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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about a character in search of something or someone.

Posted in Angst on Oct 25, 2022

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 94 stories

“The Power of the Rainbow” by Deborah Elliott

Submitted to Contest #124

The Power of the Rainbow Deborah Elliott The ground shook, gray clouds boiled in the heavens, and the sea crashed into the shore with rock-shattering power. Rain was falling in great torrents, and the bitter wind was snapping and biting without mercy. The woman’s bones were weary and her resolve brittle, but still, she wrapped her cloak about her and put one foot in front of the other.  The earth rolled and cracked; it spewed hot ashes that terrified her. The drifting cinders singed her skin. Repeatedly she stumb...

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“Postoperative Day Three” by Maria Avisal

Submitted to Contest #124

         Dalia, completely ignored by the nurse sitting at the computer outside of room 314, knocked inaudibly before easing the door open. The sky outside of Mr. Leary’s room was completely black, and the flickering lights of the city only barely visible through the fog.  Eyes shifting from the window to the bed, she wrinkled her forehead in confusion upon seeing it empty. She would never admit it to the resident team, but she had been guilty of silently checking the drainage tubes and ...

3 comments 3
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“The Hungry Christmas Tree” by Tanya Humphreys

Submitted to Contest #124

The twenty-foot tree was magnificent! All forty-nine wee elves skipped around its base with strings of colored lights, silver tinsel, and finely crafted wooden ornaments. Its fresh, piney green scent was intoxicating, the elves buried their faces in the soft needley boughs.The elves giggled like squirrels, chattered like monkeys, and laughed like loons. As the last of the lights were lit, and the last of the ornaments hung, the elves discussed the finale…the decoration for the very tip-top. The angel was white, with tinsel hai...

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“Roads Paved in Gold” by M.C. Romero

Submitted to Contest #124

Look back to those years I awoke each morning, disoriented, cramped, and curled up against a wood-paneled wall, thin body upon a thinner mattress, grasping for a sense of time and place through sleep’s lifting veil. Dim sun peeked through plastic blinds, taunting me to tear them open in search of answer to that persistent, daily question: what place is this? But always strange desert sand and cactus answered, seen at 55 mph, and blurring together into an unfamiliar palette of khaki browns, greens, and grays; and, always, the great deserts st...

6 comments 6
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“Tiny Bangle Where Are You?” by Kimberly Seyboldt

Submitted to Contest #124

"It's gone!" I shouted. "It's gone.!" Probably not the best words to yell out in a bank, filled with patrons, on a Friday, just before closing. All eyes were upon my panicked looking face now. There was no time to worry about that. "Now that I have everyone's attention", I cowered, "Could everyone look down around their feet?" (Now I saw the panicked looks on their faces as though they thought my pet rat had escaped my grasp) "My large diamond in my wedding ring is missing!" I had their full attention now, but felt a bit guilty lying, or sho...

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“Devil in the Details” by Milea Huckeby

Submitted to Contest #124

Evelyn Pritchard had been slaying demons since she was twelve. Granted, they were in her nightmares, but nightmares can teach you things. If you’re paying attention. *** The nightmares began when she moved to Aspen Valley. In them, a demon possessed the family fireplace, and she - as the youngest child - was tasked with slaying it. She was led to the fireplace, and presented with a set of rusty gardening shears. She raised the shears and slammed them down on the hearth as if she were chopping wood. An iridescent head emerged from t...

3 comments 3
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“Rhiane” by Tiffany Michelle Mullins

Submitted to Contest #124

RHIANE Hi! I’m James. A fifty-seven year old male to female transgender person from New York. Along with MDD, consisting of suicidal tendencies, life sucks. I’ve read that to have, you have to experience sorrow to receive joy. The world is do. And me. I have been told that I am suicidal, but unable to die. What a conundrum. How about a little background info. At twenty-two, I married a beautiful woman. At that age, she was with child. Kathy was eighteen then. She brought the joy of my life, Krystal. She was two. My Krystal was m...

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“i, Sixth Grader” by Luke McDermott

Submitted to Contest #124

Mr. Drubble thinks one of his sixth graders is an android but I think he’s an idiot.  I looked closely at the framed picture on his desk. Two men, early thirties, embracing in front of a Christmas tree, their festive sweaters blending in with the cacophony of decorations. Golden retriever, rehearsed smiles, stiff posture, wedding rings. It was hard to say which was the middle school teacher. They were definitely nerds. Their dog doesn’t even want to be in the picture. Yeah, surely just an idiot but I shouldn’t judge. Lots of peop...

2 comments 2
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“Life, Death, or Something In-Between” by Eileen Donovan

Submitted to Contest #124

Eileen Joyce Donovan                                                                                   Word Count: 2,300 words 75 We...

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“Mango Heart” by Hamzah Malik

Submitted to Contest #124

Once upon a time, there lived a girl who was born with a shining mango instead of a heart. She was like a normal girl in every other way, apart from the peculiar ability to reach inside her own chest and pull out a ripe, glowing mango. Mango Girl's mother naturally told her to never tell anyone about this, for she feared people would abuse and ridicule her. The years rolled on, and Mango Girl became a tenacious ten year-old with a loud laugh and eyes that shone brighter than the stars. One fateful day, Mango Girl spotted a merchant selli...

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“Winter's Requiem” by Rose Godwyn Veil

Submitted to Contest #124

( cw; swearing )Wake up. The wind seemed to softly whisper. Wake up. It's all he can hear as his eyes slowly open. Everything is blanketed in snow and shrouded in mist, gentle flakes of snow falling with each gust of wind. But he can only hear the wind. He can't feel it, even when he holds his hand out. The snowflakes don't even land on his skin, it almost looks like it's avoiding him somehow— but the boy doesn't pay that much mind. He's too preoccupied trying to ascertain just where he was, and just who he was. So, he gets up. The...

2 comments 2
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“LOOKING FOR HER” by Brian Hastie

Submitted to Contest #124

                     LOOKING FOR HER                                                   By               &nb...

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“Sam`s Obsession” by Fred McIlmoyle

Submitted to Contest #124

Sam’s Obsession It was the week-end and Sam McAuley sat in his rocking chair in front of the big open fire. On the back of an old envelope he jotted notes with the stub of a pencil which he licked from time to time. Eventually he laid the pencil down and stuck the the notes in his hip pocket. Leaning back into the rocking chair he stretched his gangling arms up towards the smoke-stained ceiling of the old farmhouse. The newspaper slipped off his knees unnoticed as he rocked back and forth deep in thought. Aft...

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“Gone” by Diane Tolley

Submitted to Contest #124

“Cross my palm with silver, young man and I shall tell you what I see in your future!” Gerald scratched his head and stared into the blue face. Was this a face he could trust? Should he be—as Brother Martin cautioned when he gave him the day off—cautious? “How do I know what you say is true?” The man straightened huffily and his blue skin seemed to glow. “You question the Blue Haruspex?” “Well . . . I . . .” “If I may interject.” Gerald’s friend, Frederick whispered loudly into Gerald’s ear, “You are right to question. I see not any entr...

2 comments 2
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“Catharsis” by Stuart Mccarthy

Submitted to Contest #124

This story contains attitudes towards women and disabilities that some may find upsetting. If people's lives are marked by anniversaries then today, for Samantha Brown, was an especially poignant one. Today was the anniversary of her accident. Today would be the day when she would reflect on what might have been had she not agreed to go with Steve to the beach. Today, like all other anniversaries since that day, she would try to find some measure of closure. She had tried every year and every year she had failed. It had all begun so...

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Contest #124

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