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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#118: Metamorphosis

Whichever way you look at it, fall is a season of change. The trees are changing color, the waking hours are getting shorter, and the days are growing colder. It also happens to be Halloween, meaning we might need to gear up for some spooktacular supernatural transformations too… if you believe in that sort of thing!

Whether your characters are enjoying the crunch of fallen leaves, or undergoing a creepy metamorphosis of their own, we hope this week’s prompts help you get the best out of fall this year.

This week's prompts

Start your story with “Today’s the day I change.”

Teens – 54 stories

Write about a character, animal or human, who is reborn as something totally different.

High School – 42 stories

Write your story from the perspective of an outsider watching something or someone change.

Middle School – 45 stories

Your character picks up a fallen leaf and can’t believe what they discover underneath it. What happens next?

Fall – 38 stories

Set your story during a sudden change of season.

Fall – 26 stories

Stories

“The Ruby Red Leaf” by Chuck Canady

Submitted to Contest #118

The Ruby Red Leaf “Dad, where is he?” my six year old son whined? “I don’t know, Tommy. But we will find him.” I glanced over at him. “We will find him,” I repeated. We had been driving around the neighborhood for hours. My old truck was dangerously low on gas. I was exhausted and stiff. If we happened to find our missing dog, I wasn’t sure I would be able to get out of the truck to get him. But I was certain I wouldn’t have to – Tommy would be out of the truck in a flash. He and the dog woul...

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“ALOHA TREASURE” by Debbie Curtin

Submitted to Contest #118

Leaning against the car, I was still quite taken with surprise on finding such a treasure. The golden bracelet I held reflected the sunlight, glimmering with a rainbow of colors, as I kept turning it. There was a name interestingly imbedded across one area around the bracelet with what seemed to be jet black enamel. The lettering was an Old English style design quite common centuries ago. This mystery piece of jewelry was something I had never seen before because of its intricacy but I could tell it was an heirloom due to the aged patina qua...

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“Selvana” by David Fyne

Submitted to Contest #118

Mother says my brother is sick. The stones, cut slate, are set firm into the earth; they do not budge as I race towards the town of Bayle. To either side of me runs the wall. It is crumbling, but still high. My footfalls are mostly silent, but they are enough to startle a raven into flight. The leaves, though turned for autumn, have yet to fall from the trees. Filtered through them the morning’s light is honey-colored, dripping into puddles on the forest floor. The crisp air sears my windpipe and squeezes m...

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“Orange Hook Moss” by Pako Dunwhile

Submitted to Contest #118

Chloe listened to her footsteps as she walked through the wooded area. She reveled in the peace being in her home away from home. As a combat veteran, the forest preserve's serenity offered a reprieve from the memories of her overseas deployment. From the position of park supervisor, she maintained a more thorough familiarity with the grounds than anyone. Chloe accepted the important responsibility of preserving the park’s natural splendor. She surveyed last night’s unexpected storm damage, one that caught local meteorologists off guard...

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“The Changeling” by Kevin Morley

Submitted to Contest #118

Today’s the day I change. It’s a little thing, really—a shift in perspective. An acceptance—if I can accept something so fundamentally different. The wind howls across the hilltop, rippling my coat around my body and pressing me deliberately forward. Its chill draws forth a shiver—unwelcome, unbidden, and a mirror to time’s blitzkrieg. I grab the rail and stare over the cliff before drawing back a pace. Back to safety. Before me, the river bends around the opposing mountain, churning, angry, and swollen. From this height, it is silent in i...

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“The Last Day of Winter” by P. R. Darkwood

Submitted to Contest #118

Trigger Warning: This story contains a mild mention of blood, minor violence, and slightly scary imagery. A biting cold nipped at Grevan’s ears as he trudged through the waist deep blanket of snow covering the field in which he laid as a child. He reached his cracked mud-stained fingers up to the dark leather collar draped over his shoulder, pulling it up to shelter his exposed neck and ears. He continued to plod through the frozen wasteland that laid before him, his old joints cracking and creaking like an old wooden ship rocking at its...

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“Dungeon Town” by Jimmy Creole

Submitted to Contest #118

The midmorning sun filters through damp leaves and rotting branches, casting a harsh mockery across Johan’s face. It was supposed to rain again today, and so of course the sun is up to its usual mischief, filling Johan’s squinting eyes with beams of disobedient light between every treetop, like the pinions of some great bird drifting lazily across the sky. He sighs. If it were any cloudier, he could have argued with himself to stay home, but the sky is mercilessly clear today. No excuses. He hears it in his father’s voice. “Alright, Dad.” ...

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“Umbrella ” by Josef Schabell

Submitted to Contest #118

TW: vulgar language Today’s the day I change. I can’t take anymore shit! She looks up from her screen and stares off into the void of a grey wall. The flickering fluorescent bulb overhead casts its glow- the only light down here. She rubs her temples. How am I still in the basement? The clock has a few more notches to count off before she can leave. She’s kept the same routine thus far; once the hands reach the four and six mark she can sign out and turn off her screen. She stands and stre...

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“Punished” by Sarah Dumont

Submitted to Contest #118

TW: abuse, violence Today’s the day I change. I wake up and I just know, I know I have to. I’ll change and I swear, I’ll be better. The new me is born now, to the sound of my annoying aggressive ringtone that I really don’t like. You might be asking yourself why I keep a ringtone that is annoying and aggressive. I mean, that would be a fair question. To be honest, I kinda think it’s to punish myself. I can’t, like, properly punish myself like dad used to. I mean, I know I could. I could lock myself in a closet for 3 hours, I could, but I...

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“An Hour and A Half” by Alexia Gagliano

Submitted to Contest #118

Trigger warning: Death & murder Today’s the day I change. Those are the first words that eighteen-year-old Olive Aiden whispered to herself on the morning of the day she died. Olive’s morning began like any other – she opened her phone, ignored the most recent messages from her boyfriend of three years and went straight to the Tinder app. She had a lot of time to kill. Every day, her alarm rang exactly an hour and a half before she actually needed to get up for school. It was simple, really. An hour and a half was all the time she n...

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“Retranslation ” by Elijah Sage

Submitted to Contest #118

Yvette Belange was 23. Her mother, Dora, looked out the window in the library room. This is how an afternoon after school normally went. But today, both of them felt it could be different. ... Dora, 49, looked at her daughter and saw her husband, maybe even an enemy. It wasn't like it was 10 years ago. Heck, even 5. Things had gotten harder. Dad left for another woman 4 years ago. He didn't want to be with "an aging mother hen and a daughter who couldn't be independent." As he put it. WTF had they done with all of their time? Didn't 4 ye...

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“Missing” by Chris H

Submitted to Contest #118

Trigger warning: Self harm, PTSD Numb. She was scared for only a few, fleeting moments. Every second felt like an eternity but there was no pain, everything was numb. From her observations the difficulty for her to draw breath had increased by 20.65 at this interval, with diminishing returns with every breath onward. There was no more pain, no fear, barely any coherence in thought and as it faded away into oblivion Sam thought she was sorry. Sorry for what? No, to who? Something was missing. The moment the memory ended, Sam replaye...

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“A Selfish Squirrel” by Max MacRae

Submitted to Contest #118

The world I lived in before was hard, but in a different way. Rushing to find the next coffee shop to fuel my belly with the next double latte and danish. Climbing the ladder at my job while kicking it down for those who were climbing behind me. Not giving up my seat to the poor old lady on the subway because I found it easier to respond to emails while sitting. It was cut-throat out there in the big city and I loved it. Not much room to wait for the next bus or worry about someone else's feelings.That was the life I had built and I got ther...

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“Malcontent” by A. Kettler

Submitted to Contest #118

Who was Oliver Hamilton? Of course, he is I, I found myself remembering vaguely as I rode the same trolley I did every morning. The same trolley, in fact, that everyone from the Enforcer housing block rode on their 6:15 commute to work. I stood tall and straight just as everyone else, wore the same black suit as everyone else, and wore the same featureless white Mask as everyone else. And, just like everyone else, I didn’t bat an eye when the man standing just three feet away from me began to convulse and collapsed. The Contentment did that...

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“Reincarnation” by Mark Griffin

Submitted to Contest #118

Michael, an 11 year old child, couldn't see anything properly. He was lying down on something hard, and it looked like he was in a room of some sort. But he couldn’t be sure. There was black everywhere, as if there was a dark veil between his face and the outside world. He thought he heard… sobbing. He couldn’t feel almost anything. Was he… dying? He probably was; he could hear a heartbeat monitor beeping away now and then. “Is this what dying feels like?” But he couldn’t feel anything. It was like dying in a dream. He felt his eyes flutter,...

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$250

Prize money

205

Contest entries

140

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Nov 05, 2021 EST

Won by Myia Melendy 🏆

Title: beneath the quaking aspen

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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