Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Start your story with the arrival of a new person in a town full of gossips.

Posted in Adults on Oct 25, 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?

✍️ 41 stories

A Bug in Your Ear

Submitted to Contest #131

Danny rolled his eyes as Peter and Bjorn rolled out the latest gossip about the new kid, Ramone. Daily, his schoolmates came up with more dirt that they slung around the yard like runny poop. The three huddled under the maple tree, sneaking glances at Ramone who sat alone on a bench by the monkey bars. Some stuff was creepy. One day, Peter had covertly hissed to the others, “He hears ghosts in his head, that’s why he always knows all the answers!” Danny thought to himself, ‘Maybe he’s just really smart.’ Some stuff was gr...

14 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Behind the face

Submitted to Contest #131

She stared at her reflection in the mirror. Bright curly red hair looked like on fire as the yellow rays from the window behind her gave her a light halo around her. Her once bright live blue eyes were now dull and dead. She didn’t recognize the girl in the mirror. She strode towards her wardrobe, pulled out a pair of skinny jeans a tank top, and a hoodie. She also wore her glasses rather than sunglasses, she refused to hide her eyes. They were the only thing that was left of her now. She jumped from her first-floor window as graceful as a c...

14 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Community of Stalkers

Submitted to Contest #131

Karuli felt irritated. The beautiful house by the sea looked good when she inspected it with the real estate agent. It had been unsettling when the agent seemed so pleased she had liked the place. It had been an odd encounter, with the agent using the same words as the people from the last town she had lived in.Often Karuli would wonder if society were pre-programmed robots running on some sort of script that she knew nothing about. Everyone performed the same body language about her. The people seemed uncomfortable in their poses as if they...

13 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Nothing Worth a Song or Dance About

Submitted to Contest #131

CONTENT WARNING; mental health, self harm, swearing The person in number 5 Orpheus Lane has a scar, at least that was what they all said. “A scar?” Hamish thought to ask when he was told, his voice filled with the sort of tone that showed quite clearly, he considered this to be about as noteworthy as the mayors’ new haircut or any other of the nonsense drivel that seemed to drive the town of Rosebridge. “Aye, a scar” said Mrs Flannagan, shaking her head disapprovingly her thin lips pursed “but not just any old scar I will tell you that...

13 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Spilling Tea

Submitted to Contest #131

Spilling Tea                       By Veronica Robinson It was only the third Saturday in May, but every woman in the tent begin to fan herself. The sides of the tent were rolled up to allow wind to pass through, but none had come the entire afternoon, thankfully the overhead covering was keeping the sun from beaming in. The tent was filled with large round tables two by two creating an aisle through the middle of the tent stretchin...

13 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

Knocked Out

Submitted to Contest #131

Hi, this is my first time writing for Reedsy. I hope you enjoy my short story!I turned the coffee machine on as I shut my computer closed and stacked it on top of my suitcase. I surveyed the room looking to see if I had missed anything so I wouldn't forget it. I was going to be gone for a week, after all. I took my cup of coffee and poured in the milk slowly as the creamy, white texture mixed slowly with the dark, black coffee. I took two packets of sugar from the counter and rapidly emptied them inside the cup. No, I needed three. As I was ...

13 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Twilight

Submitted to Contest #131

    The light was not good. It never is in late afternoon before the street lamps come on, and the darkness has exposed its intention.  The last remnants of the day left to debate their departure.      I sit on a bench that overlooks the pond. The sunset, when one is realized, snared by the pool, divided into prisms of promise, and sent into the darkness, escape. It was on just such an evening that I noticed him, her, it, for the first time. Normally people avoid the park ...

13 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Newbie

Submitted to Contest #131

THE NEWBIE (1002 words) It hadn’t been an easy decision, this move to be closer to my daughter. I had left the house that I had lived in when I was married, said goodbye to good neighbours, close friends and familiar shops. But despite my daughter’s assurances that I would soon make new friends, I sensed I was not welcome. The locals appeared clannish, their carapaces as hard to crack as walnuts. Generations of families had lived in this northern town, forging a tight-knit community. I felt like a dandelion clock blowing directionless in the...

13 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

The Madman and the Rat

Submitted to Contest #131

Under the black of night, stars hidden from sight by fog and cloud, a hooded stranger rode quietly into town. His coming, though subtle, did not go unnoticed as blurred faces watched through the mould stained windows. Their intrigue justified on two counts, the first being that curfew had well been exceeded and the second being that this stranger’s demeanour was rather unusual. Upon the horse, hanging from one side, his satchel containing all the tools of his trade. On the other side, something metal rattled within a cloth sack. And upon the...

12 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

New Sheriff in Town

Submitted to Contest #131

THE NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN By Professor Alan Dale Dickinson (Fiction) (Copyrighted) HE SLOWLY, very slowly, rolled into the quaint little town of Gilroy, California, which just so happens to the ‘Garlic’ capitol of the World, or at least they proclaim that on the big entrance sign when you came into the little Hispanic enclave. He is part Latino and that was one of the main reason’s that he came up here from his former residence in Santa Ana, California. He loves all races; however, even though he is mostly Anglo, he has to admit that he p...

12 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

A Fortunate Change of Luck

Submitted to Contest #131

Walking slowly up the driveway Emilie looks around the neighborhood at all the twitching curtains. Suddenly a circle of women form on the lawn opposite out of each of the nearby houses, `Have they nothing better to do than nose out of the window’ Emilie thinks – ‘obviously not – that’s quite sad.’ No manners either as they’re not being discreet in the slightest.  Clearly debating why she’s there (in THEIR stuck up area) and not dressed appropriately for the visit, in their eyes.  She ascertains this from the brouhaha of `Who’s...

11 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Indio

Submitted to Contest #131

We remember when he first came to town. The way his shoes were polished, shiny even. But it wasn’t his shoes we noticed first, it wasn’t the way his hair spiked up in the back or how he grimaced when he laughed so he didn’t show his crooked front tooth. "Indio," is what we whispered when he walked through the glass doors of John Adams Middle School. We had never seen a Mexican so dark. We knew he heard us whispering, when he walked in, but we couldn’t hide our disbelief. So dark, his skin the color of soil after a rainfall. “Is he black...

11 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Then the Rumors Started

Submitted to Contest #131

Mina Monksbarn was a wanted fugitive. Here in the borderlands on the outskirts of the kingdom, that didn’t matter quite as much as it might elsewhere. There were plenty of wanted fugitives here, and her crime was hardly of the violent or dangerous sort. She may have liberated a few books and artifacts from a few disreputable sorts, but that was all. That those disreputable sorts happened to be the Head Sorcerers of the Land was neither here nor there. But all that summed up to say that she was a wanted fugitive, but not the sort that mo...

11 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Left for duty

Submitted to Contest #131

Instead of the breathtaking coastal scenery, he fixated on the road. He was afraid to speed up in case one of the wheels fall of the car in the feet-deep potholes. That’s when he realised that he should have hired a pickup truck, instead of this fancy 4x4. He convinced himself that even potholes were part of this adventure and so he decided to embrace all it.   His psychologist advised him to get away for a couple of months. She said that studies had proven that a change of environment was best to move on after a stressful event. The L...

11 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Strange Mr. Paisley

Submitted to Contest #131

When Mr. Amos Paisley came to Stoneybrook Ridge, Missouri, he had no idea what he was in for. Stoneybrook Ridge is located on the west side of the Mississippi river in the Ozark Hills where many still hold grudges from over a hundred years ago during the war. When he arrived, there was a feud boiling over again between the Garris and McDaniel families over a marriage proposal gone sour between Jenny Garris and Tommy Joe McDaniel.  Jenny had just turned seventeen, which is old by local marriage standards while Tommy had just returned hom...

10 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story about two characters whose first impressions of one another are wildly inaccurate.

Fluff – 55 stories

Write a story that includes (or subverts) the enemies-to-lovers trope.

Romance – 25 stories

Write a story about a group of sisters, or a group of brothers.

Vampire – 35 stories

Set your story in a drawing room.

Fiction – 29 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