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Center your story around a character’s addiction or obsession.

Posted in Angst on Feb 21, 2025

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✍️ 83 stories

The Last Story

Submitted to Contest #291

Mark Holden’s fingers trembled above the ancient Remington typewriter, hovering like pale moths uncertain where to land. The rejection email glowed on his laptop screen—the fifth this month, thirty-second this year. “Thank you for your submission to The Weekly Wordsmith,” the email read. “While your story showed promise, we have selected another entry as this week’s winner.” Promise. Always promise. Never triumph. Mark dragged his palm across three days of stubble and reached for his cold, bitter coffee. Bookshelves bowed under writing manua...

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The Last Member of Pifflewick

Submitted to Contest #291

Graybury Pink strutted through the golden gates of Pifflewick Country Club, doing his best to exude a spirit of casual indifference—though inside, his nerves were tap-dancing in top hats. After months of strategic elbow-rubbing and a hefty fee of fifty thousand piffles, his long-awaited Champagne Welcome had finally arrived. “Ah, Mr. Pink! Welcome—only the finest for you! A glass of our renowned Champagne Royale, harvested from the sun-kissed hills of Piffle Valley, where each grape is personally whispered to by a sommelier before it’s press...

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52

Shortlisted for Contest #291 ⭐️

Weston Pierce had a regular weekly routine. Every Thursday afternoon, at exactly 4:52pm, Weston walked into his local toy store. It had to be Thursday, because Thursday was the fourth day of the week, and it had to be 4:52, because arriving any other time wasn’t good luck. Weston’s mission was critically, deathly important, so he needed good luck. When he’d first started his mission, he’d first had to ask if there were any unopened cases, then ask if he could buy one without breaking the seal on the tape. It became a bit of a scene each time...

35 likes 22 comments 22
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The Universal Obsession of Max Preensworthy

Submitted to Contest #291

This is the story of Max Preensworthy, a man addicted to exactly the same thing as you or I. I'll come back to that. First about Max: Max is almost 52, so his childhood is almost lost to him. His school teachers have forgotten him and he has no close friends. If cats lived longer, one would remember him. He remembers her.  It was England, 1973, Max was ten years old. Every morning he skirted Lister’s Farm to avoid the snapping sheepdogs, crossed a couple of empty fields, and walked along the back of a row of sandstone cottages to Chinsb...

31 likes 14 comments 14
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Until the End of Time

Submitted to Contest #291

It started innocently, like most obsessions tend to. After all, after you’ve lived for centuries already, it’s only a matter of time before you get bored. Caspian became immortal by accident; he didn’t really remember how it happened – I remind you, he has been alive for quite a while. He does remember Archimedes running through the streets shouting “Eureka!” though, if that gives you some context. He remembers being one of the few surviving members of his community after a rat-borne disease swept through the continent. It was around th...

28 likes 13 comments 13
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PARADOX OF CREATION: ELYSIUM

Submitted to Contest #291

Pasadena, Los Angeles.Windrose Place ApartmentsAlison Parker sat in front of her computer, the soft glow of the screen illuminating her face in the dimly lit room. Her fingers danced across the keyboard, typing furiously as she made the final additions to her masterpiece. Ten years of tireless effort, sleepless nights, and endless frustration culminated in this moment. She had put her whole life on hold, but it was worth it."One more input, and you're ready, Elysium," she said aloud, her voice echoing in the quiet room. The sound sent a shiv...

26 likes 22 comments 22
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Lycanthrope

Submitted to Contest #291

Ketu was in the fourth house on the astrology chart when Lycaon was born into this world. It normally signaled finality; endings, but this was different. This was an advent of change, a transformation, and a transcendence from evil sources and the beginnings towards a general expansion of evil. It was old evil returning from the ancients. It represented a renunciation, a rejection of the current ambivalent fragile balance, the status quo, and it brought about malefic, harmful and destructive forces. Neptune, the psychopomp cat, the guide for...

25 likes 12 comments 12
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Climbing the Chemical Mountain

Submitted to Contest #291

**Author’s note: I feel as if I’ve gone into the weeds on this one, but I couldn’t give up on it. Also, my grammar may not be great. Any suggestions would be appreciated.**Whether it was green or yellow could be debated, but that would only cause the same stupid debacle as the infamous color changing dress. The bottle is green, but the content is different. Yellow-green, yes, that’s acceptable, or rather, will have to do. Whatever color it happens to be, one thing is certain, it’s neon.  By now, Millie assumed that her insides glow...

23 likes 12 comments 12
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The Depths of Need

Submitted to Contest #291

A cascade of black dust blasted outward from the collapsing wall. The loud boom of its demise breaking the silence that pervaded deep within the Dinwald mines. Dark clouds billowed down the tunnels at speed, rushing to fill every gap where once there had been only stale air. It coated Lex in a single blast, filling his nostrils and assailing his pinched eyelids with tiny debris. He held his breath, waiting patiently in darkness, until the roar of the collapsing shale silenced. He had felt the soft barrage of broken material sweep against his...

23 likes 14 comments 14
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Submergence

Submitted to Contest #291

Note: Substance Abuse, Mental Health, Violence, No Dialogue 5 mg is the amount of morphine Russian soldiers required to escape the cold fist of death on the eastern front. But 10.5 mg is what she administered— it restricted her husband from mourning in the minimalist Stalingrad apartment and revived the man she adored.20 mg is the amount of morphine he prayed for, it paused his painting's reflections of his world.The wife prepares meticulously by grooming her visible body hair every day before commencing her labor. She dedicates ten minutes ...

21 likes 19 comments 19
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Precious

Submitted to Contest #291

I met Frodo Baggins for the first time in the emergency department waiting room. I was there to pick-up my wife Sarah at the end of her shift. He was there, I presumed, because of his arm in a sling. He was much taller than I imagined a Frodo would be. His pointed ears were the clip-on type and his gray cloak and leaf of Lorien brooch were nice movie replicas, if a little grungy. The dirt and hair on his bare feet however, were completely genuine. In one hand he held a ham sandwich, in the other a gold ring.  I sat next to him because ...

16 likes 9 comments 9
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A Letter of Apology

Submitted to Contest #291

  A  Letter of Apology Gary Joseph Lundgren407 Golden Meadow RoadPortland, ME 04101 Hi Gary, I did an online People Search and found your name. I hope you remember me. I’m Richard “Richie” Grogan, and we went to Camp Apache twenty-five summers ago. I now attend a Recovery Group, and this week our assignment is to write A Letter of Apology to someone we’ve wronged. Soon as I got this assignment, I thought of you, Gary Lundgren, from summer camp, and what I did to you when we were twelve y...

16 likes 5 comments 5
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The perfect companion

Submitted to Contest #291

I fell for her the first time I saw her. Sun kissed skin, freckles draping over her nose, beautiful blue eyes, smile that was just a little bit crooked. A thin body with just enough curves to take your imagination into overdrive. The woman I had been seeing in my dreams since I was a teenager. Just tall enough to fit snuggle under my chin while holding her close. She was flirting with the barista in my favorite coffeehouse. I felt a ping of jealousy that brought a smile to my face. To feel jealous over a girl I had never even seen before in ...

15 likes 5 comments 5
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The Collection

Submitted to Contest #291

Everybody has a hobby. Some collect stamps. Others collect action figures. Some even collect porcelain clowns, which is a cry for help.Me? I collect something a little more… intimate.Now, before you judge me, let me explain. It started as a joke. A harmless tradition. I went on my first date at sixteen with a girl called Molly. She had a laugh like a dying goat and breath that hinted at a serious dental hygiene issue. Still, she was my first date, and as a memento, I pocketed the receipt from our dinner. Cute, right?Fast forward a few years,...

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Once Upon a Time

Submitted to Contest #291

Once upon a time, I saw two spooks fighting, which wasn’t scary. It was more like a video—the ones that supposedly showed frightening events, like the video of the creepy creature that swooped around the Palisades before that massive fire that upset all the celebrities.However, it seemed odd that a child would fake a video of something so far away on their cell phone, flapping around and gliding, all black, like an air-borne demon. If you were to fake a video about something this alarming, wouldn't you do a better job of it? Especially with ...

14 likes 8 comments 8
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