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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about someone who's haunted by their past.

Posted in Character on Oct 28, 2022

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 252 stories

“Her Husband's Brother” by Elaina Goodnough

Submitted to Contest #51

  She let her white lace veil fall delicately over her greasy jet black hair. She stared at herself in the mirror, looking into her own eyes. Instead of the excitable, love-filled, big eyes a bride usually had adorned, her eyes were a pale brown, squinting in the weight of their own sorrow and trying not to let a cascade of salty tears pass.   She stepped into a new wedding dress, very conservative and quiet. It wasn't made to be looked at, but instead just to check 'wedding dress' off of the to-do list. Only a year before she had ...

10 comments 10
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“Cut to the Quick ” by Charles Stucker

Submitted to Contest #51

Author's note- this is written around a novel about Red Ronin. I have posted five, one for each prompt, as an ambitious attempt to support the big anniversary of Reedsy. They all follow separate characters, but I recommend reading "Devil Take the Hindmost" last because it has the largest cast, several of whom are introduced earlier. Cut to the Quick When Kentaro, the beautiful Red Ronin, told me we would train together, I was ecstatic. He is majestic, skilled in battle and so stoic. I know many would say a Chinese woman has no business i...

2 comments 2
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“Broken Glass” by Serine Achache

Submitted to Contest #51

“Hey. Sorry I’m late.”I never saw the cracks, but I was there when everything broke down to a million little pieces. I was there when the damage was so great it went way beyond repair. And I just watched.“So, how’ve you been?”I don’t know when or how it all started, but by the time I started noticing, they were already playing their last cards and walking their very last steps together.The tension then was so intense I could almost see it. There was this constant unsettling feeling the moment I walked past the front door, a strange heaviness...

16 comments 16
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“Mother of Slaps” by OPHOKE LEONARD

Submitted to Contest #51

Am I dying for you? You will never know peace in your entire life until you drink with your skull, Besha lamented on her death bed. Don-Ken is the father of two children; the children were known by the entire village as very good criminals. Dojo and Bodero have never passed a chicken in someone's compound without getting lost. The time came when the whole villagers had to cook for the two brothers a special meal. You can imagine this type of feast prepared for criminals. The trap didn’t catch the prey for years until the day they stole...

16 comments 16
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“Love You 'Til You're Sore” by Jane Andrews

Submitted to Contest #51

Tigger warning: depictions of sexual assault I was fifteen when I fell for the lead singer in Bad Romance. Lots of people said they were just a group of Duran Duran wannabes, but I didn’t care. Jake Phipps, their frontman, was beautiful: with finely chiselled cheekbones, hair that flopped over his eyes, and trousers so tight you wondered if they were his natural skin, he was every girl’s daydream and every mother’s nightmare. I think it was partly the overt sexuality of the songs that had our parents worried. Sceptics claimed that ‘Love You ...

7 comments 7
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“The Wish” by Melissa Hassan

Submitted to Contest #51

The little girl knelt at the window ledge looking up at the night sky studded with stars.She closed her eyes and made a wish, as she had done before on many a nights, that one day her real mother would come looking for her.She had been left at the entrance to the Church a long time ago, or so she was told by the Nuns who took care of them at the orphanage, after her many pleadings to find out about her birth mother.She sighed and got off the ledge and made her way over to the bed and climbed in, carrying the tattered old teddy bear which was...

1 comment 1
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“The Silence” by Caroline Ryder

Submitted to Contest #51

I drove in a familiar silence. I had grown accustomed to it. It was sharp yet comforting all at the same time. The silence was like an old friend that knew you better than you knew yourself. It was nothing like the obnoxious noise that hung over me everyday. I hated the noise. It is always reminding me to keep in touch with reality, to bury my thoughts, and to keep moving forward. Basically, it was a constant reminder to just move on with my life. To forget what’s been done and to leave what’s unchangeable. People keep moving only because th...

4 comments 4
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“Watching the Sunrise” by Hans B

Submitted to Contest #51

He sat in his well worn armchair and stared out the window. His feet found the indents on the carpet that perfectly fit his slippers. His view was of an open field drifting off to the trees and mountains in the distance. The day began as it always did. A cup of coffee, soft jazz playing in the background and watching the sun as it peaked up from the horizon. This morning, the sun had little time to shine its rays. Grey clouds blanketed the sky casting shadows across the field, bringing a drab mist. It had been a lifetime of trying to forget....

7 comments 7
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“Between The Two Worlds” by N.J Intja

Submitted to Contest #51

          Between Two Worlds By N.J Intja She kept frozen in her sofa. Nevertheless, you will see her quivering if you give her a squint. Her eyes were unmovable, her mouth was open in terror allowing her lower lip quake like for a rabbit. She immediately hove herself onto her feet and gave a terror wail that sounded like a person being spiked with a knife. She scuttled around, bashing her head with an open palm. She gave a halt and allowed himself a big sigh. She began to stroke her fluf...

4 comments 4
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“I've done it again” by Emili Silvi

Submitted to Contest #51

Do it, I told myself firmly. Just do it. But I can't. The sleek shiny gun resting on the satin red pillow in front of me was inviting, more inviting than anything else. I wanted one for self-protection, but I can't touch it. I can't remember what it feels like to have it in my hand, the pull the trigger, feel the bullet's release. I am so scared that I will do it again. I am so scared that I know I would do it again. I cannot do this. I must do this. He'll come back. He's gone forever. Forget him. Remember him. Grab. Don't. Take it. Run. Hi...

7 comments 7
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“Damaged Goods” by Rudy Uribe

Submitted to Contest #51

“Dastardly. I think that’s how I’d describe him.” Amelia leaned back in her chair.“Dastardly,” he repeated, “That’s not a very common word. What exactly is your definition of it?”“You mean the dictionary definition?”“No.” He allowed a micro-smile to light on his lips. He looked away, hoping she hadn’t noticed. It would be most unprofessional to laugh at a client. “No, I want to know what that word means to you.”Amelia rubbed her chin before answering. “If he had had a handlebar mustache,” she said, “I could picture him twirling the ends as h...

11 comments 11
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““In the midway of this our mortal life, I found me in a gloomy wood, astray"” by Ana Chirila

Submitted to Contest #51

The house was filled with music. The radiant String Quartet in A minor by Brahms was playing as if life has chosen it as the soundtrack for what was happening in that house. From distance, one would have imagined that whoever lived there had an affinity for classics but as you passed the entrance and walked up the stairs to the first floor; as you passed the corridor and turned to the right, you could see a door cracked open and through that opening, you could see the horrors of reality. “Please! Let me go!” Iwan was a 12 years old boy, a ch...

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“Three Little Birds” by Catherine MacKenzie

Submitted to Contest #51

The street was empty this early in the morning. At these just post-sunrise moments of the day where most are still sleeping, or still at their homes getting ready for the day's agenda to play out, I walked the sidewalk as the day got brighter. I kept my head firmly down, watching my feet slowly trespass the sidewalk that led me to my work. The air was cool, brisk with impending winter. The wind picked up and I saw the evidence of the chill displayed in gooseflesh up my arms. I didn't bother putting on a coat this morning. I wish I could feel...

8 comments 8
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“The Cabin in The Woods” by Elizabeth Burrows

Submitted to Contest #51

A flash of lighting streaks across the sky lighting up the world. Dark grey clouds hang low in the sky covering the earth in darkness. The tremendous sound of thunder echoes through the sky. The air seems to hum and it is thick with tension. Another bolt of lighting darts across the sky. The wind whips through the trees causing them to bow to the earth. The sound of branches breaking and the crash of a tree fills the tense air. The only thing breaking the sound of the wind is the crash of thunder. In t...

0 comments 0
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“A Cupful of Memories” by Sue Marsh

Submitted to Contest #51

                                                           A Cupful of Memories                             &nb...

6 comments 6
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