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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

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✍️ 111 stories

“Silence Is Golden” by John Calderara

Submitted to Contest #120

Silence Is Golden       The waiter asked, “Would you care for more wine, Sir?”  He smiled and waited for my response. I nodded and looked around the restaurant. I lifted my wine glass. The waiter took it from me, poured the Riesling into my glass then handed it back to me. I smiled and nodded to imply a thank you. The waiter grinned and left my table. I wiped the bottom of the glass with a napkin and placed it in front of me next to the glass of ice water.       I wa...

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“SLOW TRAIN” by Ian Woodcock

Submitted to Contest #120

SLOW TRAIN           PAGE 1 His phone buzzed as the train smoothed out of the Station, he didn’t answer, it stopped. He might have been about to converse with his night time reflection somewhere out there beyond the window, evoking painful recollections.  It buzzed again, ‘Hi Trish!’ he listened, ‘Yeah I can talk, I’m on the train. ‘Yeah I’m still going to see Dad. A day early? No I‘m booked into a Hotel near the House tonight, I‘ll see him tomorrow.’ The train stopp...

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“If Only She'd Known” by Sue Rivera

Submitted to Contest #120

And just like that, 23 years with the person Stacey thought she’d spend forever with was now telling her he wants out of their marriage. Wait, what? Why didn't anyone tell her there was an opt out feature on this thing called marriage the whole time!?   Stacey met Roger at the tender age of 17. They worked together at the Stop and Save market and theirs was a story fit for any fairy tale. Boy meets girl, boy woos girl, boy marries her, they have 3 babies and they live happily. ever. after.? Not quite.  You see no one told Stac...

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“REALITY STRIKES” by Howard Seeley

Submitted to Contest #120

Since the day he woke up in the morgue, Alex was haunted by the words Dr. Ben uttered to him. “I know this is a little confusing for you, so I’ll explain it in layman’s terms. Last night, after trying for twenty minutes to resuscitate you, you were pronounced dead. Your body was lifeless for well over an hour. All the cells in your body should have died, but they didn’t. There is no known scientific theory to explain what had happened. Yet here you are. If only Dr. Ben knew what Alex had experienced during the time between the car crash to...

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“The King's Transgressions” by Will Bashor

Submitted to Contest #120

An image is truly “worth a thousand words,” piquing our curiosity and awakening our emotions. When browsing artworks, however, we may not always be aware of the unique messages and ideas conveyed by an artist’s depiction of characters, colors, time of day, weather, or objects in the painting. Moreover, the absence of characters or objects can also be significant.       In Pierre Mignard’s seventeenth-century portrait of Duchesse Louise de la Vallière and her children at the Palace of Versailles, for example, King L...

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“The Death of Comfort” by Angela Early

Submitted to Contest #120

She looked back at her life, revisiting memories of her past in a photo album. She had a more nuanced perspective now however. All those memories, taunting her, reminding her of all that she once had that was now gone. That trip to Italy, those family beach trips, birthday dinners, all of them. Photos of a time that she had once looked so fondly at, now remind her that she mourns something that may have only existed in her mind. She knew that her circumstances were at least partly her fault. She had stayed too long at the party, because she ...

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“Silent Ghosts” by Alice G

Submitted to Contest #120

It’s been more than a year since I’ve been in this part of the city. The last time it was with him. I’m lost in my thoughts when I pass by the gate of that park. I know I shouldn’t enter. I know I shouldn’t reopen that door. But the sound of a little waterfall attracts me like an eerie lullaby. I can’t help but wonder if that place has changed just like everything else. As I enter I can smell winter in the misty air. There’s no flowers on the bridge over the little pond where we had walked that time. The light is so different from that day. ...

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“Forever Mustache March” by Pinar S.

Submitted to Contest #120

I have never realized before that he had a big mole by his left ear. It is a shame: I had been visiting this barber’s shop every first Monday of the month for the past 8 years and yet I had never looked at his face carefully before. Was he my friend? I would like to think so. I trust him with a sharp razor on my face. The shop smelled like sharp lavender, evoking a sense of loneliness and the barber smelled like citrus cologne that burnt your throat. The collective moisture on the walls had a haphazard paint over it. The talk radio was on; a...

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“Charleston” by Melissa Place

Submitted to Contest #120

   It was a beautiful, warm sunny day when Samantha Carlisle stepped off the bus from Durham NC, to Charleston SC, ready to start her life anew. As a line dance instructor, Charleston seemed the perfect place to settle down. There were plenty of people who were interested in dancing to the "Watermelon Crawl" or "Boot Scootin Boogie." She would be working at "Miss Deb's Dance Studio. Debra "Deb” Brooks, owner of "Miss Deb's," smiled when Samantha walked into the studio. "You must be Samantha Carlisle," she said. &nbsp...

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“To Be Mortal” by Eduard Grunvald

Submitted to Contest #120

“Here we are… At the heart of the jungle of Balkat... A nice, quiet place for me to come and think. Just think. No hungry animals to avoid, no civilization to speak of or to, just… an empty island in the middle of a still lake. You look at that horizon and tell me you wouldn’t like to spend the rest of your days with that as the first and last thing you see when you step outside.” “Ah, I forget you can’t talk. But I can tell from your eyes behind that helm that you agree with me.” “Of course to step outside first you would need a thresho...

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“Maybe Tomorrow” by Phil Glaser

Submitted to Contest #120

The harsh blue light of my computer screen pierces my tired eyes. This is what my life has come to, what 10 years of climbing the corporate ladder has brought me. My forehead drops like a dead weight onto my desk, blessing it’s stark white surface with the grease and sweat of a man that should have left the office hours ago. “You alright there?” asks my boss Jo from her corner office, typing as she speaks. “Yeah, I’m all good,” I call back, “just that time of the afternoon. Brains not working.” “It’s 7pm, go home to your pregnant wife,...

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“Womb Vacancy” by Shina Kiel

Submitted to Contest #120

Womb Vacancy By: S. M. Kiel Not Again; the tears started rolling down my cheeks, my eyes were glued to the plastic little wand gripped tightly in my shaky hands. The words ``Negative” staring back at me through the clear plastic window at the left side of this wand. My heart sank like a rock in the ocean. The pressure in my chest tightened as I started to sob silently in the bathroom, not waking to wake my sleeping husband. I knew that he would look at me with the same disappointed eyes. He was already withdrawing from me with each passin...

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“The best coffee” by Manu Jankus

Submitted to Contest #120

On a misty morning at dawn, the cries awakened me of a child from a nearby house, a small two-story residence where a family of four lived with their giant dog, a shepherd of sorts. They appeared the perfect default family, the kind that a wealthy merchant from the capital, the dazzling royal jewel of Lumence, would pitch you as an ideal one. Well, I didn't have anything like that, and was alone in my three-story house, autonomous and in anticipation. As this one-year-old child continued to scream, sleep eluded me as well, so I got up and he...

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“Frost at the Coast” by Roger Sippl

Submitted to Contest #120

Frost at the Coast             The arctic air blows early, bringing frost, thick, that piles up like snow. Out the window Jane sees the new crystals growing on the porch. They take the place of what she just swept toward the edges of the deck, clearing a path to leave if she must. But she’s not sure she would, even then.             The wind, heavy with mist, keeps blowing in, across the beach and up the short bluff. When...

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“Photograph” by AK Lee

Submitted to Contest #120

She thumbed through the pages of faded photographs. It had to be here. There were only so many albums of herself as a baby, and that photo had to be here somewhere, and she was already on the final album… It was not there. Muzi slumped, before she flopped onto her back and tossed the album over the side of the bed, to join the rest of the photo albums. Her calico cat, Duck, sat up, as if to consider an investigation of the pile of photographs that smelled of age and water damage. What am I even doing? Muzi asked herself. With a shaky breath,...

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Contest #120

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