In a future where “psychiatric care” is a polite lie for psychic captivity, Mara Ives spends every day drugged, monitored, and forced to speak the future for an organization that profits off her visions. Veritasol keeps her compliant, keeps her honest, keeps her trapped. But somewhere out in the city, a rogue psychic named Kael reaches her through the astral plane with one promise: he’s coming for her.

As Mara endures another brutal session with the Orbis executives who exploit her abilities, Kael discovers he’s not the only outsider moving in the shadows. A hidden presence has hijacked the city’s systems and is pushing both Mara and Kael toward a collision neither fully understands.

When an impossible symbol appears inside the locked ward—a cracked halo no one in the facility could have placed—Mara takes her first step toward freedom. And someone, or something, unlocks the door.

What waits beyond it is anyone’s guess.

Korben Dallas never thought he’d miss driving a cab, but saving the universe turned out to be the easy part. A kiss, some fireworks, and suddenly you’re retired with a goddess who can hear galaxies whispering in her sleep.

Then one night, every screen in New York flickered black and lit up with the same message in a language no human should know:

We are already here.

Leeloo collapsed in the kitchen, glowing like a dying star. Ruby Rhod’s face was plastered on billboards, selling tickets to a gala hosted by Zorg’s old corporation. And Father Cornelius found the missing stanza in his prophecy, the one nobody wanted to read.

Turns out evil doesn’t always come as a giant flaming death-ball. Sometimes it shows up as a smiling CEO with perfect teeth.

And once again, the universe has Korben Dallas on speed dial.

Kreeblor leaned forward, all six eyes twitching. The ancient console blinked. A signal. After eons of silence, Earth was finally calling back.

Static.

Then a voice:

“Congratulations! You’ve been pre-approved for a high-interest intergalactic credit line!”

The room froze.

Kreeblor sighed. “They invented spam before diplomacy.”

And just like that, Earth got blocked.

Elsha Drift was born in the gutter mist below Midway, where the sky sags like an old lung and breathing too deep makes your teeth itch. Every morning, her mother stitched bags for the gasmen while coughing blood into a cloth she swore was “just dirty.” Every night, Elsha traced the lift maps tattooed on the inside of her wrist, dreaming of a way to float higher than the ceiling of Low Drift.

But in the Spine, nothing floats without a string.

What if compliance became culture?
In this chilling dystopian short story, free will isn’t taken—it’s surrendered. Subtle horror meets dry satire in a world where food is regulated, rebellion is quiet, and no one remembers when they last felt full.

📖 Read In the Land of the Pigs, the Butcher is King now.

#DystopianFiction #ShortStory #SpeculativeFiction #SocialSatire #HorrorWithoutGore #QuietDystopia #DarkFiction #PoliticalFiction #SubtleHorror #TheProudBoomer

Eddie Shan wasn’t supposed to die. Especially not by slipping on a slug while carrying nachos. But thanks to a cosmic clerical error, Eddie ends up dead, then alive, then hunted by interdimensional death auditors in trench coats made of static. Now, with a glowing slug roommate, a cursed toaster, and time itself unraveling, Eddie must fake his own death (again) to save what’s left of reality. The Wrongful Death of Eddie Shan is a twisted blend of horror, sci-fi, and absurdity where nachos never go stale, mirrors lie, and the universe has a very dark sense of humor.