Elara Graves
10 stories published
Stories by Elara Graves
Queue at the Time Vending Machine
At the mall, a vending machine sells minutes. Five minutes costs one secret. People line up, whispering into the coin slot. A student buys enough minutes to finish an essay. A parent purchases ten to...
Soundproof Confessions
A musician releases an album of silent tracks. The liner notes claim each track is filled with confessions only the listener can hear. Fans press play and swear they catch whispers of apologies, admis...
Deleted Scene Reunion
Characters cut from movies meet once a year in a bar near the studio lot. A pirate with no lines buys drinks for a background astronaut. A romantic lead deleted for pacing swaps notes with a singing t...
Clock Strikes Thirteen
At noon, the town clock rings thirteen times. People pause mid-bite, mid-email. The extra chime stretches the day by five minutes. Birds adjust their flight paths; buses linger at stops. Those five mi...
Night Bus 404
Late at night, a bus with "404" on its display pulls up. Its route is not on any map. Riders board out of curiosity. The bus drives through neighborhoods that never existed: glowing markets, endless l...
Moonlight Tax
The Ministry of Luminous Resources announces a moonlight tax. Households must report how much moonlight they consume after midnight. Inspectors carry devices that measure glow on curtains. People laugh until fines arrive. Rooftop gardeners protest; p...
The Sea That Remembers Names
Sailors whisper names to calm storms. Most think it is superstition. But this sea listens. When Elena, a marine biologist, tags whales, she hears the ocean murmur names backāold, forgotten names. She tests the phenomenon, saying her grandmother's nam...
The Daylight Heist
A crew of thieves plans the impossible: steal an afternoon. They hack calendars, hijack city clocks, deploy reflective balloons to confuse sundials. At 2 p.m. Tuesday, time hiccups. Watches show 2 p.m. again. An extra hour appears, unaccounted for. T...
Shadow Adoption Agency
Behind the old cinema, stray shadows gathered, detached from owners by bright hospital lights, careless deals, or simple neglect. The city, tired of odd flickers and complaint calls about āunauthorized silhouettes,ā opened a Shadow Adoption Agency. Its front door was hard to find; you had to stand b...
The Painter of Laws
In the republic of Varo, no law took effect until it was painted. This tradition began after a revolution when citizens demanded to see legislation in a form everyone could understand. A painter, Alis, was appointed as interpreter. Decades later, the role persisted. Laws arrived as dry text; the Pai...