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Short Stories




Dropping The Red Doll by Paul Leighland MacLaine He hadn't seen his ex-wife in three years. Now, suddenly, she is back in his head and bac... [820 words]
Everything's Falling Into Place by Paul Leighland MacLaine As his girlfriend throws all his possessions from a balcony, the man realises t... [946 words]
Sky Bound by Shelley J Alongi Aviation Series story 8. Five years after Anne and Andrew marry, a crisis in the making forces them t... [3,501 words]
The Way We Actually Were by Jeffrey (George) Winter Recollections from a veteran of the Third Reich. [1,337 words]
Wisdom Dug Out Of Dirt by Jeffrey (George) Winter The wealth possessed by a poor, old farmer. [1,032 words]
You've Got Mail by David B Doc Byron A parody of the secret lives of movie critics. [358 words]
The Spirit Tree by Paul Leighland MacLaine A small boy was living with his Aunt and Uncle on their farm discovers a magic tree, and a mira... [4,197 words]
The Secret Of Pimples by David B Doc Byron You'll never see this one coming.... [362 words]
The Caged Introvert by Michael Harris A shy, unattached man's journey for love... [3,644 words]
Sleep Tight. Nighty Night. by Alessandra Mace This story I wrote before 'Big things come in small packages' see how is has matured... [1,282 words]
Nothing Fits, Anyway by Daniel Taylor A short story. [1,610 words]
Night Bite! by Frank Dunsmore Some believe in vampires and some wannabe vampires but Lieutenant Schmidt and his detectives are un... [3,812 words]
Cutting Critics by Frank Dunsmore We've all heard the debate: what is the responsibility of a reviewer? Is it primarily to tell t... [5,146 words]
As Told By Me by Parker Short Story about a kid that gets caught up in the wrong stuff. [6,534 words]
A Poignant Goodbye by Anne Stewart A very short story about internet relationships. [597 words]
A Pocket Full Of Stones by Paul Leighland MacLaine As he walked through the darkest part of his town, he allowed his thoughts to get the b... [929 words]
The Legacy by Paul Leighland MacLaine Abandonment is a terrible way to end a relationship, especially when it is in favour of your best fr... [3,561 words]
The Cool Clique by Pearl S I actually did some reasearch for this, interviewed a few older friends... they don't understan... [837 words]
Sweetchild by Paul Leighland MacLaine Sweetchild is the story of interracial love, a tragic story of a Romeo and Juliet. [2,387 words]
Story Of A Ghost by Matthew Mercieca A short story, about a man who goes through life being consumed by hate. [1,130 words]
Special by Pearl S - [1,338 words]
Space Walk by Sue (Sooz) Simpson May Cause offense. [1,290 words]
So This Is My Life Then by Sue (Sooz) Simpson - [517 words]
Renting by Paul Leighland MacLaine Sometimes letting go can be harder than holding on. [390 words]
Remington, Underwood & Royal by Paul Leighland MacLaine Will Kingsway has just purchased the solution to his writer�s block � a black, Rem... [4,378 words]
Pulp-Affliction by David B Doc Byron You figure it out. [568 words]
Podunk by David B Doc Byron A small group of rednecks find out what it's like not to get the last laugh on a minority. [763 words]
On The Singularity Cusp by Matt Tracy Learn the lengths to which humans will go to reach immortality. They reach for the star... [2,287 words]
Newsworthy by Vyacheslav Yampolsky A short story. [1,459 words]
Just A Bloody Card Game by Jerry Vilhotti A strorella. [979 words]
Involution Melancholia by Paul Leighland MacLaine Mead wakes to find he has been sleeping on a bar. The room is filled with people and smo... [1,859 words]
Hickory, Dickory, Dock by Sue (Sooz) Simpson - [991 words]
Four Minute Warning by Sue (Sooz) Simpson - [476 words]
Close? Only When We Danced by Paul Leighland MacLaine Secrets and promises are often the hardest things to keep. They have a habit of slip... [908 words]
Cherry Blossom by Sue (Sooz) Simpson - [435 words]
Big Things Come In Small Packages by Alessandra Mace This story is about a boy who loves playing the piano and wishes to be a pian... [2,075 words]
Anything Has To Be Better Than This
Grounded by Shelley J Alongi Aviation Series story 10. Seven years into their marriage, life presents the Crance's with a few welco... [2,957 words]
Fatal Flight by Shelley J Alongi Aviation Series story 9. Reacting to Eric's death, Andrew, Eric's first flight instructor, and pro... [3,852 words]
Instrument Meteorological Conditions by Shelley J Alongi Aviation Series story 6. Built on friendship and common interest, Andrew ... [2,464 words]
Worlds Biggest Loser by Sue (Sooz) Simpson - [114 words]
Watch Out, Henry! There's A Hole In That There Bucket! by Pearl S The English Essay I Had Way Too Much Fun Writing. [4,772 words]
Warring Faiths by Ami Another dream... [1,503 words]
Volunteer by Scott Turnit Red Scottturnitred The Empire Falls into civil war. Hard decesions must be made. [2,654 words]
Violet Glowing by Jason Richard Mercer The prelude to a story about an emotionally drained nymphomaniac with the soul of an angel. (I g... [594 words]
Twenty-First Century Mankind by Eric A Hofmann I chose to write a modern day myth which tackled subjects that I thought should be... [1,273 words]
Torn Over Ben by Tracy N Van Brocklin This story is an overview of a young woman's feelings about how she must give up what has been ma... [3,667 words]
The Wrong Love by Samuel James Chase When is love wrong? A story told from the point of view of a person who feels he is the victim i... [2,425 words]
The Music Of Zetaph by Rachael E Bills An intriguing outlook on a futuristic world where aliens from the planet Zetaph have interg... [3,218 words]
The Dinosaur by Sue (Sooz) Simpson - [1,523 words]
Rebecca by Tammi Goyns A short story about supposed insanity...read into the mind of a madman and how he finds society to be c... [1,034 words]
Naughty Bunny Goes To Ibiza by Sue (Sooz) Simpson - [552 words]
Lake Of The Woods by Stephanie Black A story about man vs. nature. A young boy must face a bear in the middle of nowhere during ... [2,492 words]
Insideout by David B Doc Byron A woman born deformed longs to be beautiful. [791 words]
His Prospects by Caitlin Conaway Repressed Victorians! Plus Antarctic Explorers, a pretty Oxford reject, and a little morphine. [3,535 words]
Four Months by Hopii Canterfield This is not meant to be a trite romance, although I know that it can come off that way. It's just ... [666 words]
Experience As In Dostojewski by Stefanie Aschmann The narrator is a rich, middle aged woman living in Germany. Her outlook on life t... [2,023 words]
Don't Be So Quick To Pull The Plug! by Ami Imagine yourself in her position and SHIVER! It's kind of creepy, a trigger... [1,658 words]
Cat's Chorus by Sue (Sooz) Simpson - [1,332 words]
Cancer Of The Circumstance by Paul Leighland MacLaine When a man meets a friend in the street, a long lost friend, he sees that he is dyin... [1,424 words]
Blue Pill by Scott Turnit Red Scottturnitred Deep Space Romance. [4,499 words]
Anne by Sue (Sooz) Simpson - [707 words]
After She Left by Paul Leighland MacLaine When a relationship ends and partners go their separate ways, the memory of the lost love begins... [708 words]
A Twist In The Tail by Sue (Sooz) Simpson - [963 words]

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TITLE (EDIT)
Anything Has To Be Better Than This
DESCRIPTION
Nixon lives a quiet life, he minds his own business, keeps to himself...it�s his neighbours who are warring. The paper-thin walls of this hotel reveal everything and one night, as the battle rages next door, he hears the woman, who has never taken any notice of him before, cry out his name.

He charges in, the hero he never was, only to discover anything has to be better than this.

[952 words]
TITLE KEYWORD
Relationships
AUTHOR
Paul Leighland MacLaine
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
-
[September 2023]
AUTHOR'S E-MAIL ADDRESS
[email protected]
AUTHOR'S OTHER TITLES (13)
A Pocket Full Of Stones (Short Stories) As he walked through the darkest part of his town, he allowed his thoughts to get the better of him. They stepped in time with his feet, and slowly covered his face with a gentle regret. [929 words] [Relationships]
After She Left (Short Stories) When a relationship ends and partners go their separate ways, the memory of the lost love begins to fade. The half of the brain they once occupied is gradually reclaimed so a person returns to being a... [708 words] [Suspense]
Cancer Of The Circumstance (Short Stories) When a man meets a friend in the street, a long lost friend, he sees that he is dying of cancer. The signs are all there, he is thin, his eyes have dimmed from their once brilliant blue and his hands ... [1,424 words] [Mystery]
Close? Only When We Danced (Short Stories) Secrets and promises are often the hardest things to keep. They have a habit of slipping out in conversation. Phillip, a boy on the verge of manhood, tells all his secrets to a man he�s just met in th... [908 words] [Relationships]
Dropping The Red Doll (Short Stories) He hadn't seen his ex-wife in three years. Now, suddenly, she is back in his head and back in his life. As he sits next to her while she is dying from injuries sustained in a car wreck, he observes th... [820 words] [Mystery]
Especially Brilliance (Short Stories) A little bit of heaven has just come back to earth [2,340 words] [Spiritual]
Everything's Falling Into Place (Short Stories) As his girlfriend throws all his possessions from a balcony, the man realises the order in which they are discarded reflects their story relationship. [946 words] [Relationships]
Involution Melancholia (Short Stories) Mead wakes to find he has been sleeping on a bar. The room is filled with people and smoke..just another night on the tiles? Only this time things are happening that don�t make sense: the barman takes... [1,859 words] [Horror]
Remington, Underwood & Royal (Short Stories) Will Kingsway has just purchased the solution to his writer�s block � a black, Remington typewriter. The only problem comes when it asks him to guess its name in exchange for fame and literary success... [4,378 words] [Horror]
Renting (Short Stories) Sometimes letting go can be harder than holding on. [390 words] [Relationships]
Sweetchild (Short Stories) Sweetchild is the story of interracial love, a tragic story of a Romeo and Juliet. [2,387 words] [Romance]
The Legacy (Short Stories) Abandonment is a terrible way to end a relationship, especially when it is in favour of your best friend. But John, a hack, horror writer, has just found the solution to his woes in the pages of an ol... [3,561 words] [Horror]
The Spirit Tree (Short Stories) A small boy was living with his Aunt and Uncle on their farm discovers a magic tree, and a miracle of nature. [4,197 words] [Spiritual]
Anything Has To Be Better Than This
Paul Leighland MacLaine

anything has to be better than this

a short story from the collection:
the tales of socrates dancing
by
paul leighland maclaine


Because I�m in love and I don't know how long it�ll last.
Ah, but you also don�t know that it won�t last forever.
That�s why I�m sad.

They were arguing again.
He heard the sound of smashing glass and pressed his face deeper into the pillow. Her sickly-sweet perfume filled his nasal passages, making him gag.
He passed her in the hall again this afternoon.
She�d looked up at him, her eyes eating into his...
but they saw nothing worthwhile: nothing she wanted.
She opened the door to the room next to his own, and shut herself inside.
  
Another glass shouted a hollow cry from the next room, its death distilled by the paper-thin hotel walls. He placed his ear to the smoke-stained floral paper, heard her muffled cries and her lover�s mumbled threats, her pleas and, finally, the man�s fist cracked a reply down upon her face. And then, beyond the dirty divide, he heard her sobbing.
Anything has to be better than this, he thought, and sunk back to his still-warm pillow.
  
He pictured those sobs wracking her thin frame, her small, perfectly shaped breasts flattening up tight against her ribs. He pictured her beautiful spine, separating an unblemished back and remembered when his own hands were in a gentle caress down the valleys and swellings of her...
  
He heard a dull cracking sound and winced. Was it her cheekbone? Had next-door broken one of her pencil-thin arms? Had he broken her neck?
�Please not that,� he whispered, and placed his knuckles to his lips, straining to hear any movement that would tell him she was all right.
�Please, don�t hurt her. She�s all I have.�
Ice cubes clinked into a tumbler. Only an ice-tray�s frozen back had been snapped by the man�s powerful hands.
 
He wished he could save her. He lifted his fingers from his lips and placed then to his temples, rotating them in circles - softly at first then harder and harder and harder. He wasn�t solidly built like the other man. He visualized rushing the door and carrying her back to his room in his arms � just like a real man would have. Only he wasn�t a real man, neither tall, nor powerful, rich or cold like he thought men should be.
He was a gentle man, and gentle men don�t kick down doors to rescue the women they love.
  
He heard the renting of material.
She shrieked. Bedsprings winced under the weight of two. He threw back his covers, walked to the bathroom, and flicked the light. He stared at the hollow face in the mirror. Under bare-bulbed light his eyes were soft and gentle...pleading. A tear ran point down his cheek. He again heard the ripping of cloth, and another tear followed the path of the first. Her cries for the man to stop became desperate pleas to continue.
The bedsprings sang in time.
�Yes,� she cried.
He left the empty security of the bathroom, walked to the kitchen, and took a knife from the drawer. He rolled it over and over in his hand, then sliced the blade gently across his arm.
�Oh...Yes.� she cried.
He cut again. Her ecstasy was his pain and he wanted to feel her pleasure. The knife was placed to a fresh section of his arm. He gritted his teeth.
Suddenly, there was a scream. He looked up.
She screamed again.
He swiveled on the linoleum, facing the common wall. A loud crack echoed, making him jump. She screamed again. He pressed the blade into his arm. Now it was her pain he needed to feel and, with each belting slap against her cheeks, he cut deeper and deeper into his arm.
He wished she�d tell him why it was that existence she had chosen when there was so much more to have.
Anything had to be better than this, he thought.
  
Faster and faster the blows rained. Merciless and degrading. Blood syringed from his arm onto the linoleum floor. She screamed again and again and again and...
then she cried out a man�s name. He lifted the blade from his arm.
She called out for him again. Fresh tears flooded single-file down his cheeks � his head throbbed as his blood rushed to the floor. He placed his toe into the pool and drew a circle, trying to close her from his thoughts.
She was killing him. She called for him again.
  
He staggered to the dresser, removed a gun, moved out into the hall, and stood facing the man�s door. He reached for the knob; blood sprayed out of his arm and ran down the door. A bottle smashed. She cried out, but the plea was cut short.
He kicked the door open and, in the darkness, saw the man�s shape standing over her. He fired twice hitting him in the chest. Both men then dropped to the floor. The gentle man crawled to her and, lifting her head to his chest, saw that her final cry for him had been cut from her throat. He placed his face to her hair, lifted her scent. He pushed her body over to the man and entwined them like lovers.
That�s what she would have wanted, he thought.

How he returned to their room was a blur. He pulled the covers over his chest; he was shivering. Part of him was numb. In his last few moments he owned four more thoughts.
How he loved her more than anything.
Why anything had been better than him.
Why she could never be happy with what was gentle and kind and...
how he wished he was holding his wife.

 

READER'S REVIEWS (1)
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"it made me cry . the fact is true it made me ask myself a question of what people do for true love and lust. what we pt up with how we react to peopeles pain and pleasure when we care for them so much. it was very sad. and i felt this one alot!" -- rachel williams, west melbourne, vic.

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COPYRIGHT NOTICE
© 1991 Paul Leighland MacLaine
STORYMANIA PUBLICATION DATE
January 2003
NUMBER OF TIMES TITLE VIEWED
2186
 

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