it, I really did gulp down a ton of seawater earlier. I can still hear it sloshing around in my ears. I nod at her vigorously. "Yeah. My brain's full of water. Lots of it. It hasn't even dried out yet. Do you want to hear it slosh?"

My older brother, Connor Hollis, wanted to be the only child in our family. So Mom changed my surname, moved my registered address to Grandma's, and made me pay to live in their home. My allowance was whatever Connor saved with coupons and cash-back deals. If he saved thirty dollars, I got thirty dollars the next month. Today was the last day to submit the college application. I begged Connor to let me use the computer. He held out his hand. "Twenty bucks." I emptied every pocket and clutched the only nineteen dollars I had. "I'm just one dollar short. Please, Connor!" He raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "Not a cent less! "Can't afford it? Then don't use it. Nobody's forcing you to go to college!" Mom had watched the whole thing coldly. Now she chimed in. "Your brother's right. Nothing in this house is free. Rules are rules." As the seconds ticked away, I tore through my room and finally found a coin wedged in the gap beside my bed. Ignoring Connor's scowl, I ran to the computer. But the words on the screen froze me in place. "The application system is now closed." The deadline had passed one minute earlier. I stared at the screen, cold to the bone. Through the door, I could hear Mom comforting Connor. "He's just a relative staying with us. He's not worth getting upset over." A bitter ache spread through my chest. I opened my messages. "Dr. Redmond, I'll go to Landorll." Just a relative? Then I won't trouble you any longer.

A serial killer who had been on the run for five years kidnapped my daughter, Isla Horton. A time bomb was strapped to her body. When there were ten minutes left, the kidnapper issued a final ultimatum. "Ask your wife who works in forensics to come here, or I'll blow your only daughter to pieces." My mother used all her connections to call in the city's SWAT team to prepare for a full-scale assault. My in-laws offered all their assets to negotiate with the kidnapper, just to save Isla's life. I gritted my teeth and called Winnie Steinman over a dozen times before getting through. However, she replied sternly, "Calvin Horton, Heath's place was broken into. I'm waiting with him for the police to arrive. I'll head over right after. Don't worry. The kidnapper wants to see me, so he won't harm Isla." Heath's voice drifted over from the distance. "Winnie, my chest hurts. Hurry and give me my medication!” Then, the call cut off. Time ticked away, and it was down to the final ten seconds. I stared at the bomb's countdown, sinking into bottomless despair as I thought about how Isla would not live to see Winnie again.

The day Carly Stein and I make things official, she syncs her phone to my smart weighing scale. Every morning, my body fat percentage and biometric data get uploaded straight to her phone. Whenever my fat slips above 8%, she turns cold. "Lower it to 8%, Danny. Get those muscles razor-sharp, and then we'll get married." For six years, I obsess over every calorie and burn myself out in the gym because of those words. On my birthday, I eat a single slice of regular cake. She immediately flags it on our shared fitness app as a severe loss of control. Now, I finally hit 8%. I have the broad shoulders and narrow waist she demanded. Yet on the day of my custom suit fitting, Carly leaves me waiting in the shop for three hours. Aiden Turner, an old friend, sends a photo. Carly is sitting with him in a barbecue joint, picking onions out of his plate. "Hey Danny, I just got back in town. Carly said you're cutting for the wedding and can't have this stuff, so I didn't invite you." On our app, Carly logs that grease-heavy midnight meal as a "companion day". I open the scale's historical setup logs. That 8% body fat goal was created six years ago—the exact day Aiden moved abroad. There's one line of text in the target notes field that hasn't been completely deleted. "Aiden at his physical peak." I stare at the screen for a long moment, then hit unpair. After that, I go to the suit shop and change the name on the suit reservation to Aiden Turner.

Joseph Zeigler, the heir of the richest man in the city, suddenly develops a rare acute illness, leaving the whole medical department completely stumped. In my past life, I pull three all-nighters buried in medical journals from around the world before finally landing on the safest conservative treatment plan. Derek Chapman, the newly hired doctor, dismisses my approach. He scans the lab sheet using an AI diagnostic app and insists that a simple minimally invasive procedure is all it takes to eradicate the problem. I publicly point out the AI app's misdiagnosis, driven by my duty as a doctor. Derek, unable to accept the humiliation, leaves the hospital in a huff, accidentally falls into a river, and drowns. Helen Walker, the head of the department, has resented me ever since then. She leads a cyberbullying crusade against me online. She breaks down crying in front of the cameras, saying, "If Dr. Lund hadn't bullied the newcomer out of sheer jealousy, he wouldn't have been distracted enough to fall into that river. Dr. Lund is supposed to be compassionate as a doctor, but all he has is just pure jealousy!" I eventually jump to my death from a building because of the relentless cyberbullying. I open my eyes again to find myself back on the day Derek holds up his phone, loudly bragging about the AI's diagnosis. I take a backseat of my own accord this time. "These youngsters nowadays are absolute medical prodigies. If the AI says it is safe to operate, I will let you take the lead surgeon position for this case."

On the eve of our wedding, Olivia Smith tells me that she wants to attend a bachelorette party. Not wanting to disappoint her, I agree to let her go. I even tell her to not drink that much at the party. She leaves a kiss on my cheek bashfully and tells me that she will make me the happiest man tomorrow. But on the next day, I can't reach OIivia via phone at all. Instead, I notice a post her childhood friend, Aiden Jones, has uploaded to his Instagram feed. "Tomorrow, you'll become another man's wife. Please let me claim you one last time." There's a close-up photo of two people smushing their cheeks together. After putting down my phone quietly, I inform everyone that the wedding has been canceled.

On the third day of trying to win over Heidi Shilton, she confessed to me. But the affection score floating above her head was still zero. After we got together, she spoiled me nonstop. On our sixth anniversary, she pulled off this huge proposal. Tears burned my eyes. I was just about to say yes when comments suddenly flashed across my vision— [Heidi must be exhausted. Six years pretending to love Rowan just to protect the male lead.] [The stand-in for Andy seriously got too into the role. This is hilarious.] The blood in my veins turned ice-cold. No wonder that score hadn't changed in six years. Then a system alert slammed into my head— [Final stage activated. Mission countdown: 10 days. Failure will result in complete erasure.] Smiling, I pushed away Heidi's engagement ring and wiped my tears. "Sorry. I'm done playing this game."

The day our SAT scores are released, my girlfriend, Alexis Jink, and I are on a train heading back home after a graduation trip. Samuel Yonder, my "younger brother" in name only, is also with us. Samuel loves sitting by the window, and Alexis immediately sits beside him, leaving me the odd one out—just like I have been for this entire trip. "Ethan, Samuel and I need to discuss what we'll be picking for our majors. Since you didn't score very high on the mock exam, just busy yourself with your phone while we talk," Alexis says. As the two chat and laugh happily, I find myself unable to join in at all. This is certainly not what I expected when Alexis promised me a graduation trip three years ago. The test scores are announced at ten on the dot. Samuel throws his arms around Alexis in an excited and joyful hug. "This is great! With our scores, we can pick any major we want at Jocaster University!" Alexis answers with a smile, "Quick, look at the group chat. Our parents are all congratulating us." From my seat behind them, I hear Dad and Mom say in a voice message, "Sam and Alexis, you two did wonderfully! We really are so proud of you!" Another voice message rings out, this time from Alexis' parents. Bowing my head, I check my phone, only to realize that I'm not in the same group as them, nor did anyone bother to ask how I fared. Forget it. Since they have already chosen their paths, then I should also focus on heading toward my own future.

The altered invaded after civilization collapsed. I awakened no ability at all. My body was weaker than an ordinary person's, yet the director of the Federal Anomaly Command personally invited me into Meridian Bastion's SSS-level sanctuary in the Blackridge Exclusion Zone. Because I was the world's only "Reality Anchor". As long as my emotions stayed stable, the dimensional breach above the city wouldn't collapse, and millions of altered creatures couldn't cross into our world. Everyone treated me like something sacred and avoided giving me even the slightest shock. Then one day, a newly awakened S-class destruction operative kicked through the sanctuary's ballistic glass and crushed my limited-edition Nova-9 figure beneath his boot. "The soldiers outside are bleeding to hold back the altered, and command is spending public resources to pamper a useless man who can't even fire a rifle. What makes you worth it?"

After failing a bomb disposal mission, my wife, who's also a bomb disposal expert, gives my shield to her true love. I grab her hand and plead with her not to do it, but she shoves me away. "You're so selfish! You have a system that can revive you—why do you even need the shield? Jeremy is already weak, to begin with. He can't handle any impact and needs two shields to keep him safe!" She doesn't know that the system has only given me two chances to be revived. I used the first chance when she begged me to save Jeremy Sawyer. During a mission last year, I used the second chance to save her from the brink of death. It looks like I'm going to die today.

When my wife, Emilia Sinclair, tortures me for the 98th time just to appease Wyatt Mercer, my love for her officially dies. That's when I decide to be with her best friend, Celia Ashford, who has been pursuing me for quite some time. After spending a wonderful night with Celia, she agrees to help me fake my death so that I can receive a brand new identity and marry her in an overseas country. So, I ingest the drug that can fake my death, only to wake up in the casket in advance. I can't move an inch no matter how hard I try. That's when I overhear Celia speaking with a subordinate outside the casket. "Ms. Ashford, you first told Emilia to torture Elliot, then you pretended to become his salvation. Now that you've completely earned his trust, why are you still arranging for his burial after faking his death?" "Only by doing this will the Mercers fully believe that Elliot is truly dead. That way, Wyatt can secure his position as the heir even more. No one will ever bring up the fact that he's a bastard child." The subordinate hesitates for a moment before asking, "Isn't leaving Elliot in the casket for one week a little too long? After all, we're only digging him up on the seventh day after you hold your wedding with Wyatt." "The drug can last for five days. I've already had someone place food, water, and an oxygen tank inside the casket. There's no way Elliot will die."

After my family and I are dragged into a roguelike horror simulation, they favor my cousin, Julian Clark, over me. In a lobby of blood-soaked players, he always manages to stay spotless, earning their praise as someone who has "kept his humanity". He's unlike me, the brute who willingly throws himself into melee combat and hacks down monsters just to keep everyone else alive. During one dungeon run, a terrifying entity targets my younger sister, Millie Larsson. I draw my blade and move in for the kill, but Julian stops me with a sorrowful smile. "Every creature has a soul. Gabriel, if you kill it, you'll only enrage it and burden Millie with the sin of bloodshed." Millie believes all the nonsense he says and begins resenting me for interfering. Later, when a veteran player steals Julian's life-saving loot drop, I nearly die reclaiming it for him. Instead of thanking me, he takes pity on the woman robbing him and hands the item back to her. He condemns me for being too ruthless, claiming I know nothing about showing mercy to women. Then comes the advanced raid. Cornered by the final boss, I beg Julian to activate the high-tier talisman I've given him, buying me just one second to escape. He recoils from my bloodstained hand in disgust and turns to my parents instead. "Gabriel provoked the boss himself. He's too violent. I can't risk wiping the whole party just to save him." In the end, I die in the boss' jaws. Julian steps over my shattered bones and blood to clear the raid, eventually becoming the server's most celebrated player for being the Untainted Saint. But fate grants me a second chance. I awaken once more in the game's central lobby, right before everything begins. This time, I want to see how long their precious humanity lasts in a world overrun by horrors when the blood-soaked blade that always carries their party is no longer there to protect them.

After returning to my in-laws' home for Christmas Eve dinner with my wife, Winona Zachary, only my mother-in-law, Jenny Stroll, was busy while the others were all on their phones. I had just sat down when Jenny started cursing, "They just sit there and wait to eat. They didn't even offer to help. Are they trying to exhaust me?" She would even slam the pots and pans from time to time. "How heartless for young people to let an elderly person like me serve them!" I felt a bit restless and nudged Winona. "Maybe you should go help her?" Jenny's insults escalated after hearing that. Remembering it was my first time spending Christmas at my in-laws' house and not wanting things to get too ugly, I got up to help. However, Jenny dumped everything on me as soon as I entered the kitchen. Suppressing my anger, I finished cooking dinner, served it, and got ready to eat. Jenny suddenly spoke up. "Wait, we need to settle some accounts before we eat."

My girlfriend, Loretta Summers, is an introvert and quiet by nature. Even our daily conversations are limited to things like, "Have you eaten?" or "Are you asleep?" Then, at a New Year's class reunion, I see her chatting animatedly with a guy, Ivan Lane. That is when I realize— it is time for us to break up.

As a man, if I had one fatal flaw, it would be that I cared a lot about my pride. When I fell off my bike as a kid, I'd get right back up on my feet immediately, wincing through the pain while acting completely fine, terrified that someone might laugh at me. Whenever my mom hired a cleaner to clean the house, I'd spend two hours beforehand sweating bullets scrubbing the place down myself, terrified the maid would see a messy house and laugh at me. Once I started school, it got even worse. If someone else took one advanced tutoring class, I'd sign up for eight. During the day, I'd brag that I never opened a textbook, but at night, I'd secretly grind until dawn—and I was top in my grade every single time. There was no helping it; I was just terrified of getting bad grades and being laughed at. When high school graduation rolled around, I saw all my friends start dating. So, I bit the bullet, asked out the prettiest, smartest girl in our class, and managed to win her over. After all, if my partner turned out to be ugly or dumb, people would laugh at me. Later on, we both got accepted into the same university. However, not long after the semester started, she began getting closer and closer to the popular guy in our school. Whenever people teased them about being a couple, she would neither confirm nor deny it. She would merely smile. "Stop teasing us, guys. Jonas hasn't said anything about it yet." That very night, I broke up with her.

Seraphine Hale, a genius musician, announces her return to the country. When a reporter asks whether she's back for her first love, she smiles icily. "Are you talking about that trash? It wouldn't be any of my business even if he were to drop dead tomorrow." What she doesn't know is that I've already been dead for close to a decade.

Josie Collins and I were supposed to get married during the upcoming long holidays, but she suddenly wanted to postpone our wedding for another month, and she asked that I wait a little longer. As I had nothing else to do during the holidays, I took up a job as a wedding driver. What I did not expect was that the bride I was picking up was Josie. She wore the wedding dress my mother made for her as her ex-boyfriend, William Locke, carried her in his arms. Everyone started yelling, "Kiss her!" Josie smiled and kissed him on the cheek. When she saw me sitting in the car, she panicked. "What are you doing here?" However, she frowned almost immediately and started blaming me. "William's grandmother is suffering from dementia and thinks that we're still together. She has always wanted us to get married, so I'm helping her to make her wish come true. "Why would you come after us all this way? Can you stop being such a schemer and wipe those dirty thoughts from your mind?!" William helped her lift the heavy skirt. "Don't be mad, Sam. I'm just the groom for one day. Josie will still be yours in the end." I stared at her wedding dress. Every thread on it was sewn by my mother before she died, and she had always wanted to see Josie put it on to marry me. However, Josie made me wait, and I did. I waited until my mother breathed her last, and still, she did not witness my wedding. Now, Josie was using the wedding dress my mother made to fulfil someone else's wish. This time, I no longer wanted to wait for her.

After the SAT, my daughter turned into something I didn't recognize. She repeatedly stabbed her grandmother, who had raised her, until the old woman bled to death. She pushed her little brother from the tenth floor and killed him on the spot. My wife and I tried to talk her down, our voices shaking, but she only laughed. "Grandma and Caleb were too good to me. That's why they had to die! And you two worked so hard to raise me. You paid for my education and gave me everything. You were too good to me, so you have to die!" Then she set us on fire. I closed my eyes in despair. When I opened them again, I was back one week before my daughter's SAT. This time, I installed a hidden camera in her bedroom. I didn't care what it took. I was going to find out why she killed us. When my wife and I watched the footage later, neither of us could say a word.

During college, Cindy Crammer brought over two sets of breakfasts every day. One was for me, and the other was for my roommate and best friend, Mark Jefferson. The breakfast she brought me never changed. It was always just sandwiches and oatmeal. Mark's breakfast, on the other hand, always had a perfect balance of meat and vegetables, and she never repeated the same meal twice. Even for my birthday, the gifts she prepared came in two sets. My birthday gift was always four simple greeting cards. Mark got concert tickets, a handmade rhinestone photo mosaic, a custom-made suit, and a pinky ring. When it came time for our graduation trip, the three of us arrived at the train station together. Mark and Cindy scanned their documents and passed through without any trouble, but I was stopped outside. Cindy slapped her forehead in frustration and smiled at me apologetically. "I only remembered to book Mark's ticket. I forgot yours. "We've already made it through. I don't want to waste the money. I'll take you on a trip for two next time." Mark patted his chest and made a promise to me. "Don't worry, Jason. I'll take good care of Cindy for you." I watched their backs as they walked away side by side, laughing and chatting. I let out a bitter chuckle. I didn't want to keep lying to myself anymore. I turned around and bought a ticket home. "Dad, you said I had to get married right after graduation. I agree! "Remember the referral I made for an intern named Cindy? Cancel it!"

On New Year's Day, my childhood friend asked me for the passcode to my new house. I thought she was planning to bring a housewarming gift, but when I opened the door, I froze in shock. There were more than a dozen people inside. She walked over with a smile before giving me a subtle look. "Ryan, what are you doing here? Come on in. You're just in time. You're lucky enough to catch our family gathering." I stood there in stunned silence. Before I could even ask what was going on, her boyfriend suddenly spoke in a mocking tone. "Is your childhood friend very persuasive? I'm curious how he sweet-talked you into giving him your house's passcode." Her expression instantly turned serious. "He didn't sweet-talk me. He got on his knees and begged. He said he had a fight with his family and got kicked out with nowhere to stay. You know how soft-hearted I am. I didn't think much of it and just gave it to him." Her boyfriend's eyes had a look of contempt. "No normal man would stoop that low. Who knows how many women he's begged behind the scenes just to get what he wants." She gave him a look of approval. "Babe, how are you so smart? There was a time he stripped naked and begged me just to buy a watch he liked. I've told you about it." Her boyfriend burst out laughing. "So that was him? He's honestly shameless." Seeing her spew lies so casually and irresponsibly, I couldn't contain my anger. I stepped forward and slapped her hard across the face. "Who the hell do you think you are? Taking over my house and slandering me? Get out."