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#103 Synchronicity

Have you ever experienced a strange or serendipitous alignment of events? Happy accidents, creepy coincidences, or randomly resonant moments happen to everyone, yet they always take us by surprise. Whether you believe they have any spiritual significance or not, it can be hard to shake the feeling that some things happen to us by design.

 

Since truth is often stranger than fiction, I’ve taken some of this week’s prompts directly from life — one poses a situation that has happened to me personally, and another to a friend of mine. The rest I leave up to your own imagination — or what the universe wants you to write!

🥇 Winner

THIS IS THE DAY WE DIE

Winner of Contest #103 🏆

THIS IS THE DAY WE DIEDepression sounded like a half-witted song, one that couldn’t be sung at home or school or the church. It was something so ephemeral that it seemed to have lost its meaning. It was unlikely that one of the children would somehow become infected with the virus. Life with the Bishop was simple: mornings with prayers and a plate of fried bananas; afternoons with Jesus and rosaries and seashells; evenings with stories and hymns. There was no way a child living with Bishop would end up being contaminated with the virus of de...

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⭐️ Shortlisted

The Joy of a Banana

Shortlisted for Contest #103 ⭐️

Karen Gleb was a disagreeable old woman. Every fold on her wrinkled face contributed to her resting scowl. And yet, the yellow bananas greeted her as she passed through the produce department like a hundred sunny upturned smiles. It made the town’s resident battle-ax sick with disgust. Mrs. Gleb glared at a woman loading her cart with bananas. Freak, thought Mrs. Gleb. Sure, the fruit tasted okay. But only a dippy clown would want such a goofy-looking thing sitting in her kitchen all week long. Instead, Karen loaded her cart with radishes, c...

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Tonight

Shortlisted for Contest #103 ⭐️

It wasn’t English. Not Spanish either.  сегодня ночью.  Mira traced the faded characters with her little finger, a delicate touch she feared might make the photograph crumble. Yellow stained the edges. Between her fingers it felt like parchment, a scratchy sort of repulsion; she had to fight to keep from tossing the photo. The front was no better. She could barely make out the face in the old black-and-white, which by now was mostly white with age.  Towers stood tall behind the woman in the center of the photo. Even by a...

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Asking for Forever

Shortlisted for Contest #103 ⭐️

In the end it was the little things. That and a healthy dose of courage. For months I had watched for something, a sparkle in her eye, a spice in her tone, a hint in her touch.  Three years we had been together. Three years knowing she had seen something in me - desperation perhaps - that made her think I could be worth her time.  Some part of me knew, had always known, that I was worth it. Still, years of loneliness, daydreaming, envying, made it all so...heavy. I wanted to be perfect, but I wanted to real. I wanted to be who ...

42 likes 15 comments 15
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The Curious Case of Eliza MacDougall

Shortlisted for Contest #103 ⭐️

Eliza MacDougall is hearing voices.She tells her father, over breakfast one morning. “There’s an invisible woman talking at me.” “To, you, dear,” her father corrects absently, as he butters her toast, “talking to,” and they speak no more of it.She tries to tell her mother the same, peeking her head around the doorway of her study, where her mother sits on the rug covered floor, surrounded by textbooks. Her mother does not turn her head and simply shooes her away with her notetaking hand.She does scribble a reminder, somewhere in the mar...

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This week's prompts

Write about a character looking for a sign.

Fluff – 152 stories

An apparent coincidence occurs. Write a story about a character who suspects paranormal, spiritual, or criminal causes.

Horror – 128 stories

Write a story where a character runs into someone they’ve seen in their dreams, or enters a building they’ve dreamt about before.

High School – 230 stories

Start your story with someone discovering a photograph that has something written on the back.

Valentine's Day – 196 stories

Write a story about someone who starts noticing the same object or phrase wherever they go.

Thriller and Suspense – 105 stories

Stories

War Tent House

Submitted to Contest #103

2010 January 04 Kashmir that sleeps as dew drops in the midst of the garden of apple. Cloudy doves all over the sky resembling the circular moon that plays by chasing the butterflies! The wind of spring all over the body like the chillness of the river that tumble and falls into the ocean. The flowers that keep their face so sad in the foothills of the mountain! The dream of freedom in the boundary line like the breathing of the May-flies! Spying love in the chest cage like the dumb man’s language! I stand guarding my father like penance ...

382 likes 122 comments 122
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THIS IS THE DAY WE DIE

Winner of Contest #103 🏆

THIS IS THE DAY WE DIEDepression sounded like a half-witted song, one that couldn’t be sung at home or school or the church. It was something so ephemeral that it seemed to have lost its meaning. It was unlikely that one of the children would somehow become infected with the virus. Life with the Bishop was simple: mornings with prayers and a plate of fried bananas; afternoons with Jesus and rosaries and seashells; evenings with stories and hymns. There was no way a child living with Bishop would end up being contaminated with the virus of de...

369 likes 199 comments 199
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between nightmares and dreams

Submitted to Contest #103

“Nightmares are more convincing than dreams.”My nana once told me that. Six-year-old me laughed it off. How could they be, when I awaited nighttime to fly and save the world and eat candy? When no nightmares ever plagued my mind, and if my teddy bear did die in Dreamland (ah, the tragedies of elementary school), a night spent cuddling in my parent’s bed vanished the nightmare from my mind?She’d laugh at that too and say, “Okay, sweetie, good for you. But in the end, fear invokes more powerful emotions than happiness.”But times changed. Night...

169 likes 666 comments 666
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Please Don’t Judge Me

Submitted to Contest #103

Unlike most children, it took me quite a while to weed through the corrugated cardboard boxes that had been shipped to me after my mother’s death. They contained items that I imagine my other siblings had either not taken or simply not wanted. At its bottom, a pair of eyes were staring up at me. They belonged to Jesus. It did not look like the picture of Jesus had been drawn or painted; it possessed a photographic quality. But how in this world, if I may ask, could this ever be a photograph? On the back and in my mother’s distinctive and flo...

104 likes 31 comments 31
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Butterfly

Submitted to Contest #103

Cyra wasn’t sure of many things in their life. The concept of airplanes kept them up at night; the idea of calling someone millions of miles away always got them to stop and contemplate in the middle of coffee shops. Asides from that, there were a couple of things that Cyra knew were certain, such as the fact that pineapple did belong on pizza, gender was unworthy of their title, and that lovey-dovey anything was not their thing.At least, that was something Cyra was sure about.Their friends would sometimes come to them about all their dreams...

99 likes 25 comments 25
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Lawn Darts

Submitted to Contest #103

Billy Putnam shot my dad in the butt with a BB gun. It was quite a feat, as nailing a middle aged man on a ladder cleaning out his rain gutters couldn’t have been easy all the way from the house next door—a house whose gutters were always full of old leaves and debris. My father’s screams of outrage brought my brother Sam and me tumbling right out of our backyard tent. The tent itself was a heavy canvas monstrosity, one held up with bent aluminum poles, yet perfect for us to play in. We’d been taking Polaroids, scrawling down dates and ...

81 likes 55 comments 55
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The Alive Museum

Submitted to Contest #103

The museum was quiet at night. So quiet, I bet I could fall asleep and never wake up. You didn’t have the bustling crowds of interested people standing in front of you, making you jump up and down to try and see one single painting. You didn’t have the kids that were on field trips making fun of the art or shooting spitballs at inappropriate times.I strolled down the hallways of the museum as I mopped the white tile floors and dusted the statues and artwork, humming to myself and dancing around the maze of sculptures.And then I suddenly bump...

80 likes 22 comments 22
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falling

Submitted to Contest #103

Every birthday candle, every loose eyelash, every star, every single 11:11 has been wasted on you. I just want to see you again. You don’t deserve it. It’s just practically muscle memory now. I clench my fist and hold my breath and just wish.I check the time before I go to bed and it’s 11:10.One blink later it’s 11:11.I turn out the lights, lie down, and close my hand tight. ~I dream about your face. We’re yelling at each other, but I can’t hear you or me and it’s just angry faces and thick tension in the air. It’s hazy like all dreams ...

59 likes 31 comments 31
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Mora

Submitted to Contest #103

No, god not again. My eyes snap open, interrupting once again my not so peaceful sleep. I know what is happening, it has happened countless times before, this one is no different. I am laying in my bed, my back is touching the soft mattress underneath me while my face can only look towards the white ceiling above me. My body is perfectly straight, like a yardstick, and I know for a fact that I didn’t sleep like that last night. I also know that it is pointless to try to move my body, but I try anyway. It stays utterly still, like a sculp...

56 likes 14 comments 14
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The Mirage

Submitted to Contest #103

"This woman, have you seen her?" I asked the shopkeeper, not able to keep the desperation from my voice after two months of searching.The shopkeeper tiredly leaned towards the portrait, frowning, and the girl hovering near my shoulder giggled.I ignored her, staring into the shopkeeper's sun-lined eyes. The man coughed once, and replied. "I don't remember, but there's a lot of people that come through here. With the Red Deserts behind us, this is the last place to get food and water for a long time."The man's gruff accent and slippery command...

55 likes 11 comments 11
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Angel, Ava and My soon-to-be husband

Submitted to Contest #103

TW//drugs, murder and forced scene (Only mild)“Hello?” Max said.He didn’t know it was me. I smiled, picturing him frowning his beautifully gifted eyebrow.“Hey, Max,” I said.“Megan?”“Yes, it is me. What are you doing right now?” I said with a little girly voice. Lily who was checking her luggage tilt her head and raised her eyebrows, to which I responded with a wink.“I am at my apartment with my friends. We’re discussing our soon-to-be house,” he said excitedly which made me smile again. “Whose phone is this, by the way?”“It is Lily’s. We’re ...

55 likes 19 comments 19
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Dream Spirit

Submitted to Contest #103

My ears rang at the sound of the scraping metal and squealing tires. The pain in my right arm was unbearable. I crawled out from the driver side of my car and struggled over to the other vehicle. The man inside was older, easily older than sixty. I tried my best to find his vein, any vein, to see if he still had a pulse. I couldn’t reach any place where I knew a vein was, and cursing myself for my lack of medical knowledge, I tried to pull him from his laying position across the two front seats of his old truck. My arm hurt too much, and I w...

54 likes 14 comments 14
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A Loan

Submitted to Contest #103

“Daddy, what does ‘fuck’ mean?”The word hung in the air like a fart in a crowded elevator. The trip, originally intended as a pleasant getaway for Stan, his wife, and their two children, had become anything but. They quickly discovered the problem with public campgrounds is one is forced to share them with the public.Although Stan worked long hours at the post office, there never seemed to be enough money for a vacation. Finally, in desperation, he marched into his bank and requested a loan. Stan had gone to high school with Bob, a loan offi...

53 likes 33 comments 33
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Last Drinks

Submitted to Contest #103

The ice cubes slowly melted in the bottom of the glass as Stacey swirled it around in one hand, not noticing the people around her even as they jostled and shoved, as she stared at the faded oil painting hanging in front of her. The red car shining as it shot along a road. It seemed eerily familiar. “Last drinks!” the man behind the bar yelled, his cheeks reddened from the warm air. The person perched next to her waved their hand in his direction. “Are you sure?” the man asked, glancing at the man’s glazed eyes. “Just fill her up,” the man s...

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I was blind, but now I see

Submitted to Contest #103

I can hear the ice cubes crack in the glass as I pour myself a large measure of whiskey. I take a moment to savor the sting of the alcohol on my tongue, and press the record button on my handy-dandy tape player. “Barbara Robinson speaking,” I say. “The date is July 9th, 1976, and the time is 9 AM. I glance at the generous measure of scotch I’ve just poured and think: What the hell, it’s 5 o’ clock somewhere. There is a loud knock at the door and I sigh. "Please God," I say. "Don't let it be an asshole." “Why, hello Barbie,” says my ex, Fra...

50 likes 27 comments 27
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