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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about a highly-strung character learning to slow down, or someone pursuing a quieter way of life.

Posted in Character on May 31, 2024

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✍️ 55 stories

“K2” by Philip Dmitriev

Submitted to Contest #253

'All right, mate, thank you for these days together, they have been simply brilliant.''Likewise, Manuel, as I can see you haven't changed your mind, gonna leave us today,' said Nika coming towards Manuel to give him a last friend hug.'Yeap, unfortunately, I gotta go.''Job won't be waiting for you, huh?''True, don't wanna be fired, Nika, not all of us are artists like you.'Nika smiled.They hugged each other and Nika patted him on the back.'So fifteen days for China, and after straight to my home.''Fifteen days, I still think it's an awfully s...

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“Look Up” by Devon Taitano

Submitted to Contest #253

I tightened the hood of my rain jacket around my face as my leather hiking boot stomped down into mud that was not as hardened as it looked. I started to slide and gripped my palm around a tree to keep from busting my ass. I could feel my socks getting wet inside my shoe as the mesh panels on the sides of my feet let in the rain. “Remind me again why we’re doing this?” “If we don’t do something today the whole trip will be a waste,” Jay replied. “You don’t want to stay cooped up in our cabin all day, do you?” A camping trip was Jay’s id...

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“Shifting gears” by Jeffrey McDonald

Submitted to Contest #253

Karen rushes back from the kitchen to answer her cell phone ringing on her desk, she cautiously slips and slides into her wool socks, comes to rest in her office chair, and swipes to answer.“You got that piece for the well? We also need the FOB, BOB, and JPEGs; remember this is on spec! And that over the transom piece you sent me was a big help, it was just thick enough to take the wobble out of my keyboard,” her editor George Barnes of Romance Writer’s Weekly orders while chuckling.“Yes…” she begins to reply but hears him disconnect.Karen s...

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“No One's Hero” by Kael Mans

Submitted to Contest #253

Content Advisory: This story includes mentions of trauma after war and parental death, though there is no explicit violence. The sun shone brightly on the training field as Niandra scanned the sweaty group of guards. Her lips turned down in disappointment. They were pitiful - not nearly up to her standard for what she felt qualified as a palace guard. Niandra couldn’t imagine any of these people being able to stand up to a genuine threat to the royal family.  “Again.”  The men and women before Niandra looked at her in disbelief. Th...

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“One day, I went for a walk ” by Bea Hanson

Submitted to Contest #253

I don’t remember what day it was that I quit my job, because that was also the day that I decided I don’t particularly care for calendars. I do remember, however, that the day began quite ordinary, without any foreshadowing of what was to come. Some days that are ordinary are nearly too ordinary, a quality which alludes to something life changing on the horizon. However, this day wasn’t like that at all, there was no indication of the great change underway. I woke up at a reasonable hour, and laid tangled in my blankets for a few minute...

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“Getting back to me” by Penny Winn

Submitted to Contest #253

You know the whole live like it’s your last day on earth sentiment? Or rather, if you only had one year left, how would you spend it? Well, I think about this sometimes. I don’t know quite how I would spend my last day, or year, or what have you… but I do know one thing for sure: it would be nothing like the way I currently spend it.Why, then, you might ask - am I living my life the way I am? Why is everything such a struggle, so disorganized, so… unsatisfactory? And why won’t I fix it? --- When I look back on my childhood, I think of how st...

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“Sweet Victoria” by Priyanjali Bhattacharyya

Submitted to Contest #253

The structure was set in stone. An old, partly demolished thing that had stood for ages and ages. Dust gathered over it, the path leading to it had giant craters crumbling the stone into irregular uneven edges that was slippery in the rains, and would make a person fall even without the rains unless you were careful. Beside the stone building hung a tent. The tent was kept clean despite what it looked from the outside. It was light in the morning and dark in the night. Inside the tent, was a little table. There was a lamp on the table. The...

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“Something I Saw” by Andrew Andrews

Submitted to Contest #253

August 7th, 2021 I have two theories as to why young children tend to laugh and smile far more frequently in their daily lives compared to adults. First, is their naiveté. To young children, the entire world is new, un-experienced, and utterly limitless in potential. Second, is that at just a few feet tall, everything else seems huge and very, very cool--even as adults, people love to marvel at things that are gigantic in proportion. While I offer two compelling theories, the first is slightly more relevant to an experience one year ago that...

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“a moment of a price of glory” by Rebecca Maric

Submitted to Contest #253

in the days of olden times back to the school younger days when preferred studying and reading books and didn't have many friends,as one s study and books were important ,and top subject for her was English,this was back in the olden days of the 1980s ,sure she had been bullied at school for her study and books instead of being with the crowd.as time went by and the high school years have started and gone,mum asked 'what are you to do in life ,she only replied 'not sure ,maybe just read in the library,and so her mum worked on getting her wor...

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“Watch out!” by Dory Nicolas

Submitted to Contest #253

Hitchhiking had become easy for Ann. She realized this suddenly as she leaned off the curb on Gough Street, raised thumb out, on her way home from her morning attempt to sell her rings at Crocker Bank Plaza. Tourist season was over in San Francisco, so it had become a waste of time to even go the Wharf. The bank plaza had proved to be no better. In fact, it was worse. No tourists, of course. The potential customers were the downtown workers. They were not in the market for a ring hand-made by a girl sitting on the sidewalk. Even worse, today...

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“Choosing The Moment” by Mary Dal Nogare

Submitted to Contest #253

This is the summer, our slow time. My eyes come into focus, and I wonder how long I have been staring at the left panel of my outlook email. There are 138 new unread emails in my inbox since yesterday. I take a big sigh, a sip of my coffee and attack them instantly. There is a million-dollar home closing wire transaction that must go out by 10am. We have two client meetings the day after next and the materials are not prepared. A large estate planning project that was in process with the bank for 3 weeks has stalled and our cl...

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“Car Tissues” by Daisy Mae

Submitted to Contest #253

After being plagued with anxiety for years about who I would become and where I’d end up, I can confidently say I’ve finally made it. Everything is in place: I have a car, a stable job, a home, loving partner, and man’s best friend —my dog. So why is it that deep down, it doesn’t really feel like it?This is the third time this week that I’ve braced myself just to step foot into the building. I am a stellar employee and borderline workaholic, but that’s only if I muster up enough courage to leave my car. Something about the office lights has ...

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“Snails Go Down” by George Bizhev

Submitted to Contest #253

Trigger Warning:Anxiety ObsessionDepression Every snail born in the Lands Between knows when their story will end. This is not a matter of prophecy or foresight but rather something much more beautiful. Like their shells with patterns of warm terracotta and spirals of soft browns, the inevitable end is woven into their very existence. Despite this, or maybe because of it, they do not run from fate nor seek it. Instead, every snail spends their days basking in nature’s lavish greens. Aine was a small creature with a long-lived life, their she...

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“California” by Abby Rafal

Submitted to Contest #253

She felt the sharp edges of the cardboard box. Let her fingers slide over the cool, smooth duck tape that covered the edges. She pressed her hands on the kitchen table and took a deep breath. Again. She was moving again. How many times had it been now? Just last year before Christmas had been the last time. She remembered that she frantically searched all of the boxes for her red velvet skirt that she wanted to wear to the family dinner. Then the previous time had been August the year before. Liz had complained that the AC was broken in the ...

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“The war for peace” by Matteo Picchietti

Submitted to Contest #253

Jared never liked people who sit around all day drinking aperol spritz’s and sunbathing in their backyard, wearing a sunbonnet. He could just imagine the sweat dripping from their brows after they fall asleep while reading one of their romance novels, the peeled red skin, the dropped jaw after realizing the sun burns red.                   Jared would never have this problem. He was always working, or thinking, or doing. What happened to the kitche...

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Contest #253

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This week's theme: Slow Down

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Ended on 23:59 - Jun 07, 2024 EST

Won by Maria Adamkiewicz 🏆

Title: One thousand and three wishes

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