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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write about a character in a situation where they have to be brave for someone else’s sake.

Posted in Character on Jul 7, 2023

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 61 stories

“Harvest Moon, Wishes, and You” by Holly Gilbert

Submitted to Contest #206

Be careful what you wish for. That was the warning that Duska had gotten from Grandma Meekam. The harvest moon sat in the sky, emanating a golden color. The moon around the canoe glistened with stars. Duska wrapped her blue cloak tightly around her yellow dress, shivering. The men around her didn’t say anything. They paddled towards the edge of the cave off of the time-frozen island. Olim. She shuddered. She had heard of frightening things about this island. The men carefully lifted her up and placed her on the rock. The leader gave Duska a ...

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“The Implant's Demands” by Brian DeHority

Submitted to Contest #206

Sensitive Themes: Physical violence, Suicide Noah sat hunched in his small grey cell, his khakis and pastel blue oxford button down begrimed and wrinkled, drenched in sweat and urine. A regular drip reverberated around the enclosure with each new drop of sweat falling to the puddle he sat in. The only decoration was a single, wooden crucifix bolted to the wall, the form of Jesus, muscled and fair, eternally gazing down at the sorry souls trapped here. Noah's neck creaked as he looked up and out before him, towards the open air of New York ...

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“In Sickness and in Health” by Karin Eriksson

Submitted to Contest #206

                              Having worked numerous jobs throughout my life, I had nothing to prepare me for the emotional and physically taxing job of being the caregiver to my husband. It was, hands down, the roughest, most demanding, and most brutal position I ever found myself in. It took my time and energy, threw me into isolation, left me overwhelmed, frustrated, and on constant crying j...

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“Step One: Wash Hands” by Breannen Prusank

Submitted to Contest #206

“Is there anything I need to know?”“You’re going to love this bunch. They’ve been the best in years. Keep an eye here. She’s really afraid.”“Afraid of what? School?”“Yeah, not exactly, she’s afraid of getting sick. Do you want details?”“No. I’ll come see you when I’m ready,” Mrs. Ellis said. She liked to get to know her students herself. It never seemed fair that someone else got to give her the first impression of any of them.No past judgment would make any sense this year anyway. It was going to be so different from any of the sixteen year...

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“The Forest” by Rena Aliston

Submitted to Contest #206

Gene’s body collapsed against the twisted tree trunk. Hands resting on top of his knees, he stared at the ground, panting for air. “How much longer?” Brooke removed her backpack and tossed it on a bed of leaves. “How the hell are we supposed to know? This was your idea!” My eyes squinted through the thick fog as I listened to them argue. My ears struggled to make out sounds in the distance. “Enough! We’re lost. Regardless of who’s fault it is, we need to get out of here.” We ventured down a dark path. Trees hovered over us like shado...

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“In the Foxhole” by Adam Medlin

Submitted to Contest #206

The younger soldier dug the heel of his boot back and forth in the hot sand.  He could get half of his boot buried before he decided he didn’t want any more sand in his socks than was already there.  He pulled up on his foot, watched the sand ease back into the size eleven hole, and then started digging again.  He had arrived in country less than a week before, so he was in no way acclimated.  Not to the heat, not to the sounds or smells, and not to that foreign feeling in his stomach.  The t...

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“Hidden Monsters ” by Riley Haller

Submitted to Contest #206

The fog was thick like the pancakes Pa used to make. Alice could still remember how they tasted: that fluffy lightness that Pa had never quite mastered. She missed them. Him. A tug on her shirt broke her from her thoughts, and she looked down to see Clover’s big brown eyes looking up at her. “What’s wrong?” Clover asked, and Alice blinked back, unsure how to answer that question. She managed a smile, a pain aching in her side as she squeezed Clover’s hand. She looked back out ahead of them, at the vast road. A car lay abandoned to one sid...

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“Die for You” by Kjanela Fawcett

Submitted to Contest #206

The bed dipped beneath him as he sat; he buried his face in his hands. Exhaustion and grief tugged at him. Yvette was at the desk, reading through the reports that had been gathered by his inner circle.He knew what they said already. All the same thing. Oh, they were nominally different. Long, flowery missives attempting to mask their lack of support, to messages lined with vague threats. In the end, it all came back to the truth.What little support he’d had, it was gone. Only the staunchest of the untouched were still siding with him. As mu...

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“Bonds Beyond Blood” by Aarna Vaiyapuri

Submitted to Contest #206

Blood. Gushing down my finger in streams of red, the blood from a wound the window gave me served as a reminder of why I was here. The window had reprimanded me after I’d risked my life to find my father and my brothers. Foolish… it seemed to whisper. Unsafe… go home…And it spoke the truth. A child shouldn’t have to fear being beaten just because of her religion. A child shouldn’t have to find shopping a life-threatening activity. Alas, I found myself ignoring the window’s warnings because, how could I care about myself when Father, and...

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“The Light, The Helper” by Anisa :)

Submitted to Contest #206

"Breathe. Just breathe with me," On the bed, her chest rose and fell with a calm labor that echoed in the room. With every breath the room seemed to freeze entirely — the wind ceasing its cascade through the window, the birds stopping their overjoyed birdsong — only for this passage of time to continue with the flow of her breath as it exited her chest, and when it reentered, each time as slow and inconsistent that death lingered at the edge of the bed with his head lowered but body tense, ready to pounce. There was nothing in the wheeze...

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“Lemons” by Mio Simer

Submitted to Contest #206

The sounds from the television reach me in the bathroom; I turned it on to keep Lisa from disturbing me whilst doing the laundry. It always works like a charm - a high-pitched squeal escapes her little body at every suggestion. I don’t think she’s realised I do it more for my own sake than hers yet. Hopefully, she never will. These - among others - are the kinds of things I ponder over when haphazardly shoving soaking wet clothes into the laundry basket: Lisa’s ignorance to my motherly schemes, whether I got the spaghetti sauce out of my wor...

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“Escape” by Kara Niccum

Submitted to Contest #206

Sammy’s fingertips were raw and bloody, but she kept at it. She couldn’t let down Melissa. There was too much at stake. Melissa had stopped sweating hours ago, and was barely conscious. In a way, Sammy was thankful for the sweat that now dripped in her own eyes. She wiped it away and continued trying to pick the lock.Melissa’s cage was right next to hers, which was right next to the unfinished wall. It was a stroke of luck that the wooden beam was within reach. It had taken her days to work the nail out of the wood. Another bit of luck – her...

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“Thimbleful of Light” by 40 Akres

Submitted to Contest #206

Very little light poured down into the stairwell that went on forever. Only the thinnest slice of a sliver of light. A light that faded in the manner of a sketch, transitioning into a deep space like atmosphere. Dark, damp, dank, and dismal. Down, down, down, down into the basement where shadows breathe on their own. Deep into the dark where everything terrifying took up residence!  His little mind stood chilled as his tiny eyes struggled to see. Those bright eyes tried their hardest to gather up all the light there was. Which barely m...

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“The Agent ” by Howdle Gavin

Submitted to Contest #206

The holiday agency was humming with activity outside, with people trying to spot the deal they felt they deserved. Tina strode up to the agency door confidently, grinning at the small group of people because she didn't need to look through the window while daydreaming about what could be. Tina walked into a large office dedicated to booking holidays for people such as Tina "Welcome, miss...I have a booking that wasn't on the website.""erm ok, where would you like to travel, miss Howdle?Bolivian rainforest, please. I would like to see the wil...

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“Shadow in the Deep” by Christopher Reifsteck

Submitted to Contest #206

Peter Fox was falling away. From the surface. From his retired father’s boat. Deeper and deeper he sank, his black flippers kicking him down. It always seemed like madness, in a way, to willingly abandon the air he could breath and survive in, for the cold blue ocean he could not. It was for this reason, even though it was a relatively short dive, that Peter used an air tank. He needed it to keep himself calm. It was difficult enough to keep his mind off the murky blue-green all around him, and Peter felt he didn’t care for the added stress...

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