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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Your protagonist walks past an intriguing stranger, then turns around to take another look at them. The stranger turns around, too. Write about what happens next.

Posted in Character on May 19, 2023

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✍️ 61 stories

“Drive” by Vanessa Zone

Submitted to Contest #199

The speedometer on her ten-year-old Toyota read twenty miles until empty.  Hannah sighed, feeling incredibly frustrated with herself. Why hadn’t she stopped fifty miles ago when she passed that gas station right off the freeway? Typical Hannah. Now she was driving down this long, dirt road in the middle of nowhere at 11:52 p.m.  Pulling her phone from her pocket she tried to keep one eye on the empty road ahead as she searched for nearby gas stations. At least her phone had reception here.  She had ...

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“Beautiful Stranger” by Hollie T

Submitted to Contest #199

I make a conscious effort to correct my posture and lift my feet, although I am weary to my bones and it is just so hard. But I know my mother sees me. I keep that knowledge to myself, because I also know that not everyone agrees with that line of thinking. Still, I know my mother sees me, so I do my best to walk with my head up and my back straight and to not drag my feet as I walk along. I also know my mother loved me, and I loved her, so every day I try to remember to be the person she thought I was.This has been the longest day ever. I k...

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“Declan” by Donna Kennedy

Submitted to Contest #199

He was a handsome devil with those bedroom eyes. The deep dimples in his cheeks appeared when he smiled even just a little. Silver tongued, able to talk a girl out of her knickers ten minutes after meeting her. His voice was all silk and velvet, soft and deep. He knew his way around any protest, any amount of doubt that it was a good thing to do. He was also full of piss and vinegar, just rough enough to be a manly man, soft enough to melt your heart when he professed love for his three rescue kittens. Who knew if they existed or not; he con...

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“IN THE LIGHT OF DAY” by Mara Masolini

Submitted to Contest #199

IN THE LIGHT OF DAY Night. Brian walked briskly across the street. His hands were in his coat pockets and his head was down. When he reached the other side of the street he glimpsed in the light of the street lamp a tall guy wrapped in a black cloak, with a hood, also black, on his head. To Brian, that guy was a complete stranger, although he had just seen him fleetingly in his face. Brian was in a hurry to go home but after a few steps, he stopped and turned back. The stranger, still standing under the lamppost, was turning his head...

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“The Phantom from Behind the Walls” by Jack Gorzo

Submitted to Contest #199

It’s hard for me to recount that day, but I’ll try. I was walking home from the barber shop, filled with the confidence of a new cut, and locked into the rhythm of my music. Any city liver knows that you have to get used to being run into. There’s just not enough space on the sidewalk for everyone. This wasn’t a normal nudge, though. While I was in my jam, I was nearly knocked to the pavement by a sharp shoulder.              Now I’m a big man, nearly 6’3 when I stand up straig...

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“Hello Kitty Stranger” by Adri Bruckner

Submitted to Contest #199

Ginny rushed over to say hello. “Richard!” she called out, waving, but he swept through the door and out of the restaurant. He hadn’t heard her. Oh well, next time, she thought, and returned to her table, taking a sip of her Coke. Funny, he’d been wearing dark pants and a brown jacket. Very unlike him. He was usually so dapper, flashy even. She wondered if he was okay. The waiter arrived and swiftly set down her pizza, which glistened with cheese, ham, corn, and pineapple. She pulled a slice out, watching the cheese stretch until it snap...

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“Hollow Voices” by Holden Burkholder

Submitted to Contest #199

Nestled in a northern Rocky Mountain valley was a small town in Idaho called Stoneshore. It was founded in the late 1800’s as a water stop on the way to California and Oregon, beginning as a collection of four buildings at a dirt crossroads, waxing to a population of four thousand before waning to fifteen hundred. Electricity came, the prospectors and their descendants left, and at some point it became the seat of Shoctwana County. The town was fitted with a federal appointed judge alongside its official postage route. This route was fitted ...

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“An Old Friend And Older Memories” by Ayaan Pasha

Submitted to Contest #199

It had been a long time since Blake had seen the slums of Shadowbrook. Long before he got his hands on his staff and his Grimoire, he had been one of the hundreds of children who stayed amongst the rats and trash, depending on stealing and begging for food. Now, he was one of the most successful mages on the continent. He still regretted one thing though. His friends, those who he had to leave behind, lest they became hostages for someone to use him for.If he had been just a bit stronger. He could have protected his friends from the gangst...

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“Evil Under The Sun” by CC Watson

Submitted to Contest #199

“Baby girl, stay out that sun; you gonna burn!” “Yes, Mama,” was the only response a ten-year-old country girl like me could say. Naturally, I grew to hate the sun, convinced it was the cause of my anxieties, and agreed that it was not my friend. Given the critical opinions of dark skin, this powerful source of light from the sky brought me anguish.  Mama said, “Trouble don’t last always, but for now, you must protect yourself from what people assume about you. We in the South, girl…stay out the sun.”  But Mama didn’t care anyth...

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“Man from Out of Town” by Elijah Rose

Submitted to Contest #199

George was walking down the street through this small city, although it was generous to call it either a street or a city. The largely illiterate Bantu population lived in self-built shacks with no utilities all spaced almost touching in winding narrow streets of dirt that went in no particular order. Allegedly, the whole city was squatters with migrants to the city arriving over the decades and putting their homes in open fields previously owned by now-displaced farmers. George did not know about any of that, but this location was relativ...

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“The Griddle” by Lola LaForge

Submitted to Contest #199

Forgetting his face would be difficult, as sometimes happens when I meet a stranger. His was nicely proportionate to the size of his head. Both were sturdy but not too large. His hands were what I had first noticed about him, though. His palms were broad and fleshy. Long wide fingers with soft peach flesh stretched over their bones betrayed his youth. His were not the hands of a fisherman or a carpenter. His were not blue collar hands."Is that cream in there"? He pointed to the small tin pitcher in front of me. I handed it to him and noticed...

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“So So Tempting” by Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #199

It had been a rough day. I felt depleted as I walked to my car and pointed the keys at it, waiting for the beep noise. Sitting in the worn dark velour seat cover I put my face into my hands and began to cry. ‘This is so silly that I cry every time a patient passes away. They’re not my mother or father’ I told myself sternly. But it made no difference, as all I could imagine was the soft skin on the bony cheeks of Mrs Cartwright and her lying in her bed, struggling for breath and calling out for Bertie. I held her hand and said that Bertie wa...

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“Little Girl” by Peggy Michael-Rush

Submitted to Contest #199

LITTLE GIRL Peggy Michael-Rush                It’s a bizarre and unnerving truth that your life can be going on along, like a straight, boring line. No bumps, no hiccups, no inspiration or jumps in the horizontal. Flatline. Which is ok, mind you, because that means that nothing is earth-shattering, nerve-stressing or devastating, too. It also means, of course, that nothing is exciting. Just. Flat. But then. One moment. O...

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“Strangers” by Nidhi Nayani

Submitted to Contest #199

The car has to swerve to avoid hitting me. Of course, I never notice that. I just walk brazenly across the road. The only thing I pay any attention to is music blasting into my ears. I keep walking and tuning out the world glaring at anyone who dares to meet my gaze until I make it to the bus stop. I wasn’t always this anti-social, not until my parents got divorced and started to argue over me. Not until my world broke apart. I power walk the next few steps to the bus-stop and yank my ear-phones out of my ears and stuff them into my pocket. ...

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“Artist” by Bartosz Mikulski

Submitted to Contest #199

Pavel stepped out of the train and headed towards the escalator. "Another boring day," he thought, "That's the life of a bank clerk. Barely a life at all." He stopped on the escalator steps and looked around. The station was still almost empty. On the escalator going down to the platform, he spotted a woman. A tall blonde in a red dress. "What a strawberry," he thought while pretending he didn't stare at her. He waited until he passed the woman and turned around. Suddenly, she turned around too and looked him in the eyes. She smiled. "Now! N...

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Contest #199

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Ended on 23:59 - May 26, 2023 EST

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