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You confront the monster you’ve spent many long years hunting. Except they’re not exactly what you thought they’d be…

Posted in Adventure on Sep 8, 2023

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✍️ 45 stories

Microscope, Telescope, Mirror

Submitted to Contest #215

This wasn’t the sort of place one came to for fun, unless shooting up and dying a semi-slow death was one’s idea of a good time. Ellie peered at the addicts through the gloom of the abandoned hotel foyer, certain that every flight in this three-story ode to misery contained similar specimens.She moved slowly, cautiously, pistol still in her holster, wending her way through tweaking zombies, trying to ignore the stench of unwashed bodies and fetid standing water. Ellie was not to be dissuaded from her task, however. She was here to catch a mo...

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The Staked Plains Butcher and the Prairie Flower

Submitted to Contest #215

The day was April 15, 1867, in the Texas swath of the Llano Estacado running from Northern Mexico to Canada. For two years I’d been following a trail of slaughtered Comanche, engaging any demonic fiends that sought to feed on what was left. Every victim I’d found had been scalped and disfigured, unrecognizable as human. And sometimes that was before they’d been defiled by the teeth of unholy scavengers.…The last gunshot echoed across the moonlit valley of death that Abraham Strockland stood in the midst of, smoke curling from the large ebony...

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A vampire tale

Submitted to Contest #215

When I was five years old, I witnessed my parents’ death.  The night of the attack I had awoken to the sound of breaking glass and my father yelling. The clock on my nightstand told me it was a little past 1:00 a.m. Cautiously, I climbed from my warm bed and made my way across the moonlit bedroom. My hands shook a little as I opened my door and stepped into the cold, dark hallway.  I can vividly recall how long the hallway seemed that night and how cold the hardwood floors felt on my bare feet. I remember wishi...

19 likes 11 comments 11
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Venom-dipped Memories

M B

Submitted to Contest #215

I still remember that day: as crystal clear as the first time I saw it happen.  I was a lad of but fourteen, slowly growing into manhood. I lived alone in a cabin with my father on the edge of the wilds. He taught me all I knew: how to live in the wilds, cook for myself, forage for food, what berries were toxic and which were not.  He also taught me to read, how to shoot, and how to throw a hatchet... Useful skills. Many times he would disappear for months on end, leaving me in the care of a trusted friend till he decided I was...

17 likes 6 comments 6
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A Different Kind of Monster

Submitted to Contest #215

He is the stuff of legends. But then they all are. By rights, they should not exist. That could be said about every species on this planet. Life is a precarious nonsense that fascinates me and appals me in equal measure.  I’m a fan though. How could I not be? My master waxed lyrical about William, and my master was not one for praise. I should know. I was a constant disappointment to him and he was quick to tell me so. I was his Grand Mistake. After me, he avoided making another for fear that he might double down on the fo...

15 likes 6 comments 6
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Despondent Vanity

Submitted to Contest #215

I remember you, still, even though you were different the first time you came here. I remember how the earth trembled as you settled among the burning trees, your wings like the sails of a ship as they bore your magnificent presence. You instilled a conviction in the hearts of all who witnessed you that day, a faithful confidence that such majesty would never be seen again, not until the heavens are opened and glory descends like a dove. And then you stripped it all away, for you would not allow them to remember you. But I remember you, st...

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To Gut a Snake

Submitted to Contest #215

My world has been cleaved in two, a knife wedged in the wood between my before, and my after – the two halves spinning recklessly close to an edge, ready to drop. In the before, everything made sense – my entire life straight lines leading me here: into the lair of a snake. I was gifted a magicked knife from the Queen herself, the blade soldered, tamped, and sharpened into a gleaming point, laden with the drippings of magic – all with the sole purpose to hunt and kill the last great demon that threatened the known world. I imagined how...

15 likes 5 comments 5
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Wildlife Of Mass Destruction

Submitted to Contest #215

The President slammed his gavel on the little wooden block. “With all parties in agreement, I hereby call the 27th summit of the Warnot Alliance to a close.” What all the parties had agreed this year, as in the previous 26 summits, going back a quarter of a century, was that they would not invade each other’s territories. They agreed to be accountable for their own respective WOMD (Wildlife Of Mass Destruction) and to maintain respectful levels of fear for whatever WOMD their neighbours acquired over the coming year. Commander Irons rushed b...

15 likes 5 comments 5
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Santa Clara

Submitted to Contest #215

I looked at the sunset beaming on the horizon in the distance. The treacherous waves crashed against the large boulders afar. I could feel my hands slowly become clammy over the thought that nightfall was coming. My whole body tensed up with nerves like never before.  Captain Russell spoke, "Ole’ Pacific sure is wild tonight, ain’t it?”  “Indeed. Are you sure we should be going out to the island? The radar on the boat said there was a storm up north towards there. I don’t think we will even get out of here.” Russell ...

14 likes 10 comments 10
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The Unconquerable Monster

Submitted to Contest #215

I am close.I have sought this creature for years. This unconquerable monster, I am told.I have been called arrogant, ignorant, mad in my pursuit of it.The monster haunts my ever waking thoughts and deep into the recesses of my dreams.Each brush stroke brings me closer to my nemesis.I have been creating this painting nearly my entire life.When the monster first struck, I did not know what to do. It cursed me as a child. It cursed my mother and father. My siblings. As I grew, it followed and cursed those I called friends. I found little solace...

14 likes 6 comments 6
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Shadow of the Grim Reaper

Submitted to Contest #215

The Shadow of the Grim Reaper    I am watching you. My shadow hangs over your life, waiting for the right time to meet with you again. Ha, I was cheated out of a chance to carry you home…but that has turned out for the best as I was given a chance to read the story of your life and even interact with it.     Oh no, the shadow of the grim reaper… I fear this image of my own death… hovering over my decaying body and lingering sense of self.-worth. I have been watching you for so many years. Los...

13 likes 1 comment 1
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Chrissy's Mom

Submitted to Contest #215

Day One     Gina sits in her favorite chair, grateful to be home. Her wound pulls as she stretches out her legs, reclining fully because she can. She lays a hand against her lower stomach, where her body aches and throbs.        She’d been split nearly in half. The pain had been excruciating. She’d screamed and screamed and screamed as the doctors had pulled things from inside of her before closing her up again. For a while, nobody thought she would make it, but she was a fight...

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In the shadows

Submitted to Contest #215

It's a quiet Friday night, and we have just arrived at our cabin in the middle of the woods. The air is dry, and the sun has just started setting. Me and my boyfriend have decided to go on a little vacation, away from our stressful jobs back home in Los Angeles. I have been stressed over work and tired all week trying to meet deadlines, we haven't been able to hang out or have some alone time with one another, so this was a perfect getaway to relax. The drive wasn't too bad; we loaded our bags, grabbed snacks, and sang karaoke the whole way ...

11 likes 2 comments 2
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The trestle bridge murders

Submitted to Contest #215

“Take my soul….” she whispers, out of breath as she lies motionless on the damp ground. He leans down and touches her lips with his. They remain breathless until she brings her cracked lips together once more. “Now give it back.” He screeches as blood trickles down his side. His shirt quickly saturates in red while he frantically wipes his wound.  She watches him writhe in the dirt. He looks at her with pleading eyes, but she stands and walks away, leaving him alone in the field. “Another one last night,” he said with a grimace,...

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Wamplus

Submitted to Contest #215

      Tess suddenly sat up in bed, struggling for her eyes to gain focus as she roused herself from her nightmare that had been her close companion since she could remember. Her pink rose snap-down nightshirt was bathed in sweat and her fragile heart was thumping in her chest as she grabbed her two squirt guns in her left and right pockets, displacing the kleenex. She listened very carefully and yelled, "Are you there?" Receiving no answer, she swung her legs over the side of the bed, getting...

10 likes 1 comment 1
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