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Write a story from the point of view of a sidekick, or someone who is happy to stay away from the limelight.

Posted in Character on Apr 21, 2023

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✍️ 87 stories

Untold

Winner of Contest #195 🏆

“Where are we?” the old man said.“In a dark wood.”“Who are you?” said the old man.“Just … a brother,” said the young man.“Stop,” the old man said. “Let me look at you.”“It is dark.”“And I am blind. For me it is always dark. I can see with my hands, if you will allow me.”“Yes.”The old man felt first the young man’s wavy hair.“Please, describe the color of your hair.”“Have you seen colors?”“I have never had sight.”“Then how can I describe colors?”“I know the cold on my skin of the black, moonless night,” the blind, old man said. “I know the co...

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Pagmamano

Submitted to Contest #195

He wakes up in the heat. The moist air poaches him in his own skin. Water dripping off the canopy in a steady rhythm is punctuated by the distant cries of jungle birds. He feels spiders making their way under his fatigues but can’t move to brush them off. He must stay absolutely still or risk giving away their position.The dripping turns into a strange high-pitched beeping. Pain radiating up his legs is like battalions of fire ants swarming their way to his thighs. The darkness is swallowing him.He opened his eyes to hard white light and an ...

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Birthday Ghost

Submitted to Contest #195

In my country, the heroes aren’t like the American ones. All the heroes in American movies have big muscles, puffy hair, and teeth like those Colgate commercials. Maybe that’s what you need to get the girl in the end. If that’s what a hero looks like, I’m out of luck. It’s hard when you look like me. If I couldn’t be a hero, maybe I could be a sidekick. A sidekick would be easy. You don’t have to fight as many bad guys or train so hard. Sure, you don’t get the girl in the end, but I’m OK with that. Girls are icky. Well, Amir says they a...

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Intern 17

Submitted to Contest #195

Intern 17 got off the bus right as the Hypermetro City Authority triggered a blanket warning. At once, all streets were bathed with a bland yellow emergency light and all windows on every building self-shuttered with reinforced titanium plates. Every street corner had a sturdy municipal loudspeaker, and these now clicked to life – and then Emergency Enid spoke. “Attention all citizens.” Her voice was the pleasant kind of dull, ideally suited to inoffensive announcements. “An imminent Superhuman Disagreement Incident has been detected, above ...

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One Single Moment

Submitted to Contest #195

David closed his eyes and rested his head in his hands for just one moment. The midwife was doing her ‘thing’ and David preferred to know as little about the ‘thing’ as possible. It had been such a long time since he had slept, he thought wearily, as his brain presented visions of blankets and pillows invitingly on his closed lids. They had induced Rosie at 8pm and he dared not look again at the clock. The last time he checked, it was 6am, and he was almost sure that had been hours ago. But who was he to complain? Rosie was th...

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A Little Story before I Die

Submitted to Contest #195

March 21, 1923Dr. Camp felt it. The years crushed down on him, leaving him with the unbearable loneliness that comes from losing one’s lifelong companions and the physical pain that an adventurous life gave him. The nurses would give him morphine, but never enough to eradicate the physical pain, never enough to ignore the loneliness.Truth be told, the good doctor was ready to die. Yet…yet he wouldn’t. Not yet. He had one more tale to write, one more story that had to be penned before he would let himself move on to whatever came next.“I don’...

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The SPON

Submitted to Contest #195

Things turned from bad to worse for my roommate David, back in the 2020s. His problems began with the YouTube videos, then the TikTok and Instagram shorts, and finally, companies began to distribute information on how to ‘spot the narcissist’.“It’s not fair!” David moaned. “On every new project at work, the architecture team puts me on bathroom and storage design saying, "so my ego doesn’t grow any larger.’”I tried to look sympathetic. “It’s not their fault. Everyone has been receiving training on how to deal with Cat-7 narcissists.” “C...

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Shipwreck

Submitted to Contest #195

Tuesday, January 23rd, 190610:06 AMIf Joe was told the sea was not vengeful, did not take pleasure in, did not revel in, the murder of helpless souls, he wouldn’t believe it; for the sea at that moment was a howling rage, purposely dragging him from the rocks at Pachena Point, plunging him beneath the surging tide. He once again came to the surface, coughing, eschewing seawater, his bare feet scrambling on the slimed green ledge beneath the swell, fighting to gain a foothold.His head now barely above water, he gasped for breath in the freezi...

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Sancho Panza's Last Dance

Submitted to Contest #195

I return to avenge my friend in the shadow of a windmill. Charging at it on my trusty steed, I cry a warrior’s cry. “No hay viento en el infierno!” The windmill will not budge. It only turns. I pull back on the reins. My horse makes not a sound. There is no sound to make. It would be captured by the wind. My horse is not a horse. She is a giant caterpillar. She is not a butterfly, but her name is Luna. Luna Panza, my only living friend. All others are ghosts. Ghosts that search the Heavens for my face. “Sigo vivo y no se porque...

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Zeppo

Submitted to Contest #195

Sit down, sit down… There’s no point in having an office like this if I cannot share it with fans, especially ones like you. You really look beat up, as you should be if you really traveled all this way just to speak to me. My secretary would not have believed it without my letter and your determination. So please…take a breath and we can start. * You are absolutely right. Most of the fans know nothing about me. They don’t even know my real name (impressed that you found that out; so much information out there if you hunt for it). Herbert wo...

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Ezra and Ada

Submitted to Contest #195

Ezra stepped out of his mom’s mini van and was immediately hit in the face by a gust of wind. He reached back inside and grabbed his hat from the cup holder of his booster seat before pushing the button to close the door. Ezra stuffed his curls into the knit cap and pulled it down past his ears, then zipped his sweatshirt as high as it would go. It wasn’t cold, but he didn’t like wind.  Once he was comfortable, Ezra turned to look at the playground. He scanned the climbing structure in search of his twin sister, Ada. It wasn’t hard to...

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AITA? or WWMD?

Shortlisted for Contest #195 ⭐️

To Mr. R. Walton, St. Petersburgh, June 10, 17__My Dear Robert,  It was with tremendous satisfaction that I received your copious packet of letters sent from St. Petersburgh. I am greatly relieved that you have returned to civilization intact. You were perhaps apprehensive that I would not credit your amazing tales, but you may rest assured that I do not imagine you could have made yourself out to be such a dolt in a story of your own invention. I have recounted the tale to several acquaintances, and they are of one mind with me: t...

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Midnight Tea - Part 1/2

Submitted to Contest #195

Finding Your Place in Routines. The Guest. Attachment. Benzie arrived at the Swindle & Swine after dawn. It was the beginning of fall; the air was cool and crisp. He brought two logs into his arms and, balancing the load with a huff, reached into his pocket to fetch a key to the kitchen’s back door. Pushing it open with his hip, he entered the inn to gently lay the logs next to the kitchen’s blue and gray fieldstone hearth. Elina Hogsbreath, the inn’s proprietor, slept above the kitchen, and Benzie was mindful of her comfort. Going to th...

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Initial Response

Submitted to Contest #195

“Ok, Myron. Let me get this straight. You’ve decided you want to be a superhero…” “I haven’t decided I want to be a superhero, Mortimer. I am a superhero.” “You are?” “Yep. I just found out I came from a planet far, far away. As a result, I have superpowers on my new planet, Earth.” “What kind of superpowers?” “Well, technically I have just a single superpower.” “Do tell.” “I can complete tax forms at superspeed with TurboTax accuracy. I’ve been doing my parents' taxes since I was three, and they’ve never been audited. I...

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Salvus

Submitted to Contest #195

“Don’t pick a favorite spell.” This is the wisdom they give to young aspiring mages. At mage academy, the professors notice early on that their pupils like to pick a favorite and stick to it. There are so many to learn, thousands upon thousands. Young mages get frustrated, they flub their spells, they try to set a target ablaze with flammas but hurl dung in their faces with fimus instead. So they start forming a bad habit of sticking to one spell. The professors have to work hard to break it.Stories are the best way to get those mages to bre...

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