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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about a character who starts out as a pessimist and ends as an optimist. (Or vice versa.)

Posted in Character on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 46 stories

“A Visit at the Unicologist's” by PASCALE DENANCE

Submitted to Contest #20

It was a cold night and I was brooding. One childhood memory in particular kept coming back. Everything was white. The snow was oppressive, like a sinister white omen. (‘In some countries, white is the color of mourning’, I thought…). My father was driving. He braked too suddenly. The car hit a tree, an apple tree. My mother went through the windscreen. Suddenly there was blood on the snow. I still don’t want to drive. Just can’t. Nobody listened to me, to my feelings. Then as before as later…I don’t know why I can’t shake this memory, or an...

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“Home” by Jess Wood

Submitted to Contest #20

Even though I had walked the route a hundred times before, the blinding force of the snow storm made me question each step. ‘You should just apply. They’d be lucky to have you, there’s no way they’d turn you down!’ Ellie fought to be heard over the storm. The dislocated quality of her voice was disconcerting, emerging - muffled - from beneath layers of knitted insulation. ‘There’s no way they would want me!’ I yelled back, almost laughing at the extent of her naivety. ‘Besides, I’m not even sure that’s really what I want to do.’Ellie frowned...

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“The Ledge By Michael P Guido” by Michael Guido

Submitted to Contest #20

The Ledge By Michael P. Guido Prompt: Pessimism to Optimism Rain trickles down my sullen face. It’s hard to tell which droplets are rain and which are tears. I look up to the heavens. The golden gates are just behind the dark, gloomy clouds, and today… it seems there will be no silver lining on this cloud.  My hand is spidering with veins as it’s wrapped tightly around the light-colored concrete post. I don’t want to let go. I don’t want to give up. I don’t want to die, please, God, I’m too young to die now… I’m answered by a thunderin...

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“Breaking the Circle” by Samantha Hartford

Submitted to Contest #20

“You’re always looking for yourself in those fictional worlds. But words can’t tell you who you are!”In the dust that swirled in the wake of his girlfriend -- likely now ex girlfriend, he supposed -- Tenilan’s mind refracted pieces of desolation, desperation, and loss. Sitting at his rickety wooden desk in the middle of it all, he mused. Can’t words tell you who are? What would you use, if not words?But he didn’t get very far in this line of thought, because other words -- the parting words of other girlfriends -- crept in.I just don’t ...

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“Heading Home” by Brianna Dady

Submitted to Contest #20

Laura’s morning began as they always did, a nurse quietly stealing herself into the room. Poor Grace always tried to stay quiet when she brought in Laura’s breakfast, but Laura was a particularly light sleeper. Not wanting to hurt the poor girl’s feelings Laura would feign sleep until Grace gently shook her. Some days it took longer than others and Laura would have nothing better to do than lie there with her thoughts. She thought too much she’d muse to herself, proving the very theory such a thought posited.  “Mrs. Vitcavage?” Finally ...

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“Desert Flower” by Wayne Scheer

Submitted to Contest #20

Desert Flower by Wayne ScheerWhen I was six, I wanted to be a big girl like Mama and smoke cigarettes. I ended up setting the living room curtains on fire trying to work her cigarette lighter. The flames jumped to my long hair and I had third and fourth degree burns over my face and body.For the first couple of days in the hospital, it hurt so bad I thought I would die. After that, I wanted to die, especially when it began blistering and oozing. It felt like millions of fire ants stinging me at the same time. Then came the scars.On...

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“Full House” by Lacey Cohen

Submitted to Contest #20

My mom’s been re-married for a little over a year now. Steven was his name, but we called him Steve because we knew he didn’t like that. It’s not that we sided with my dad in the divorce or anything, it’s just that it felt like he gave us a little more time to adjust while our mom just went right ahead and married some guy not even six months after the separation was finalized. Not to mention the fact that Steve was pretty annoying towards us; he tried way too hard to cultivate a relationship right off the bat. So when my mom noticed that my...

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“Sarah’s Favorite Time of the Year” by Gloria Racine

Submitted to Contest #20

Brenda loves her family and does whatever it takes to make them happy. One of her most favorite times of the year is Christmas. She gets that warm feeling went the fall season begins because she knows that Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Kwanzaa is coming and the memories of those times kept a smile on her face. Now that she is grown up with four children of her own the smile has gone away. What Christmas meant to her was not the same for others in her surroundings including her children. Her children’s expectations of Christmas are to get Chri...

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“The Moment of Beauty” by Yaya R.R

Submitted to Contest #20

Being told what was right and what was wrong for his 9 years of life, Jeremy Benett took his stance against the world. The cold, despicable world. He swore to never fall in love. His mother ruined his father's life; why should he let a woman ruin his. He figured it would be simple because throughout life you realise a multitude of things. One of the things he recently discovered was death. It creeps in the corner waiting to take anyone and everyone in the world. It is inevitable. He too would wait for the day that it would take him. That was...

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“Que sera sera” by Nishtha Dhand

Submitted to Contest #20

It was a Christmas evening. The clogged George street arcade, Ireland was embellished with adornments. Plastic Festoons, Buntings, fairy lights, snowflake cutouts, and ribbons entangled all over. The air was full of happiness with symphonious, carols and communal songs playing around. And the joyous Christmas tree stood tall with a glamorous flair catching the eyeballs!Albeit Sheryl, still caved in her duvet with her face buried in a pillow. 'Come on sweety wake up! Everybody's out.' Mom asserted while stretching her arms. She yawned an...

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“Mixed Signals” by Reira Nell

Submitted to Contest #20

“What?” she asked furrowing her eyebrows, worried. “What do you mean?”“There are no mixed signals,” The guy repeated taking his hands that were resting idly in his pockets. “If I was interested, I would text you, ‘Hey do you want to meet up for dinner?’, if I was interested…” he pointed both of his hands at her as if trying to explain something that was plain as day to a child, “…I would take you out to dinner. “Her heart thumped against her ribcage. Her breathing now faster, shorter. And with each breath she could swear her lungs ...

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“Nobody Home ” by Peter Vickland

Submitted to Contest #20

    Wyatt Foster could walk past the dog in the Jenkins’s yard—the dog that snarled and snapped at the chain link fence with viscous spittle spewing through the spaces and gnashing teeth gleaming wicked in the sunshine—without blinking, without flinching. Perhaps it was because he moved to the neighborhood when he was twelve, had not grown up with that angry Rottweiler as the “monster under the bed” in all his childhood nightmares. Maybe he had lived somewhere without vicious dogs, so had never learned to fear them. If that wa...

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“Survival in Hell or High Water” by Nurani Illahi

Submitted to Contest #20

FlanGreeb sighed. Why couldn’t he have been born a wolf-human hybrid? Wolf-humans were so esteemed that they earned their own shorthand nickname, the “werewolf”. How neat is that? They were storied, mighty, and even in their reckless bouts of rage, were admired for their strength. And what about lion-humans? Majestic. Dog-humans? A fan favorite, known for their loyalty and freakish friendliness to even the worst hypocrites in the world. Hell, he would have even happily occupied an incarnation of the mantis-human. Even if a bit green around t...

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“A Night For Change” by Kai Sharpley

Submitted to Contest #20

Once I was able to fully comprehend what I had committed myself to, I wanted to go back out. Then I looked and people had looked at it already, and suddenly I had a promise to keep. It’s quite annoying having to talk about something that you haven't truly dealt with. For me, there are many things I have yet to deal with.  There are a few questions that I have faced though and I guess what you know tends to be the best place to start, even when you don’t want to talk about it. I truly still don’t know how to begin this story. Most of the...

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“Smiling” by Sophia Almeida

Submitted to Contest #20

Christine smiled up at the vast, blue, cloudless, sky and breathed. Today is going to be a good day. She leveled her head and continued walking, her simple black heels clacking against the cement as she walked along the sidewalk of the street heading towards the Dunkin Donuts to get her coffee before she headed to work. Which, luckily, was in walking distance of her small apartment in New York. She continued along, contemplating what she could accomplish today. Christine worked at an advertisement company for candy, she was especially excite...

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Title: At Home

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