Free Fiction

Here at Fox Spirit Books we love stories and we figure you all love stories too.  

Image courtesy of Adrian Tchaikovsky
Image courtesy of Adrian Tchaikovsky

Video

A few of the Fox Spirit video clips and trailers for books gathered from various appearances and promotional efforts. If you know of any other skulk members captured on video, let us know! Our YouTube Channel is here. Extricate: noir novella trailer Fox Pockets trailer The ‘Lost’ Second Book of Nicoletto Giganti   Noir Carnival: …

FEARLESS GENRE WARRIORS
A Fox Spirit Sampler edited by Jenny Barber full of pirates, monsters, horror and humour.

Free to download, a fabulous collection of stories pulled from our broad range of anthologies, give it a try and find find something marvellous. 

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Sea Creatures

by Samantha Priestly

They walked the beach at Arbroath, the wind blasting shrapnel of salt and seawater at their faces. The remains of a late-night seafront barbeque were scattered with pebbles and shells on the sand. It was early morning. A woman in a grey duffle coat trailing a small scruffy dog walked towards them by the water’s edge. Full bottomed clouds roamed the sky and the sea rumbled.

Download the full story here 

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Master of Wolves

Ugochukwu P. Nwafor

Right before he sought his Aunt’s help and finally bought his admission to study law in the university, Ezeobele repetitively had very naughty and alike dreams. They were not always the same but they usually involved a tall colossal man, neatly fitted in exotic suits and shoes and having an unusual large head of a Siberian husky—almost as large as that of a Grizzly bear. On the other hand, a tongue not too rash might adjudge same to be nothing but a familiar experience, the distressing reward meted out to a mind frustrated over a long period of time.

Download the full story here 

Anomaly Calling 

by Ferdinand Page

A nameless airport in Russia was covered in light bulbs, only a third of which were working. The businessman had been here many times before, staring out at the dark forests beyond the perimeter lights. At least he’d cross the next borders thousands of feet up in a pressurised cabin in endlessly-recycled boredom.

Download the full story here 

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A Tale Told by an Idiot

by Rose Biggin

If you were to come this way yourself, you wouldn’t find these phone booths here. In each one stands a man in a pinstriped suit and braces, busily dialing.

‘When shall we three meet again?’ the first asks, spreading the magazines before him. Not that it matters: between them they own the daily, the weekly, and the monthly (The Thunder Times, The Lightening Enquirer, The Rain Express). ‘When the hurly-burly’s done,’ the second speaks into his telephone. ‘When the battle’s lost, and won.’ A different story for each paper, then. The third looks at his watch. ‘That will be ere the set of sun,’ he reckons.

Download the full story here 

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Saving Sleeping Beauty

by Ferdinand Page

There was once, upon a time to be decided by yourself, a woman imprisoned by a monster. She was a sleeping beauty. This is nonsense, you say. There are no monsters and who says she’s beautiful.You? Very well, accept a fact. The fact is she was sleeping most of the time. The monster waited for her to wake; fed on her waking, watching her dreamless body with animal patience. The first flicker of an eyelid, the erratic catch of a breath through the dry lips, made her beautiful in the eyes of the monster.

Download the full story here 

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Keep my Skin for me

by Ferdinand Page

When I first saw Ailsa, she was walking the line of flotsam on the shoreline like a tightrope; breaking off to weave backwards and forwards between the seaward side and the land, kicking at the detritus with little, dancing steps as she went. With her rough-cut black hair and light eyes, seawater-light even in strong sunshine, she looked pretty out of it. The gusting wind pulled at her hair and clothes but she danced on, oblivious. I caught a glimpse of white buds in her ears, which explained her casual indifference to what was happening out at sea.

Download the full story here 

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11th Commandment

by K.A. Laity

She should never have said it, not even silently. And after the police and the confusion and the onlookers were gone, she could only berate herself over and over—and look at the small life in her hands and dully wonder where her son was now.

If only he hadn’t been so fussy and cranky today—why today? Errands to run, grocery shopping (still not done) and what to get Auntie Ruth; on any other day, she might not have lost her temper, might not have wished—

Download the full story here 

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Interlopers

by Paul Starkey

Black Annis took her time in getting to the rendezvous. Her slowness wasn’t born from lack of eagerness—she had called for this parley after all—and neither was it down to lack of mobility; she could move faster, a lot faster, but the glamour she’d cast around herself was old magic, outdated by today’s standards, and if she hurried she risked leaving the aura of a little old lady following behind her like a ghostly echo, and people would see her true appearance.

Of course her true appearance was that of a little old lady as well, just a very different kind of little old lady.

Download the full story here 

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And The Fox Crows

by V.C. Linde

We asked V.C. Linde to do a short book of poems exploring fox mythology around the world. Sample it for free.

Download the Sample here

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Jingle Bells

by Vincent Holland-Keen

The small girl was blonde of hair and pink of coat and moments after she stormed into Santa’s Grotto, the surrounding air turned a vivid purple.
The sound drew Herman Jeffers. He descended an escalator, pushing past rubber-necking shoppers, thinking he really didn’t have time for this.
A crowd gathered around the grotto. The plywood construction was shaking. Fake snow fell from the roof. The queue of families previously waiting outside had retreated to a safe distance. The parents were muttering, the children crying.
“Stay back, everyone,” said Herman, arriving on the scene and tripping over a bag stuffed full of 3 for 2 toiletries.

Download the full story here

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A Granted wish

by Jo Thomas

With her eyes half closed, it’s easy to see Piotr through the crowd. He dances with enthusiasm and without grace, just as he always has. Zoya smiles back at the boyish grin and waving arms. “See,” a friend shouts in her ear, “All you needed was to get out.” She closes her ears to the other woman’s voice, not even sure which of her friends it is. It’s like that these days, everyone not Piotr blurring into a tangled mess of images. If she distinguishes at all it’s between male and female, between Polish and English. Nothing else impinges on her senses.

Download the full story here

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Smallbany

by Graham Wynd

I desperately turned every door handle along the corridor while swearing a blue streak,  trying to figure out where it had all gone wrong. The image of Bomber’s face covered with blood still haunted my vision though I tried to push it aside long enough to think straight.

“We have to seize the means of production,” Bomber had said. I laughed at the memory of his words and gripped the handle of the French horn case even tighter. There had to be a way out of here.

At last a handle moved under my sweaty grip. I pushed through the door. A supply closet: stacks of cocktail napkins, swizzle sticks and whatnot filled the shelves. Dead end, I knew. But maybe I could hide out here while things calmed down.

Download the full story

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Full Moon, Dragon Gate

By Joyce Chng (also writes as J. Damask)

Prologue

Dragon Fish

Angel-girl called me on my cell phone when I was just about to start preparing lunch. The chicken thighs were ready to be marinated with dark soy and salt, sitting patiently in the bowl I designated as the marinating bowl. The moment I was about to massage the sauce in, my cell phone rang, startling me.

“You got to see this,” angel-girl sounded breathless. “It’s amazing.”

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Yen Lo Wang’s Wife

by Joyce Chng

She was sold to Yen Lo Wang, the King of Hell, match-made by an important Taoist priest who selected her urn of ashes out of many other urns. Her ceremony above ground was simple, a pairing of a female paper figurine with a male counterpart symbolizing the august lord of death, many bowings to heaven and earth; and libations of wine.

Below ground, in the realm of Yen Lo Wang, the ceremony was extravagant and ostentatious, with dignitaries from all the hell realms invited together, retinues and entourages in toll, and an elaborate dinner banquet that lasted a week. The arrival of the new wang fei galvanized everybody, from the lowest of hell slaves to the highest-ranking gate officials.

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That Which Was Taken

by Alec McQuay

The dinner table shook as Mrs Harris placed the turkey at the centre; its large, porcelain platter glistening with the succulent juices that spilled from the roasted bird and filled the air with the delicious scent of meat. Her husband’s face split open in a broad smile as she passed him the carving knife and took her seat, sipping delicately at a glass of sparkling white wine as her husband began his traditional part of Christmas dinner.

Download the full story here 

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Geronimo – Fox Pockets 1 Piracy

By T.F. Grant

 I’m writing this on the back of an old telephone bill, yellowed with age; the only paper I can find. I’m writing this with the stub of an old pencil, which I found behind a sofa in my parents’ house. I kept it as a keepsake of the old world we made over, but it will do to write my last testament. I write this the old way, with no digital files for you to steal from me.

This is mine.

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NORA – Fox Pockets 1 Piracy

by Margrét Helgadóttir

Nora stood on deck waiting for the other ship to come closer. The sails flapped over her head, eager to let the wind take hold. The air was thick with ocean mist and drizzling wet snow. She held her ship steady, standing upright, never letting the other ship out of her sight.

It was an old wooden sail ship, heavy in the sea. It glided towards her, majestic and elegant despite the high waves. The wind strained the massive sails to their limits. People ran to and fro on the deck, adjusting the sails. She counted five. All men. She shivered and huddled deeper into her fur coat.

Download the whole story here 

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Leave Your Pistol Behind Fox Pocket 1 – Piracy

by C.A. Yates

Anne the Bone was no fool.

Red Johnny Bootleg might be hung like a well-fed donkey, but he was a good for nothing bully of a blaggard and she was done with him. She’d been thinking with her cunny for too long, acting like a sex-starved old salt. Talented in the bedchamber he might be, but Red Johnny was the most incompetent captain she’d ever sailed with. No sooner had they stepped on that fucking island than they were in all kinds of hellish bother. No treasure was worth the kinds of shit they’d seen that day. Now, the black spot was upon him and there would be no running this time. He may have come within a breath of dancing with old Jack Ketch a hundred times – if you believed his tall tales – but Red Johnny’s voyage was near its end, the devil take him.

Download the full story here 

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They are the Dead
by T.F. Grant 

From Tales of the Fox & Fae

They came out at night.

Eleanor crouched by a wall and watched them dance in the canyon streets. Skyscrapers with blacked out windows reared into the sky. Clouds glowed in the light of the moon with stars above like diamonds cast on velvet. The Vespasian in orbit, a fast moving light flashing from east to west, waited for her signal, but it might as well have been in another universe for all the good it did.

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Aunty Fox Harris