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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write about a character who yearns for something they lost, or never had.

Posted in Angst on Oct 26, 2022

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 111 stories

“This is how far I could walk” by Georgia Papp

Submitted to Contest #120

I wonder if I had tears to shed, would they be falling now? Or is the point of tears long passed. When they bring in the new captives, I scan their faces to record biometric data. I help out where I can. Most are young and male, only three females in this batch, no children. At least that’s a mercy. Only the youngest children are absorbed into the shelter, the older ones are treated no different from the adults. The humans proceeding before me are not healthy. They are dangerously dehydrated, of course, and that results into a sum of conditi...

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“The Creature That Was Once A Man” by J. W.

Submitted to Contest #120

David Martin cried for hours at his desk, his notes strewn across the hardwood floor. He had been writing for two days straight and his words were now a jumbled mess lying dead on the floor of his study. He hadn't killed those words. They just died. That's how it is sometimes, you think of something, something really brillaint, and that idea is ripped from your bodice of an intellect so quickly that you have no time to finish it. A miscarriage of the mind. So as David Martin lay, head down, tears streaming down his cheeks, he missed his sto...

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“Catlady” by F.O. Morier

Submitted to Contest #120

She didn´t own an old family photo album to leaf through on days where she felt lonely. She didn´t even have a single photograph. Only a few pictures on the wall of glamorous film stars she had cut out of newspapers she used to wrap the food for the cats in. That way she could share in their sparkle that would bring back familiar smells of peppermint and cologne. For the briefest of moments, she would let nostalgia woosh through. A sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place in a distant time, enrobed in yet other smells of slig...

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“The Hobby Shop” by David Ader

Submitted to Contest #120

“I won’t be too long,” said his wife. “I’ll meet you back in…say…45 minutes. Tops. Don’t be late again. Not in this weather.” “Sure, sure,” he replied, edging back towards the car with three bundles of groceries in his arms.  “What did I say?” she asked. He leaned over to put the bags on the hood, hugging them to keep them from toppling over. Had she just said something? He was sure he’d heard her voice behind him. With arms still manhandling the groceries, he twisted around, feeling the twinge of a pulled muscle, to look over h...

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“Best Thing I Never Had” by MJ Dover

Submitted to Contest #120

"It's been a year, Jo. A whole freaking year. How are you still upset about this?" I was mumbling to myself as I stepped into my apartment, a laugh leaving my lips, though there was absolutely no humour behind it. I wasn't crying, but I felt that tell-tale lump in my throat that indicated that there was a sob hidden there somewhere, waiting for the right moment to surprise and ruin me. I wanted to let it out as soon as possible. Cry about it some and then bury it in the back of my mind, forgetting it until whatever else triggered it onc...

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“Ciqәne ” by Joyce Hightower

Submitted to Contest #120

Ciqәne Ciqәne sat cross-legged as he gazed into the fire flaming before him. The dancing shadows it cast around him in the darkness reminded him of his inexpressible grief at the loss of his grandmother. Thoughts of her brought tears to his eye, that never managed to spill over. The lump in his throat did not change the stern expression on his chiseled brown face. His eyes closed and he saw her dancing again. Her legs had long lost the lithe of youth, yet with soft footsteps, she moved to the rhythm of songs from times past. Songs that only...

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“'Tis Better” by C Britt

Submitted to Contest #120

"'Tis better to have loved and lost ..." The words crash like tidal waves against the inside of my skull, over and over. They roil the turbid waters beneath my mind's dark sky. They soak everything and drown rationality. And then as each wave recedes, it drags conscious thought out to a watery grave. My feelings swim against the current, struggling to get to safety, to form something coherent and make their way onto this page before the burst of salty water comes crashing down again. Do you remember the first time you said you loved me?...

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“Life's Loss” by Jacxx D

Submitted to Contest #120

Have you ever been in such a bad place you feel it'll never end? Have you ever worked so hard to keep something you hurt yourself in the process? Have you ever wanted something so bad you didn't care what the repercussions were? As long as you got what you were looking for nothing else mattered. I fell in love with a girl when I was eighteen. It started off like any other new relationship. We first started by having conversations over social sites for sometime discussing the basics. That led to meeting up and getting a feel for that person. ...

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“Afraid to Sing” by Eva Leticia Brito

Submitted to Contest #120

"Listen to your heart" was one of her favorite songs. She used to hummer it while showering, trying to imitate the sultry blonde singer of the Swedish pop rock duo Roxette. The part she liked the most was the one that says love gets wilder than the wind. She imagined a gale of erotic fantasies, not understanding then how painful it could be to break that fragile division between passion, violence and craziness.Her name was Camila, meaning "the one who awaits the sacrifice." She was a young woman in her late 20´s, petite, with tanned skin, da...

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“violins are polished with petals and memories” by Ramsey Tawfick

Submitted to Contest #120

violins are polished with petals and memories: Sitting on the withered flowers, a Goliath lay. His back was arched over a fallen tree, eyes glaring glossy at the tinted and cracked the glass ceiling. The flowing frame of the ceiling was made of citrus copper bending with carved blots of metal. The windows were tinted ruby red but nothing could be seen through the ashen snow delicately resting on the glass outside. The place itself was a large hall with seats piled high in a semicircle, only parted down the middle by a once-grand mahogany d...

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“A Trunk in the Attic” by Paula Young

Submitted to Contest #120

It was just an old trunk. It smelled of mildew, leather, and dust. Hannah Clark tentatively touched it with her finger and jerked back like a hot stove. "It's just an old trunk. It will be there tomorrow. I don't have to open it now," she said to herself. She turned away to leave the attic.             Hannah retreated down the stairs in defeat. Her hair the color of honey fell in her face, and she brushed it away in the habitual move of her delica...

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“The Sun's Rays” by Maame Aba Asiedu

Submitted to Contest #120

Rays of sun unapologetically stole through the curtains, and when Mr. Jones pulled the curtains apart, they flooded the room with light. Outside, the birds chirped to royally announce the presence of a new day. Asantewaa stirred, then squinted. She spread her chubby fingers wide apart and plastered them against her face, a feeble attempt to shield her eyes from the seemingly overpowering brightness. Her bed creaked as it suffered extra weight. Asantewaa felt a hand move up her shoulder and a sudden heat against her ear. “Rise and shine ...

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“No such thing as wishes fulfilled Temple” by Jo Ann Wong

Submitted to Contest #120

Today, High Priestess Nila gave Kirai, a novice priestess and me, a task. Or more like run an errand to me. But either way, I was glad to take a breather from the training. After nearly a month of being confined, I ventured out of the Grand Temple grounds for the first time. I heaved an ecstatic, excited giggle. I thought I almost died with the heavy training for priestesses. The unwilling priestess apprentice. My only mistake was vandalism on the ancient trees, but the punishment obviously tested my morality and life’s virtues. Which I have...

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“Amour Non Réciproque” by Valicia Rolle

Submitted to Contest #120

Henri smiles, white teeth gleaming from the citadel of his cocoa lips. In his strong yet warm voice he sings, “Bonjour,” and enters the sleek black “petit Cadillac”. Behind him follows a tall slender woman in a blue and white polka dot summer dress. She removes her shades to expose round hazel eyes and tiny freckles dotted perfectly around the outskirts of her olive nose. She smiles and nods, luscious brown hair falling over her shoulders. Henri, in his jeans and blue buttoned down shirt, laughs at the way her hair frames her face; and reach...

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“Once Upon a Time” by Katherine Sikes

Submitted to Contest #120

Vera’s bones felt heavy as she put on her apron. Her muscles were taut with apprehension - a feeling that never quite went away. Not anymore. As she smiled at her coworkers, she imagined one of those theater masks was over her face. A stretched smile hiding the person underneath. And who was the person underneath the mask? Vera wasn’t sure she knew anymore. The 17 year old girl who refused to hurt anyone? Did she exist anymore?  Vera sighed, then caught herself. She rearranged her face back into its smile, and took her place at the re...

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Contest #120

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