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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#112: Come Rain or Shine

From melancholy to cathartic to Singing-in-the-Rain-style joyful, rain somehow feels different every time. What’s certain is that rain often forms the backdrop to many of our human dramas — so this week’s prompts invite you to step into that downpour and let it soak you to the bones.

This week's prompts

End your story with a character standing in the rain.

Angst – 99 stories

Write a story where it’s raining men, literally or metaphorically.

Valentine's Day – 24 stories

Write a story where something magical happens when it starts to rain.

Middle School – 53 stories

The first rain of the season arrives. Write a story that begins immediately afterward.

Spring – 27 stories

Write about a character driving in the rain.

Fall – 57 stories

Stories

“When It Rains, I Think of You” by Dave Floyd

Submitted to Contest #112

The summer was so hot this year; it seemed as if it would be endless. To the consternation of the newspapers it still hadn't rained by the end of September, but that all changed last week and it hasn't stopped since. It’s as well I live alone. I must look a mess, slumped on the sofa in my pyjamas with one eye monitoring the news channel and a hand never more than an inch from a whisky bottle, its contents evaporating at an alarming rate. Sitting here, talking to an old photograph as if you were here with me. I always think of you when it rai...

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“The Bee's Knees” by Jude S. Walko

Submitted to Contest #112

A story as told through the Epistle of Maia.A hunter’s moon hung low in the early evening sky. It was the first rain after the Autumnal equinox, and officially the first rain of fall. That didn’t mean much up in these parts of Maine, though, where the wet season lasted nearly 8 months out of the year. Rev. Sean A. Doherty was just thankful it hadn’t yet turned to snow. He had only spent one other winter here and it had been brutally, bone-chilling cold. The local Mainers loved the snow. It kept the pesky tourists from Boston a...

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“Rearview Mirror” by Loren Blackburn

Submitted to Contest #112

I’ve been going about 150 for a while now, and the storm hasn't let up. This particular typhoon seems to have a different bite than usual, but no prose I could come up with could light a match to it. Instead, each water droplet continues pounding against my windshield, as I speed up to chase it. Faster, faster, faster. At this point I would imagine turbulence, gliding, shards of asphalt clacking against my mud flaps... but nothing. Only the ringing in my ears, and the unrelenting bombardment from the clouds assault my senses. However, t...

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“Shoshona and Becky’s Excellent Far East Adventure” by Dale Josef

Submitted to Contest #112

It had been Shoshona’s turn on the midnight to dawn shift, steering their small boat through the darkness of the Torres Strait and into the Coral Sea.Becky made her sleepy way up the short staircase out of the boat's below-decks living space into the pilothouse and then up a couple more steps to the steering station just aft. She glanced at the morning sun that was barely peeking over the horizon amid towering thunderheads that were already forming. The broad ocean swells were gentle and lazy. Now at sea for many months, she rolled easily, g...

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“Storm on the Sea of Galilee” by S. Thomson

Submitted to Contest #112

ㅤThe clock tower came into focus every few seconds, as the wipers cleared the water droplets from the windscreen. Callum could always tell from this spot, waiting at the traffic lights by the post office, whether he would be on time for school. He was going to be late today.ㅤA tapping sound came from somewhere to Callum’s left. He looked over and could make out the figure of a boy standing there. The blurry figure wiped the rain off a spot on the window, and mouthed, ‘can I get in?’, pointing at the empty passenger seat. Callum recognised hi...

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“Reconciliation” by Yvonne Clarke

Submitted to Contest #112

The sky today is cerulean blue, the clouds forming a Daliesque surrealism of floating feathers, drooping eyes and melting moons. The intoxicating smell of the sea wafts around me: salt, seaweed, ozone, reminding me of happy childhood memories in our cottage with its deck leading straight down from the cliffs to a little-known sandy cove. Every day after breakfast I and my brother would race down the rudimentary rocky steps, fishing nets aloft, and spend the mornings catching crabs and tiny fish trapped in the rockpools by the receding tide...

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“Ebbing Embers” by Leela Ramesh

Submitted to Contest #112

Ebbing Embers It was a family of thirteen, parents and eleven children. Out of those eleven, two were stepchildren for the lady of the house. With nine children of her own, the two from her husband’s first marriage irked her like a stye in the eye. The elder one a girl and the younger one a boy was a constant reminder that her husband had slept with another woman before her. B...

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“Bushfire!” by Alice Richardson

Submitted to Contest #112

Bushfire! The big red roo stretched to full height, his eyes on the horizon. He knew what was coming. He’d seen it before. It wasn’t dust roiling up into the afternoon heat, it was smoke. Thick grey and white clouds of it, and it was heading in their direction. Others in the mob who remembered fire were nervously alert, waiting for a sign from their leader. He turned and bounded gracefully away from the approaching maelstrom, the mob following him through the scrubby bush. Miles away from the mob, firefighters battled the aggressive blaze,...

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“Sunflower” by Nicole Bringuela

Submitted to Contest #112

Intimidating presence, blinding brightness, and scorching passion—if someone posed such qualities, they would certainly be compared to the blazing ball of fire that sat at the center of the universe. Maybe that was what her parents hoped for when they named her “Sun”; for people to look at her and be in constant awe. However, Sun, 29, freelance writer, was far from being such a figure.It had been a week since gray clouds enveloped the skies, and it had been far longer since Sun made contact with her family and friends. Living alone in anothe...

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“Geography of the World ” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

Submitted to Contest #112

Content warning: trafficking, underage exploitationThe rain fell on him as he watched her drive away feeling like Humphrey Bogart on the runway in Casablanca As he watches Ingrid Bergman fly out of his life. There is a geography Of the world Just like he told her when they first met. There is a certain order of how things should be and everything has a place they belong.Rain has a way of washing out the stains left behind when there has been a disruption in the order of things. She told him about her world, but he never under...

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“When There Were No Clouds” by Paola Villacis

Submitted to Contest #112

The first rain of the season arrived. Well, the first in two decades. We’d prepared for this one. It had been 20 years, 10 days, and 13 hours since the final drop of rain had touched a roof in the country. The Last Clouds. That’s what they called the grayish cover in the sky that did its final tour over twenty years back. Temperatures were far too high for our earth to handle, and soon scientists warned we would be without clouds by the end of the summer. I did not exist back then, and I only arrived after disaster had struck. Four y...

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“Only One Decision” by Del Gibson

Submitted to Contest #112

ONLY ONE DECISION by Del Gibson The gun feels heavy in my hand, it shakes as I tread softly towards our bedroom. People have asked me along the way, how did I make it through? I say it was a choice. Put it this way, if you had to decide between losing your memories or going blind, which one would you choose? Or which child would you save if the house was on fire? Or better still, if your husband tried to kill you, who would you tell? You can’t tell a soul because no one would believe you. No one would ever believe a woman over the chief...

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“I Swear I Didn't” by Shelby Schwartz

Submitted to Contest #112

Prequel to "This is Worse":I've caused pain before, but not like this. I've done things I can't undo. I have caused other pain, but never damaged someone so much that they can't come back from it. This is worse. I wasn't even in the room. I was at the other end of the house and I come back to this. There she is laying on the hardwood floor. She is face down, her auburn hair flowing over her, and blood pooling around her. I heard her fall from my bedroom where I was laying down. Resting after a long day at my new job. She never even screamed....

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“Not Yet in the Ground ” by A. Smoak

Submitted to Contest #112

The world is dry. Every morning, the sun rises a few hours after I do. The room is still dark when I kneel by the bed and perform my daily prayer. I prefer to pray in the dark, when I can see no rips in my dress, no scratches on my skin. Just me and God. My father told me that it takes a lot of hubris to think this way. Told me that God doesn’t care about what state my dress is in or whether or not I’m worse for the wear - as long as I am pure of heart like everyone else. In the darkness of that early dawn, when I can’t see th...

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“The Secret Is In The Meadow” by Noelle C. Lee

Submitted to Contest #112

Blowing tall grass covers the meadow. The grass is willowy and always on the move. She spies the meadow from afar and dreams of blowing through it with the wind. Parked at her window with thoughts of freedom dancing through her mind in such speed that she can see multiple scenes at once. She jumps, sprints, cartwheels, all with open arms through the meadow feeling the sun and wind whilst she welcomes the rain covering her in droplets. She opens her mouth and closes her eyes and inhales deeply worshipping the sensations. The meadow served as ...

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$250

Prize money

260

Contest entries

178

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Sep 24, 2021 EST

Won by Cathryn V 🏆

Title: Take that Drink

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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