Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Start or finish your story with a speaker unable to finish their sentence, perhaps overcome by emotion.

Posted in Angst on Feb 16, 2024

Submissions are closed

Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or use an email address:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 88 stories

Family

Submitted to Contest #238

trigger warning: abandonment. FamilyBy: Anastasia Mellovich It is 3 AM on July 30th, and tomorrow is the tenth worst day of my life, but who’s counting? The first worst day of my life was March 2nd, 1993, which just so happened to be my third birthday. It was the day my dad left my mother and I to move to Illinois. I have been up for the past three hours, making myself physically ill, thinking about the possible outcomes of tomorrow’s events. You might be asking yourself, where did the other nine horrible days come from? Those were the past...

12 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Quest for the Quetzal

Submitted to Contest #238

THE QUEST FOR THE QUETZAL Silvia loved painting birds of paradise. And peacocks. And toucans. And quetzals. Her architectural watercolors of Antigua had often found a buyer. As did her acrylics of multicolored Guatemalan huipils, the woven Mayan blouses used by indigenous women. But mostly birds.           The new English teacher, Cara, shared an office with her at the school where she taught art and had exclaimed over some of her paintings, immediately buying some t...

12 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

RETURN TO COUNTRY

Submitted to Contest #238

‘Bring him to me,’ said Kurdaitcha, their executioner, I …           ‘Yes,’ said Papinijuwari. ‘Then I will feed on his dead body.’            The spirit group were affronted and convened a meeting. They had intervened but the old bike man still lusted for their sacred objects and kept his ways. There was a more immediate concern because a woman had accepted ancestral bones removed from their burial place above the river. The return ...

12 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

The Lavender Fields

Submitted to Contest #238

I walk into Benjamin’s room. He’s laying on the bed, his head propped up by pillows, staring blankly at nothing. “Hey, Benjamin. It’s me, Penny, remember?” I say, putting my bouquet of lavenders on the table next to his bed.Benjamin doesn’t respond. I sigh and look around the room. There’s no pictures, no color, nothing for Benjamin to look at. Not that he would look anyway.I sit down on the bed next to Benjamin. “Do you want to hear a story?” I ask, waiting hopefully. No response. Just like every time I’ve visited Benjamin since h...

12 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

The Gods' Will

Submitted to Contest #238

“How can you ask this of me?”“It is expected, my liege.”“I can’t. It's just…” Callan broke down into sobs. He sank back onto the throne. His throne. It was not meant to be his. He had been so far removed from the line of succession that sitting here had never been entertained in his wildest dreams or, as it was turning out, his nightmares.Osgar looked at him in that dead eyed manner that chilled Callan to the bone. Everything about Osgar made his skin crawl. He was like a spirit, popping up out of the slimmest of shadows to frighten him. Cal...

12 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Three Little Words

Submitted to Contest #238

Anne rubbed her eyes aggressively before she remembered the mascara she was wearing. “Crap,” she muttered, glancing at the smears and flecks of black that coated her fingers. Oh well, it didn’t really matter what she looked like. There was no other soul in the office with her. The clock at the bottom corner of her screen indicated it was close to eight in the evening. She needed to close down her computer for the night but there were a few extra details she wanted to include in this proposal. It was the culmination of six months of work and ...

12 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Silence Breaking

Submitted to Contest #238

The house is silent. Dead silent. People say there is no such thing as dead silence, always a faint tick-tock of a clock in the distance, a soft whisper of a woman around the corner, a hum of life pulsing in the air. If noise symbolizes life, then silence must be the sound of death.I figure that is what I'm doing tonight. Dying. Slowly, but surely. When morning comes there will be no tick-tock of clocks, or women chattering, or hearty laughs over coffee. Only a thick quiet and closed eyelids. I'd passed away in my sleep, my life had gone out...

12 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

WHEN THEY LEARN TO SPEAK IN THE VOICES OF OUR DEAD

Submitted to Contest #238

1 The fingers that lay the tea tray onto the polished, dark wood of the table imitated humanity immaculately except in one particular: the skin was a stately navy blue.  Millicent Braddock avoided touching them as they handed her a bone-white cup of Earl Grey, sweetened and creamed just to her liking, plumes of steam curling off its dark surface like the ghost of a bergamot fruit.  Somehow, her favorite drink with her closest (living) friend did nothing to comfort her; instead, their presence in the flat seemed vulgar.  Spoile...

12 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

The Tree Palace

Submitted to Contest #238

The tree house. Her tree house. There, she could go anywhere, say anything, be anyone. It was her sanctuary against the world outside. She thought of it more as a tree palace when she grasped the weathered wooden ladder to ascend into her private world. The floor gently bent under her weight and the rusted tin roof rattled with the breeze while the oak limbs rustled a polite discussion of the late summer season, accenting its message with the occasional acorn drop. The smell was delicious, like a mildly mildewed forest mixed with the warmth...

11 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Torches of freedom

Submitted to Contest #238

The lake was deep and it only got deeper as you looked. You could see the reflection of your own eyes and would stare until you saw your own mother's eyes.  And that sight alone was too much for me. Too much for who I am. I can be a smoker instead. Much simpler. I can dedicate my life to giving up on something and no one would bat an eye. Much easier if you ask me.  I stare into the visions and glimmer of my lit up cigarette reflecting on the blue wet glass.  I am not ready to go back to the funeral. And even if I was, I would...

11 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Susan's Wish

Submitted to Contest #238

(This story contains one sexual episode) Very early in the morning, Susan walked down to the lake’s edge to watch the ducks.  Gentle light drifted above still, calm water. Mirror like, the lake reflected the great green forest that surrounded it.  All was peace. Except Susan. Susan stood bathed in grief and sadness. Marianne was so close to dying now with her unique form of cancer, uncurable even untreatable. Fortunately, she was not experiencing much pain. It was a blood cancer that after about four to six weeks jus...

11 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Letting Go

Submitted to Contest #238

*Trigger Warning: Parent illness, hospital imagery, death* "But I- I…" My eyes widened in horror and disgust. "I can't do that!" "Yes, you can. You can do anything you put your mind to doing. Watch." I sat speechless as I watched my father, covered in sweat and dirt from the rich Alabama forest, lift the wriggling grub worm, toss it in his mouth, and begin to chew. His face was stoic while his jaws worked. "That’s so gross!" My eight year old self was repulsed. "I think you mean 'nasty,' or 'sick'ning,'" he said. "'Gross' means large. I pr...

11 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

MIDNIGHT RAIN

Submitted to Contest #238

The petite hand of a pregnant mother was placed gracefully on her swollen belly as she waddled behind her mischievous twins, Judy and Jeremy. The twins laughed at their mother's struggle to keep up with them, and a victorious smile graced their chubby faces as they witnessed their mother huffing and finally settling down on the recliner to catch her breath. “What happened Mommy? Aren't you going to scold us today?” Their innocent question brought a chuckle from their tired mother as she ruffled their hair and kissed them feverishly, savourin...

11 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Abandoned Warehouse

Submitted to Contest #238

We ran screaming for the car. Jesse fell twice on the way. The first time I helped him up as he looked behind us. The second time I could hear the thuds. The water held in the pot holes were vibrating with each thud. Either he would make it to the car, or he wouldn’t.   I heard him scrambling and scraping on the wet asphalt trying to get traction in his Vans. Great shoes for boarding, terrible shoes for running away. “Shit, shit, shit,” I heard Jesse repeat over and over again as he loped for the car i...

11 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Incident

Submitted to Contest #238

Leonard stared at his chipped and faded CU Denver coffee mug, the vortex of Columbian ground beans almost a black hole of doom that threatened to pull him in. Though he didn't consider himself old (only recently turning thirty), he noticed that time moved faster the farther he progressed in age. This last week, however, seemed to crawl at the pace of a snail in a race determined to lose. To be fair, Leonard usually felt this way. Since back when he was a boy even. A creeping expectation of nebulous dread. That at any time, for any reason, so...

11 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story in which a conversation takes place where the true subject is only implied.

Dialogue – 39 stories

Write a story including the line “I can’t say it.”

Dialogue – 56 stories

Write a story in which an important message is cut off, leaving characters to wonder or puzzle out what was left unsaid.

Mystery – 48 stories

Set your story at a silent retreat.

Angst – 44 stories

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel