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Write about a character on the road — and on the run.

Posted in Adventure on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 40 stories

a convincing illusion

Submitted to Contest #110

a convincing illusion He was 6 months under the age of 21, and he had lived many lives already: different people, different roles, different professions… None of them significant. Now he had 10 worn-out dollar bills in his pocket and he had a choice: stay and be the town queer or run and be free. Become a stray dog or a hippie maybe. Grow his hair and live his life as simple as possible to maintain his values of love and happiness. And peace of course. Wear conspicuous clothes, listen to laughter and birdsongs. Become a vegetarian, see the w...

23 likes 8 comments 8
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The Fire and the Liar

Submitted to Contest #110

TRIGGER: Suicidal Thoughts||||| The breeze coming through the vents sent the smoke smell embedded in Miranda’s hair flowing throughout the car. The stench from the fire had seeped into her clothes like a perfume she wore every day and the odor kept rolling up to her face as the heater blew on full blast, making it impossible to escape. Twenty-minutes earlier, she had been standing so close to the fire she felt the flames licking at her cheeks as if they were taunting her. Their calls left her tempted, almost compelled to step into the burni...

21 likes 6 comments 6
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Running on the Road of the Lost to the Road of the Found

Submitted to Contest #110

"Are you going to sneak around my garage all night, or were you planning to break in?” Shit. I was being so careful. Now I’m standing in ankle deep snow, freezing. I hold my breath and slowly raise my hands. “I was just looking for a place to get out of the snow. I wasn’t going to steal anything, I swear.” A flashlight beam shines around my shadow. “Turn around slowly.”  He must be a cop or military. He’s gonna turn me in. “Yes, sir,” hoping to buy some leniency.  A long silence. I hold my breath. He takes several long stri...

19 likes 4 comments 4
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An Idyllic Bike Trip Goes Bad

Submitted to Contest #110

Caution: Use of foul language.Clunk! The tires of the airplane touched down on the tarmac at Palermo in the mid-morning. I was feeling groggy after several flights from the U.S. with longish stopovers. Palermo was my final destination and marked the beginning of my planned bike tour in Sicily. Such tours have become my favored getaways for years. I am an attorney specializing in medical malpractice and lead a very stressful life. This trip was intended to help me relax and certainly not to get involved in the melee that I am about to describ...

18 likes 4 comments 4
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This Is Worse

Submitted to Contest #110

I don't know how long I've been on this road. It seems never ending. One long road with trees on either side. The other end covered in fog. I thought I would be off it by now. I'm not sure how long I've been walking. Ten minutes, an hour. Time is nothing to me now. Especially when you can't see the sun. It's so gloomy and cold. Fog is heavy over me, I can only see a few feet in front of me. I pray a car doesn't come along and hit me. Though, that would probably be a better punishment.I left home in a rush after the accident. Though, I know n...

17 likes 5 comments 5
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THE WRONG SIDE OF NOWHERE

Submitted to Contest #110

THE WRONG SIDE OF NOWHERE             It was a lazy afternoon, one of those hot and humid days when people look for a cool place and a cold drink, and dogs seek out the shade to lie down and not move unless they have to.  Danny Weston pushed open the tavern door and scanned the premises as he headed to the end of the bar.  Not many people he observed.  Two people were at the bar. Two others were playing pool.  A third group sat in a nearb...

14 likes 2 comments 2
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It's all in the bling.

Submitted to Contest #110

Laura didn’t want to go see Jake’s parents. They were what she would call rich. Rich by her standards because she grew up in the trailer park and his mother always found ways to remind her of that. His father wasn’t so bad. He was quiet and polite but distant. But the mother was relentless in her criticisms. Sometimes it was in the form of underhanded comments or the way she would explain things to her like she was a 5 year old. It was something different every time. She had talked to Jake about it but he would always say...

14 likes 2 comments 2
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Nelson

Submitted to Contest #110

TW: suicide, homophobiaHis heart was still racing and he had a sick and sour taste at the back of his tongue. He remembered the blood pumping through the bulging veins in his forehead, through the tense, pumped up muscles of his arms. There was a violent, sinking feeling in the cavity of his chest; he felt like vomiting. It had taken all his will power to force his wrists to relax, to mentally instruct his fingers to release their vice-like grip. To make his body go completely limp. He had almost been unable to do it. He felt so vulnerable a...

13 likes 0 comments 0
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Parachute

Submitted to Contest #110

We have plenty of time, I tell my car in my head as I leave my house, we'll get there. I approach it with my keys in my hand, I feel my tie a little too tight around my neck - coffee will do that to you. My neighbour, Alan, looks at me from across the road with a far too cheerful smile. I mean, it's not his fault, he has no idea where I'm off to. I won't ruin his mood. ‘Where’re you off to?’ He asks me as he washes his Reliant Robin. ‘Just off to see someone,’ I respond, ‘and I’ll probably get there a lot faster than you would in my normal...

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Crimson Hills

Submitted to Contest #110

Crimson HillsBy: Mackenzie M. HebnerFreshly stained asphalt seeped into the mountain side encompassing me and my ragged apparel. The hills were before me. Everything around me was greater than me. Mountains towered over me, hills rose and fell in more consistency and promise than I’d ever known, the rocks grabbed my attention and told me of their role as protector of the earth, the animals lived along side me as if my existence has never crossed their mind as threatening, and now that I stood before them, such had not changed nor had any rea...

12 likes 0 comments 0
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Goodbye Yesterday. Hello Sweet Tomorrow

Submitted to Contest #110

The dull flatulent roar of the diesel engine gearing up as it prepared to make its way down the lonely road leading to town, was barely audible against the sound of the steadily increasing wind. The rain pouring down in torrents from the low dark clouds indicated less than favorable driving conditions. Buckling his seatbelt tightly in anticipation of the long trip ahead, Charles Ferguson was vaguely aware of the myriad of feelings stirring deep within him. Feelings long forgotten with the passage of time. Or so he’d thought. Fragments, bits ...

11 likes 2 comments 2
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Travel Log: Gerro

Submitted to Contest #110

His name was Gerro. At least that was what the faded ID, hanging from his shirt pocket showed. He was short and bent with age; his large, leather pack, nearly bursting, cast its shadow over his frail body. “Come on in!” I’d told him. He stepped up the stairs and into my bus, then squeezed in behind me. The smells of lacquer, steel, and oil wafted as he passed, the familiar scent bringing memories of Trebin and its industry. It had been years since I’d seen a tinker, not with how easy power had become to harvest—even as the Gods tightened...

11 likes 2 comments 2
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Moonlight in the day

Submitted to Contest #110

I found myself back here again, a dark forest where no life can be found but the sound of my past echoed through every leaf. I slowly walked through the forest knowing I can’t leave till I wake up. No matter where I turned there were only trees surrounding the dark starless night, well it’s usually starless, but this time there is something there. One bright star stands by itself in the night far above the trees.  Something came over me and without reason, I ran in its direction ignoring the voices that tried to beat me down. As I ran ...

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Pretty Face

Submitted to Contest #110

The pistol under her skirt was rubbing on her thigh, reminding her of the three bodies she had left back home; she would have to forget once she was on the road. She got into the wagon, holding the dry and unwashed hand of her new lover, Billy. Whilst he started the horses, she fixed her golden locks onto a better-suited travelling hair-do. She was dripping in fear of being caught, but she had to remain still while they were not moving. People might recognise her.Named after her great-great-grandmother, Annie, the lovely and beautiful, the m...

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The Farmer

Submitted to Contest #110

Whether or not he would ultimately end up being caught was of little to no consequence to Ralph at that moment. At that moment, he was more disappointedly fascinated by the agonizingly decrepit condition of his shoes. The shoes he had worked so hard to buy were covered in tragedy. Deep layers of mud concealed the traces of bloody evidence. The fresh rubber and lace odor had been vanquished within twenty-four hours. The howling of searching sirens and screeching tires chasing shadowy suspects down alleyways felt like a dis...

11 likes 4 comments 4
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