VesperaAdult fiction

Autumn collection · 2026

Stories for
after the
lights go out.

Original short fiction about wanting, hesitating, and the exact moment someone decides not to turn back. Written to be read slowly — preferably alone.

In this issue

Twenty-nine stories
I

The elevator stopped on seven

She pressed eight. He pressed twelve. Between those two floors there were thirty seconds, and then there were none at all.

5 min
II

A message at 1:47

Her name was still saved the old way. He typed, deleted, typed again, and sent it before he could think.

5 min
III

The neighbour across the courtyard

Across twelve metres of night air, the curtain never quite closed. It took four months before either of them waved.

5 min
IV

The eleven o'clock never left

Two useless meal vouchers, a cancelled flight, and a hotel corridor with two doors three metres apart.

6 min
V

The Wednesday dance class

Every eight bars, everybody changes partner. On the fourth Wednesday nobody changed, because there was no class.

6 min
VI

Friday night shift

At 3:12 the alarm went in bed 12. At four in the morning both their hands were still shaking.

6 min
VII

The beach in May

She went to a village of thirty people out of season precisely so she wouldn't have to talk to anyone. It worked for two days.

7 min
VIII

The garage shuts at six

He said water pump. She said belt tensioner. The noise lasted eight seconds and she came back three weeks running.

6 min
IX

The fourth floor of the library

The stacks run on a motion light: ninety seconds still and it dies. Neither of them walked to the middle of the aisle.

6 min
X

Three hours without power

Three hours with no power, no pump and no lift. The whole block went down to the tap in the car park with buckets.

7 min
XI

At someone else's wedding

She stood twelve seconds with the key card in her hand, not opening room 11. It took him nine years to get there.

8 min
XII

Night train, compartment four

Two berths sold separately, eighty centimetres wide, eleven hours to the border. The catch makes a clack you can hear.

6 min
XIII

The shoot ran late

She had the portrait by twenty to seven. She kept asking for two degrees of chin for another hour and a half.

7 min
XIV

The four a.m. fare

He picked the two of them up at 4:07 and kept his eyes on the road. The app added twelve minutes, and he accepted rather fast.

6 min
XV

The last box

Fourteen boxes, two piles and an unmade mattress in the middle of the bedroom. Both keys went back to the desk three days apart.

6 min
XVI

Three nights under canvas

Six people, three tents, and one of them was a one-man. By the third night there was no excuse left, not the rain, not the cold.

9 min
XVII

The gym at three in the morning

He corrects her grip on the pulldown and she pretends she knew. At twenty past three the lad on reception goes out for food.

6 min
XVIII

Thursday night class

Eight pieces handed in printed and returned with red pen down the margin. In week seven the writing left the margin and took the page.

6 min
XIX

A borrowed country house

Seven said yes in the group chat and two turned up. The key was under the pot and it started raining at seven.

7 min
XX

The sauna on a Tuesday

Five months of Tuesdays without one word between them. At 14:02 the sand ran out and nobody turned the timer.

6 min
XXI

The second interview

It was booked for forty-five minutes and ran an hour and twenty. She withdrew her application on the Friday.

7 min
XXII

The next stand along

Three days of trade fair, two stands two metres apart, and an orange extension lead on loan until Thursday.

7 min
XXIII

The fitting

Right shoulder two centimetres lower. At the third fitting he said the wedding had been called off.

7 min
XXIV

Five hours in the chair

Seven sessions were booked and there were nine. The mistake is half a millimetre and nobody covered it.

7 min
XXV

After the room empties

The last order goes in at 22:40. What comes after that is not work and not off, and it is where everything happens.

7 min
XXVI

Four days without a word

Nineteen people, numbered places and not one word in four days. They have both already paid for March.

7 min
XXVII

The graveyard shift

With the red light on, it is a radio programme. With it off, it is eight months of a different conversation.

7 min
XXVIII

Eleven hours to cross

A six-hour crossing became fifteen. The four-berth cabin had been sold to two separate people.

7 min
XXIX

The job that overran

Thirty-six hours of curing is the only moment in a renovation when the flat stands empty.

7 min

Reading is one thing. Being answered back is another.

Three quick questions about how you read. The answer decides what comes next.

Take the quiz