Write about a character who feels like they're cut off from something.

Posted in Angst on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 54 stories

“My Father the Fish” by Nicholas Castine

Submitted to Contest #115

We’re all addicts. Take a man’s television and on any given Sunday he’ll fill your ears with a booze filled racist tirade. Take away a teenager’s phone and you’ll see the same animal. Take a poor man’s last sip of soup or last morsel of hamburger that he scrounged from a McDonald’s dumpster and you’ll find yourself bleeding in an alleyway, teeth marks freckling your arms. Take away a little boy’s XBox and you’ll hear the primal howl of a distressed primate bellowing from his room. Take away an athlete’s legs or a musician’s hands and see how...

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“Wrong Number ” by Marie Maher

Submitted to Contest #115

WRONG NUMBER Mary picked up the phone. She’d try just once more to get the right number. However, just as she was about to do so, it rang. Rather unnerved, Mary said “H…hello?” “Hello?” Well, it’s a woman’s voice, Mary mused. At least that was alright. And someone of the correct age group, by the sound of it. “Hello?” said the voice again (it really sounded very nice, thought Mary) “Is Julia there please?” “Oh, sorry” said Mary, regretfully “You’ve got the wrong number, I’m afraid.” The lady on the other end was insta...

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“And Death nudged.” by Anna Hibschman Ferguson

Submitted to Contest #115

Callie looked across the slanted living room floor with one eye squinted shut. The 90’s-style office carpet that spanned the floors of her cramped apartment bit into her chin as she eyed the marble beneath the radiator. It looked black. It wasn’t. She closed her right eye and opened her left. The marble moved two inches to the side. Back-and-forth, she used her counterfeit telepathy to transport the marble. Back-and-forth. Why is she laying on the floor? Simple: She can’t get up. Why can’t she get up? Because she died two...

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“A String Cut, A Woe A Woe” by Z.H Floren

Submitted to Contest #115

She captures it perfectly, the split second her best friend laughs in the middle of telling a story, about some guy, who did something, to someone. The curve of her lips and the way the skin around her eyes bunched like the shoulders shaking in delight. “Were you even listening?” Marceline asks in the middle of catching her breathe “I was just getting to the best part Leia.” Leia sets the camera down, gently, onto the coffee table as she shakes her head at her. “Sorry,” she says looking at her friend, with a warmth saved just for her...

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“How to End an Unsettling Day” by S B

Submitted to Contest #115

The pervasive atmosphere outside was dark and unmistakably menacing even though it was just mid-afternoon. The black, cloud-filled sky and impending torrential rain had me on edge with a feeling of doom that was palpable and had my skin crawling. I must not have been the only one affected because normally this part of Main street, lined with high-end stores like the gallery, would be hopping with activity, mostly from out of state tourists shopping for that "perfect" souvenir to take home. Out of nowhere, lightning flashed and struck a t...

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“Radio and Silence” by Jessica-Marie Gervais

Submitted to Contest #115

The night sky seems to be endless, only broken by the occasional set of headlights blinding me for a few seconds in an odd version of vehicular Morse Code in a very slow rhythm. It wouldn’t be an efficient way to pass messages at all. This stretch of the highway is smooth, something somewhat unusual for this area; they must have fixed it a few months ago. My car hummed along the asphalt, the tires producing a comforting two-note harmony that rises when I pass a slower driver, and lowers when I stop for gas. The only time the notes become a...

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“Connection” by M. Suvarian

Submitted to Contest #115

It is a disconcerting feeling that weighs upon your mind no matter how many times the specialists say you are better off not thinking about it. Again and again the doctors tell me to focus on the present and to let my mind have the time it needs to properly heal. Still, mother's gentle reminders and father's soft scoldings are not enough to enforce the well-meant medical advice. Perhaps they would have had a chance at reaching me if they truly understood what it felt like to be in my shoes. Maybe then their searching hands could have found...

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“Faces” by Megan O'Shea

Submitted to Contest #115

“Heading out?” The voice coming from her left snapped Charlotte’s attention away from the prep table. “Yes, why?” Lucas shrugged his thin shoulders. “No reason. But this is, what, the third time this cycle? You might wanna watch yourself.” Charlotte finished laying the weapons she would need aside. “I know what I'm doing, Luc. No need to worry about me.” “Hope so.” Luc’s smile faded. "Something happens to you, and…” “I know.” Her old friend didn’t need to finish the sentence. Charlotte reached for the button at the edge of the glass tab...

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“Message to a Friend” by Greta L

Submitted to Contest #115

TUE AT 20:33Hi Friend, I just wanted to let you know how happy I am that we were at such good terms recently. I know we have had a difficult time, but I feel like we are really getting there. When we are together, I can finally see a future for myself again. I feel strong and ready to take on the world. I finally have a sense of belonging. I am aware that I can be difficult to be around sometimes, but I am so grateful for your friendship and would really like to keep this going as it is.WED AT 18:15I am a bit confused now. Did I say or do so...

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“An Inquiry” by Rigel Oliveri

Submitted to Contest #115

Dear Dr. and Mrs. Weinberg, You don’t know me, but I knew your daughter, Leah. I didn’t know her directly, but I had a connection with her. I was hoping you might answer some questions for me about what happened to her and the boy. I understand how strange this message might seem, coming out of nowhere. Let me introduce myself so you can see I’m not some crazy internet stalker. My name is Ellen Price Winters. I am the Vice President of Commercial Lending at the First Bank of Indiana (Indianapolis). I am married with two daughters, 8 and ...

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“The Head Nodders” by Raya Mahoney

Submitted to Contest #115

She watches his body language through the camera, his neck taut, hands gesturing widely at the empty space in front of him. Ray is her last client of the day and has spent the last half hour waving around a cigarette – unlit, as if he is waiting for someone to light it for him. “I told them all they needed to do was make me a list,” he says, “and I would go to the store for them. Or I’d have it delivered.” In her work as a licensed therapist, she has found that most issues start with the banal things, the mundane. The dishes that remai...

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“The Museum of Discarded Children's Souls” by Julie Squires

Submitted to Contest #115

CW: Drugs mention, blood. No one knows where we are. We’re miserably lost.Amidst the darkness, my mom spots a pinprick of light up ahead.Driving along the country road, falling snow envelops us like a cocoon, it floats like sprinkled stardust in the milky luminosity of our headlights.“Up there,” cries my mom, “it looks like a little cottage. Don’t you agree, Isabella?”“Yeah,” I mumble, noticing that she doesn’t ask my dad his opinion. In fact, she’s barely spoken to him during our trip. Or attempted trip, I never thought we’d get lost on the...

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“The Monster in the Cupboard” by Liam Spinage

Submitted to Contest #115

When he was young, on those all too frequent occasions when they decided that he had misbehaved, they locked him in the cupboard under the stairs. It was not the punishment they thought. Dark, certainly. Silent. blessedly. Comforting, certainly. The sounds of quarrels diminished in that space, voices muted in the embracing darkness. There were no monsters hiding in that cupboard yet. As far as he was concerned, they were all outside, in plain view. He sits down and waits patiently for release. This began to happen regularly. ...

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“Cut the Cord” by Elaine St. Anne

Submitted to Contest #115

The only light is a silver gleam at the bottom of the closet door. Otherwise, there is only blackness, deep and dark as the interior of a mountain cave. I hide in the closet because the monster is not in the closet nor is it under the bed. It is sitting on the edge of my bed humming a tuneless melody that worms it way into into my head. If I could open the door, I would see my laptop stuffed in the trashcan that sits by my desk. If I could get to the laptop, I could wire for help. That is if she has not figured out how to block all my ...

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“The Hare-Raising Adventures of Non-Essential Jeff of Rhode Island” by Michael Shaw

Submitted to Contest #115

Jeff lumbered into the kitchen, opened the fridge, grabbed the plastic milk jug, unscrewed its cap, and took a deep swig. If Alison had seen, he'd never hear the end. But she hadn't. Alison wasn't home; hadn't been since the stay-at-home order. Unlike Jeff, a tired, middle-tier analyst, Alison had been considered essential. Jeff had not only been deemed non-essential, but his boss had determined that he was, in fact, wholly expendable. So, he'd been expended. Essential Alison—a lawyer who practiced, well, some sort of law that Jeff ...

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Write about a character who feels like they're cut off from something.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 54 stories

“My Father the Fish” by Nicholas Castine

“Wrong Number ” by Marie Maher

“And Death nudged.” by Anna Hibschman Ferguson

“A String Cut, A Woe A Woe” by Z.H Floren

“How to End an Unsettling Day” by S B

“Radio and Silence” by Jessica-Marie Gervais

“Connection” by M. Suvarian

“Faces” by Megan O'Shea

“Message to a Friend” by Greta L

“An Inquiry” by Rigel Oliveri

“The Head Nodders” by Raya Mahoney

“The Museum of Discarded Children's Souls” by Julie Squires

“The Monster in the Cupboard” by Liam Spinage

“Cut the Cord” by Elaine St. Anne

“The Hare-Raising Adventures of Non-Essential Jeff of Rhode Island” by Michael Shaw

🌟 Similar prompts

One moment your character is talking on the phone with a friend, and the next, the connection is lost. Write a story about what follows.

Set your story in a town disconnected from the rest of the world.

Start or end your story with a character scrolling (or doomscrolling) through social media.

Write a story where a device goes haywire.

Contest #115

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

175

Contest entries

118

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: