Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Write about someone who needs to face their past in order to move forward.

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?

✍️ 73 stories

Never Tear Us Apart

Submitted to Contest #161

Daniel folds his clothes carefully, putting them one by one in the backpack so they won’t crease on the trip back. It’s the mirror image of the ritual he did exactly one year ago, he reflects, when he had been preparing to leave home.“One year from now, it will be over,” he had thought then, aware he didn’t know exactly what “it” would entail. His younger, more innocent self thought that at worst “it” would mean twelve months of drudgery and annoying nonsense, to be put behind and forgotten as soon as they were done.But there is no way to kn...

11 likes 10 comments 10
Read story

A Fallen Kingdom & The Secret Truth

Submitted to Contest #161

WRITER NOTE: This is a retrospective to one of my characters, Joseph Tavf, through his eyes in Chapters 36 and 37 of The Blacksmith's Nephew when he is confronted of his past. ***CAUTION***There are major spoilers ahead! If you don't want anything spolied of the main story, I would suggest skipping this and reading the book first.Otherwise, please enjoy.'Okay, here we go,' I said to myself nervously in thought as my nephew Terrance led the way as we went through the six-foot-tall grassy field. Up ahead was where the Southern Kingdom and...

11 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

the town

Submitted to Contest #161

"It's a bad season." Mike had a wet towel on his shoulder, sweat already soaking through his vest, and though he was already sweating profusely, he stood there like a stake, and he looked again at the poster on the wall: it was an advertisement for the sale of fruit. Apples, bananas, watermelons, these very common fruits have never appeared in Mike's 42 years, and he remembers a foreigner who once came to the town to promote his products: "I invented a new fruit juicer. Just one apple can squeeze out two glasses of apple juice! "What a ...

10 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Some Enchanted Evening

Submitted to Contest #161

Nurse Alford noiselessly opened the door, just wide enough to poke her head around it. “Did you buzz?” she said to the woman who lay like a darkened splash on the slanted bed. “Yes,” said the woman, tapping the translucent IV line attached to her arm. “Please get me some more of whatever this is. I can’t bear how these afternoons drag on.” “Mrs. McKennitt,” the nurse said and sighed. “I would gladly ask the doctor to increase your medication, but you will need a better reason for it. An ‘afternoon dragging on’ is not reason enough, you know....

10 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Daddy Issues

Submitted to Contest #161

WARNING: the following story contains possible triggers of both, violence, domestic violence, child abuse, mental health struggles and sexual abuse. I know that I'm about to feel the leather of his black utility belt. The peeling screech of Velcro echoes across the room.  "Place your hands on the bottom of the mattress and don't move". His voice is deep and terrifying. Each time we do this, it's the same routine, the same questions, same sounds of the Velcro and belt crack, and ultimately me alone in my bed crying. "How many licks do...

10 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

jiāoqiǎnyánshēn

Submitted to Contest #161

jiāoqiǎnyánshēn (交浅言深) Chinese, v. - to have a deep and intimate conversation with a stranger. The phone had been ringing nonstop for the past twenty minutes from an unknown number. Even when I denied the call, or put my phone on silent, I couldn’t get it to stop ringing. Despite knowing that this was definitely the first five minutes of a horror movie, I answered it. And as soon as the voice on the other end spoke, I knew who it was.  My birth mother. “Hello?” I called out, and she answered me. I didn’t think she would answer me. Didn’...

9 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Water Is Where The Past Is

Submitted to Contest #161

The cove hidden away from the rest of the world seemed to Judge to be the perfect place to forget his problems. With a lovely waterfall in front of him and extravagant flora encompassing him, Judge felt, maybe for the first time in months, that he could relax in this place of isolation. He stood at the brink of the waterfall’s barren rocky coast. Erosion had created a small pool of crystalline water inside a hollow hole of hard rock that constantly streamed into four estuaries that disappeared into the thick forest scenery. Four steps back w...

9 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

The Vampire and the Werewolf

Submitted to Contest #161

Finally, Zorro Lobo managed to get his hair slicked into the right style; his reflection smiled appreciatively back. “Rock’n’roll” was said with devotion as Zorro took in his magnificence.  His brand new, straight-out-of-the-box blue swede shoes screamed cool, as did his black pinstriped pants; the black short-sleeved shirt with an up-turned collar just finished everything off nicely, and after a week of practice, he’d gotten the lip curl down pat as well.  An attitude of rebel cool screamed out from his full-length mirror.&nbs...

9 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

A Walk Between Worlds

Submitted to Contest #161

"Stop that! It feels weird." A thousand icy fingers are trying to pilfer through my brain. My eyes squint at the discomfort. My forehead furrows. Now, it looks like a crinkle-cut French fry.I raise my hand in protest, hoping they stop this intrusion immediately. One of the 7 ft. tall light beings doubles over as if I just punched him in the solar plexus.“Owwwww, your kickback is powerful. Were you a sensitive in your former life?”“I don't know...whatever… Just stop the rummaging!" I reply. "My brain isn’t some garage sale for you to go ...

9 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

Coming to Terms

Submitted to Contest #161

Never did his hands feel this way. Soft, gentle to the touch where she expected a strong, callous rubbing in her palms. His hands represented so much of who he was. A brash, cavalier type of gentleman. She loved him for it. For it was this brashness that brought him into her life. Yet it was this brashness that pushed him out of it too. She remembered seeing him for the first time. It was dark out, past dinner but not past midnight. Cool air and traces of mist flirted amongst the streetlights and the damp asphalt let off a long day's exhaus...

8 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

'Til Death Do Us Part

Submitted to Contest #161

“I hid Mavis’s keys yesterday.” “Why?” “I dunno. Because … because I’m still angry. And because I know she was going to meet him.” “Jack, we’ve talked about this. You’ve got to stop going over there. It isn’t doing you any good.” “I know, I know…” “If you can’t overcome this hurdle, if you can’t face this part of your past, you’re going to remain stuck. Don’t you want to move on?” “I’m in no hurry.” “Jack…” “Of course I do.” “…but?” “But I just don’t know if I can unless I talk to her. I need to know why she did what she did.” “Th...

8 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

How the Story Ends

Submitted to Contest #161

‘Tell me a story,’ Savannah says. It always starts with a story. And sometimes, if we’re lucky, it ends with one.  I ask her what kind of story, and she shrugs. ‘Paint me a picture,’ she says, moving closer to me on the sofa and leaning her head on my shoulder. Then she closes her eyes, as though blocking out the coffee shop around us. The scratched glass table in front of the sofa, covered in board games. The upright piano in the corner, with an A key that sticks, and the armchairs next to it. And further away, the bar and an ever-rev...

8 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Atomic T'Chu

Submitted to Contest #161

I The Company owned just about every part of North America. The seas, the land, the air; they owned it all. Nobody got into the state, or out.  Susan Simons was a Learner. At just sixteen years old, she’d already mastered the difficult Bo’Shi martial arts, and the puzzlingly complicated Langua language. All Learners reported to a Teacher. In Susan’s case, this was Mr. Frederick Wilson.  Fred also happened to be the son of the head of The Company itself. II It was a fine day in late August when Susan climbed the steps up t...

8 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

The Dances (and Falls) of Life

Submitted to Contest #161

It's never easy, starting over. New homes, new schools new jobs, no matter what it is, beginnings are always hard. Almost as hard as endings. But the hardest of all, the hardest of all is when the line between the two blurs, when the before and after and in-between mix and mingle in one lively, breathtaking dance. This, he believes, is the essence of life. The flow, the change, the uncertainty. To grow is life, to be static is death. To fall, to fly, to keep going. You form the tapestry of your life and it is beautiful and vivid and messy, a...

8 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Unpacking

Submitted to Contest #161

My dad was famous. Not a big, crazy kind of famous, but in Winnipeg he was a big fish in a little pond. He’d taken over half a million photographs in his lifetime, images of his hometown. Shots of the city, the museums, the zoo and the nature preserves. Pictures of City Hall and the theatre district. Boats at the Forks market. Assiniboine Park, with its duck ponds and English gardens. If you ever saw a postcard or tourism poster for Winnipeg or Manitoba, or ever read a MacLean’s magazine or Canadian Geographic magazine, you’ve seen my d...

8 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with someone sharing a secret that has a big impact on everyone.

High School – 38 stories

Write a story where someone finds comfort in an unexpected event, place, or person.

Adults – 56 stories

Write about a character who lives a seemingly charmed life.

Teens – 25 stories

Write a story where a character has to take on heavy responsibilities (perhaps beyond their age).

Kids – 48 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