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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

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✍️ 92 stories

“A midnight walk to remember” by Sujatha M

Submitted to Contest #274

“Look, mom!” Anita hears her daughter’s voice from the bedroom. Sarika appears with a ball of hair in her hand. “I applied the flax seed gel like you said. Still hair fall continues,” she complains.“External application does not solve internal problems,” Anita simply says, as she continues to fold the clothes.“Profound. Let me write that down,” Sarika says as she plops on the bed.“No need to be sarcastic. You need to eat flax seeds to get the required micronutrients. I will make the flax seed chutney powder,” Anita heads to the kitchen after...

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“The Betrayal” by Nichol Goldstein

Submitted to Contest #274

My choked gasp rockets me from my pillow. Blinding, the nighttime shadows leave me swimming in black until I catch the digital blink of the bedside clock. It reads 2:30 in the morning. Damn adrenaline.  I had the dream again. I’ve had a lifetime full of “agains.” My hand fumbles to the night table in patting thumps and thwumps. Searching for my phone, the panic clamps my heart in its fist, ready for that inevitable, pleading message—but it didn’t come. There’s nothing on the screen as it lights up to scan my face. No notifications. No ...

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“One Scary Ride” by Colin Barry

Submitted to Contest #274

What is my biggest fear? I couldn't pinpoint when this dread first took root in me. What I do know is that I was just a child, no older than six—or was it seven? It hardly matters now. That day I was left alone on that boat is stuck into my memory like glue. The sudden shift in my surroundings was jarring—an alien landscape, vast and unknowable. And then there was the singing. Oh, the singing. That was the most horrific part of it all. Even today, the mere thought of those haunting lyrics makes me shudder, and I can almost sense the chill...

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“In The Shadows of The Night” by Damali Muhammad

Submitted to Contest #274

Since I was a young girl, it would take me some time to fall asleep at night. The dark was comforting to me, especially since my bed was near a window where I could gaze at the night sky. That was the most beautiful thing to me, watching  the moon light stretch across the sky. Before, I knew it morning had arrived.  Looking out my window at night allowed me to appreciate nature's beauty. As a child, I loved just looking up at the sky. I recall watching the heavy rain hit against the glass as lighting streaked across the sk...

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“Reptile House” by Terry Horton

Submitted to Contest #274

The day was stunningly bright, the kind of clear, sunny afternoon that beckoned you outdoors, promising laughter and the thrill of discoveries. For weeks, we had meticulously planned this trip to the zoo, filling our anticipation with thoughts of exotic animals and shared adventures. As we approached the reptile house, however, I felt an all-too-familiar tightness grip my chest—a visceral response I had hoped to suppress. Standing outside the reptile house, I could hear the distant, cheerful chatter of families enjoying their day, but my tho...

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“Broken Silence” by Charles Appleby

Submitted to Contest #274

My friends say that ambient noise helps them sleep. They say that the incessant monotony soothes them like nothing short of drugs can. The static, or whatever noise they choose, carries them to such a deep sleep that they describe it to me as if I've never rested. A foreign delicacy worth boasting about. White noise has never done this for me. For as far back as I can remember all repetitive noise grated against my ears. It's gotten to the point where it’s rare for a day to pass without having to relocate due to noises that pierce my hearing...

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“Confined Spaces” by Pete Gautchier

Submitted to Contest #274

Prompt: Center your story around a childhood fear that-as much as you try to shake it-still resonates into adulthood.Confined Spaces“Help me! I can’t breathe! I never said I would do this! Tommy, get me out of here,” as I whimpered a cry. My panicky state resulted in an episode of hyperventilated breathing. The more I struggled in the confined space, the more anxious I became. I could barely muster a punch on the side of the cardboard wall.  Then, the tears began to flow as I felt abandoned and le...

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“Don't Swim Tonight, My Love” by Chimera Roman

Submitted to Contest #274

Cold wind whips through my clothes like a pin-ridden lash as though I stand naked on this desolate beach. I wouldn’t notice if I was. I could hardly think of anything so abstract as my body with this horrible sight before me; the dark and vast ocean fusing with the unlit sky into an abyss, threatening to swallow me whole without thought or struggle. Eroded by the wind and sea spray, my body is dissolving. I am no longer a person. I am more vulnerable than even a newborn baby, who has a mouth with which to sob - I am nothing more than eyes, a...

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“My Closet Monster” by Edie Redwine

Submitted to Contest #274

I miss the child I used to be. He was tender, softer than the other boys, but blooming with joy. I would do anything to be him again. Now, I am just a shackled bolt on my closet monster’s door.In the 5th grade I saw him for the first time: my childhood monster. He was lurking just out of reach in the school coat closet. Darkness obscured everything but his eyes. Those eyes were a pale glowing purple, and they smiled as if he knew me. The shadowy corner where he lurked smelled like dirt and rotting flowers. My monster appeared on the wor...

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“The Picture” by Luke Duncan

Submitted to Contest #274

There was a printed picture of my family that hung on the refrigerator door in the kitchen. I saw it every day when I would get the milk out to add to my cereal or my coffee. We were at my grandparents’ house, sitting together by the fireplace. My parents were sitting on the mantle, while the three kids that made up the McGraw family were sitting on the carpet in front. We were all beaming at the camera in our own unique way, reflecting the idyllic existence that was the five of us. The close bond we shared with each other was apparent, as w...

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“Sugus Blues” by Elena Balaguer

Submitted to Contest #274

 Trigger warning: Mental health, suicide. “If an evil has been pondered beforehand, the blow is gentle when it comes. To the fool, however, and to him who trusts in fortune, each event as it arrives, ‘comes in a new and sudden form,’ and a large part of evil, to the inexperienced, consists in its novelty.” Seneca Sugus Blues Premeditatio Malorum, if I were a Stoic. Or in modern parlance, emotional vaccination, preemptively imagining hardships and preparing for them before they occur. Like how a vaccine works, introducing our immune sy...

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“The Midzone” by Eleanor Ingbretson

Submitted to Contest #274

The Midzone It was a pleasant office, even more so than all the other pleasant offices I've been in; sunshine, plants, antimacassars on the armchairs, and the fainting couch where I supposed I was to recline.It was my first visit to the highly touted Dr. Robinson, who remained seated in an armchair when I entered her office. I excused that on account of her pleasant rotundness. She had knitting needles in hand, going a mile a minute on some magenta yarn, and there were more balls of yarn in a bowl on the table beside her. “Please, take...

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“WHEEL OF MISFORTUNE” by Glenna Agnew

Submitted to Contest #274

  WHEEL OF MISFORTUNE I’m a bit of a control freak. There! I’ve said it, owned up to it, confessed it, and they always say that confession is good for the soul. I’m also a very analytical person and for a long time, ney, most of my life, I have long analyzed why I am such a control freak. It has to do with fear. Intense, utterly unrestrained, uncontrollable … fear. I remember the day, the fateful day, when for the first time and the last time in my life, thus far, I lost all semblance of control. The fear ran so deep that day, that ev...

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“Eyes in the Dark” by Frida Solheim

Submitted to Contest #274

The first time I noticed it, I was eight years old. It was a reflection of someone else, not myself, a grim smile nothing like my own. It was probably a nightmare,’ my parents told me, ‘nothing to worry about.’ I hadn’t been back to my childhood home since one night, a couple of months later, when I had my final night terror, yelling and screaming loudly enough to have woken everyone in the house. The following day I heard it over the speakers. ‘Lilah, please report to the principal’s office.’ Tears flooded my eyes in the back of the car, as...

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“Wedding Toast” by Orthodoxia Papachartofyli

Submitted to Contest #274

The bride stands up and nods at the DJ. The music stops and she clears her throat as she is clinking her champagne glass with a knife. Guests stop talking and turn to her.Thank you everyone for being here tonight! Daniel and I couldn’t be happier that you are all here with us.She pauses and looks at the groom sitting next to her.“Right, babe?”Guests chuckle and the groom waves an exasperated hand. The gesture is playful, loving.The human psyche is designed to endure great pains, the spirit can take on a lot before it gets broken. But if the ...

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