The cell, rather than a room, reeks of the stench springing up from the surroundings beyond its confinement through the single meagre square vent serving as an open window with triple iron bars within. The pervading odour is aggravated in the aftermath of a downpour, reinforced by the relentless trickles from any of the crevices that gradually tend to burgeon into a small flood along its western perimeter, stirring the dried dirt clinging to the floor into turbid paste, as if reviving the wounds to their rampant smell that have already dried up. But all of it has no troublesome effect on me anymore, as I am just a short-term visitor here, awaiting the footsteps of my death.
Category Archives: Fictional Story
Controlled
Quivering hands. A racing heartbeat. Clammy palms.
They were all unmistakable signs of fear.
At that moment, Chloe Maxwell was experiencing every single one of them. Why wouldn’t she be? She had stumbled upon a secret that was never meant to be uncovered – a discovery that could very well cost her everything.
Three months earlier…
Bobby’s Nightmare
Roaring winds banged angrily against the window while Bobby lay awake, staring at the flickering lights. He felt as if someone was watching him.
Tap… tap…
Bobby thought it was just the wind. But the tapping continued.
His fear grew stronger.
Hollowing Silence
Mason hated silence because silence reminded him that nobody in the house really spoke anymore. Ever since his parents divorced, everything felt dead.
His mother dragged herself home exhausted every morning from hospital shifts, barely able to keep her eyes open long enough to ask how school was. Sometimes she forgot what day it was entirely, staring blankly at the kitchen counter with dark circles hanging beneath her eyes while cold coffee sat untouched beside her.
Daddy, May I Have a Taste of This Murder?!
20 years ago:
Funny thing, I used to have this doll when I was six. I used to play with it a lot.
Then the nightmares came.
The same nightmare returned every night. The doll stood beside blood-covered bodies before slowly turning her head towards me. Her eyes were bloodshot and her mouth stained red. Then she would smile and say,
“Daddy, may I have a taste of this murder?!”
Because of this nightmare, I threw the doll away and forgot about it.
Or at least, I thought I did.
Little did I know what would happen twenty years later…
Don’t Take It Off
Polly’s room lit up in the shades of the morning sun. Rays slanted through her translucent curtains and fell across the posters taped to her walls, most of them featuring Twinkles the Unicorn from Fluffy Friends Funhouse. Ever since what had happened at her aunt’s house years ago, Polly had been terrified of losing the very essence of who she was. That was why a large framed photograph of herself stood beside her rickety old bed — braces, gap teeth, contact lenses and all. Proof that she was still Polly.
That morning, her foot accidentally knocked the frame off the side table.
Clatter.
Polly jolted awake.
“Oh no — my picture!”
The frame lay shattered on the floor, glass splintered around the smiling version of herself trapped inside the photograph. Tears burned her eyes instantly.
Just then, her mother stepped into the room.
“Polly dear, what happened? Oh… the picture broke.” She sighed softly. “It’s okay. We’ll fix it.”
To most people, it would have been nothing. But Polly’s anxiety made tiny losses feel enormous.
Her mother smiled suddenly. “You know what today is, right?”
Polly sniffed. “What?”
“You got selected for the Fluffy Friends Funhouse live stage show! Sweetie, you’re a star now!”
“REALLY?!”
The sadness vanished immediately.
Even though the show was meant for little kids, it had always been Polly’s escape whenever she felt lonely or invisible. And Twinkles had always been her favourite character. She had survived exhausting auditions just to get a role.
Within minutes, she was downstairs gulping cereal straight from the bowl while stuffing spare clothes into a duffel bag.
“Don’t eat so fast!” her mother called after her.
But Polly was already running out the door.
Drawn Wrong
She didn’t understand why it happened, only that it never stopped. The doctors called it a “break from shared reality”. They gave it a name — one she stopped repeating after the third appointment because names made it feel real in a way she couldn’t survive.
It began with drawings that didn’t match memory. A chair she sketched appeared in her room the next morning, except it was slightly wrong. The legs were too long. The shadow pointed the wrong way.
The Alchemist of Uncertainty
Look at them. Dr. Aris — the man who won a Nobel for essentially rediscovering that gravity still works — is currently holding court in the breakroom. I can hear the cadence of his laughter from here. It’s that specific, honking sound a man makes when he’s convinced he’s the smartest person in a room full of sycophants. They’re probably discussing my latest paper. Or, as Aris called it in the faculty lounge, “the most expensive piece of science fiction ever printed on university letterhead.”
I finally got what I wanted
“I finally got what I wanted,” that’s exactly what Ayushi said in the very beginning.
Ayushi was an exchange 7th grader in Bandra. From the very start of school, she was labelled as an average dork. No matter how hard she tried, she would always become the unfitted piece of the fancy puzzle. She was nothing but a shadow in the corridors of the prison she never imagined.
Two to Tango by Pooja & Aarthi – Winners
At Beyond the Box, we are constantly thinking of ideas to give something unique, refreshing as well as challenging to our community of writers. Two to Tango is one such endeavour to encourage the participants to work along with another writer as a team and bring about a creative synergy. 40+ teams participated in Season 5 of this one-of-its-kind contest and the winners were chosen based on the quality of writing and the dual perspective cohesion. Below prompt was given to the writers and they were asked to narrate the same story from two different points of view.
Prompt – Write a fictional story that begins with a Swiggy order getting swapped — two people receive each other’s deliveries by mistake. How you take it from there is entirely up to you. Maybe it’s a comedy of errors, a fateful coincidence, a strange mystery, or a moment of unexpected connection. Feel free to interpret this in any tone, style, or genre, as long as the swapped order becomes the turning point that sets your story in motion.
The winners in the Adults’ category were Pooja Kabra & Aarthi V Karanam (Team 39). Enjoy their story!