FABLE FACTORY | The Daily Star

  • Ghosts

    When night falls and not a single voice is heard anywhere, I make my way to the room that now stays empty. I do not turn the lights on – oh no, I don't.

  • Beyond This Universe

    Let me ask you – are you familiar? With that kind of happiness that flows down in tears?

  • Suit

    It was no longer crisp and glossy, nor was it pressed to absolute perfection. Its charcoal grey had washed away into a dull, tired version of itself, much like its owner.

  • Faker

    I sense a bit of distrust quite dense, In those big dimples of yours,

  • Episode 24: The Insanity Island

    Thousands of miles away, a TV screen flickered as the silhouette on the sofa seemed to lay asleep, a glass bottle in one hand and a TV program brochure in the other.

  • Unrepentant

    I go on, I walk on, I am unrepentant

  • The Fall of the Curtain

    There was a time when I used to live on a stage with ten other people. There wasn't an audience watching us but we weren't trying to please anyone. We were simply taking part in a play with

  • Deceit

    Caught in a daze, losing sense of time,

  • My Airborne Valentine

    “Bonjour! Bienvenue!” said the flight attendant with a smile as she checked my boarding pass. “You're right in the front. Just go straight and it will be the second seat on your right. Enjoy your flight with French Air.” Thanking her, I made my way as directed.

  • LETTERS TO LOVE PAST

    I hope you're doing well. It has been a long time since we last saw each other, yet it feels like it was only yesterday that we first met. Time is a weird thing; scientists say that it's relative, but I think it's just a trick our minds play on us.

  • Grandma

    You lived in a sprawling house - With a beautiful little balcony.

  • A Smile of Approval

    Over the years, Shehreen often found herself looking towards her Nani when in confusion or distress. With Shehreen's Dad's untimely demise and her Mom's demanding work schedule, much of Shehreen's childhood passed in the company of her Nani.

  • Where are you taking me?

    Where are you taking me, oh Lord of the universe?

  • CRAYONS

    Perhaps it was forever scrunched into a few moments, or a few moments stretched to infinity; which one was true I didn't know, neither did it matter, all that mattered was now, or at least what seemed like the present – the vast endlessness laid out in front of me.

  • Cat-A-Tonic

    “Meow,” I protested. But my tiny squeal of protest came to no avail as Anika handed me to a sullen-looking, lanky boy whose eyes were as tiny as my paws but certainly not as cute.

  • The Tree

    She looked on confused. She did not know what she was looking at, but she could tell that her eyes were not playing tricks on her. This was not the real world. But she questioned herself how she got here.

  • MISS KATHAL PATA'S GOATS

    Tonight I shall tell you, the story of that time

  • The Napkin

    Entire life pans out in front of me

  • Dark Diamond

    It is the Dark Diamond that is glossy, glaring and stiff but very disguised. It wants to grab the whole ecstasy of the world. This diamond is very devious, sometimes deleterious.

  • The Man Who Could Hear Everything

    Aryan woke up to another terrible day. It was terrible before it even began, because it was an obvious inevitability. Life was terrible, and I was Aryan. Or maybe Aryan was me, and torturing me with his life; I couldn't tell the difference.

  • The Moon

    I was not meant to tell a story —Your story or mine,

  • THE SUN THAT SHONE THE BRIGHTEST

    As the scrawny 9-year-old told me all about how he played in the hay in his beloved village, he clutched on to my finger like he had known me forever. Brishti, his little sister, tepidly scampered closely behind us as the three of us marched on towards the hospital.

  • Sentience

    As the wooden doors swung closed behind us I peered up at the patrons. Forkrul was right after all, it was packed in here.

  • LATE NIGHT THOUGHTS

    Pearls scattered on the floor, pictures are taped, My walls are painted blue, my nails are red.

  • Escapee

    My eyes fly open, and I bolt up, my heart still racing. It takes me more than a moment to realise that it had been just a dream. Just. A. Dream.

  • Lost hopes

    His breath is the first thing to stir the stale air here in eons. As he lays down on the dusty bench he tries to envision what this place once represented: a sea of expectation and hope.

  • Dysphoria

    You can see it in these eyes, I am here no more, Just a hollow vessel lingering, that a soul once bore.

  • BROKEN STRINGS

    The window itself of the shop is beautiful. Lined by a sliver of golden, the stunning wide glass pane reflects me back.

  • Circles

    This was going to be quick. She knew it; it had to be.

  • A JAR OF LOST WINTERS

    The teabags look at the boiling water, My mind takes its place.

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