Survival Fiction

When the heat wave hit, I was working at the National Weather Service and was the first to spot the climate irregularities. I warned my family to get ready ahead of time. My parents trusted me without question. They even proposed starting a "family survival fund." They told me to use the savings I'd built up since graduating to stock up on supplies, promising that they and my little sister would chip in every dollar they had too. If we were going to make it, we had to stick together as a family. I smiled. "Sure. I'll take care of the plans." That same night, I converted every penny into gold and locked it in a safe. I also went all out into building an apocalypse-proof bunker. When doomsday finally came, they showed up demanding the money we'd pooled together. "Hand over all the gold," they said coldly. "A deadweight like you is just wasting resources by staying alive." Smiling, I tossed them the safe with the gold inside, then sealed the bunker, locking them out completely. Laughing triumphantly, they opened the safe… and stared in shock at what they saw inside.

Esme Wynter’s marriage to Lennox Mercer was written like a business plan. He gave her protection and power; she gave him peace and a convenient alliance. She told herself she didn’t need love. He made it clear he didn’t believe in it. But when the test site collapsed, Lennox threw himself over her without hesitation— and Esme’s last memory was his heartbeat against hers before everything went dark. When she opened her eyes again, she was surrounded by blinding white light, unable to move forward, and unable to return. Then a guide told her she and him were not fated, and their connection had become a curse, one that doomed them both whenever they tried to love. And then came the rules: You must not fall in love with him. You must ensure he finds his destined partner in each lifetime. You must not intervene beyond your designated role. Break them, and one—or both—will die. Fail all five lifetimes, and your souls would be erased forever. Each time Esme awakens, she forgets the last. Each time, she meets him again— as a king, a freedom fighter, a general, a mercenary. And each time, her heart betrays her before her mind can remember. And in his own distant eyes, there is the hidden craving for her love, like a man trying to recall a dream he’s not supposed to have. She was never meant to fall for him again. But perhaps… he never stopped loving her.

Our entire class gets dragged into The Tyrant's Atonement game. The only way to escape alive is to reach a 100% atonement score. The system lets us choose our roles. The class belle, Isolde Adler, picks the tyrant's first love. Her atonement score shoots straight to 99% on the first day. The class president, Asher Brooks, chooses to be a loyal chancellor. His atonement score jumps to 80%. Spectators watching the game flood the screen with comments. "This new batch is smart and way better at picking roles than the last. They might just clear the game in three days." "Even if just one person hits 100%, the whole class goes free. I'm looking forward to seeing who finishes first." "My money's on the first love. She's already at 99%." Just as everyone starts celebrating, the next morning hits us with bad news. All 20 classmates who picked their roles are dead, and Isolde suffers the cruelest fate of all.

During a long holiday, my husband booked flights for a family vacation. On the way to the airport, I suddenly saw numbers appearing on everyone’s head. The numbers on my husband’s head indicated sixty years, but my parents and I had only six hours indicated on our heads. While I was puzzled over the meaning of those numbers, I noticed that the driver next to us only had six seconds indicated over his head through the car window. Five… Four… Three… Two… One. When the number turned zero, a massive truck immediately rammed into the car next to us. I saw flickers of fire, flesh and blood exploding before my eyes. People were screaming for help, but I could not hear anything. I trembled as cold sweat drenched my entire body. It was because my flight would be taking off in six hours.

FICTIONARY TALES: A collection of short stories. Welcome to fictionary tales all written by me which include topics such as KARMA, Love, Revenge, Trauma, Tragedy, Happy endings, Sad endings, Mystery, Adventure and so much more!!

“You should go into hiding, Janice... because you are about to become a character in my own book. PS: It's Horror with a slice of sex" Those were the words he said to her, and soon she became a slave in her own house to a fictional character she never thought would become alive and hunt her for a book she wrote.

Famous author, Valerie Adeline's world turns upside down after the death of her boyfriend, Daniel, who just so happened to be the fictional love interest in her paranormal romance series, turned real. After months of beginning to get used to her new normal, and slowly coping with the grief of her loss, Valerie is given the opportunity to travel into the fictional realms and lands of her book when she discovers that Daniel is trapped among the pages of her book. The catch? Every twelve hours she spends in the book, it shaves off a year of her own life. Now it's a fight against time to find and save her love before the clock strikes zero, and ends her life.

As a reader, we can fall in love with a Fictional Character. The words that the author use to define the physical attribute makes us readers fall in love with that character. Same as Amira Madrigal, who's deeply in love with a fictional character named Zeke Alejandro from a book that she always read, the title "Unexpected Love Story". Zeke is a bad boy and an arrogant campus prince who's written to fell in love with Krisha Fajardo, the female lead character of the story. Unfortunately, Amira hasn't read the book completely because her professor caught her reading the book while his teaching. An unknown sender gives her a link to a site where she could continue to read the next part of the story. She doesn't know that this will be the way for her to enter another world. Another dimension. To meet her Love. Zeke Alejandro, the fictional character inside the book. Could she also be the main character of the story she accidentally went into? Or would be the antagonist to the main character that she always imagined to be her? How will the story run?? How will the story end??

If we psychologically damage an individual beyond repair, what will be the consequence of it? We all have a limit to the amount of mental and psychological stress we can take. Once the stress exceeds the limit, we’ll reach our breaking point. What happens after that is a mystery no one can solve, or is it? Lydia Johnson faces a similar situation. She is a complex young woman who faces a downfall stemming from the mental and physical abuse of her father and siblings, the negligence of her mother, and a chilling secret. From abused to loved, to abused again--that’s how life is for Lydia. Her family taught her only one lesson: emotions are for the weak and the weak don’t have a place in this world. With each kill, Lydia atones for the loss of her innocence by getting rid of another emotion and also rids the world of someone undeserving of her love and forgiveness. What lengths will she go to, for revenge, and prove her resilience? Will she ever be able to live her life like a normal person again? Or will she continue killing everyone until her own death?

Ten years ago, Natalia Cruz had walked out of Damien Carrington’s life as a young, broken, pregnant and helpless woman with nothing. But now, she is back as a top-tier lawyer, and she is back for revenge.