Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Start your story with a character accepting a bribe.

Posted in Adults on Oct 31, 2022

Submissions are closed

Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or use an email address:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 48 stories

Did You Know Them?

Submitted to Contest #159

“What do you want? Candy?” Derek asked, smacking a piece of spearmint gum between his teeth, some pop punk band blaring over his car stereo. Felix, sitting completely still in the middle of the road on his bicycle, stared at him with a bored expression. They’d been engaged in said stare-off for about five minutes at that point, Derek intermittenedly laying on his horn to try and usher the boy out of the road. This also wasn’t the first time they had crossed paths, in fact, these run-ins between the two were becoming more and more common. “...

68 likes 33 comments 33
Read story

If I Let You

Shortlisted for Contest #159 ⭐️

If I let you touch her, will you please be gentle? Just squeeze her little foot, rub her hand, feel her soft head. Look, she’s smiling; she likes you.If I let you hold her, will you please stop pouting? Here, come sit on the couch. Be gentle, not too tight—hold her head up. She’s new and little, and you must be careful. This is your sister; she lives here now, and I know she’s going to love you.If I bring you your own blanket, would you please stop crying? Here, I’ll wrap it around your shoulders, all soft and warm. And here’s a hat for your...

58 likes 75 comments 75
Read story

Epilogue

Submitted to Contest #159

This was it! And Buckley felt just like turning around and going home without playing the song he wanted her to hear. The one he’d written for her on the subject of a potential “them.” His mouth couldn’t have gotten any drier than if it were stuffed full of super-absorbent, super-jumbo Berkley Jensen organic cotton balls. Right now he felt like an out-of-place idiot standing in the middle of a busy bar/restaurant with his guitar strapped uncomfortably to his right shoulder. Instead, he decided to stay and just give it his best shot. An ent...

51 likes 20 comments 20
Read story

Playground Protection

Submitted to Contest #159

You better make this fast. We only have a few minutes left of recess and if we’re late getting back in line, Mrs. Pockey won’t let me take the class turtle home this weekend. Where’s the envelope? I told you to put it in an envelope. You can’t just be handing me cash and cookies right here on the jungle gym. Use a little discretion. You’re not a kindergartener anymore. This is first grade. We do things the right way now. Listen, I want to talk to you. I’ll take this as payment for today, but moving forward, I need double from you if yo...

29 likes 15 comments 15
Read story

Catch You Later

Submitted to Contest #159

TW: Swearing, sucking blood and speeding. The undead poser typed in the numbers on the ATM slow enough for her to see.             “Withdraw as much as you can,” Esmerelda ordered, gun aimed at his balls.             “And you’ll let me go, now that you have the card?” He was a pitiful excuse for a vampire. Nothing like the kung fu masters that seemed to spring up in Sunnydale. It was almost too easy.    &nb...

28 likes 29 comments 29
Read story

Dirty Laundry

Submitted to Contest #159

It might as well be a deal with the devil himself. The fallout was going to be torture for sure. Fred was going to hang this over my head for God knows how long but what choice did I have? “What’s it going to take for you to bury the evidence?” I say, knowing whatever it is, won’t be enough. “More than this, that’s for sure.” “It’s all I have right now. I can get more later.” He knows how hard it was to get this much, the jerk. “You got that right.” “So, we have a deal then?” Please, let us have a deal. I can’t believe I’m thinking this rig...

15 likes 15 comments 15
Read story

Cinderella Needs A Date

Submitted to Contest #159

If Cinderella was born in the 21st century and moved to the small town of Dollings, Oregon, she’d look like Emily Evenson. Blonde hair, blue eyes, with a white headband. She even came with a step-mom and two younger step-sisters and no, her father is still alive and rich enough to own half the oil companies in town. The day Emily transferred to Woodlink High to finish her senior year, everyone in the student body council decided she would be the school’s most popular girl, which currently sits at a ninety-seven percent approval rating....

14 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

The Bribe of All Bribes

Submitted to Contest #159

As much as Judas tried to understand what happened the night before, he couldn’t fathom why Yeshua wouldn’t declare himself the king of the Jews. “The timing’s perfect!” he thought. “The crowds have never been bigger. A few members of the Sanhedrin are supporting him, even if they are doing it secretly. So, why doesn’t he take the next step?” The answer to this riddle eluded him.Flustered, Judas decided to wander through the market square to take his mind off his troubles. The squabbling between the vendors and customers distracted him and e...

13 likes 15 comments 15
Read story

The Emperor’s Bad News

Submitted to Contest #159

The Emperor’s Bad NewsNot so many years ago, there lived an Emperor who loved new plants. He spent all of his spare time walking his vast gardens, hands clasped behind his back, contemplating how to make improvements.“Basil!” he would exclaim, and up would pop Basil, the Imperial Gardener.“Sire?”“There’s a bald patch!” “Not to worry, Sire. I have… Tergum copia!” And Basil would whip out a plant from the Imperial Garden Cart.The Emperor never noticed that each Tergum copia was different from the next. He didn’t know Latin, and so didn’t ...

13 likes 20 comments 20
Read story

When no one is watching

Submitted to Contest #159

**This story contains violence and profanity. This story is entirely fictional any similarities to actual people or events are purely coincidental.**The envelope was thick with cash when Kip Williams sliced it open.There was a note written in pen and all capital letters, probably military Kip thought.KIP, YOUR ARTICLE IS PEPPERED WITH LIES, OR “IGNORANCE” WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT. I KNOW YOU WANT WHAT’S BEST FOR THE CITY. MEET ME AT STEVE’S ON THE CORNER OF YORK AND CUMBERLAND IN 1 HOUR. THE CASH IS “INCENTIVE.”What article? he thought, ...

13 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

The Offer

Submitted to Contest #159

“You’re incredibly attractive. I’ll give you $10,000 to sleep with me.”Did I hear that right?It is Vegas after all. And 1am.I usually ignored random pick-up lines….but I’ve never heard that line before.And as a broke student on holiday in Vegas, my interest was piqued with the mention of money.Unsure if I should rage at the person asking the question or flirt back, I decide that my response will be dependent on what he looks like…but then again, I’m drunk. I’ll flirt regardless.I turn around.A chiseled, tanned face. Mysterious deep brown eye...

12 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Patient X

Submitted to Contest #159

Patient X The siren floated just above the whispers and groans of patients waiting to be treated. It was just a flutter and based upon the cycles Milton knew he had time to message his latest crush before it arrived. Maybe move from virtual sex to something that might leave a mark. Busy day,” he wrote. “But it’s how I save  lives. Meet tonight?” He pushed aside the files of unprocessed claims and admissions and wiped a bare forearm across the surface of his desk. He opened a new file on his computer screen, set the cursor to Line ...

12 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Society Full Of Obtainers

Submitted to Contest #159

Arithmetic? – Ah, I am not good in that at all. When it comes to measuring distance, I found it too difficult to do. Most of the times, when am stuck in the issue while talking to someone, I try to measure in my head the distance between two electric poles and what I wanted to say.      “Emm, about two or three electric poles” That is always my answer to distance questions. That’s if am talking to close acquaintances. But if the person doesn’t fall into the category of a friend or acquaintance, I will supply gues...

11 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Big Sisters

Submitted to Contest #159

“Oh, stop being such a drama queen! Just take the money and let’s go!” Kayleighe spread her wings as far as she could in the cramped tunnel, bruising the joints a bit as they hit the rough concrete sides. Her big sister had witnessed something that would change the Saiges Dragons’ plans for the Royal Bureau of Border Control job fair they were holding this weekend, but the Ogre standing in front of her waving a fistful of Earthian Cash really wanted her to just move on and say nothing. “But Earthian Cash is not as valuable as Fairy Sil...

11 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

What's Yours Is Mine

Submitted to Contest #159

She eyed the envelope resting on the passenger seat, pristine but insipid even as it nestled all her preserved fruits of several years of labor; summer jobs, part-time waitressing through university, internships, and finally shavings off of a paycheck that was just enough to keep her expediently sheltered and rudimentarily fed. Smoothing out her thrifted scrubs, she forced herself to exhale; her breath instantly pluming into oblivion. If only she could have compelled the overwhelming sense of foreboding to follow in its flight, she might hav...

11 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Set your story in a world where the currency isn’t money — or at least not money as we understand it.

Fantasy – 62 stories

Write about somebody down on their luck who unexpectedly comes into a large amount of money.

Teens – 49 stories

Your character checks their balance at an ATM and is surprised by the number they see.

Adults – 32 stories

Write about a character who’s never encountered a problem they couldn’t buy their way out of — until they do.

Angst – 25 stories

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel