Write about a character who develops a special ritual to cope with something.

Posted in Angst on Jun 30, 2023

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✍️ 90 stories

“Let it All Out” by Phoenix Goldman

Submitted to Contest #205

Daniel furiously slammed his bedroom door shut before falling face first into bed with defeat. Tears began to form in the ten-year-old’s brown colored eyes, but he immediately batted them away with his Jimmy Hendrix t-shirt sleeve. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Daniel blurted out while his head violently shook from side to side. The tears were now crashing down his neck like a waterfall. Daniel’s hope had slowly dwindled over the last thirty minutes. He was more than used to waking up several times throughout the night from a repeating graphic nightm...

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“The Dawn of time” by Imogen Bird

Submitted to Contest #205

It's Friday night again and I can't find my way to choir practice. I rummage around in my beaten up backpack for my dogeared notebook and flip through until I see 'Choir' written in large purple embellished letters. Copying the address from the page into the map in my phone I follow the directions and end up outside an imposing red brick building somewhere in the city. I remember now, it's the black door on the south side to get in. I look up the 4 digit access code in my notebook and punch it in to the box on the wall. Once inside though, I...

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“Gouri ” by Miranda Soares

Submitted to Contest #205

Gouri By Miranda Soares It’s been three weeks since the clocks stopped ticking, 491 hours since I last breathed, and there are 32 hours left until the world ends. I should probably be enjoying my summer by now, but there is no sun outside. It took us all by surprise. And now, hearing that almost everything I know is a lie, I don’t know what to believe. I wish I understood the cause of this, but I’ve just been told to stay calm. It’s only been dark for three weeks, but it feels more like a long, painful lifetime. I barely remember how it h...

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“The Show Must Go On” by Sara Southard

Submitted to Contest #205

I pretended like I didn’t see Janine making her way towards my desk. I could see her peacock blue pantsuit approaching in my peripheral vision, the swish of polyester coming at me like the world’s most nosy freight train as she wove between desks. She came to a halt next to me with a huff and a cloud of heavy floral perfume. I kept my eyes on the email I had now read three times without absorbing a word. I hoped if I ignored her long enough she would wander away to bother someone else. I could hear the buzz of the fluorescent lights above me...

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“Twice living, twilight being” by Matei-Dacian Boboc

Submitted to Contest #205

“What can I do? When, where, how? I’m just a man behind the curtains of my life. A simple life, a simple guy… a broken guy,” he said, and suddenly he covered his face with the hands, letting the tears run down his cheeks. He was truly pathetic, but Olivia comprehended his feelings. Everything was understandable. He felt abandoned but it wasn’t his fault. Also, it wasn’t his parents’ fault too because they were dead. They died in their own house because some murderers messed up their mission. They had to kill Don Alberto, but they entered the...

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“Entry 16” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #205

Journal Entry #16There’s nothing more frustrating to cope with than coping with yourself. Every idiosyncrasy that you have, you have to train yourself to hide from the prying eyes of the public; especially those people who “love” you, because their love is conditional on meeting their expectation of what is acceptable. It’s exhausting, and when the people who “love” you, cannot accept you, and let you know in passive aggressive fashion, then where do you go for solace? It’s a prison you’re born in, and it’s a prison you die in, because even ...

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“Night Rails” by July St John

Submitted to Contest #205

Like a locomotive, his breath exhaled against the cold night sky. Smoke trailed behind as he made his way down the tracks, rhythmic, purposeful. The full moon cast its soft white glow on the earth below, and he preferred it that way, for two reasons. One, the natural light was soothing, calming, connecting him more deeply with his natural surroundings as he walked. A flashlight just felt in his bones like he didn't belong, he was a guest of his surroundings, and he wanted to belong when he ventured out this way. Two, he only made thi...

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“Tears For No One” by Jarrel Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #205

“This place is perfect,” said Felix Radman. We were driving to through Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras. I wasn’t recording him this time. “Thieves, gangs, prostitutes, beggars, murderers. Drugs—so much drugs. Most of our drugs are exported from here, did you know that?” Where we were, jobless people slummed in front of weak, rundown housing units. Locals stared at us. “Government corruption, people carrying guns, more people fleeing the country. We can’t count on police here, not if we get randomly attacked or something. This trip ...

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“Pancake Day” by Jabria Reid

Submitted to Contest #205

Shannon padded quietly into the kitchen, pausing a moment to look around the space. When Mom bought the house nearly a decade ago, she’d been in love with everything except the kitchen. It had been an explosion of pink: pink walls, pink cabinets, pink tile on the floors and the countertops, even rusted pink appliances. “It looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us, ladies,” Mom wrapped one arm around Shannon and the other around her younger sister, Shea, “Because, I don’t know about y’all, but I refuse to cook in a bottle of Pepto-Bismo...

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“Eater’s Paradox” by A. L. V.

Submitted to Contest #205

My tongue itches for desserts – the sweet experiences that I forbid myself to delight in. Even as the suburban with my family inside pulls out of the driveway, it isn't until they turn the corner of my neighborhood that I decide to walk over to the cupboard. Stop. You need to stop. Control yourself. &nb...

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“Sincerely, Lia” by Sravya Lekha

Submitted to Contest #205

Grampa was the one who taught me how to ride a bike. I was seven and had refused all of Dad’s prior teaching attempts out of fear of knocking my head on the ground and slowly bleeding to death. Grampa bought me a purple helmet and said it was okay to be afraid of falling, but if I avoided everything that could hurt me, I’d never learn to fly. I was 10 when he died. Before then, it never occurred to me that I would have to live most of my life without him. He took me to every soccer practice, whistled at my horrible choir recitals, and pain...

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“Asking My Pendulum for Help 1885 words ” by Barbara Smith

Submitted to Contest #205

Kimberly suffered from anxiety and panic attacks a lo when younger. These days its every now and then. Usually some event will trigger the fears. She was easily frightened for as long as she can remember. Her mom was always warning her as a child. “you better be careful when you walk to Margie's house. Don't talk to strangers! If you do, you could get kidnapped and murdered and other terrible things.” If they went out and got back after dark her mom always scanned around the house for a person that could jump out and harm them. She lea...

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“The Cat” by Kate Shaw

Submitted to Contest #205

The Cat "…and that's how she lost her eye." Jimmy snuggles the cat closer in under his overly large plaid shirt, threadbare jeans cover his legs. The older man laughs his cackling turning into a dry cough towards the end. Jimmy grimaces, his hands run through the cat’s fur from head to tail, his actions monotonous, familiar. The man looks at them again shaking his head a smile still twinkling on his ruddy face. “You’re a good boy, kid. Get some sleep.” Jimmy smiles back at him, it’s thin but it’s real. The man shuffles off towards town. Ji...

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“Sacrifice” by Jude Avery Fountain

Submitted to Contest #205

Sensitive Content: This piece contains mentions of substance abuse, mental health issues, and attempted suicide. I am a person of many rituals. Of course, OCD is a ritualistic disorder, so that’s only natural. The rituals are sometimes holy, sometimes not; sometimes comfortable and sometimes unbearable. They’re sometimes small and other times obvious; they’re sometimes my friend and sometimes my nemesis. The point is, they contain multitudes. When I was in the seventh grade, my hands first got dry and bloody. I washed my hand...

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“Walking out the Soul” by Jenn Johnson

Submitted to Contest #205

It was the height of the pandemic; our visits had declined significantly to the emergency room, but the acuity had gone up as people had put off coming into the hospital unless they were really very ill. This was the case as someone who had rung the call bell and I was the only one available to answer it. The patient was in isolation as according to the COVID screening she had symptoms that could be linked to COVID. I gowned-up, privately wondering in my head if this was the person who was going to expose me to COVID and if I would get ill, ...

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Write about a character who develops a special ritual to cope with something.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 90 stories

“Let it All Out” by Phoenix Goldman

“The Dawn of time” by Imogen Bird

“Gouri ” by Miranda Soares

“The Show Must Go On” by Sara Southard

“Twice living, twilight being” by Matei-Dacian Boboc

“Entry 16” by Ty Warmbrodt

“Night Rails” by July St John

“Tears For No One” by Jarrel Jefferson

“Pancake Day” by Jabria Reid

“Eater’s Paradox” by A. L. V.

“Sincerely, Lia” by Sravya Lekha

“Asking My Pendulum for Help 1885 words ” by Barbara Smith

“The Cat” by Kate Shaw

“Sacrifice” by Jude Avery Fountain

“Walking out the Soul” by Jenn Johnson

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story during a full moon night.

Make your protagonist go through a rite of passage.

Make a character perform a ceremony to set something or someone free.

Write about a character who breaks free from a tradition to create a new one.

Contest #205

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

307

Contest entries

130

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: