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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Center your story around a childhood fear that – as much as you try to shake it – still resonates in adulthood.

Posted in Angst on Oct 25, 2024

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 92 stories

“A Day of Resilience” by Renate Buchner

Submitted to Contest #274

It enchanted me to watch the yellow, red, orange, and brown leaves dancing in the wind; I turned 360 degrees; arms wide open.Is it that long ago since I walked down this alley?The American Elm, the most prevalent tree in this alley, has a strong, unpleasant scent when it's green, but today's fall leaf hardly smelled at all—or so I thought. I hold my breath as a Ruby-throated hummingbird flies past my head over the whirling leaves towards a tree.In a hurry, I grabbed the camera from my backpack with a 400mm focal length objective without losi...

8 comments 8
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“Harleys and Highways” by Jeff Meade

Submitted to Contest #274

The hardest part of Mom’s passing was going through all the old family albums with my younger sister Jenny and deciding how to divvy up the photo collection. Ten years and a different father lessened the task somewhat, but she wanted some of the pictures of our shared step-brother, Noel. Most of the pictures predated her and featured both Noel and I living the dream of Colorado Mountain Boys. Our ten-acre horse ranch was on the side of Sugarloaf Mountain, just outside Boulder. The rustic log cabin and steep, wooded terrain we called home are...

5 comments 5
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“The mirror” by Claudia IONAS

Submitted to Contest #274

The clock struck midnight, as every night I covered all the mirrors in the house. It's fresh in my mind even after all this time... Everyone is sleeping; the night is quiet, and the moon throws silvery light through the windows. I am drowned by the beauty of it, hypnotized, floating towards the open window in my bedroom. Nothing is moving outside; even the wind has stopped blowing. The trees look like majestic guardians. Staying there under the cold watch of the moon, I don't even realize when I reach my makeup table, staring into the mirror...

2 comments 2
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“The Umbrella” by Robert Quayhagen

Submitted to Contest #274

Jonas was lost in quiet reverie — head tilted to the sky, eyes closed, skin basking in the unseasonable warmth of the October-evening sun — when a stranger lumbered into him.The park was unusually crowded for this time of year — happy families, young lovers, and solitary wanderers alike capitalizing on the beautiful day. There were kites of all colors, designs, and shapes decorating the cloudless sky; books capturing imaginations under cover of lush treetops; bountiful picnics spread across gingham blankets and vibrant hand-stitched quilts; ...

3 comments 3
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“Never-Ending October” by Dalia Grigorescu

Submitted to Contest #274

A spider is crawling slowly, tentatively, along the hearth, thin black legs against the red brick illuminated uncertainly by the log fire. I should scream and call for Daniel, or at least pull my feet off the floor and tuck the soft throw tightly around me. But I don’t. I marvel at my own lack of reaction, and at the thought that screaming would be terribly unfitting in this space. This calm, quiet, beautiful place. “Why aren’t you out there?” I ask the spider. I think of the white cobwebs I spotted this morning, spread on top of our hedges,...

5 comments 5
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“Broken Glass Floors” by Matthew Richmond

Submitted to Contest #274

I hear a scream coming from my mom's bedroom. "Get off me", she screams. I rush down the hall to see my stepfathers hand around her throat, pushing her up against the wall. I grab him by the waist, I'm 16 at the time, I've came to size, plenty big enough to put up a fight. I throw him onto the bed on the right, pin him down, he shuffles his shoulders, screaming "get the fuck off of me" trying to free himself from my grip. I pick him up and fling him into their brand new dresser chipping a corner piece of a drawer. He lands on the floor, the ...

7 comments 7
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“The Man In The Cellar” by Cody Cole

Submitted to Contest #274

In the depths of night, the full moon glowed bright and blue over a quiet vineyard. Stars twinkled, and slow-moving whisps of clouds drifted by. The day had been rambunctious, what with the wedding and all but the blanketing calm of night had fallen. The bride, groom, and every guest had departed the celebration, taking the clatter with them, leaving only the autumn wind, sighing as it swept through dry leaves, and the vibrant chirping of crickets. Through the window of a lone farmhouse, surrounded by browning fields of freshly plucked vines...

2 comments 2
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“Elephant Graveyard” by Sydney Night

Submitted to Contest #274

The zoo is pleasantly not busy. There are pockets of people here and there, but on the whole, it’s not bad. The man and his family have no lines to wait through, no big crowds to deal with, and that’s just the way they like it. The man watches as his sons run off ahead, moving with all the energy and excitement of children.          The family makes their way through the zoo in the sporadic pattern that the kids lead them. They see bears, tigers, lions, and stay for awhile in the reptile hous...

2 comments 2
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“Numbers” by Vladimir Stefan

Submitted to Contest #274

It’s been a few weeks since Mikel started his job in the City. Freshly graduated from one of the UK’s top business schools and having defied class and social mobility barriers, he found himself in a trade job at a prominent stockbroker – Altara Capital. He remembers how he called his parents one day to tell them that he aced the interview, and they offered him a job on the spot – his dream job. The possibilities from now on are endless. He just has to work hard and be consistent.On a Wednesday afternoon, he found himself walking on Cheapside...

4 comments 4
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“Don't Be Afraid of the Dark” by Abby Johnson

Submitted to Contest #274

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been afraid of the dark. There's something about the quiet shadows that makes my heart race and my senses heighten, as if I'm preparing for something lurking just beyond my sight. Even as a child, I would lay in bed, staring wide-eyed into the darkness, listening for the slightest creak or murmur, afraid of what I couldn’t see. That fear followed me as I grew older, and though I've come to understand it better, the unknown depths of the dark still leave me unsettled. It's as if the darkness carries a weigh...

0 comments 0
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“Waving Goodbye” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #274

As a university professor of psychology, I know that many fears that we have are creatures of a negative imagination that we cannot shake. They are mental creatures you do not like to tell others. It takes a lot of nerve for me to present this story to you as an example of my own irrational fear of being drowned by incoming waves of high tide on a beach that faces the ocean. But I want to let you know that no matter how intelligent you are, you can still be influenced, even ruled by the irrational. The history of my great fea...

2 comments 2
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“Skateboard” by Bill VanPatten

Submitted to Contest #274

SkateboardBill VanPatten Tito lay in bed, his ears tuned to every sound in and outside the family’s house, unable to shake La Llorona from his six-year-old mind. She had to be a rotting corpse, he thought, dragging herself around in tattered clothes like a chained ghost in a horror movie, a putrid smell clinging to her flesh like an invisible shroud. In his mind he could hear her plaintive wail in Spanish, asking where her children were. ¿Dónde están, mis hijos?  It was his cousin’s fault he couldn’t sleep. After dinner, Antonio—who re...

1 comment 1
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“Sixteen” by Brooke Carter

Submitted to Contest #274

“Can you tell me a little bit more about these dreams you’ve been having? When did they start?” Dayley slid the palms of her hands across her jeans, hoping to subtly dry the layer of nervous sweat that had formed since she arrived. There was no reason to be as anxious as she was; Dayley scheduled this therapy session for herself and had been looking forward to it all week. Yet, as soon as she sat down in Dr. Thomas’ office, she questioned if she would actually be able to get the help she so desperately needed. “Honestly, it’s gone on for as ...

2 comments 2
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“Children Fear the Dark: The Reaping” by D.C. Wright

Submitted to Contest #274

                 Walk only in the light. The Darkness takes and does not give back what is taken. We dare not venture without light. Those are our mantras now.                 Monsters aren’t real, are they? The world had thought so... but they were awake now belying that belief. Now no one is safe when the lights go out.         ...

4 comments 4
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“Painted” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #274

Danny slumps on a park bench and watches the world go by. It’s an October morning, but the weather hasn’t yet made its mind up as to whether it wants to tip a nod towards the approach of Winter. The sun shines and conveys a lacklustre warmth. The breeze gently ruffles his unruly hair and licks his face. There are regretful leaves on the ground. There has been no frost and no winds to speak of. They missed their cue and fell anyway. Falling to the concrete with no safety net. There was no need for this. But then there is never a need. Not for...

6 comments 6
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Contest #274

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Ended on 23:59 - Nov 01, 2024 EST

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Title: Sweetbread: An Epilogue

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