Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Write about someone trying to atone for a mistake they’ll never be able to fix.

Posted in Angst on Oct 26, 2022

Submissions are closed

Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or use an email address:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 192 stories

I Like To Be Cold

Submitted to Contest #70

I like to be cold. It reminds me of you and your cold hands -- you and what you’ve done to me. You always liked winter, and now I do too. Summers are cluttered and hot, but winters are high and lonely and crystalline, like you.  When we first met I did not like you. You were stubborn and sometimes cruel, but that wasn’t it. It was because I felt myself falling in love with you -- your auburn hair, your sly, slow smile, your winking eyes and unexpected laughter.  When we first met, we shook hands and smiled. Lindsey Gupta, head of a...

120 likes 52 comments 52
Read story

The Dollmaker (B.W.)

Submitted to Contest #70

Warning: This story includes content on OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and self-deprecating thoughts that may trigger some readers. Please avoid reading this story if you have experienced any or both of the above. Achebe. Your face crinkles, like the paper balls you would throw at her behind Rox's back. Your tears attempt to cling to your eyelashes but fail and slide off, falling onto the hair you haven't washed in days. With trembling eyes, you look up, around the dusty room, where ripped pages and empty snack wrappers flutter aro...

118 likes 1289 comments 1289
Read story

Unforgivable

Submitted to Contest #70

August 1st, 2039We've all been friends for about seven or so years, though Achebe and Alexis have never met each other during any of that time. Though that's going to change today, we're all going to eat at a restaurant in a few hours. I'll tell you how it goes. -RoxanneAugust 2nd, 2039I don't think that it went as well as I was wanting it to go yesterday, we all met outside of the restaurant so the two of them could formally meet. Though something seemed a little...off with Alexis.I was just sort of awkwardly standing next to the two of the...

81 likes 488 comments 488
Read story

A Gateway to Heaven

Submitted to Contest #70

Trigger Warning: Suicidal mentions and death. This story could be sensitive or triggering to anyone uncomfortable with suicidal topics and or mentions of death. Authors note: Even by the trigger warning it's probably easy to guess; this one is a sad one. I've noticed that I tend to switch between sad, and fantasy. Weird combination? So I actually wrote this story a couple months ago(more like last year) and thought it fit this prompt so I spent the week revising and editing it. I really like it and hope you guys do too! Feel free to leave...

75 likes 85 comments 85
Read story

Painful Deeds

. .

Submitted to Contest #70

I woke up in the morning, the cold stinging my bare arms. I shivered but didn't make any attempt to warm myself, to pull a blanket over me. All warmth was gone in my life, so why pretend. The water that ran above my bed flew here and there in torrents which I couldn't see, but I could feel them. My feet touched the floor, frail limbs flexing and aching, as I struggled to get to my feet. After about three more tries, I managed to stay on my feet, and I began to walk to the refrigerator. My mind flooded with memories, horrible memories. The...

75 likes 41 comments 41
Read story

Morning of the Dancing Butterflies

Submitted to Contest #70

I could never find a proper way to say this, even as the tears keep coming and I lie awake in bed.  You betrayed me, and I thought we were going to have a life together.  After a while, I throw off my bedspread and move out the door into the dome-like sky. The sky was always so beautiful back in the regular lands; here it feels fake. Everything feels fake, feels almost surreal, like at any moment now, I would wake up and find your honey blonde hair tickling me in the face, ready to wake me up.  It’s too late to make a...

61 likes 17 comments 17
Read story

Time Travel with Death

Submitted to Contest #70

What if you were given the chance to go back in time and fix your mistakes or those of others? Would you take this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity without a second thought? Or would you be a little more cautious (You could change the world)? What if it wouldn’t change anything at all? --------- Hi, I’m Death. It’s nice to meet you (Even though I've probably already met you, you just didn’t know). You may know me as The Grim Reaper, or La Muerte; it doesn...

59 likes 29 comments 29
Read story

Red Water

Submitted to Contest #70

I leave a note on the table for Carter, telling him that I would be back in a few hours, and there was food in the fridge if he was hungry. Might as well be a good wife while I still was one. I hope that today goes well. I don’t want it to happen again. Picking up my car keys and house keys, I leave the house and lock the door. I slowly get into the car, taking care not to strain my right leg, and put on my seatbelt. Slowly, I drive out of the garage, and onto the road. Checking all my mirrors, and making sure that I’m f...

58 likes 11 comments 11
Read story

For the Flame

Submitted to Contest #70

Silence. Then, footsteps. Many, many footsteps. A village of people on the move — no, a city. Hundreds of shadowed figures slipped through the trees. Through the dark forest they trudged, their path only faintly lit. One headed the pack, leading the way through the dense trees. A small ball of flame lingered above their hand shedding a weak light. Scattered among the crowd were others with hands alight to show the way. Despite their numbers, the city was silent, save for the sound of footsteps. Not a person spoke, a child cried, or a horse s...

51 likes 37 comments 37
Read story

A Bottle of Red Rum

Submitted to Contest #70

Kier twisted the quill, not even noticing how the ink dripped onto the parchment and bloomed across the page like black blood soaking through thin fabric. A bundle of claustrophobic feelings choked his throat – the more he tried to swallow, the worst it became.He tried to write, but his hand was trembling too much – unshakable spasms.Dear Lentan… The ink smudged.Dear Lentan… Too illegible. Dear Lentan… I deeply apologise. No. My most sincere condolences. No. I understand you do not want to be hearing from me. No.Kier rubbed at his templ...

50 likes 21 comments 21
Read story

~ Anymore ~

Submitted to Contest #70

I began seeing the woman who would later become my second wife before my first wife and I had broken up and separated. It was right at the time I was about to turn thirty and felt the fleeting dreams of my youth dying, and quite frankly, was having my first of many midlife crises. So, how did I deal with it? Well, I admit, very poorly, to say the least. In other words, I handled the situation like a heartless heel. The “other woman” had been one of my guitar students for a brief period of time in the summer of 1983. The reason her music l...

47 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Switzerland

Submitted to Contest #70

On my birthday he brings me flowers.  A thin bouquet of sweet apricot-colored carnations. A million little delicate petals that smell of small-town grocery stores. The white papery tag is still hooked to the plastic but I don’t dare look at it. The flowers are real, dripping water into my palms, but the gesture is fake.  He holds my hand in the doorway and kisses my ring. A fake ruby the size of a thumbnail that he gave me for my last birthday. I hate the way it reflects in his eyes but I have to wear it when he visits. He never mi...

45 likes 32 comments 32
Read story

In The Mud

Submitted to Contest #70

Possible triggers: Language and suicidal thinking.Detective Lopez stepped into the humid room and the cursor hurried to the big x in the corner of the screen to close the case report. Detective Richards opened some other file and looked busy, pursed lips under a pencil mustache. A slow thunder dragged itself across the sky as the heavy rain washed the city on the other side of the window. Lopez knocked on his desk with a smile.“Why are you still here, Richards?” she asked with a nod.His eyes crossed the nearly empty precinct to find the old ...

38 likes 25 comments 25
Read story

The sin I made

Submitted to Contest #70

Yes, I have sinned, that I can ever undo it. Nor fix it. But I should have fixed it, I should have accepted that I committed a mistake. But I could not. I should not have attempted in the first place. Why did I do that? Because I was lonely. Yes, I was surrounded by crowds and friends. But I was lonely among them. I was crying in the washrooms, I was crying myself to sleep. I thought people hated me later I knew they were jealous of me all the time. I should have accepted that I was beautiful and pure by heart. Yes now I have accepted, but ...

37 likes 61 comments 61
Read story

Breaking Free From A World Of Snow

Submitted to Contest #70

“Hi, I’m Brad and I’m an alcoholic. I’m also an addict. Today, I’ve completed two years of sobriety. Two years since I checked out of rehab. I don’t count the period that I was in there because I had no other option but to remain sober. But after that last day in rehab? That’s all me. Most of you here have heard my story. But for those who don’t, my rock-bottom, my breaking point, was the day I almost killed my wife. It’s funny, you know? I was high and drunk at the time. I didn’t even realize what I had done till the next night. And yet, th...

35 likes 23 comments 23
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about someone who’s so obsessed with a goal that it leads to the destruction of their closest relationship.

Sad – 154 stories

Write about a character who everyone thinks is guilty of something terrible, but isn’t.

Thriller and Suspense – 179 stories

Write about two people who know they’ve made a mistake, and one of them wants to tell the truth but the other wants to lie about it.

Kids – 120 stories

Write about a character who’s so afraid of making the wrong choice that their indecision ruins the very thing they were hoping to keep safe.

Sad – 85 stories

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel