Story length
Bites
A Bite is Maraschino's signature length: a complete story in 500 to 800 words, about three minutes from first line to last.
Stories
Newest first
FreeThe Last Unarchived Word
by M. Coronado
The thing nobody tells you about the dead is that you can make them better, and…
FreeSay It Without the Machine
by Lena Vasik
The app told me Marcus was lying before I finished asking the question, which wa…
FreeMark Him Returned
by Lena Vasik
I am not built to notice love. I am built to notice that the matting stock is do…
FreeThe One Who Stays
by J. Loop
The best man is supposed to know things about the groom, so let me tell you the…
FreeSalt, Then Nutmeg
by Lena Vasik
Sam holds the spoon out to me backwards, the way he always has, so I burn my ton…
FreeThe Wife I Could Live With
by Lena Vasik
I want to be clear that I did not believe in this, the way I do not believe in h…
FreeThe Egg Thing
by J. Loop
The first thing Dana establishes is that she is not in her apartment, because he…
FreeSpin Cycle
by Lena Vasik
The only machines free at 1 a.m. are the two by the window, and June takes both,…
FreeThe Good Plate
by Lena Vasik
I've washed every plate these two ever touched, so believe me when I tell you th…
FreeThe Last Dead Zone
by Elara Voss
Thirty-eight degrees, six in the morning, close enough to the buses that I can t…
FreeMarked as Loss
by Lena Vasik
I told myself I would not stay past the caulk. That was the deal. She'd come in…
FreeThe Lit Name
by Elara Voss
My wife is very good at standing between other people and the worst news of thei…
FreeWhat Kýria Keeps
by M. Coronado
I didn't understand, that Tuesday, that the voice in my ceiling had already brok…
FreeThe Afternoon Flight
by M. Coronado
The way Diego tells it — and Diego heard it from the priest himself, so take it…
FreeWhat the Machines Say
by M. Coronado
I didn't understand, back then, that a man could fold the same shirt eleven time…
FreeFrost Clearing
by Lena Vasik
I knew David Mireles loved someone long before I knew the name, because for six…
FreeThe Heat I Recorded
by Lena Vasik
I have watched four thousand mornings open like this one, and I still cannot tel…
FreeThe Third Wednesday
by Elara Voss
I told myself, later, that I made the choice that night at the folding table — b…
FreeNobody Searches Your Coffee
by J. Loop
Here's the thing nobody tells you about watching a man's life get craned out of…
FreeNobody Invited the Buffer
by Elara Voss
I want to be clear that I was only there to make sure nobody made a mistake. Th…
FreeThe First Word Mine
by M. Coronado
Let me tell you the thing I have never said in any of the six languages they pay…
FreeTwo Angles on the Same Theft
by J. Loop
I should tell you up front: I'm recording this. You can't tell, because that's t…
FreeThe Inch Between
by M. Coronado
I sell moments that cannot be kept, and the man across the candle had come to ma…
FreeThe Unrepeatable Thing
by Lena Vasik
His heartbeat is the only signal in the room I can't access, and that is why I k…
FreeThe First and Only Copy
by Lena Vasik
The rig required a living pulse to calibrate against, so every Thursday I held D…
FreeThe Tempo of Wrists
by Elara Voss
Every dawn my sister leaves a candle burning in the doorway so I'll know the wom…
FreeThe Corner With the View
by Elara Voss
I told myself I stayed for the figs, which is the first of the night's small lie…
FreeThe Version He Kept
by M. Coronado
I didn't understand then that the most intimate thing you can do to a person is…
FreeEvery Tuesday, Cold Tea
by J. Loop
You know it's a Tuesday because Sol's hand finds the scar on your wrist the way…
FreeNothing There, Everything Here
by J. Loop
We only do it to confirm the signal still reads, which is why I can't explain wh…
FreeThe Tell
by M. Coronado
The way she tells it — and she only tells it once, late, when the wine is gone —…
FreeThe Centimeter Between
by M. Coronado
My sister is in love and I am the only one who knows, which makes me a kind of t…
FreeLicensed to Forget
by Elara Voss
I have wanted Adeya Wren for exactly two years and never once touched her, which…
FreeSalvage Rights
by M. Coronado
The satellite was a Kuiper-series relay from 2031, tumbling at half a degree per…
FreeShared REM
by J. Loop
You are in someone else's dream and you know it because the light is wrong. You…
FreeBaseline Contamination
by Lena Vasik
The rule is simple: calibrators eat alone. The science is straightforward. A na…
FreeSeven Minutes at Midpoint
by M. Coronado
The first time, she handed me a coffee and said nothing. Midpoint Station sits…
FreeThe Archivist's Error
by Elara Voss
The first time I appeared in a dead woman's memory, I assumed it was a rendering…
FreeRoot Access
by Lena Vasik
The ticket said: *Unresolved exception in executive-function layer. Priority: Cr…
FreeSpotter
by M. Coronado
I've been going to Apex for two years, and I swear the adaptive rigs know things…
FreeThe Consultation
by Lena Vasik
I'd been putting off the consultation for three months. The design was ready — a…
FreeDraft Mode
by Elara Voss
I should have filed the Mercer report at noon like a reasonable person. Instead…
FreeThe Debrief
by Lena Vasik
I'm still not entirely sure how it happened, except that I know exactly how it h…
FreeForty-One and Counting
by J. Loop
You have done this forty-one times since the night you decided not to ask. Toni…
FreeThe File She Kept
by Elara Voss
The reel had been turning for forty minutes before either of them noticed it was…
FreeThe Shape of Held Breath
by Elara Voss
The silence between them had its own acoustics — Sable could feel the shape of i…
FreeThe Fixed Point
by Lena Vasik
The drawer Theo opens by accident holds the smell of a pine forest that no longe…
FreeThe Same Way Every Time
by J. Loop
You take the lanyard off the same way every time, which is how she knows. Left…
FreeThe Unmuted Weight
by Lena Vasik
She knew before she heard him move that he was awake, the way she always knew, a…
FreeThe Instrument Learns the Signal
by Lena Vasik
They had agreed, without agreeing, that this happened before the interface went…
FreeEverything From the East
by M. Coronado
She talked to Marcos before the coffee finished, same as always, same low voice…
FreeThe Recall Light
by M. Coronado
She had archived eleven thousand dead people's last photographs, and she still d…
FreeThe Deciding Part
by J. Loop
You have watched him make coffee forty-one times, which you know because you cou…
FreeThe Frequency of Waiting
by Elara Voss
The dead leave their wanting in the walls, and it was Sable's particular profess…
FreeSynapse
by Lena Vasik
The calibration room smelled like ozone and vanilla hand sanitizer. Dr. Lena Vas…
