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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!

This week's prompts

Write a story about a voyage on a boat.

Adventure – 44 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 – 7 stories

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

Dark – 56 stories

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

Angst – 56 stories

Stories

“The Dark Karma Café” by Ava Carpzov

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...

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“The creation of a star” by Silje Louise Jensen

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 sc...

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“The Kiss” by Evan Jackson

There was an ache inside of me. I was touch starved and I didn’t want to admit it. There were apps and places you could go for that sort of thing. But, I wasn’t looking for sex and I felt weird about paying someone to touch me. I have a terrible desire to belong. A need to connect deeply with other people. I have no deep connections. I have had very few real friends over my lifetime and I’ve never been in love. The ties...

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“The love-Hate Ambivalence.” by Brian Rains

Heaven and earth has seen many love and hate stories venture through time, father time himself could not keep records of. With the buzz of romance a sudden heartbreak will bring a void to one’s heart and leave it an empty space.Filling that heart, now an abyss, is all but an act of letting someone reach out and touch your center soul, well mostly. Sometimes, we may never fill that void, or it takes sailing bravely through known and unknown obstacles. Just so happens I know two God’s whom had a ambivalence...

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“Dei Ex Machina” by David Brown

Doctor Marcus Bliss warily worked his way down the newly excavated section of the Temple of Jupiter, careful not to soil his freshly pressed salmon-colored polyester suit. The powerful flashlight in his left hand lit the roughly hewn corridor while his right hand braced the ceiling as he crouched to ensure that he didn’t bump his head. Entering the crypt chamber, he doused his flashlight, as the space was sufficiently lit by a pair of portable halogen work lights mounted on tripods. Two fellow archaeologists were hunched over a crate cont...

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“Wonderland Syndrome” by Darby Walker

Ahh how this moment brings me back, oddly enough, to a recurring dream, dreamt in odd concession at the exact time of two o'clock in the morning on the exact date of the second Tuesday of every month of my life since before I can remember. The events of this dream take place in front of what I first assume to be a church, but I gradually realize that there is no religion represented whatsoever, and it is not only clearly...

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“Empty Space” by Preet Riddle

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 kale...

5 comments 5 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“Playing with fire” by Alex Mullin

As I watched helplessly while flames engulfed the house in front of me, I couldn't help but wonder if this kind of thing went on your permanent record.Frankly, I had no idea what that meant in terms of implications for my own life. Perhaps the next time I applied for a job, there would be a menacingly red "DO NOT HIRE" stamp embossed on my background check. "Set her date's house on fire after they went out…twice." As if it would have been a more reasonable offense had it happened later in the re...

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“The Silent Watcher” by Hosea Guy

My grandmother was driving me home from church when I first saw him. He was waiting at a bus stop downtown, eyes fixed on the asphalt so I couldn’t get a good look at his face; strands of blue hair hung past his eyes, anyway. He wore big, clunky white shoes on his feet, black athletic shorts, and a pink T-shirt. “Woah, would you look at that character?” said my grandmother, dipping her head at him.<...

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“The Swiss Rocking Horse” by Linda Gruenberg

Number 47 was the only calf I ever knew to commit suicide. The day she did it I'd been meaning to do some carving on my rocking horse, but out of mourning for her I didn't after all. She was the third calf to die that week. We had a pneumonia epidemic going around, but 47 didn't have pneumonia. She died by sheer will power. The funny thing about 47 was how bouncy and vocal she was. She would make as...

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“The Descent” by Sue D. Nim

News Print: The New State Man Attempts Heroic Feat On the 17th of October 1908, Alexis Jackson descended 1000 feet into the legendary tunnel located in Anna, New England in hopes of dislodging a monumental stone that was obstructing complete passage. This tunnel, eponymously named Anna’s Tunnel...

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“Tender is the Heart” by Cyan Villanueva

“You know you can’t keep doing this right?” He asks me gently, running the ruggedness of his fingertips along my hips. I try to relish in the warmth, but still, I come up short. Still feel cold. “Keep doing what exactly?” I murmur back, turning slightly to face him on the bed. He looks down at my form, his touch is light, but I can feel the weight of his desire building. Doesn’t it always come back to this? He ...

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“empty spaces” by Michelle Gregory

TW: addiction/drugs/foul languageI will never forget that morning. Which is quite surprising because I never remembered most of my mornings or nights. This particular morning was different. It was ugly. Which isn’t saying much because most of my days and nights had become filled with some sort of ugliness. Or shame. This particular morning I awoke inside of a cardboard box. Yes, you read that right. A cardboard box. Well, it was more like a couple of cardboard boxes strewn together to make some kind of dwelling. A f...

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“Sink or Swim” by John K Adams

Jay and Ann made their way through the wharf-side bustle to the gang plank. A line of couples made their way past the white uniformed purser, checking documents. Ann looked around and then at the rings on her finger. “It’s so romantic. Isn’t it?” Jay hugged her as they waited their turn. “Just like in the movies. Only movies move.” Ann laughed. “You prefer an airport?” He looked over his gla...

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“Burn it all down” by Christina Marie

Ash drifted down, dusting their lives and lungs grey while hell’s fingers scuttled across meadows, sprang over rivers, and sprinted between trees. Mother Nature thwarted every effort to contain the flames, scoffing at prayers for rain and instead delivering dizzy winds and dry lightning. The billowing smoke plumed so large that it developed its own weather system—creating more lightning,...

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$250

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207

Contest entries

208

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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