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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#101: Antanaclasis

Benjamin Franklin’s famous quip “your argument is sound, nothing but sound” may be the best known example of antanaclasis. This is a literary device in which a word is repeated but has two different senses (here, “sound” meaning both “sensible” and “a load of noise”) — reminder that in writing, as in everything, context matters.

With this week’s prompts, we're using antanaclasis as a jumping off point to create stories that play with repetitions, routines, and the importance of context in creating meaning.

This week's prompts

Write about a character doing something they’ve done hundreds of times — only this time, it’s taken on a new meaning.

Character – 148 stories

Write a story about a character who fails to understand something until they have the full context.

Character – 75 stories

Write a story in which the same line recurs three times.

Fiction – 163 stories

Write a story about a character who always repeats themselves.

Character – 45 stories

Write a story that involves a reflection in a mirror.

Horror – 295 stories

Stories

“No Mirrors on the Wall” by Heather Mayson

Submitted to Contest #101

The only evidence that there had ever been a mirror in her room was an empty frame hanging on the wall across from the window. Even the glass in the window had been removed so she could not see her reflection at night. She had been beautiful once, or so everyone told her, but she was ugly now. A bear attack had left her with a scar that stretched from above her right eye, across her nose, and ending below the left side of her lip. Luckily, the castle’s garrison had been honing their skills near where she had been playing,...

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“Girlhood” by Katie Evans

Submitted to Contest #101

In the stories we tell, the body is a place of violence. We don't think about that, do we? The wolf-man, great dark eyes like the ocean and snapping slashing snarling teeth. The grandmother in his stomach. The huntsman and his rough hands and rougher axe. Strings of severed hands cast around the statues as warnings. There is more, I think, for me. The body of the woman. I have Medusa's snakes for hair, writhing on the back of my neck, cheeks and chin splattered with the two-pronged red sting of the viper bite. My skin stretch...

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“Carli Evans and The Vigilante ” by Cooper Armstrong

Submitted to Contest #101

“You can do this Carli. You’re a globe trotting adventurer, slayer of mythical monsters, finder of lost treasures, and star athlete in Surfing, Gymnastics, and Powerlifting. You can do this.” Carli Evans said this to herself as she walked through the halls of her high school in the direction of Brandon Wallis, the guy she’s had an eye for since kindergarten, and since the Sadie Hawkins dance was coming up she thought she would ask him out. After all, she was pretty and adorabl...

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“The Longing Wayside of a Road” by Timothy Boyle

Submitted to Contest #101

The road stretched on for what those from out of town would say was miles. Folks from town however knew that it was only one mile from Charlie Reade’s home to the barbershop on the outskirts of town. It was a long, quiet, yet peaceable road. To Mr. Charlie Reade it was also a friendly road. As the spring sun crept up above the maples that skirted the road, a rabbit crossed at a tortoise’s pace. Mr. Reade watched the rabbit and wondered whether it was heading back to its hole, or out ...

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“33 days” by Srishti Khemani

Submitted to Contest #101

TW: domestic violence He hugged her from behind. Married. Finally. She thought. How long was it now? 8 months. That was not a long relationship. But they had so many hurdles to cross, it felt so long. Even though they both lived in Montreal, they had typically Indian parents, who were against marrying for love. Her father was the hardest to convince. It was like in movies, she was engaged to someone else for 5 whole days. But then Raj himself broke it off. God bless him. He figured out that her heart wasn’t in it. How iro...

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“change?” by Aiden Chu

Submitted to Contest #101

This prompt was really hard so I don't have that many words. What you are reading right now is something to work towards my 1000 word count. Anyway, please like this story if you like it and please read my other stories. It will also help if you followed me so I can also read your stories! THANKS! Wilson Rolan was a boring boy. Tedious. Dull. Repetitive. So passionless that everyone around him was sucked into the vortex of his lifeless nature and became like him. Everyone except his mother. Mrs Rolan was the complete opposite of her son, a...

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“Reflection Of Independence” by Ahona Mukhopadhyay

Submitted to Contest #101

She stared wide-eyed at the image that formed before her eyes on the reflective piece of glass that stood at one corner of her apartment's bedroom.Her brown hair overflowed almost reaching her hips. The black "decent" shirt tucked inside her knee length pencil skirt.Was it the dress? Her curvy, sharp features? Or was it the mindset of her boss?She couldn't het her mind wrapped around the new routine as a young intern in the corporate sector. Wake up early, exercise, shower, have breakfast, work and then....squirm and shift under the uncomfor...

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“An Eerie Lake By the Cliff” by Rafael S

Submitted to Contest #101

I gasped for air as sand ran away from my body, solidifying into one being. Looking at my sides all I could see was fog cleansing the tall trees covered in moss that were scattered throughout a path, that path led to a small particle of light at the end of that tunnel. Gathering enough strength, I got up and started to walk towards that light, bugs were flying and their buzzing sounds broke the silence of the woods. &...

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“I Know, Mom” by Kathleen March

Submitted to Contest #101

Mom repeats herself a lot nowadays. She repeats herself too much now, in my opinion. It’s sad, really, how she repeats herself now. She didn’t used to do it so much. Or is that use to? Well, anyway, Mom has gotten into a bad habit. Or maybe there's another reason. Maybe she can't help herself. How do I do this? Mom asks. She asks for instructions all the time, it seems. Often she asks for them at very inconvenient or inappropriate moments. It's frustrating, obviously. Some of the requests are for things she already knows how to do,&n...

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“Shackled” by Havilah Bail

Submitted to Contest #101

Mother had dragged me to many weddings in my lifetime. Sometimes it was a friend of hers. Sometimes it was a relative of fathers. Sometimes it was a friend of a cousin of a friend’s friend.Today was no different. I still had to sacrifice my Saturday sleep. I still had to empty my wallet for clothes and gifts. I still had to squeeze into an Ankara dress worth two months of salary. But this time, it was my sister dragging me to the wedding.We arrived three hours early to help the bride prepare. No, let me rephrase that. My little sister, Ngozi...

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“cut them free” by A. S.

Submitted to Contest #101

TW: murder, suicide Her plasticine face shatters with each change of expression. The fragments of her skin melt into each other smoothing the cracks once her appearance bears a thin resemblance to the proper emotion. Her fingers press to her lips, a subtle, yet undeniable sign that this person is only pretending. That is if beneath it all she is even a person. The first signs of daylight appear over the fractured horizon of the mountains, sending waves of contempt flickering through my bones. Six in the morning, and already t...

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“They're just Fireworks-Just Fireworks” by Cassandra Levone

Submitted to Contest #101

He was just a ten-year-old, fighting for what he believed in. Even if his causes left him facedown in a ditch. He peeled himself off the ground and staggered back home like a drunk man.He collapsed on the bare wooden floor of the poor apartment they lived in, and hazily noticed that he was getting blood on the floor that she had just swept the day before. He wondered whether his ma would be mad at him- She wouldn’t, right? ---His ma came back home from the hospital around 6 o'clock. He doesn’t remember how long he was lying on the ...

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“Lavender” by Verity Gowans

Submitted to Contest #101

The sweet smell of lavender. I’ve smelt it hundreds of times. Jaynie always wears lavender. At first it was overpowering, but over time, it became a comfort. A comfort to know she was close. I was never alone when Jaynie was around. There was something about her intoxicating scent that I couldn’t get enough of. Every night when I smoothed the hairbrush through her dark tresses, that same lavender would burst into the air, filling my every breath. My lungs filled with her aroma, and I can see her watching me intently as I move top to bottom, ...

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“48 Hours” by A Raye

Submitted to Contest #101

TW: Drug use. Jessie stared at herself in the mirror. Horror. All she felt was sheer horror at what she saw staring back at her. There was no way this was her. It couldn't be. She refused to believe it. And yet...there she was. Awake, still, 48 hours later. She smelled the sweat dampen her pits, her genitals, and no matter how much she wiped, it would not be enough to wipe away the stench of a 48 hour meth binge. Her face was dry with dehydration, eyes wide, nose red. Small bumps appeared on her skin. Her mouth was cracked and dry, furthe...

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“Amaya's Armour” by Graham Kinross

Submitted to Contest #101

He will be the first born during the eclipse on the thousandth anniversary of the Last Battle with Fire and Light. He will breathe in Water. He will bring back the rainclouds and the night. He will defeat the Lord of Fire and Light or doom the world to never sleep again. Based on that prophecy Tomesha Phaedra had drowned every boy born on the prophesized date and the day before and after just to be sure. The Lord of Bleached Bones had taken no chances. Despite that Amaya Ara had been found by a group called the Hidden from the Temple of ...

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Ended on 23:59 - Jul 09, 2021 EST

Won by Mary Sheehan 🏆

Title: Colleen

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

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