More Short Stories

I am taking part in a writing competition with the theme of "desert isolation". The story must take place in either Mexico or the US southwest and feature a passage of desert isolation. Beyond that, we are up to our own devices to make whatever story we like. This is the story of a washed-up former child celebrity.

The apartment is too quiet. No neighbors through the walls. No footsteps in the hall. Just the faint tick of a clock and the heavy stillness of midnight. You curl under the blanket, eyes half-shut, when your phone buzzes on the nightstand. Once. Then again—longer this time, rattling against the wood. One new notification. One new photo. You don’t remember taking it. You don’t remember moving at all. Yet the image is there, waiting for you in the glow of the screen. The Last Notification is a short horror story about insomnia, silence, and the late-night dread of realizing you may not be as alone as you thought