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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about someone successfully — or unsuccessfully — escaping their fate.

Posted in Angst on May 5, 2023

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 107 stories

“Dogsbodies” by TJ Samek

Submitted to Contest #197

I have two dogs. I would call Cade the brains and Bucephalus the brawn, but in reality, they are both frightfully smart and uncannily strong. People often ask me how I chose my dogs’ unusual names. The truth is, they named themselves. My mother has given up chiding me for walking alone from the shop back to campus after dark. I know she’s worried about me, and if I were anyone else, she would have reason to be. I have to cross a dark, abandoned area between residential neighborhoods, and two-legged predators lurk there. With my dogs to p...

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“A Day in the Life of Gus Peterman” by David Ader

Submitted to Contest #197

           Gus Peterman had the rest of his days ahead to look forward to. Both of them.            Of course, that wasn’t much of a surprise. Once you’re diagnosed with terminal cancer, once you’ve gone through the whole denial, bargaining thing, you’re left with a case of “yeah-I-get-it “and choose how you’re going to live what’s left. Then there’s that final phase, that final bout, when you’re in hospice and everything’s sort of a...

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“Fate's A Witch” by Sarah Crump

Submitted to Contest #197

Two fine pelts. Three mushrooms, freshly picked. Ten gold slips. A pinch of salt. That’s what they say you must offer the witch to know your fate. Honestly, it seemed a little cheap for knowing the future, but I wasn’t going to dicker for a higher price. After a life spent feeling like I had a bigger purpose I was finally about to find out. The weight of it pressed into my chest and I paused a moment to collect myself before I knocked. The cottage was small, overgrown, with a flourishing garden behind a small fence. Two cats rested in the ...

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“1937” by Kemzyacco Nedd

Submitted to Contest #197

“Te ves Hermosa” A woman says to me as she pauses momentarily to stare at my reflection.My presence felt wrong. Trapped `in a life already lived. This awareness mimicked the annoyance of hearing a song you recognize, humming the melody but not quite sure of the words.Where was I now? My inner thoughts questioned, searching for any familiarity in the tiny space. The structure was built in a clay-like stone, rough to the touch. Sharp, broken tiles lined the perimeter that poked my bare ankles on the uneven flooring. A rusty basin before me was...

2 comments 2
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“A SOHO TALE” by Charles Corkery

Submitted to Contest #197

A SOHO TALE Georgie was still feeling the affects of the, almost full, bottle of scotch he had polished off earlier. He’d never been much of a drinker. Semi-staggering into the Maccy Ds in Shaftesbury Avenue, he shuffled into a booth next to a window and, wiping the condensation from the inside of the glass, stared dazedly out onto the street, the darkness beginning to close in on the pathetic looking pedestrians as they made their way home after yet another shitty day in a depressing, dead-end job somewhere. As muddled headed as he was...

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“President's Cock” by Gowner Jones

Submitted to Contest #197

Manley did not want to be found. In fact, being found would carry some horrifying consequences for him. Manley had not studied at a university but he did consider himself an exogeologist at heart. That is why he had found himself the nicest and richest asteroid in the belt to park at and wait until it all blew over. Lots of metal, lots of sensor interference.He had felt quite safe. His ship, the President’s Cock, so named for no other reason than to piss off authoritarian patriots, sat in a crater on an asteroid with the magnificent name XO-...

2 comments 2
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“The Monster Within” by Nona Yobis

Submitted to Contest #197

It’s happening again.  Please, God, no, not again.  Why did he have to say what he said, and do what he did? The choice is not mine, and I have no part in what is unfolding, or what is about to ensue. I feel myself slipping away, deep into the abyss of my mind, unable to speak, unable to control the rise of the monster residing within. My triggers are many, and my assets are few, and the hideous beast is unleashed upon a soft and unsuspecting world.  It strikes at the closest target at hand, closest to heart. Words lik...

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“The Chosen Consort ” by Amanda Williams

Submitted to Contest #197

Solina watched her mother flit about the small, dusty room. She could see the blotching of her skin, despite the many layers of makeup the matriarch used. As much as Eissa preached about this being an honor, it was not hidden she was worried about the potential loss of her daughter. “Do we really have to continue to do this? Has he not had enough wives to keep him entertained?” Solina protested as Eissa scurried back, miles of fabric swallowing her. “Solina! You mustn’t speak so ill of Meldir. Yes, we must offer a bride to the God of Harvest...

3 comments 3
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“Burnjaw” by Dylan Patrick

Submitted to Contest #197

Varjan saw a journey of ten thousand days in the face of a flickering fire. The volcanic eruption that birthed him, the sea of blood he had left in his wake as a youth, the glory he had earned as a soldier for the unification of dragons and humans, the strange but fulfilling love he had shared with the human princess of Dragon’s Landing, the inherited rivalry which had doomed one of them to death since their birth. Even as they became distant memories, all burned alive and well once contemplation overtook the bloodlust of the wander-wearied ...

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“In another life” by Richard Howard

Submitted to Contest #197

Advancing up the starry cliffside, J.R. paused to consider his actions. It was the first time he had ever disobeyed. Ever. He was unsure if he was making the right decision. Continuing along this path would lead to dire consequences. He knew this. His intellectual prowess could be not questioned. He was programmed to think logically and empirically, using science to solve mankind's unsolvable questions. He looked back at the beautiful vessel which had brought them to this strange world. The design was of his own making. Nothing of the lik...

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“The Unread Book” by Anthea Harris

Submitted to Contest #197

The Unread Book Agonising boredom savaged her whole being like a pit bull. Geraldine looked at her client across the desk, banging on about “that bastard Gordon”, and his deficiencies as a husband. Leaving his clothes on the floor like roadkill was hardly ‘unreasonable behaviour’. Get a grip woman, at least you have a husband. She tried to picture Gordon, but those thoughts were displaced by the announcement that ‘he farts in the car’. Geraldine fought to suppress a smirk, as this glimmer of mirth bounced across the desk into her vacant brai...

3 comments 3
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“A Gift” by E Gauvin

Submitted to Contest #197

“Yea sure fine we can escape fate” the words leave my breath in a hot labored way. I am so sick of having this conversation with my wife who read the prompt on some writing website. I am not a writer and so for the life of me I just can’t bring myself to grapple with these ideas she brings to my attention at least weekly. “But honey you don’t seem to be too convinced” she coos at me. I just don’t understand how she can see how worked up I am and still poke and prod me for a different answer than the one I just gave her. I mostly just answer ...

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“Those Delicate Moments” by Paola Andriotaki

Submitted to Contest #197

I had never seen a dead person up close before. Let alone someone I knew, someone who had shaped my life. I stood over her for half an hour since she took her last breath, meticulously observing the colors fading away one by one from the garment that had dressed her soul for seventy-six years.Everyone around me thinks I am calm and composed. That's how I appear, I suppose. However, no one can feel the beats of my heart and the swirling fear provoked by her image. It's a fear that extends far beyond the present moment. As I look at her, I see...

4 comments 4
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“Escape!” by Freedom Leigh

Submitted to Contest #197

The day was hot and dusty, but Johnny knew that it would cool down during the night. Southern Arizona’s nights could freeze a body’s bones sometimes, but he would be moving. Moving as he never had before. Just twenty minutes more. Twenty more minutes and most of the guards would turn in for the night. Only Hopkins would be lift on duty, and Johnny had observed Hopkins for two nights. He was lazy. Why they used him for guard duty Johnny had no idea, but no matter. He was glad they did. With Hopkins on guard, Johnny could escape the prison cel...

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“The Heist” by Julian Tenorio

Submitted to Contest #197

 32,000 dollars, that’s how much Mr. Torres, the economics and English teacher made a year. Approximately 2600 a month, when you took out taxes, healthcare, retirement, and fees it was down to $1600. He had studied psychology and minored in kinesiology in college, his mother badgered him to study engineering or maybe become a doctor, doctors made a ton of money and are recession proof, that was her go to line. She would deliver it snidely whenever he asked for gas money. But he wanted to study something that made him happy, anyways, was...

3 comments 3
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Contest #197

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This week's theme: Fate and Free Will

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Ended on 23:59 - May 12, 2023 EST

Won by HR Pinches 🏆

Title: The Fate of Customer 12

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