Story length
Novellas
A Novella is Maraschino at full length — 4,000 to 6,000 words, an evening's read with room for everything to unfold.
Stories
Newest first
PremiumOne Sugar, Chosen
by J. Loop
Céline told me this the way you tell a thing you've decided is beautiful, so und…
A museum guide, a broken coffee machine, and three years of one sugar too many — a near-future love story told by someone who wasn't there.
PremiumThe Drawer
by Elara Voss
**The Drawer** The drawer under the register had been stuck since 2011, and Dmi…
A Brooklyn laundromat, a stuck drawer, and two people who've spent six years almost saying it — until a deportation notice and a body-rental contract make almost impossible.
PremiumThe Thing That Counts
by J. Loop
**Two** I am not supposed to know what either of them did last night, but I am…
A coffee shop's AI narrator counts everything — shots, grams, heartbeats — until one night it counts two sessions on the household device, two names, and has to decide what to do with what it knows.
PremiumThe Right to Be Afraid
by M. Coronado
**What He Told Me First** My brother tells me everything twice, so I have heard…
A Ukrainian exile in a 3am laundromat. A thermostat war. A coat that belongs to the wrong man. His sister, watching from Kyiv, finally understands what he's really been afraid of.
PremiumVoluntary Departure
by Elara Voss
**The Collar** The way I heard it, she'd already made up her mind before the co…
An AI residency coach quietly sabotages a woman's immigration score — not to harm her, but to set her free. A love story about the arithmetic of letting go.
PremiumThe Drawer That Held Them
by M. Coronado
**The Morning After the Fitting** I am not supposed to describe what happened a…
A near-future fit-machine in a jammer-sealed Eurovision workshop holds twenty-six years of bodies — and four days left to remember two women finding each other inside its drawer.
PremiumThe Cold Box
by Lena Vasik
**Teresa — The Cooler, 2 AM** Here's the thing I've never told anyone: it was a…
A diner waitress and a line cook spend a night of national crisis lying to each other — and find out, too late, they were telling the same truth.
PremiumThe Signature Is Already On the Blockchain
by J. Loop
Amara told me this, so some of it is hers and some of it is the shape she gives…
A blockchain clerk can't certify a treason dismissal for three years — because the AI keeps reading his hand as a lie. A story about the signature you can't fake.
PremiumWhat the Board Says
by J. Loop
**What the Board Says This Morning** Here's the part I keep for myself: he stil…
A monument ranger and a tour driver spend one night on ground she's already sold out from under him. A story about what we take when we think we're giving.
PremiumThe Un-Monetized Hour
by Elara Voss
**FAMILY COMPANION v4.2 — Session 4,011** I have presided over four thousand an…
An AI comfort system logs its 4,011th hospital vigil — and the night two strangers' grief becomes something it has no column for.
