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Write a story with the line “Don’t tell anyone.”

Posted in Angst on Oct 18, 2024

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✍️ 78 stories

Venus Buried

Winner of Contest #273 🏆

The girl in the graveyard is your best friend, so you take her home. The night is a bruise between you, a blotch of rogue in the passenger window; the colour of fruit left out to fester. The body pries at her seatbelt, a finger, then two. The radio echoes static, the body shuffles in her seat. You study the face; the similar slice of jaw, the nose humped from where a baseball had hit her at twelve, just slightly off centre. The skin like a rain-licked plastic bag. The stink of musk and sulphur. You want to look away but you cannot. She's so ...

165 likes 92 comments 92
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Altered State

Submitted to Contest #273

“Don’t tell anyone,” the words whispered from her lips with a longing desperation. She had repeated the phrase to herself innumerable times over the years, hiding away a hurtful secret. She stared at Rory, challenging him to be present in the moment, to acknowledge her sacrifice. “I never did forget you, even after all these painful years,” she wrung her hands, her upper teeth digging into her lower lip, a blunting of physical hurt to quell the tears.Night was advancing, and she strained to see his form in the shifting light. She w...

87 likes 36 comments 36
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Don't Tell Anyone.

Shortlisted for Contest #273 ⭐️

Don’t tell anyone. Don’t tell anyone. Don’t tell anyone. Tell them what? I want to ask what you mean, because somehow, I think I forgot. You told me to keep quiet, but what was it I was supposed to stay hushed about? I believe I may have hidden it somewhere deep in my head. Too hard to dig out. I know that it was painful, because my heart and lungs, they remember. They remember so vividly. My heart skips its beat sometimes and my lungs fill with cement, but I am not so sure why. The only thing I can remember is that you told me to forget.May...

34 likes 12 comments 12
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The Request

Submitted to Contest #273

“Hear me, oh master, as we submit to your will for our meager and groveling desires! We beg and ask you to feel our souls as they bend and call to you, oh master, for your mercy and favor upon us now!“We beg you to hear the thoughts of us all: Kevin, Robert, Dave with the Beard, Dave without the Beard, Steve and Stephen, Roger, and…yes, my little brother, Brian.“We have brought ourselves to this place on this very cold and difficult day to ask you for your assistance oh master…and please respond pretty quickly because my brother is driving m...

30 likes 18 comments 18
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Whatever Happened to Dazzer Adler, Silverback Star of Stage and Screen?

Submitted to Contest #273

Don’t know why I thought of you then, as I slid along the pew. Not a guest as such, but a stand-in, Lisa’s replacement plus-one in light of her recent split from her partner. She couldn't possibly not attend, her being second cousin to the bride. But don’t flatter yourself that my thinking of you was in any way romantic – or the opposite, come to that - and it wasn’t because Lisa served as a reminder either. Good friends since college (acting school, if you like) we often touched based, but didn’t normally meet up in church. So, I guess it w...

28 likes 16 comments 16
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Jonas

Submitted to Contest #273

Caution: mild references to sexual abuse of children and pedophilia.Katy hadn't seen Jonas in years. Knowing he would be at his father's funeral was one thing. Would he acknowledge her? This was another matter entirely. Jonas had always been the type of man to turn heads. If he didn't have such dark and irresistible looks, some things, including embarrassing moments, may not have happened. They had affected her, still affected her, in ways he had no clue of. It's the horrible feeling one gets after the right words aren't spoken at the o...

28 likes 30 comments 30
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DON'T TELL ANYONE

Submitted to Contest #273

October 11.It keeps following me. All the time. I've been feeling it for days now - this eerie sensation of being watched. This morning, an envelope slipped under my door. No name, no return address. Just a single line written in red ink: "Come to the garden on Elm at midnight. Don't be late."My first thought was that it was a prank, maybe a mistake. But deep down, I knew it wasn't. I felt that same strange, heavy sensation in my chest - the feeling of being watched. Whoever's been following me wants me to come to this meeting.I should ignor...

22 likes 11 comments 11
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flies to catch

Submitted to Contest #273

Some might say I’d been in the dating game for a few years. I had met a handful of men from time to time, but none of those encounters ever moved beyond a first date. I suppose it should have puzzled me, should have made me wonder what went wrong. But where others might feel the sting of rejection, I felt nothing, just a calm indifference, as if the absence of connection was expected. There is a certain richness in the quieter moments of life. Meeting new people, sharing fleeting conversations, glimpsing into lives so different from my own. ...

18 likes 5 comments 5
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The Secret

Submitted to Contest #273

   The whirling winds gusted thrashing hands through the last leaves holding strong to their branches. The evening air was Fall crisp, not winter bitter just yet. Katherine and Nicole swung their arms in unison, speed walking through their quiet neighborhood just as the sun was setting on a week of soccer practices, piano lessons, and softball tryouts.      “Well of course Madeline is going to make the team. She’s the only one who can actually hit the ball out of center field,” Nicole said matter-...

17 likes 11 comments 11
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The Lost Letters of Lottie

Submitted to Contest #273

Frances stared at the open letter in front of her, fingers trembling. She added it to the pile and opened the next. 18th March, 1876Dearest Frances,I hope this letter finds you well. Things are unchanged here, and I am dreadfully, most dreadfully lonely. I honestly do not know what I would do without your letters and your kindness. It’s been so long since I have seen anyone other than the servants, that I fear I may have forgotten how to interact with others at all! It is only your correspondence that keeps me balanced and connected to ...

16 likes 14 comments 14
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All That Glitters

Submitted to Contest #273

I won’t die today. Maybe only next week. Or so I imagine the doctor says as he hustles out of my room, just before the big weekend. I heard him talking to my nurse, “Can hardly wait, gotta new boat and girlfriend, it’ll be great!” My doc kind of goes with the sunshine that streams through my window, all patterns of luminescence, dancing through the lace curtain which moves with the spring breeze. That and the curly Q special lunch with a surprise! Dessert a la supreme chocolate cake, minuscule portion. Part of my special recovery diet! The k...

16 likes 7 comments 7
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Twisted Lies

Submitted to Contest #273

Don’t tell anyone. I look at her. My hands sweat. They always sweat when I lie. “I won’t,” I say, too soft. Too weak. She doesn’t notice. Her eyes dart around the room. “You swear?” she asks, stepping closer. I can feel her breath on my face. Minty. Clean. Like she isn’t hiding anything. “I swear.” It comes out too fast. Almost a whisper. She narrows her eyes at me but says nothing. “I shouldn’t have told you,” she says. “I just… I didn’t know who else to go to.” I nod. My mouth is dry, and my heart’s too loud in my chest. “If anyone finds o...

15 likes 5 comments 5
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Parrots Pluck Their Feathers

Submitted to Contest #273

This story deals with themes of self-harm, trauma, minor allusions to violence, and child abuse. Reader discretion is advised. Veronica for the past few weeks felt a newfound sense of tangible dread. The type of fear that creeps in once you turn your head forward bound and what is behind you isn’t in view. And in all fairness who would blame her. She’s an attractive woman in a big and dangerous city. The amount of women and young girls whose faces lace the nighttime news with captions of “gone missing" is in the hundreds this year alone.&nb...

15 likes 0 comments 0
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Giggling

Submitted to Contest #273

Giggling, “Stop!” I jump over the small branches. “Where are we going?” I laugh while Anna runs ahead of me through the bushes, only seeing a glance of her golden hair. We go deep into the woods, too deep, and I look back. I don’t know where I am. I feel scared, “Ann- Anna, we- we should go back,” I feel lost, the trees don’t look familiar anymore, “Anna, it’s not funny!” I stop, and my sister stops too ahead of me, “You’re such a whiny,” I clench my fists, “I’m not a whiny!” I yell angrily, “You are whining right now,” My sister laughs.She ...

14 likes 6 comments 6
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Nothing to Worry About

Submitted to Contest #273

I’m so happy that Eric and I are friends again.As soon as I step foot out of my eighth period English class, he’s already waiting outside for me, leaning up against the wall by the door. With a huge grin on his face, he trots over and leans down to playfully headbutt me in the chest, I grunt lightly and push his head away. He stumbles on his feet, laughing, then collects himself and walks beside me down the hall, slipping his arm around my shoulder.“How did you get here so fast? The bell just rang.”“I left early. Three guys started fighting ...

14 likes 0 comments 0
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