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Start your story with a character being led somewhere by a stray cat.

Posted in Adventure on Feb 24, 2023

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✍️ 108 stories

Beautiful Day for a Walk

Submitted to Contest #187

The air is filled with the scent of breezy laundry, freshly slaughtered grass, and propane-licked steak. My stomach rumbles, and I hear the happy shrieks of kids and the low roll of suburban traffic. I’d love to eat but I’m on a mission. I take another sniff – and there it is. The sweaty over-ripe fragrance of needless aggression. The breeze keeps snatching at the faint scent, but it’s enough for me to follow. I run past the Mitchells, head out the cul-de-sac, and down Triton Avenue. I lose the trail where Triton hits Berry Road, thanks to c...

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Ace Roman in a Different Breed of Trouble

Submitted to Contest #187

It was just my luck; the Watertown gang was pushing out their territory again. I usually keep my nose out of politics, after all, I don’t much care who owns what as long as I can sit down and get a drink. But those Watertown boys look down on everyone who doesn’t live in a big house on the hill; especially if they go visiting canaries. I must say I’ve seen a number of sisters in my time and it weren’t a nunnery. So, I was laying low behind the 7-11 nursing a few fresh cuts. There was a tingle in my skin that made my hair stand on end. I ...

39 likes 23 comments 23
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A Bronx Tail

Submitted to Contest #187

My eyes took a while to adjust to the darkness. I was on the trail of the most alluring feline tail I had ever set eyes upon, beckoning me deeper into an unknown world, void of humans, yet full of intoxicating promises. Not wanting to lose sight of her, my swirling head drunkenly attempted to focus my besotted, veiled view of her – now fading into the shadows of a long alleyway. Those six quick shots I downed right before leaving Henri’s Bar are most definitely not helping my balance or eyesight; however, the hypnotising sway of her walk, ha...

38 likes 30 comments 30
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BOOGEYMEN, COME TO ORDER

Submitted to Contest #187

Susie found herself lagging behind her parents at the second national park they’d visited in a week. She never slept well in strange beds and her feet were dragging. The endless drone of the tour guide leading the group wasn’t helping. She felt as though all she wanted was to curl up on one of the wooden benches they passed occasionally and sleep the rest of the day.“Catch up, Susie!” Her mother beckoned her with a firm tone and gesture.As her mother turned her attention back to the painfully cheerful guide lady, Susie ca...

36 likes 30 comments 30
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AN ORANGE CAT IN ROME

Submitted to Contest #187

AN ORANGE CAT IN ROMEA week’s just too short.Especially when that’s all you’ve got left to live. Tightness grips my throat, like someone’s choking me.Dr. Gottmann places a hand on my shoulder until I feel its warmth penetrating my skin. Doctors don’t usually do that. They’re austere. Scientists. Cold. When they do that, things must be bad. Real bad.My only symptom is this intermittent tingling behind my ears. Otherwise, I'm perfectly fine, with energy to burn. I still sport my teenage mullet, graying as it may now be. I’m not prepared to die...

32 likes 17 comments 17
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A Dollar for God

Submitted to Contest #187

Rance Jenkins arrived in Muleshoe, Texas around 1:00 P.M. He was hoping to kill a man before the sun hit the horizon.Sweat and tobacco juice stained his dusty clothes, his blue eyes narrowed and searching. He spotted a pump handle by the horse trough and immediately took himself there. With a little effort, Rance had clear, cold water gushing out, splattering the dry street. He doused his head under the water before slaking his thirst. The July heat had settled in and was going to stick around for the duration of the summer.A cat sat on one ...

31 likes 45 comments 45
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Alize

Submitted to Contest #187

It’s been a year to the day. Our last interaction was not a nice one. I screamed at her. I told her I was done. She kissed me goodbye, and she was gone. Not a day goes by that I’m not spending time reenacting our last moments together in my head. Our shouts and angry words reverberate in my head. I will never not be sorry, and the hole in my heart and the empty place in my bed and my life will never be filled.  Every day since then, I see something I never noticed until the day after she was gone.  Paw prints on wet concrete. A...

30 likes 19 comments 19
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A Night Stroll

Submitted to Contest #187

So this is what it was like to go batshit crazy. Catie always assumed it would be more dramatic. Like running up to people saying you're the president, or hearing voices in your head that seeded your mind with ideas of hurting people. Or building a spaceship out of parts you find in the trash. The thoughts scrolled across her mind like a parade of text written in comic sans, mocking her. But, nope, that wasn’t the case for her. Instead, she was walking down the most dangerous alleys of her city following a cat. Granted, it wasn't every day t...

26 likes 11 comments 11
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Superstition

Submitted to Contest #187

“Why in the hell did I ever move to Chicago?” I mutter to myself as I cross the open-air parking lot. I’ve worked late, and it’s about five minutes before midnight. It’s Friday the thirteenth in February, and I can barely keep my eyes open because the wind is sandblasting snow into my face at about forty miles an hour! On top of that, I parked my car at the end of the lot. All the other cars are gone. Only shallow squares in the snow mark the spot where they were parked. Clutching my top coat tightly at my throa...

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Felinious

Submitted to Contest #187

Ben took the same path to and from work every day. From the door to his trailer, he walked on the loose gravel parking lot to the bike path through Mechant Lake Forest Preserve. The path was a four mile loop, but Ben only used a mile long stretch along the east side. Once he got as far south on the path as he could, he trudged through some wild grass and low shrubs for about fifty feet until he emerged on the back lot of Cletus’ Auto Shop. Ben did oil changes and a few other basic services, but was not allowed to operate the hydraulic jacks....

23 likes 22 comments 22
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What the Orange Cat Knew

Submitted to Contest #187

She wasn’t supposed to be there. Not that late at night, not that part of town, and definitely not the combination of the two. How many times had she been told—lectured, really, and for good reason—by her parents, her former college roommate, and even, especially even, really, the guy that had taught her self-awareness class just two months prior. Yet there she was, skulking about like a common criminal, tiptoe-dashing from dumpster to doorway, following the little fluff of orange that had first caught her attention all the way back at Llyod...

23 likes 6 comments 6
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The Pond

Submitted to Contest #187

My little brother, Carter, he always had the wildest imagination. I never blamed him- in a town like Bell Buckle, you needed one- but I never got it, either. Where he saw dragons, I saw spindly oak trees. Granite overhangs became alien hideouts. He’d try to include me in these escapades, and I’d play along, wielding my stick in whatever weapon-of-the-day was necessary. Yet I knew that world was never meant for me, and I felt that’s what being an older brother was. Making the fantasy last longer by fending off the real. He believed in supe...

21 likes 3 comments 3
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Transmeowtation

Submitted to Contest #187

I was staring out my office window again. The sun was shining through the oak leaves of the tree out back. The various birds of the yard created a euphony of song. The little brown ground squirrels ran up, down and around the lawn like they had too much caffeine this morning. Part of me wanted to join them, leave this world behind with all its responsibilities, but I would have to settle for taking my lunch out at the picnic table. A knock at my door caused my daydream to evaporate. “Come in!” I shouted at the intruder. “Andy, looks like...

20 likes 23 comments 23
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Why Cats Have Nine Lives

Submitted to Contest #187

The abrupt knock on the door startled Kendall. It wasn’t an unusually aggressive knock, just unexpected. ‘Who could that be… at this time of day? I hope it’s not…,’ she thought to herself. A hint of panic rose in her as she quietly crept to the window and surreptitiously peeked through an ever-so-slight crack in the curtains.The piercing sliver of light focused into perceptible images and revealed her innocent next-door neighbor, Avis, waiting patiently at the door. Avis was a kind, elderly woman who normally kept to herself. She was one of ...

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Stray Cat

Submitted to Contest #187

The sun was beating relentlessly on the old cobblestone streets of the city when the stray cat appeared out of the shadows. It was a small, scruffy feline, its fur dyed a dull gray. Its eyes were a deep yellow, and they seemed to be dancing in the fading light that surrounded it. It stared at the girl for a few seconds and then continued on its way. She followed the cat, winding through the narrow alleys and passages of the old part of the city. There was something about that animal that urged her to go after it and she did so without even c...

18 likes 6 comments 6
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