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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#108: Elemental

Water, air, fire, earth, and void: together, these five elements make up one of the earliest systems used to understand our world. Ancient cultures in Greece, Persia, India, and elsewhere all believed that everything they saw could be broken down into these five core categories. While the system doesn’t hold much water scientifically, we still hear echoes of these ancient classifications today — from the groups of astrological signs, to the magical systems of fantasy worlds.

For this week’s prompts, I’m going back to basics, and exploring each of the five core elements in turn. I’m excited to see what you build out of the building blocks of — well, everything!

🥇 Winner

“I Leave the Six Blank” by Rachel Kenley Fry

🏆 Winner of Contest #108

(TW: child loss)One is black.My therapist suggested this activity, which I think is a waste of time. I'm not really very artistic.Allie was. I was surprised by how well she could color, for her age, I mean. She didn't just scribble, she chose her colors carefully, she stayed in the lines, she even shaded, sometimes. She wasn't a savant but her pictures were better than other four-year-old kids'. Oh, how I loved her pictures.Making this picture of my own is neither creative nor productive, but I must admit it is oddly satisfying. And it gives...

162 comments 162

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“greetings from my apartment!” by Natalie Strawbridge

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #108

At 1:06 PM, I realize two things. First: I haven’t spoken a single word out loud today. I’ve sent some messages that say things like I laughed out loud and I’m screaming and maybe I did smile or inhale sharply, but I did not laugh out loud, and I did not scream, and I have not said a word to anyone, not even myself. Second: the wall is empty. Two days ago, I went to a new friend’s house, and he had art on the walls. Art and framed photos. We’re the same age and we both just moved here. But he has art on the walls and my wall is blank, and...

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“Through the Jungle and Other Ways to Escape” by Melissa Balick

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #108

TW: mental illness, substance abuseMom’s guy ran out of benzos, so I figured it was better for me to bring Paul anywhere but home after school. When her pills wore off, at best she’d leave soap bars in the sink with the water running to expose the listening devices she was convinced were hidden inside; at worst, she’d believe that Paul and I were minions of Satan sent to spy on her. Better for us to stay out of her hair, in case it went the second way.Before school, she emerged from her bedroom in a discolored robe. She watched me zip the ha...

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“A Quiet Home” by Sarah Wheeler

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #108

“We did everything we could.” She had him cremated and did not hold a memorial service. They had no children. The few friends they had lived far away. At first, sleep had been a welcome respite from the horrible silence that had taken over their home. The unconsciousness had come easily with the grief, but as the days passed she found herself being awakened by the anxiety that crept out of the quiet. She tried turning the TV to high volume, switching channels frequently to keep it on all the best shows. But the feeling she had did not come...

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“The Sailor's Knot” by Jenna Fults

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #108

There was a time when men feared the sea. They feared its storm-tossed surface, mysteriously winking at them from under the moonlight, and they feared its frothing waves, whose white lips had swallowed countless fishing boats, stealing whatever lay within. The young sailor on his maiden voyage, more nervous than most aboard, had heard of fathers drowned, sons washed overboard. His mother had begged him not to go, but where money is scarce, as it often was in the village, there was little choice.With each swell, the reluctant ship pulled furt...

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“Empty Space” by Preet Riddle

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #108

The space in the butterfly garden had not always been empty. From the faint smell of cough medicine that wafted from the splintering wood as she tried vainly to pry out the remains of a stump, she knew there once stood a girthy camphor tree. It was wide but otherwise nondescript and crumbling, level with the ground and featureless. But even now it refused to relinquish its hold on the brown space in the otherwise kaleidoscopic flowerbed. The stump simply would not permit anything else to grow. There were no flowers when the woman fir...

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This week's prompts

Write a story about a voyage on a boat.

Adventure – 42 stories

Write about a person or object vanishing into thin air.

Thriller and Suspense – 44 stories

Write a story about a team tunneling down into the centre of a planet.

Science Fiction – 6 stories

Start or end your story with a house going up in flames.

Dark – 55 stories

Write a story about a character who’s trying to fill an empty space, literally or metaphorically.

Angst – 55 stories

Stories

“I Leave the Six Blank” by Rachel Kenley Fry

🏆 Winner of Contest #108

(TW: child loss)One is black.My therapist suggested this activity, which I think is a waste of time. I'm not really very artistic.Allie was. I was surprised by how well she could color, for her age, I mean. She didn't just scribble, she chose her colors carefully, she stayed in the lines, she even shaded, sometimes. She wasn't a savant but her pictures were better than other four-year-old kids'. Oh, how I loved her pictures.Making this picture of my own is neither creative nor productive, but I must admit it is oddly satisfying. And it gives...

162 comments 162

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“Void > Water > Air > Fire > Earth ” by Deidra Whitt Lovegren

Submitted to Contest #108

Void.All gone.I hold my empty red wine glass, eyeing the waiter, feigning interest in the enthusiastic young man standing in front of me. He speaks without ceasing. Not a pause. Not a comma. Not an intake of breath. Just a wall of words emanating from his overly large mouth, a chasm devoid of charm, a wellspring of nothing, a gaping maw. I’m trying to follow him, but he seems to be talking about everything and nothing—all at the same time. But this I do know. Every word, every phrase, and every clause he has relentlessly launched at me in th...

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“Too much red” by Jane Vent

Submitted to Contest #108

Megan was running through the familiar streets, though something gloomy reflected in the once bright roads. Her eyes stung as much as the red across her cheeks while she looked for refuge in the last safe place she had in the crowded city. An oasis as the world collapsed around her without anything she could do about it. I can’t go back there! That old man was a thief. Four thousand for a single room? That was the last thing she heard before shutting the world out. Finally, there was only a single door between her and the nook of her favor...

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“Moving On...” by JD Trevino

Submitted to Contest #108

My lust for life died with her. There was one empty room in our home. We never decided what we were going to do with it. Her things… that’s what I’ll do. I’ll put all her things in the room. Piece by piece…only what I can handle. It had been a whole year, and I still couldn’t breathe when I thought about her. The park we used to picnic in before… grass so lush you could sleep on it… so green that it was almost blue. Her eyes were crystal blue. Lilac bushes filled the air with a sweet aroma… reminded me of her delicate scent. The wrought iro...

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“greetings from my apartment!” by Natalie Strawbridge

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #108

At 1:06 PM, I realize two things. First: I haven’t spoken a single word out loud today. I’ve sent some messages that say things like I laughed out loud and I’m screaming and maybe I did smile or inhale sharply, but I did not laugh out loud, and I did not scream, and I have not said a word to anyone, not even myself. Second: the wall is empty. Two days ago, I went to a new friend’s house, and he had art on the walls. Art and framed photos. We’re the same age and we both just moved here. But he has art on the walls and my wall is blank, and...

Read story

“Keeper of the Memories” by Francis Daisy

Submitted to Contest #108

I forgot how to write the number six today. I was in a meeting with my boss and I couldn’t write the number six. Ironically, there were six people seated at the conference table in the air conditioned room. My chair swiveled on the carpeted floor as I tried to concentrate on moving my pen on sheet of paper in front of me. I knew I should be making eye contact with the person seated at the head of the table, but if only I could get this written down first. I needed to just make the lines or curves or squiggles in my notes. What the hell! What...

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“Pixie's Great Adventure” by Daniel R. Hayes

Submitted to Contest #108

An eerie wind blew through Spring Valley, delivering the smell of salt and dangerous trespassers. Pixie was gathering up a bundle of carrots when the putrid odor caught her attention. She wiggled her nostrils and flared her whiskers. Gone was the sweet aroma from the honeysuckle flowers that normally filled the air with lovely fragrances.Senses alert, Pixie carefully traced the vegetative terrain. She noticed the birds had ceased their chirping, and the bees were no longer buzzing. Strange voices echoed in the distance. There was no denying ...

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“Through the Jungle and Other Ways to Escape” by Melissa Balick

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #108

TW: mental illness, substance abuseMom’s guy ran out of benzos, so I figured it was better for me to bring Paul anywhere but home after school. When her pills wore off, at best she’d leave soap bars in the sink with the water running to expose the listening devices she was convinced were hidden inside; at worst, she’d believe that Paul and I were minions of Satan sent to spy on her. Better for us to stay out of her hair, in case it went the second way.Before school, she emerged from her bedroom in a discolored robe. She watched me zip the ha...

Read story

“The Sailor's Knot” by Jenna Fults

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #108

There was a time when men feared the sea. They feared its storm-tossed surface, mysteriously winking at them from under the moonlight, and they feared its frothing waves, whose white lips had swallowed countless fishing boats, stealing whatever lay within. The young sailor on his maiden voyage, more nervous than most aboard, had heard of fathers drowned, sons washed overboard. His mother had begged him not to go, but where money is scarce, as it often was in the village, there was little choice.With each swell, the reluctant ship pulled furt...

Read story

“The Art of Fire” by Sarah Kreiger

Submitted to Contest #108

Fury seared deep in Brooklynn’s veins, building with every second that passed. The fleeting minutes burned her anger higher, much like the engulfing flames over her beloved house in front of her.For the briefest millisecond she felt a pang of guilt, but squashed it immediately. This was not her fault; she had done everything right for years. Ten years of what she thought was bliss, broken and wasted in the blink of an eye.How did it come to this?She clutched her squirming Pekingese, Khali, closer to her chest as the little dog snorted and li...

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“A Quiet Home” by Sarah Wheeler

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #108

“We did everything we could.” She had him cremated and did not hold a memorial service. They had no children. The few friends they had lived far away. At first, sleep had been a welcome respite from the horrible silence that had taken over their home. The unconsciousness had come easily with the grief, but as the days passed she found herself being awakened by the anxiety that crept out of the quiet. She tried turning the TV to high volume, switching channels frequently to keep it on all the best shows. But the feeling she had did not come...

Read story

“The Dark Karma Café” by Ava Carpzov

Submitted to Contest #108

The acupuncturist had told her to keep the needles in. She must walk around the town for at least an hour and then return to the clinic to have them removed. This was not the sort of thing Nancy usually did; she prided herself on her common sense and refused to believe in anything that scientists couldn’t prove, so she wore a sour expression and her darkest sunglasses over it as she walked around Glastonbury. No one stared at the needles, which were sticking out of her head, neck and back; as if it were a common occurrence in Glastonbury t...

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“The Bookstore Chair” by Wake Lloire

Submitted to Contest #108

Devin blinked his eyes. She had just been there, sitting crossed-legged in the oversized red chair, singing Moon River in a high falsetto…and now she wasn’t.Or rather, Devin had watched her disintegrate into iridescent sparkles. She had gone from corporeal to disappeared, Devin knew that because only moments before she had vanished, they had been kissing. Admittedly, it had been a weird week.On Monday Devin had begun his new job at the bookstore. It was a small town, quiet bookstore, with a solid cast of regulars. Sarah who loved queer ...

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“The creation of a star” by Silje Louise Jensen

Submitted to Contest #108

Some things in life are a given. For example, if you combine fire and air, they will morph together into something powerful. But if you combine water with fire, the flame will only shrink and die out. We all know the science behind how these simple elements work together. They are opposites. They can make each other thrive, or they can be the destruction of each other. But there are things the world of science has yet to explore. Sometimes the unthinkable happens. Like when a single human managed to create something that should not have be...

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“Inevitability” by Beth Jackson

Submitted to Contest #108

Travis and Ethan watched the house burn, with a brazen enthusiasm undignified for middle-aged men. Josh stared at the ground, scouting for potential hazards, lest he suffer a similar fate to the house.A glowing ember drifted through the night sky and nestled on Matt’s shirt. He smothered it and glanced at his friends.Just four friends, standing on the side of the road, watching a stranger’s house burn.Matt lifted his hand. A charred hole peeked from under his fingers. He closed his eyes and let out a slow, steady breath.Travis clapped his ha...

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$250

Prize money

202

Contest entries

207

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Aug 27, 2021 EST

Won by Rachel Kenley Fry 🏆

Title: I Leave the Six Blank

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.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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