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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Start your story with the line, “It had been twenty-four years since she’d last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same,” and end it with, “[…] and that was all that mattered.”

Posted in Adults on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 178 stories

“Never Alone” by Amiable Sorceress

Submitted to Contest #68

It had been 24 years since she had seen it, but the place looked the same. She, my mother, would’ve been happy to see me here, outside in the fresh air. I walked against the rough pavement, running my long fingertips against the cold marble siding of a fountain, a large statue towering over my small frame. Rubbing my hands together to keep warm, I pulled a bag of chips from the shopping bag I’d been carrying and bit into a chip silently. The cold embrace of the wind eventually guided me to a waste bin, the chip bag still half-full. It had be...

21 comments 21
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“The Forest of Memories” by . .

Submitted to Contest #68

It had been twenty-four years since she'd last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same. Still, the same hollow groans, echoing through the forest. The same twisted branches waving and reaching. She never thought that she would come back here, especially after what it did to her. Because of this place, she hadn't been able to sleep for twenty-four years. Hadn't been able to trust anyone. The horrors of the contest had echoed through her eyes and ears for most of her life, and ghosts never stopped coming for her. Chanting, "Mira, Mira, ...

51 comments 51
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“♠ Trials of the Damned ♠” by ~ Rookiewriting ~

Submitted to Contest #68

It had been twenty-four years since she`d last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same. Saila`s eyes watered, she sighted, reminiscing the day he became a champion. Remembering him. The craggy arena stood in the middle of an array of old, blushing oaks, surrounded by shedding. Scattered leaves, dancing in the wind covered the three shaman pillars, each for one of the trials. The arena stood on the edge of a ridge where a soft breeze of wind brushed over the crowd. They nestled around the pillars on tender dried out the moss. The...

9 comments 9
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“In Remembrance” by Akshaya Sutrave

Submitted to Contest #68

It had been twenty-four years since she'd last seen it, but the place looked the same. She couldn't believe it had been that long since she had visited it. That thought made her contrite. Was it that she had been too busy? Or that she had avoided going there all these years? Nadia stood in front of her old neighborhood. The one where she had been raised. She was only eleven when she had been sent to a boarding school, and she hadn't returned ever since. Thoughts and memories floated in front of her eyes, refusing to leave, but she did not te...

39 comments 39
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“The Lake” by ✧ 𝕊𝕒𝕡𝕙𝕚𝕣𝕒 𝔹𝕣𝕚𝕒𝕣𝕤𝕠𝕟 ✧

Submitted to Contest #68

It had been twenty-four years since she’d last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same. The lake glimmered in the moonlight and reflected the night sky, making everything look surreal. Her childhood home stood hauntingly behind her. Claire had always been pulled towards this place as a child, and she felt the same tug now. She drifted towards the lake and couldn’t help feeling excited as she drew closer. Was she finally going to solve the mystery of her sister’s death? When she was younger, her sister would always come down to the l...

25 comments 25
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“Returning ” by Crystal Lewis

Submitted to Contest #68

It had been twenty-four years since she’d last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same. It was surprising, when the world around it had changed so much. But here it was, untouched, unchanged, as though time didn’t exist here.   Perhaps it didn’t.   I could feel something here, something I had felt as a child. It was a warm feeling, a soft, soothing feeling like a warm presence was wrapped around you and holding you close. The place seemed to be held in a curious crossing of all the s...

7 comments 7
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“Entangled” by Scout Tahoe

Submitted to Contest #68

It’s been twenty-four years since she’s last seen it, but the place looks exactly the same. Chipping paint peeling back to reveal ugly concrete scars. Isla feels her bags weighing down her shoulders but none of that bothers her. In fact, it makes the experience more welcoming.  Through the window she spots Pia with a blurred face and thin arms. Now Pia’s hair is short and thick and white. Wrinkles on her flowery dress match the building almost exactly.  There are no blue-eyed customers waiting in the window, so Isla throws a clumsy...

16 comments 16
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“The Memory Album” by ℂ𝕒𝕣𝕠𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕒 𝕊𝕙𝕒𝕨 🏳️‍🌈 (inactive For The Summer)

Submitted to Contest #68

It had been twenty-four years since she’d last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same. Alex looked up at the large colonial style house as she walked towards it, her feet crunching on the gravel. She was trying to walk slowly across the driveway, because she didn’t want to come back to this house. Not now. Not ever. Ever since she had gotten the letter that her grandmother, May Anne Dawson, had sadly passed of heart failure and left her entire estate to Alexa Dawson, she had wanted to curl up in her favorite yellow blanket and barric...

9 comments 9
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“The Hidden Past” by Vicky S

Submitted to Contest #68

It had been twenty four years since she’d last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same. The blinds were drawn to shield the room from the bright sunlight, or what light ever reached the place, and the scattered cushions still had indents in them from where people had leant. The only sign that time had elapsed was that the clock was no longer ticking, it’s cuckoo trapped forever in a hibernation. “It’s a bit stuffy in here, isn’t it?” Max asked, wrinkling his nose as he tried not to sneeze. Shrugging, Layla moved around, her fingertips...

4 comments 4
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“Woman who won her dreams in dark” by Kaushika Kotagodahetti

Submitted to Contest #68

" It had been twenty-four years she'd last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same , and end it with, " [.......] and that was all that mattered" . Aruni was standing infront of a burnt place. It was her birth place where she lived with her family. Aruni was looking at a photo. She ran into her memories. ‘’ After finishing my work I hurriedly packed my bags and got into the bus to go to my village. The bus was crowded to pack. As the New Year is coming it was difficult to go on the bus. During the New Year session people goes to their...

15 comments 15
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“Sestra” by Authoring Studio

Submitted to Contest #68

(NOTE: This story has Russian characters. So... there are two unfamiliar words used. Their meanings have been given in the comments below!) It had been twenty-four years since she’d last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same. Natalya was found shuffling uncertainly along the edge of the mansion. Would she be able to do it? Her feet carried her away back to the main gate. She absolutely couldn’t do it. Never in her life did she even dream of doing it. Then what was she doing here now? Her rare, green eyes hovered tensely for a mom...

3 comments 3
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“Carnations and a Coffee Pot” by Clarice Shepherd

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #68

It had been twenty-four years since she’d last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same, save for the moth-bitten taffeta curtains and the dust resting on the bookshelves and piano. The particles hovered in the air like pixies and tickled the woman’s nose. Her cool, withered hands quivered from age and memory as she brushed away the delicate grime from the instrument’s expansive cover. The tintinnabulation of the front porch wind chimes carried on like a fairy choir with bass bamboo tubes and chipper crystal bells. Dozens of them hung...

12 comments 12
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“Past Recovery” by Philip Clayberg

Submitted to Contest #68

It had been twenty-four years since I'd last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same. Except that now I was in my forties and wearing my police uniform.Parking along the street, I expected to see my mother's mailbox. But it wasn't there anymore. Instead, a new rustic mailbox stood near where the driveway met the street. It read: The Campbells. It was shut and a red flag was lying horizontally beside it.I looked both ways before crossing the street, then walked up to the front door and knocked on it.It opened and an unfamiliar woman wi...

68 comments 68
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“all that mattered” by Hibah Youssef (Inactive)

Submitted to Contest #68

It had been twenty-four years since she’d last seen it but the place looked exactly the same. Her childhood home. It stood there abandoned, alone, lost. Its foundation was crumbling. The siding was beyond repair, paint stripped, shattered front porch, swaying front door. And then she said her first word. It was a whisper. An utter. Its echo fighting against the wind, rain. She blinked back her tears. “Home”  But she was there. And that was all that mattered. The woods had taken in it to become part of the forest, welcomed it, and en...

8 comments 8
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“My miserable road” by Beatrice Kaseke

Submitted to Contest #68

It had been twenty-four years since she’d last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same, she collected herself and knocked humbly at her mother’s door not sure whether they are still living there or they had moved. A little girl came to attend the knock and she told her to come in and wait for her mother whom she said was taking a bath. A portrait that was hanging on the wall showed her that yes it was the correct house but she eagerly waiting to know whether her parents had managed to have other children. For the first time she felt t...

7 comments 7
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