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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write about someone who returns as an adult to a place they last visited as a child.

Posted in Character on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 237 stories

“Can You Ever Go Home? by Sheri McComb” by Sheri McComb

Submitted to Contest #51

They say you can never go home. I always wondered who “they” are and why they can’t go home. I found out last summer that you CAN go home, but it won’t be the same when you get there.  I grew up in a small to mid-size town in Indiana. I was born and raised there and didn’t do too much traveling outside the state other than the short trips my family took every summer when my dad could get off work. I stayed there all through college, living at home and going to the local college. It was cheaper to live at home t...

8 comments 8
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“The hollow” by Chloe Walker

Submitted to Contest #51

 This field felt like home. These trees felt like home. Even those damn bumblebees felt comforting as I swatted them away from my legs and arms. The sight and smells of blue and green and gold and sandalwood perfume take me back. They take me back to you. To cool grass beneath my feet, standing knee-deep until my legs burned with red. In the thicket, I wait for you. You said you’d be here by ten. But now it’s half-past three. Still, I wait for you. I doze off under the shade of a live oak. Still, I wait for you. At four, I see your face...

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“Back to the beginning” by Elena S. Kodermaz

Submitted to Contest #51

In the beginning, there was only darkness and me. Maybe I was darkness.  I felt full, omnipresent, powerful but extremely lonely. It was too much to take for a child. I was scared and I didn’t know why I was there.  I knew I had the power to create. I felt it run through my veins, felt it at the tips of my fingers, and somehow, I just had to let it out. I guess that’s why I created stars and planets, to brighten my days.  But then. I wanted more because Stars were silent and I had ears. I created a world with the s...

3 comments 3
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“Take me home” by N C

Submitted to Contest #51

The Wisconsin and Jackson real, but the events were made up. I hope you enjoy it anyway. :)  I looked around a deserted village, my eyes falling on our family’s farm. I used to love farm animals, horses especially. I looked at the broken trampoline. “About time it broke,” I thought. It had held many memories, but now, it seemed like it was all……..gone. Everything was gone.  There was no sign of life in this deserted place. Without a sign of anything, there was no sign of hope. I looked around again, thinking of all the fun ti...

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“Memories That Smell Lakey” by Katelynn Laird

Submitted to Contest #51

The smell of the lake is hard to describe. It permeates the air the minute you step from the car, thick and moist, fresh and murky. Lakey, for lack of a better word. A sense of anticipation grows as we drive through the tunnel of cottages: a long, green canopy of drifting leaves, rows of small, picturesque houses lining either side. We are almost there, transported to what feels like another realm, away from real life. With that first breath, deep and bracing, something down inside me settles, content, at peace. This is the place where a hun...

1 comment 1
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“Hungry Fires” by Joy Rayner

Submitted to Contest #51

Escaping the hag’s house should’ve been the best thing to ever happen to us. The wealth we'd stolen from the dead witch was enough to keep us from starving while our neighbors turned skeletal and withered into their early graves. We ate porridge and bread instead of rats and each other, and the three of us were happy, but at night I still woke up soaked to the bone with sweat and tears."I'm so sorry my darlings," my father cried when we got home to him, but a year later his tune changed. "I said I was sorry," he'd grumble when I refused to h...

7 comments 7
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“The Odd Grave” by Chris Buono

Submitted to Contest #51

       Andrew Baskin ambled up the hill to the lone grave marker at the top. The headstone was a seven-foot structure of cement that read Here Lies Elizabeth Crowfeather: “The Witch of Eston County”, with the dates Oct 31, 1812- Aug 4, 1874. The monument to the supposed witch sat as a lone sentry over the small town of Estherton, PA.  Of course, the town was a lot smaller fifty years ago when Andrew had first come to the grave.             &nb...

1 comment 1
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“Blooming Amid Chaos” by Munmun Singh

Submitted to Contest #51

We were young. Had only seen the world for a little over 10 years. Our simple minds only understood what could be added to our toy collection. It wasn’t exactly as fancy as one would imagine, but more enjoyable than the expensive stuff that we can find today. It included a huge wooden wheel from the stable, a plank of wood that we frequently used for making swings that could be hung on trees, a dirty doll that we refused to throw away for its emotional value, a rough chest that still bore the rough edges of wood that was cut to give it shape...

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“Firefly” by Lauren Ford

Submitted to Contest #51

William pushed the contract towards the man sitting opposite him. “Time to sign your life away,” he thought. The clock loudly announced each second of silence. The young man’s eyebrows knitted together as he examined the words in front of him. “Oh we’ve got a live one,” thought William, as he watched the young man with amusement.  The ticking got louder. William cleared his throat. “Is there a problem, Mr. Charlton?” The young man’s eyes lifted from the paper to meet his own. They were a fresh shade of blue that remi...

6 comments 6
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“Old Friend” by Chub Chub

Submitted to Contest #51

The branch snap back and leaves brushed roughly against his face. He winced in anticipation of pain, but the twig narrowly missed. Stumbling forward he realized his memory of the place was all but fading. Through deep forest bushes and trees, he made his path forward using his hands to push most of the vegetation aside. He pushed up his glasses repeatedly as he brushed off any debris on his long sleeve shirt. The simple white dress shirt was now stained with green and brown, and his beige dress pants were getting torn. His jawline tightened ...

3 comments 3
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“Visitations” by Jillian Oakes

Submitted to Contest #51

(This is a continuation of my previous story Popsicle. You don’t have to read both but this story might make more sense with some context.) Over the years, contact between Jared and I became more consistent yet less personal. As we gained more unrestricted internet access, we were able to text, email, and video chat almost daily. I quickly realized how much harder it was to convey emotion through a screen. There was something so much more personal about mailing letters with cool coins we found, or anxiously riding in cramped cars for hours...

1 comment 1
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“ABSENCE” by UJJWAL DUTTA

Submitted to Contest #51

        After thirty long years I have come again to my mother’s maternal uncle’s house. I now wonder to find that I have passed thirty years of my life! I last visited there when I was a boy of seven. I went there accompanied by my mother. My grandparents on my mother’s side were very poor. My mother was brought up in her maternal uncle’s house. So, she went there off and on. In my boyhood I accompanied my mother wherever she went, unlike my sister who stayed with my father at home. In fact, I wa...

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“The Park” by Kylie Gillins

Submitted to Contest #51

It had been years since that horrible night. The night that we fought, and I realized for the first time how little I truly mattered to you. I was in pain, I was fifteen, I was lost and scared, and you were supposed to be there for me. Every teenager has the right to be moody because they are all looking at their place in the world and what they want to turn into when their life begins. It had been a hard day at school, and I missed my friend. He is gone and I can’t call him where he went.  I cried in the bathro...

8 comments 8
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“Like Father Like Son” by Jim Hirtle

Submitted to Contest #51

“I thought it was larger than this.” “You were smaller,” my wife offers with her most infectious smile, “Do you want to go in?” The hollow rhythm of the windshield wipers mimics my thoughts; yes-no, yes-no, yes-no. Do I want to go into a house belonging to my father? My dead father. A house I haven’t been in since I was an eight-year-old boy with greasy hair and ears too large for my head. A house that had never been a home. I turn off the ignition killing the cadence of the wipers and my thoughts, “I guess we should,” I answer. On the small...

1 comment 1
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“Promises” by Liya Mariyam

Submitted to Contest #51

It was still there everything has changed but this.... Mara had been back in the city for two days now and she noticed how much had changed , shops had turned into malls and malls had turned into bigger malls, parks had been destroyed and the forest had been cut , places where once stood her dear memories now were changed into big complexes and what-not , there wasn't a single place of comfort , the town had transformed into a city and there were people everywhere, the sound of birds chirping peacefully had transformed to the loud honking ...

2 comments 2
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