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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about someone whose time is running out.

Posted in Angst on Jan 19, 2024

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✍️ 112 stories

“To Live In Four Days” by Gillian Del Mundo

Submitted to Contest #234

Content warning: Attempted suicide, depression “Stop!” His hand reached for the fabric of the back of the girl’s coat, pulling her away from the edge. The two clumsily regained their footing, safe on the ground. She turned around, staring at him, eyes wide with surprise. “Who are you?” She asked. And thus, Kami had broken a rule: A grim reaper must never speak to a mortal. For if they do, they will be seen by them. - Nobody could run away from the God of Death. That was the rule of the world, unable to ever be altered. No matte...

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“Of Black Holes and Rabbit Holes” by Tracy Phillips

Submitted to Contest #234

Aianna likes to stretch her legs at night, she recently discovered. She lives in a small town in a small house in an also small suburb. Since turning old and retiring from her work in AI, she found herself struggling to fill all those extra hours in too long days and longer nights. But she was not simply hoping to fill or kill time, she was hoping to find something to give new focus and meaning to a life that felt as though behind her back it had been busily growing too small for her. Like one dealing with overly constrictive trousers, she f...

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“Time To Go” by T.M. Kehoe

Submitted to Contest #234

It was raining when I got back from my trip. He was sleeping, and his caregiver was sitting on the couch, watching something on her phone. “Hey Shelly, how’s he doing?” “He’s not doing very well. He ate a little dinner last night, but he was having those bouts of confusion. He kind of drifted in and out of things. He didn’t eat his breakfast or take his pills this morning, either.” The expression on her face communicated all the nuance lost in her sparse words. She was scared. I nodded, letting her know I understood her unspoken mess...

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“To Draw Blood from Wine” by Noah Thomas

Submitted to Contest #234

As the woman stumbled into her room, clutching her neck, she reprimanded herself for venturing alone at night. Shooting a spark of energy, she lit the candles in her room, illuminating the rich furnishings she had recently inherited. Frantically she made her way to her desk, knocking aside the inkwell that rested on there as she reached for a drawer, producing a small bottle and some bandages before turning to the large silver mirror by the wall. Just looking at it, she knew she didn’t have much time left, as her reflection began to flicker ...

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“The Traveler ” by Travis O

Submitted to Contest #234

The silence is haunting. It used to be a friend—a trusted ally—but now it’s different. Where once it comforted me, now it taunts me. Like a bomb slowly ticking away, calm before its eruption. The more I try to push it out, the more invasive it becomes. It’s everywhere and nowhere at the same time. An enemy I can’t kill. I had the same feeling in Berlin, right before I’d detonated my trap. Only, back then I had no idea what was in store for me. You see, I’d managed to lure my target into a small shed out behind their house using the most ru...

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“Unraveling ” by No Where Near Perfect Mom

Submitted to Contest #234

Within the bright vacant room, the echoing of his footsteps were all the accompaniment the man desired as he approached the lonely table and chair. His steps were light and quick against the linoleum floor and brought a sense of comfort and solitude to the situation at hand. As he pulled the chair from under the table, he knew the unraveling had already begun. The chair creaked slightly under the burden of his weight, but he knew the weight would soon be lifted. On the table laid a single white sheet of paper. Next to the paper was a freshly...

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“A Strange Occurence” by Carol Martin

Submitted to Contest #234

January 24, 2024A Strange OccurrenceBy Carol Martin It was 3: AM when I turned off the computer, and I sat there tired and staring at the screen. I could see my reflection, but when I moved my tea cup back and forth my reflection did not move with me. I tried moving my head back and forth, and I could see myself holding the cup, but the image was not moving like me. Startled and bewildered, I then saw people moving around! Some of them I knew, but they were deceased. One man had a white baseball cap on, but I could not make out the insi...

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“Timepiece” by William Glewicz

Submitted to Contest #234

Sunlight through the windows casts shadows that accentuate every edge, every imperfection in the plaster. Cracks are transformed into ridges, rivers, canyons. The ceiling above my bed is like the map of another world. I’ve had time to examine it in detail. As a girl, my world was bounded by my parent’s corn fields and the handful of neighbors we treated like family. The shopkeepers often knew what you needed before you walked in the door. The schoolteachers paired up and taught multiple grades because there were so few students. My world...

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“Black Mamba” by Stuart Stockwell

Submitted to Contest #234

Of course, Jack had seen a black mamba before. Once, he had seen one of the workers use a catapult to hit one square in the back of its dull grey head. He remembered the satisfying thwack as the stone extinguished its hopeful attempt to enter the farmstead. That sense of foreboding as Augustinus had prised open its jaws with a gnarled branch to show him the ebony gums lurking within, had haunted Jack since that day. Black mamba venom can kill you in less time than the average worker languishes at their desk on a mindless nine to five. One st...

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“To Listen is Inheritance” by Vivi Sojorhn

Submitted to Contest #234

My cat Blue could operate a door handle and would jump at it for hours until he could pull the thing down. The only problem was that he could not pull it open. He was a frustrated being until I owned a home with a cat-door. He was smart obviously and I thought we were remarkably close. He spent hours laying in the sunshine at my feet while I worked until one day he disappeared. My heart broke as weeks went by without him. It was three weeks later that Blue came home combed for spring and smelling like sweet perfume. I finally understood...

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“You Who Feed Of Me, Oh Detestable Vampire” by Emanuel Diaz

Submitted to Contest #234

In the companionless silence of a dear Madam, her remanents reminisce. "The shadowed realm of my undoing, where the light of memory once burned bright, I find myself ensnared, a captive to a spectral predator that feasts not upon the crimson ichor coursing through my veins but rather upon the ethereal essence of my cherished recollections. A vampire unseen by the eyes of those who pass me by, an apparition that haunts the corridors of my mind, voraciously imbibing the elixir of remembrance. Oh, the silent agony that courses through me a...

3 comments 3
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“Strawberry Vapor” by Bryon Mayfield

Submitted to Contest #234

“It’s just noise.” These were the words Lt. Duncan Graham thought to himself as the three execution cannons before him began their startup sequence with a telltale mechanical humming sound. Three execution cannons which were, incidentally, currently aimed directly at him. He couldn’t see them, of course, as he was wearing the blindfold with a built in heads up display; the customary accessory for all condemned enemies of the state. Through the enveloping darkness created by the blindfold, text in silver lettering began filling the void, acco...

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“Jacob’s Choice” by Martin Marriott

Submitted to Contest #234

May 14, 1974, was just another Tuesday. Tuesdays for me, a twenty-two-year-old, meant having a burger, fries, a few cokes, and a night of smashing the pins with my best buddy since kindergarten, Jacob Oliver, at Papa Luke’s Lanes. “Can you swing by the 7-Eleven on Whitmore?” Jacob asked me, his window wound down, arm resting on the door as he smoked a cigarette. “What for?” I asked. “Papa Luke’s is only two blocks away from Whitmore.” “I’m thirsty. Like really thirsty,” Jacob grinned back at me. The charming look in his eye gleamed as ...

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“The Prognosis” by Aryann Roloff

Submitted to Contest #234

“Left, Left. Left. Left”, I sigh in an annoyed tone as I swipe through Love. Nobody on these dating apps seem genuine. Most don’t even look like real people through all the photoshop and filters. I am interrupted by my regular oncologist Dr. Victoria Cunnings entering the room. She is wearing the same facial expression she has been for the last month since I relapsed from remission. “Judging by your expression I am going to have to delete cancer survivor from my Love bio aren't I” I chuckle, trying to keep the mood light which always makes h...

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“The Devil Makes Another Deal” by Rene Volpi

Submitted to Contest #234

Holiday travel is the busiest for all airlines. The airports are abuzz with people coming and going, and stress levels are at their highest. Today was no different. There was, however, one particular smell that permeated the air at Ezeiza Airport in Buenos Aires. It was quite peculiar, as the cleaning crew was known for being extremely efficient at keeping the place impeccably clean. But this was a different kind of smell. Very particular. It didn't matter to those in a hurry. They were rushing through the crowd to catch the plane because th...

3 comments 3
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🌟 Similar prompts

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Contest #234

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Ended on 23:59 - Jan 26, 2024 EST

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