Free stories

Six expeditions went looking for the archive. You are carrying the only surviving map.

The hospital closed in 1994. The night shift roster is still being filled.

A missing-persons detective takes one last case and finds her own name in the file.

Eighteen months, one co-founder, and a runway that shortens with every choice you make.

You are the only doctor on the airfield. Every clearance you sign is a life you are betting on.

You have forty minutes, one package, and a city that has decided you should not arrive.

Two people keep meeting on the same balcony, and neither of them lives in the building.

A radio engineer intercepts a transmission that predicts a death in her own building — and four different endings depend on who she decides to trust.

In the highland kingdom of Naim, a young spirit-tracker is called to hunt a vengeful presence stalking the borderlands — but the deeper she follows its trail, the more it looks like it is hunting her family's own buried secret.

A homicide detective returning to her hometown to investigate a body pulled from the river finds the case tangled with the one person she never stopped thinking about — and now can't rule out as a suspect.

An archaeologist and her headstrong apprentice race a rival expedition to a lost city rumored to hold a message left for a civilization that hasn't been born yet.

As the Gata Expanse's ruling empire moves to crush the last free colonies, a conscripted soldier and an exiled heir must decide whether to become the conquerors they were raised to be, or the heroes their people need.

Build your parent, name your kids, pick your neighbourhood — then live one impossible morning where work and your child both need you at exactly the same time.

In Keffi, Chief Heavyweight faces a rival armed with 5G promises, branded umbrellas, and stony rice. Guide his hilarious campaign through roasted-corn diplomacy, a jollof-fuelled debate, and one final election-night bargain.

Callie Ransom returns to Elderbrook to sort out her missing uncle's affairs and meets Jerry: the friendliest, most helpful neighbour in three counties, and definitely not human. The whole town agrees not to think about it too hard. A comedy horror where every casserole is a threat.