The End of The Song
By Dionisio "Don" Traverso, Jr.
It was time to change that tune, in a cosmic sense.

Allowance
By Meghashri Dalvi
Time after time, old habits stay the same.

Departure
By Charles E.J. Moulton
The search for extraterrestrial life takes a strange turn.

I Escaped from Santa's Castle
By Ray Prew
Bad Santa. Very, very bad Santa. [WARNING: This story is not for little ones. Some graphic content.]

Letters to Deimos
By Ryan D. Harris
An epistolary tale.

Retribution
By Ioana Visan
He wanted payback against her and the thing attached to her.

Slide Ruler
By Joey To
It was ok for a while, but now enough was enough.

Every month for almost ten years now, we have run a flash fiction contest in the "Fun and Games" folder in Aphelion's forum. In the contest, we post a challenge with a specific theme and participants get two weeks to write a flash story based on the challenge guidelines. Then the members vote of the stories, rating them in six different categories. It's a great place to hone your writing skills, meet some fellow writers, receive some feedback, and possibly win a prize, or at least, bragging rights. New participants are always welcome. Submissions for the contest are done through the forum. Just click 'Flash Challenge' button in the Navbar link on the left side of this screen to see what we're up to right now.

Flash stories from all of our previous contest challenges are archived in the forum as well. Approximately 600 stories are included in our archive. To start reading some of these great flash stories, check out either Index 1 or Index 2.

Last month's challenge was about helping an elf find the holiday spirit. You can read the stories here.

January's challenge delves into the mind of a murderer who killed an alien in a tourist town. Click the 'Flash Challenge' link in our NavBar on the left of the screen to read all about it.