SoulFire77

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I have 159 stories published in 11 collections on the site.
My stories have been read 52240 times and 170 of my stories have been cherry picked.
14 of my 90 comments have been voted Great Feedback with a total of 22 votes

SoulFire77's picture
J. Oliver Padgett

J. Oliver Padgett writes horror and dystopian fiction from the North Carolina Piedmont. His work explores economic coercion, institutional complicity, and what people become when survival demands compromise. Novels include "Lily", "The Interview", and "Escape From Room 101". His prose favors psychological dread over graphic violence, working-class authenticity over literary posturing, and endings that deny comfort. By day, he works in warehouse logistics—a background that informs his fiction's attention to the quiet machinery that grinds people down. 

My stories

Cherry

§tandby - The Kindness

By SoulFire77 on Fri, 12 Jun 2026

The cold had got into the carriage and stayed. The bulb in the roof flickered and held. His left side was a cold weight he sat beside. His right hand...
Surreal
Story
Certificate 15
Cherry

§tandby - The Thinning

By SoulFire77 on Fri, 12 Jun 2026

The gray had been going by a long time. He did not know how long. Time was one of the things that had stopped coming when he reached for it. He sat...
Surreal
Story
Certificate 15
Cherry

§tandby - The Stop He Knew

By SoulFire77 on Thu, 11 Jun 2026

The train went on and he did not count the seats again. He had counted them twice and got two numbers and there was no third number in him to try...
Surreal
Story
Certificate 15
1 likes
Cherry

§tandby - The Carriage

By SoulFire77 on Thu, 11 Jun 2026

The gray pressed at the window and did not change. The floor shuddered under his slippers with the weight of the train, and still the gray outside...
Surreal
Story
Certificate 15
1 likes
Cherry

§tandby - The Light

By SoulFire77 on Thu, 11 Jun 2026

The lights went at twenty to seven, the same as the night before and the night before that, and Margaret had the candles up before the picture had...
Surreal
Story
Certificate 15

Pages

14 of my comments have received 22 Great Feedback votes

5 Votes

[We interrupt Mornington Heights for these important messages]

Posted on Tue, 31 Mar 2026

Studio lights up. A tanned man in a velvet blazer sits behind a mahogany desk. His teeth are impossibly white. A glass of water and a stack of cue cards are arranged before him.

"Good evening. I'm Gérard Le Fromage."

...

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Posted in Penny's Pass The Story - Part 8.

2 Votes

Here's mine:

Posted on Sat, 06 Jun 2026

Here's mine:

Me: Why is my body always doing this to me?

Body: Remember that time you were mad because none of your help showed up to work and you jumped out of the back of that box truck...

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Posted in Conversation With My Body

2 Votes

I'm glad you like it! I did

Posted on Mon, 30 Mar 2026

I'm glad you like it! I did my best to pull some of the threads together. I hope we can see what happens next soon!

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Posted in Penny’s Pass the Parcel - Part 7

2 Votes

When my daughter was little,

Posted on Thu, 12 Mar 2026

When my daughter was little, we were walking on the beach, feeding bread to the seagulls, when she asked me if "seagulls" were called that because they were "eagles that live by the sea". She was hearing "sea-gles", I guess.

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Posted in When your world wobbles ..

1 Vote

Thank you for catching the

Posted on Tue, 09 Jun 2026

Thank you for catching the "half mile" thing... It was intended as exaggeration, but I can see the confusion it causes. Corrected.

I'm glad you are enjoying the series so far. It is one of those strange projects where I keep trying to...

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Posted in Heel - § 3: The Act

1 Vote

I did. "Holding fire" until

Posted on Mon, 06 Apr 2026

I did. "Holding fire" until further notice. Just let me know if I can help in any way.

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Posted in I. Deep Storage - Part Three

1 Vote

I can write Part 9, if no one

Posted on Tue, 31 Mar 2026

I can write Part 9, if no one wants it. The way I have always played round robin is the author that starts the story is the only one allowed to finish the story, but that may be different here.

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Posted in Penny's Pass The Story - Part 8.

1 Vote

Okay, I will write Part 7

Posted on Sat, 28 Mar 2026

Okay, I will write Part 7 this week, if everyone approves. I am taking a break from my current work for a week so it seems to be a good time. Thank you for the invitation!

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Posted in Penny’s Pass the Story Part 6

1 Vote

I'm glad you noticed this

Posted on Thu, 19 Feb 2026

I'm glad you noticed this detail! The US military has terminology for "clearing a room", but it didn't seem strong enough. If the room is "cleared" of the enemy threat, the room could be empty, or the enemy could be captured, not killed.

...

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Posted in Courtesy Calls: The Fire Lane (2)

1 Vote

I Love Music!

Posted on Sun, 11 Jan 2026

Lately, I find that silence is better when I write. However, I like to turn up the volume while working on other odd projects around the house. I'm a big fan of The Flaherty Brotherhood and a band called "Goodnight, Texas".

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Posted in Darius.

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