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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about someone who is losing feeling in their hands and/or fingers.

Posted in Character on Aug 25, 2023

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✍️ 46 stories

“Fido” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #213

 I got Fido at the local pound, or animal rescue service, by mistake or accident. I went to get a terrier and found one but in the next cage was a almost long haired puppy cowering in the shadows of a corner. The terrier knew he had me and was jumping up and down with expectations flowing from his half mouthed tongue, so I got the puppy. Fido was beautifully thankful and I felt like a true parent maybe because of his fix on me as his leader and teacher. Our relationship was never owner/master and dog. From the first moment out of t...

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“THE SLIP OF THE HAND” by Glenna Agnew

Submitted to Contest #213

THE SLIP OF THE HAND Margaret carried her empty coffee mug over to the kitchen sink, at the last second it slipped from her hand and crashed into the bottom of the sink, shards of porcelain exploding like shrapnel. One of the shards dug into the back of her hand. She gave a sigh of frustration as she grabbed the shard and pulled it out leaving a tiny bloody trail.  She stared regretfully into the sink, it was her favourite mug, isn’t that always the way she thought? It was the mug the children in her kindergarten class had designed for ...

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“Project Un: The Fall of Abal” by Samuel Bowen

Submitted to Contest #213

Abal could feel darkness. It was not an emotion nor was it truly a sensation. The lack of touch blinded Abal as his callus hands gripped the Aexian blade. He missed the cool smoothness of the grey steel. He longed for the subtlety of texture in the leather grip. Yet the darkness of his nerve calluses gave only the indication of pressure. Abal stared at his knuckles watching them go white with tension. Pressure. That was all he could feel; that feeling like the building tension in his aging bones.  Abal grunted. This was the curse of Po...

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“A Portrait of a Son” by C. Charles

Submitted to Contest #213

The ringing phone pulled Derek from the depths of his stupor. He was on the couch with the TV blaring and an empty bottle of rye lying on the floor next to him.  “Who the fuck–” he slurred as he groped for the phone on the coffee table. Every time his finger touched the wood, the tips tingled with pins and needles and bubbling fear returned to his stomach. He found his phone. “Hello?” he croaked. “Derek?” came Sally’s voice, “Where were you? I’ve been calling you.” Her voice sounded frantic. “Sorry, I was sleeping,” Derek said, “What’s ...

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“Pins & Needles” by Cyan Villanueva

Submitted to Contest #213

“How are they today?” I cup her cheek with my hand, gently rubbing my thumb across it. I know her cheek feels warm and soft; she smiles up at me as we lay together. I move my hand to cup the back of her brunette wavy hair, cradling her beautiful head. Then run my hands through her hair. My fingers get caught slightly, so I carefully detangle it for her. I know it feels soft too, but right now I can’t feel it anymore. Not with these hands. I’m unsure how to tell her. I sigh and kiss her forehead, holding the back of her head again, tryin...

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“We’re Not Supposed to Cheat Death – It’s Part of Life” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #213

Senator Marcus Cicero walks through the Garden of Senators, one of Washington D.C.’s most popular attractions. He pauses at the statues of his father, Lucius, and his grandfather, Julius. He squeezes his hand, hoping to relieve the numbness that has taken root in his fingers. “It won’t be long now.” Marcus vigorously shakes the hand of a young constituent but feels nothing. The young man beams at the charismatic, dark-haired politician. “Your speech was magnificent. Senator. It reminded all of us that even though we conquered the Si...

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“Fireheart” by J.B. Redel

Submitted to Contest #213

“Come on… One more time.” Bouncing on the balls of my feet, I shake out my stiff arms, hoping to shake out my anxieties as well. I stop, close my eyes, and take a deep breath, willing my mind to clear. The act takes a few seconds longer than it should, but soon I can feel the familiar and welcome spark of energy deep within me. Magic. Focusing all of my attention on that spark, I urged it to grow. It heeds my command. Warmth floods my torso as it increases. Once satisfied with the amount of energy burning within my chest, I urge the fire ...

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“Handy Helpers” by Cade Holter

Submitted to Contest #213

I don’t want to reel my hands in tonight.That may sound odd to you, but I’m being entirely serious. Since the age of thirteen I’ve had hands that can detach at the wrist, connected only by a pair of loose, red strings. This is normal for me, though it took a fair amount of time for me to really warm up to the concept, something not especially helped by my first impression of it. The night I found this strange part of my anatomy was a particularly burning summer, one that leaked into the night well past the time that the moon rose up. I was l...

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“Sleeping Beauty ” by TheArtistry Lover

Submitted to Contest #213

The Onslaught of colorful spotlights skating across the dance, painting the gleaming crowd with red, pink, and orange. The smell of perfume and cologne all around, barely overcoming the smell of sweat underneath, permeated throughout the entire room.  A pleasant yet corrosive smell; something that stabbed at my nose. I do not know if it is in a good way or bad.  I didn’t have a man to share this with of course, but the group I cultivated over my short and super awesome stay at York High. This was enough for me, plus I’m a truly gi...

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“The Night Watch” by Sarah Van Langenhoven

Submitted to Contest #213

I held her pressed up against my chest, my arms tightly locked around her as if to trap her there for an eternity to come, but it only lasted a moment. The moment and my grip faded, time slipped between my fingers and before I realised, she had moved back to sit beside me, I found my arms empty.“I never took you for the sentimental fellow.” She jested, a gentle chuckle escaping her lips, blending into the crackling of the fire before us. “Thought you’d nearly squeeze me to death there.” I looked at her and forced the corners of my mouth to r...

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“There was a Roach In the Peach Tree” by Theresa Coleman

Submitted to Contest #213

Trigger Warning: Death, Grief, and ColorismThe milky white mucus that would leak from her eyes had left lines carved into her face. A face I would only ever describe as hypnotically gorgeous was now contorted into a strange expression. My dull brain can’t come up with a fitting explanation for this. The only thing that comes to mind is that it was from an infection. Or perhaps the anguish of taking her final breaths. All that pain made the moisture in her body turn into an indistinguishable whiteness. It was like the clouds of her eventual r...

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“The Honeymoon” by Caroline Jenner

Submitted to Contest #213

I woke up and stretched. My fingers felt weird. Not quite long enough and in the wrong place. My head seemed to be sitting all wrong on my shoulders and somehow I was splayed on the bed in a really odd position. It was Sunday morning and we were due to fly home. My honeymoon had been an unmitigated disaster and I wondered how things were going to work out once we were back. ‘There now, that’s much better,’ I heard Dan say. I tried to reply but words didn’t come out of my mouth, just this strange sound – a sort of yow...

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“A Woman Of Feeling.” by Pencil Durmush

Submitted to Contest #213

I am losing it the times I touch my hands to see how I am feeling. I am lost somewhere elsewhere in old age. I am colder than I ever been the lost lasting harm from years of suffering of suffocating and now it is in my hands. Where did my lies get me I must have told them. I told so many lines that they have come to my hands. I am not older I am still youthful I am in my sixties come on it is not that old. I go through the door come back again and rest on my hands. The pain is intense in my hands I must get up there is so much to do. I must ...

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“Numb” by Kristin Keith

Submitted to Contest #213

“Why do I only have four fingers on my left hand?”The nurse blinked. I shifted uncomfortably on the examination chair, the stiff parchment paper crinkling imperceptibly beneath my derrière. The fluorescent light above buzzed vehemently as if it were one of those overly aggressive, all-up-in-your-grill bees. You know, one of those bees that makes you think, “Maybe I’ll buy a Costco sized tub of honey this week.” “Erm, sorry. Why does it feel like I only have four fingers on my left hand?” The nurse blinked again, her thick eyeb...

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“Talk To Me” by Diamond Star

Submitted to Contest #213

Click, click, click. Says the fluorescent light swaying precariously above me. I tear my eyes away from it, scanning the room, the afterimage still blurring my vision. The room is long and narrow. I wonder what stories the saddened walls with peeling gray paint and cracks running along them have to tell. I can’t imagine they’d be happy ones. Ssss, ssss, ssss. Says the cracked white radiator jolting slightly, filling the room with air so humid it feels as if it’s pressing against my skin, trying desperately to get in. I force myself to b...

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