short fiction · 2026-10-16

Beyond the Road's End

Written in free time, from: Creative writing

The asphalt gave way to gravel, then to dust, and finally to nothing but the faint imprint of tire tracks that vanished into the tall grass. Mara paused, her boots sinking slightly into the soft earth, and looked out where the map ended and the land began to whisper. Beyond the road's end, the world did not cease; it simply changed its language, speaking in wind through seed pods and the slow unfurling of ferns. She stepped forward, not because she knew what lay ahead, but because the silence invited her to listen.