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Center your story on a character who's about to give up, or who realizes that success feels unexpectedly empty.

Posted in Angst on Sep 26, 2025

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✍️ 59 stories

The Last Soldier

Winner of Contest #322 🏆

CW: Mental health, violence, warThe soldiers file into the mess hall, squeezing onto benches and finding open places away from the canvas walls to sit. Outside, the wind shrieks, whipping and beating tarps throughout the whole encampment, in some places tearing them from their posts.Calling it a mess hall is an overstatement, since it’s all just one big tent. There are windows near the top, flexible sheets of plastic framed in velcro and wire to hold it in place. The hall is propped up on portable wooden beams, built to keep the waves of san...

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Quitting

Submitted to Contest #322

“You know what, Karen?”Irene’s voice was brittle, stripped of its usual warmth. Karen looked up from the till.“What?”“I’m too old for all this crap. I don’t need it. I’m sorry, Karen, but I’m quitting.” The words landed like stones. Karen’s heart sunk, gripped by a weight that seemed to drag her down. For a wild moment, she wanted to unclip the keys from her belt, throw them clattering on the wooden floor, and say, “You know what? I quit too.” Floundering, all she could come up with was, “Oh. Right...” Irene’s face had a set look. “The trou...

33 likes 16 comments 16
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Stop Winking at Me

Submitted to Contest #322

Alora and Bob want me to volunteer, although for entirely different reasons. Heck, even Grinfo and Freena think it's a fantastic idea. Why am I the only sane person around here? Everyone knows it's a bad idea to volunteer to be a sacrifice. Alora believes it's the only way for us to obtain the dylanium inside the Ladder God's stormy abode. And I agree we need it. We're not flying off this rock without dylanium. My dispute is whether this is the only way. Bob believes I'm a god because I can say Bob - it's a long story. Anyway, he thinks I wo...

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Anayalaj

Submitted to Contest #322

During my lunch break, walking past reception — on my way to sell another piece of furniture crammed into the bed of my truck — I could hear the fatigue in both advice nurses’ tone. Phone lines had been jammed for days as the nurses addressed conspiracy theories, occasionally thrilled by an actual dire call, someone bleeding or contracting. I saw them shaking their heads as they spoke, elbows on the desk, one squeezing the bridge of her nose. It had been a long week already. We’d all had a meeting when the news broke, a place to unpack our f...

25 likes 9 comments 9
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What's Driving Draven?

Submitted to Contest #322

Rick Draven sat hunched at his desk, shoulders locked in the familiar knot of submission. The screen in front of him shimmered with cascading data sets, endless prompts that required only his supervision. It was all a formality, really. The machine didn’t need him anymore. It just needed his confirmation, his flesh-and-blood signature that kept the corporate lawyers comfortable. His once accomplishing job transitioned and boiled down to training the artificial intelligence that would eventually absorb his role completely. Yet, here he was, f...

24 likes 9 comments 9
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Winning

Submitted to Contest #322

Kent walked with his daughter, Lyric, through the parking lot toward the fairgrounds. “Stay with me, Lyre. Don’t want to lose you.”“I’m right here, Daddy. You won’t lose me” She took his hand. “Where are we going?”“It’s called a fair. Like a carnival. It’s got rides and games…”Lyric laughed and pointed. “And tons of people!”She was in awe of the multitude streaming toward the entrance. The line at the ticket booth appeared endless. Colorful flags fluttered overhead. Music came from within the fairgrounds.Lyric tightened her grip on her fathe...

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Winning

Submitted to Contest #322

Winning“Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”-Vince Lombardi It was a different time. Joey could walk six blocks in three different directions and usually find a pickup game on one of the baseball diamonds that had evolved naturally in empty fields over the years. He didn’t care where he played- infield, outfield, catcher, whatever. He pitched once in a while, though his “stuff” was limited to a pretty respectable straight ball. Position didn’t matter to this thirteen-year-old boy who had pictures of Aaron, Adcock, Matthews, and Sp...

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Golden Dream

Submitted to Contest #322

The early morning sunlight twinkled off of the golden pendant as it laid on my pillow. The design was exquisite and expertly crafted, with each angle precise and the representation of the deity Nike almost life-like as if she would jump right into reality. I sat cross-legged on my borrowed bed and watched the sun play off the intricate details. The colorful ribbon that would drape around the neck gave it an almost ethereal glow. I haven’t slept in the past two days. Not since that day. That moment. I fondly remembered the bedtime fairy tales...

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Everything and Nothing

Submitted to Contest #322

TW: Themes of suicide I’m going to try and make you understand. I’ve tried to explain it over the years but I’ve given up because nobody ever understands. So, I’m going to try one last time.The simplest way to put it is that I can remember my life in greater than average detail. It’s called hyperthymesia, and there are fewer than one hundred people who have been diagnosed with it. I have not been diagnosed, but I know I have it. When I say I remember everything, I mean I remember everything. Everything-everything-everything. I can tell you ...

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Mouth Full of Dirt

Submitted to Contest #322

Asta would never forget the way being buried alive felt. She would forever hear the dirt hitting the top of the coffin as the people who were meant to protect her shoveled it into the grave. Knowing she was alive inside screaming and begging for them to let her go. She had been only twenty three when that night happened. She remained twenty three. Remained awake long after the oxygen had been depleted in the cramped space. It was dark there under the ground, and so quiet. The kind of quiet that drove a person insane. She knew if there was an...

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Equestrianism Contended

Submitted to Contest #322

With a turn down centerline to a perfect halt and salute, I am inflated to the highest of clouds. The dressage test could not have gone better, and our scores will show it. I’m almost positive we will score well with this test. Everything I have worked for over the years has been bundled up into an eight-minute ride. A test of precision and stamina. Perfection and harmony. That is the world of Dressage, and I love every second of it. I have loved the work it takes to get here. The sport for perfectionists, I have nicknamed it. Since the ride...

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A Young Woman's Guide to Ambition

Submitted to Contest #322

A YOUNG WOMAN’S GUIDE TO AMBITIONThey used to say (maybe some still do) that ambition is what gets you out of bed of a morning. Though it does depend on the ambition. If you want to write a novel why bother? Write the novel by all means. But do you need to get out of bed? Is ambition a good thing? The obvious answer is, depends on the ambition. Yeees. But it’s a little more complicated isn’t it. Why do people have ambitions? Maybe they want to be famous. Maybe they want to be rich. Maybe they want to be fulfilled. In this day and age we migh...

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The Billionaire Monopoly Fiasco

Submitted to Contest #322

It was a quiet Saturday night, the kind of twilight hour when most of the world wound down. But in a secret alpine compound accessible only by individuals whose net worth exceeded “astronomical,” something unusual was brewing. An unmarked jet landed on a private strip carved into the mountain’s side. Out stepped the titans of modern wealth: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault, Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin. They had been summoned, at the behest of an unnamed “ultra-wealth manager to the gods,” to...

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Don’t Trust The Mackerel

Submitted to Contest #322

After a dozen bad dates and two creepy stalkers, Mei decided to give up on online dating—forever. She leaned back into her Brooklyn couch and shut her eyes against the chaos of the world outside, when her phone buzzed: Jake923, with 23 shared interests, a notification from SoulMate told her. She thought she had just hit bottom, but his profile—fiction nerd, sushi fan, Midwestern transplant—sparked a flicker of hope.After a week of texting, she decided she would give dating one last shot. Her heart thumped as he agreed to meet her at her favo...

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How The Tables Do Turn

Submitted to Contest #322

Within a week of my arrival home, I happened upon a television film, “Kids Like These”. Although now it would appear extremely outdated, back then – more than thirty-five years ago - it was extraordinary, a first, and to me an absolute inspiration, I was bowled over by it! But the coincidence of it was overwhelming! Was it an answer to my prayers? I’d certainly done a lot of that in the previous three weeks! How often had I sent my sister to the library to look for books showing photos of these children? How could I have never even seen one ...

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