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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 – 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

“Planet Robinoso” by Princy K. Writes

Submitted to Contest #108

The shriveled tube of Gelenium sunscreen spat out its last glob of fluid. Jacko scrimped the green gel-cream into a petri dish. Exhaling circular smoke rings, he eyed the blinking camera sideways.As planet Robinoso's ruler and manufacturer of the alien mineral sunscreen, he'd failed to stock up. In half-second, this hilarious folly of his would become a chatter matter amid his crossed-eyed team. They were twenty-something alien geniuses who hacked his home recordings for fine-tuning their funny bone. Jacko visualized another laughing air mem...

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“Firehouse Fido” by Grace Starkes

Submitted to Contest #108

In 1905, the Morrises were living happily in their Victorian styled mansion in Sulphur Springs, Ohio, named after its sulfur mineral springs near the town. The Morrises weren’t the only ones very happy. Their pet dalmatians, Ontario and Onyx, gave birth to a healthy little dalmatian puppy. They named her Darleen because she was the most darling thing in the world. Darleen loved her family with all her heart. There was never any day where she wouldn’t want to be with them. On spring days, when the Morrises would go on picnics i...

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“Jonny Firestone” by Jesse Bond

Submitted to Contest #108

The hardest part was watching another building disintegrate before his eyes. Fire and destruction were a simple truth for Jonny Firestone. He stood barefoot on the curb; his smiley-face pajama pants clung to his frame, saturated in the light but persistent drizzle. He'd love to have his shirt and shoes, but with the house lit up like a sacrifice to the storm, clothes were a pipe dream.Sirens wailed in the distance, adding to the snapping crackle of the burning house and pitter patter of rain. The squat home had been cute. Single story, with ...

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“Her ” by Missy Talbot

Submitted to Contest #108

I love the burn. One flick and the flame bursts forth between my fingers. It is so easy- just a roll of the thumb and I hold what mankind had taken eons to discover and harness. In the glow of the street light, I watch as the flame licks the air, a hungry tongue searching for something, tasting the night’s shadows. I release and the light vanishes. Another flick - the sound of my thumb against the metal - and it returns, still hungry, always hungry. I know it needs to feed soon. I know I cannot keep it waiting. &nb...

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“I Remember” by Jennifer Andrea

Submitted to Contest #108

I remember.You were so good to me. I sat on the floor, in awe of you, combing my fingers through the long weave of the shag carpet. Discovering the patterns of sienna mixed with the varying tones of brown. Like tiger stripes in a dry savannah.Your voice was like a song. Talking and laughing as the sound of the dishwater cascaded from your hands in a splatter, to the plate in a high pitched rattle, and the pots with the peal of a bell.I can hear the faint Canadian Midwest, and even fainter Scottish accents on your Southern California voice. I...

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“Flames of Redemption” by L.E. DeVoss

Submitted to Contest #108

Flames licked the soffit that ran along the underside of the roof, long thin fingers slid upward and touched the outer edge of the shingles. Asphalt dripped as the shingles began to curl into themselves. The siding beneath the soffit turned the color of toasted marshmallows and began to peel away as sirens wailed out into the dim morning light. Standing side by side across the road, their arms crossed and their heads tilted in the same direction, Darian and Tess watched as the house was engulfed in flames. “Well that was unex...

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“The Lick of the Flame” by Andres Lauder

Submitted to Contest #108

My father called the tip of a candle light the lick of the flame. I never understood why, but neither did I understand why he would stare at a burnt candle for entire minutes. Watching it with such interest… as if the very sight of a small fire was more important than his own children. I had just turned old enough to drive when my mother has diagnosed with stage four cancer. She passed soon after, leaving my little sister and me with my depressed father. Since then I've had to drive my little sister and me so we don't miss school... or so w...

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“Home Renovation TV on Steroids” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #108

Home Renovation TV on Steroids1 I stood apprehensively, yet assuredly, tightly gripping the can of gasoline in my garage. Then I struck a match, ready to destroy the dwelling that, of late, had brought so much mental--and potentially, fiscal--destruction to the lives of myself and my wife. ...

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“The Flames of Change” by J W

Submitted to Contest #108

My fate in this world was sealed by those traumatic flames long ago; when Farlaie, 'The Second Crisis' hit my home on Earth. They were well-versed in pyromancy, operating at a skill above Eiris, who was 'The First Crisis', and even Count Bilaise, who was rumored to have the heat to melt tungsten. Do you know how unbelievable that is?! The power of this being surpasses the Fire Mage himself! Anyways… My house was heavily lit on fire, it's a surprise I lasted as long as I did. My first mission was to find my older step brother, mothe...

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“How Slowly Thaws the Frozen Heart” by Beth Mason

Submitted to Contest #108

They’d always called her cold, even when she was a child. Detached was what they really meant, but there were implications to that word and how it would apply to a child as young as nine that no one wanted to face. Cold was a simpler definition. Cold could mean shy, or uninterested, or antisocial, which were all perfectly normal (if undesirable) things for a child to be. It didn’t hold all the nasty assumptions detached held, even if it meant the same thing in the end. Cold was easier to live with,...

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“ The Best and The Worst Decision I Ever Made” by Colin Taylor

Submitted to Contest #108

The Best and The Worst Decision I Ever Made When I was ten years old my parents decided it would be best for me to start a new school. After a year of being bullied, constant trips to the principal's office, and being surrounded by people that caused the faculty to contemplate calling 9-1-1 weekly, it seemed like the right call. I would be transferring to a private school called Coloma Christian. As an overweight and insecure fifth-grader, the idea scared me so bad my hands would bec...

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“The Space She Left Behind” by Alejandra Mora

Submitted to Contest #108

I could still see the scuff marks on the floor where the hospital bed had been wheeled away. The rubber parts of the wheels were no match for the wooden floor and yet try as I might, the dark spots only got darker, no matter how much I tried to get rid of them.The living room felt cold, as if no one had ever lived in this house at all. Viv had objected all day to having to move into the living room. But with all her body aches and those ridiculous spiral stairs that even I, in my healthiest state couldn't climb up without tripping, setting h...

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“Outpost Gamma, Escape Route Number 68” by Karena G

Submitted to Contest #108

Outpost Gamma. Escape Route Number 68 December 15, 2035 Escape Route Number 67 in T minus 20 minutes. Escape route number 68 in 428 hours. “Thanks, Clysta,” I mutter to our onboard AI. She woke me out of a dream. I was back on Earth, a child laying between the rows of tomato plants, Mom’s big rubber boots on my little feet. “Please take me back there,” I beg of my own brain, now wide awake. The moment is gone. I haven’t decided yet if I’m taking this escape route, but seeing as it’s in less than fifteen minutes and I haven’t prepared...

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“An Empty Hoard” by Nek Mihi

Submitted to Contest #108

“Not enough. Still too much, open space. Never enough. There needs to be more,” Grimswaborg muttered distractedly as he tore open yet another adventurers void space, the meagre contents spilling dejectedly in the gaping chasm that yawned menacingly a bare twelve hundred feet away from where he stood now. “Their fault, not mine. If they really cared about all those villagers, they would be helping me. Not posting their hurtfully inaccurate notices and arming their sons and daughters with pitchforks and rusty pot lids.” Something ticked ...

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“The empty bowl” by Lilou Recamier-Prima

Submitted to Contest #108

It was a rainy day; A Monday morning. The light in the room was already fading away from the sun hiding behind the clouds representing everybody's feelings about Mondays. The floor was cold, and my feet were making the wooden floor crackled under each movement. Mornings are like emerging from a coma; I usually don't remember where I am, even who I am. In a certain way, morning can become exciting because you get to be who you want to be for few seconds before shifting back to reality. Then comes a flow of thoughts. Most of them are related t...

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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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