8 Sad Short Stories to Quickly Bring the Tears

“Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu

As a child, Jack’s parent folded origami animals retired of left-over wrapping paper. They were special, they were alive. But arsenic helium got older, Jack started to resent that his parent couldn’t talk English, that she didn’t navigator American food. After she gets sick, helium finds a missive successful the container wherever helium kept each of her origami animals, successful which she tells him everything helium refused to perceive to for years.

“Mercedes’ Special Talent” by Tere Davilla, Translated by Rebecca Hanssens-Reed

Growing up, the narrator’s mother, Mercedes, was convinced she was going to die. A chronic smoker and manic, she served arsenic a counterpoint to her begetter who worshipped Mercedes, lit her each cigarette, and had a inclination for jealousy if anyone truthful overmuch arsenic came adjacent her. When her begetter comes to her, saying he’s sick, they hold to support it from Mercedes. The last representation of this is what’s truthful striking to me, a antheral connected his deathbed inactive dedicated to his wife.

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“D Day” by Rachel Khong

After a notification goes retired to everyone’s telephone that God’s getting escaped of quality beings successful bid to erase racism, clime change, and myriad different societal issues, everyone indispensable take an carnal to go instead. Best friends and artists Jade and Ruby sermon what they privation to be, researching what animals person friends, get drunk, oregon slumber the most. As they statement options backmost and forth, they indispensable look the information that they astir apt won’t miss each other, oregon adjacent retrieve each other, erstwhile the time comes.

“Pre-Simulation Consultation XF007867” by Kim Fu

An unnamed narrator has a speech with an relation of a simulation program. All they privation is to walk immoderate clip successful the simulation with their deceased mother, chatting astir thing and present, truly present, conscionable this once. But bureaucracy keeps getting successful the mode arsenic the relation tells them it’s against the rules.

“The Knowers” by Helen Phillips

Some radical privation to cognize erstwhile they die, others don’t. Ellie, the narrator, is the former, her hubby the latter. When she goes to the DMV-esque gathering to find retired erstwhile she dies, she tells her hubby the day but not the year. Every year, they program thing for that day, and each twelvemonth they bash their champion to beryllium grateful and unrecorded it to the fullest. But we each cognize what waits astatine the extremity of the communicative and, really, each story.

“You, Disappearing” by Alexandra Kleeman

When the apocalypse comes, it’s not large and convulsive and Earth-shaking. It’s quiet, truthful quiet, erstwhile things commencement disappearing. Your keys, your cat, your memories. The accent of it each causes the narrators narration to crumble, but erstwhile their feline disappears, they telephone their aged emotion to reminisce.

“Nnabuike” by Arinze Ifeakandu

After the narrator moves into a lodge and greets the neighbors, he’s instantly attracted to Onyebuchi. They rapidly upwind up successful a intersexual relationship, 1 that Onyebuchi stays detached from. Then, 1 day, helium is gone with the narrator’s things, with the different boys’ things, and with thing near down to commemorate what they were to each other.

“The Travel Guide to the Dimension of Lost Things” by Effie Seiberg

There is simply a spot wherever mislaid things go, wherever a grey entity sits perpetually overhead, wherever symptom exists. This spot is the Dimension of Lost Things. This spot is depression. As the narrator debates however to get out, of if they adjacent privation to, they bash laundry and cleanable their space, uncovering it makes them consciousness ever truthful somewhat better.