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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

“Teenage Changes” by Shanna Kelley

Submitted to Contest #118

As I was leaving work, I felt the chill in the air. Summer was turning into fall at a fast rate. I was unprepared for the cold air and realized too late, I did not have my jacket. I decided in that moment, I would go straight home from work. Lilly should be home tonight since it is a school night, we can order dinner in, I thought as I walked the car. I had decided to call Lilly on my way home, but she was not answering. I should not have been surprise...

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“Rucci” by Justina Clark

Submitted to Contest #118

TW: Sexual assault mention, suicide.RucciI am Marquise L. Lanford. I am an artist. An aspiring artist to be exact, my current work of art was deemed "too insipid," for its trouble. A leaf is what I painted, a simple fucking leaf is why I am at odds with my work.Where did the inspiration for this painting come from? I remember it vaguely. The lies I tell, I remember it as clear as day.Week 1"Open your legs," I instruct the nude model as she wears a blank expression. She is twenty-two years old. A child in my eyes since I am middle-aged. ...

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“Decay” by Lee Ma

Submitted to Contest #118

TW: body horror. Lacy wasn’t in a particular mood as she was walking to the bus stop from work, it was the kind of day in which nothing interesting happened besides a mild discomfort from a 2:00 stomach ache. The honey sun shone through the Autumn trees lining the road and reflected off droplets from a brief rain, creating enough glare to cause the brunette to look down as she walked. Her non-heel work style shoes shuffled through the crispy remains of a vibrant season, and with a whimsical feeling she picked out crunchier looking leaves to...

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“Outcasts of Granny Flats” by Mark Linsky

Submitted to Contest #118

The Outcasts of Granny Flats &nbsp...

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“Slipping in the shower” by Leah Reynolds

Submitted to Contest #118

“Todays the day I change” I say as look at the mirror with my most assertive voice. The reflection I see leaves me unconvinced that those words had any conviction in them. Staring into the grime specked mirror my mind finds it hard to calibrate what I am seeing with the image I have internalised of myself. In my minds eye I am still the girl who had hopes and dreams of a life of meaning. This woman reflecting back at me bears no resemblance. She’s old, hagged and deflated. The enlarged pores, that I can’t help but fixate on, seem to exude sa...

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“The Inframorphosis” by David Week

Submitted to Contest #118

I have lived 280 million years, give or take ten million. Needless to say, I've stopped celebrating birthdays. Occasionally, in my wanderings, I encounter a birthday cake—someone else's—and I confess to a nibble or two. But my brain is not capable of holding the memories of every day that I have lived, so even though I know the fact of those birthday cakes, I can summon of them no memory, no images, no feelings. Of course, my body wears out. I must renew it periodically. I give birth to myself. But each new self is the same as the old, u...

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“Who You Were (Trigger Warning: Suicide)” by Donavan Barrier

Submitted to Contest #118

I never thought you would end up this way. Honestly, I didn’t really think about you much at all. In all of the years that we’ve known each other, it never struck me that you would be like this. But here we are. I don’t really know what to say here. Shocked isn’t the right word. It’s too extreme. Surprised? Maybe… There’s a better word here. I just know it… ah, to hell with it. I don’t know why I feel this way. It’s not that we were friends. Hell, we weren’t even acquaintances. I barely knew of...

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“The Gift” by Anna Harris

Submitted to Contest #118

Well all right ... only because you’ve asked. What I personally think it is, is miraculous. And honestly, I do understand it’s one of those things you wouldn’t – couldn’t – possibly believe, unless of course, like me, you’d seen it with your own eyes but I can assure you it’s absolutely true.Some say miracles only ever used to happen in times past, before people began recording things properly and before magicians and illusionists were a thing. You know, like Jesus turning water into wine? I’d be interested to know your thoughts on that, by ...

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“A Season of Change” by Mary Briggs

Submitted to Contest #118

At first, I couldn’t believe what I was actually seeing. I wiped my glasses again to be sure I wasn’t hallucinating. I didn’t understand how this all could be possible. Just yesterday we were a normal, functional family. I don’t think I’m asleep and dreaming all this (pinched myself to be sure), nope, not sleeping. I’m wide awake and witnessing this, this, what can I call it, a miracle? Yes, I’m going to call it a miracle. Miracles happen every day! Usually, to other people, but I suppose it can happen...

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“Your Failing Frame” by Juniper Lark

Submitted to Contest #118

Your Failing FrameTrigger Warning: Eating Disorders, Self-Harm, SuicideIt’s starting again isn’t it? As my head lays across your chest, your heart beats slowly under my ear. You graze your hand across my cheek, but pull away when you start to shake. This subtle sign is one of the first that I notice. The next is a roar within your stomach. You ignore it once when I ask if you want breakfast. Twice it’s ignored, then three times, and then slowly I lose count. Once i...

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“Mi Mejor Regalo - My Greatest Gift” by Zoraida Colon-Munoz De Collado

Submitted to Contest #118

Mi Mejor Regalo – My Greatest Gift “Today’s the day I change!”. The words came out slowly, deliberately and so soft, they were almost inaudible, but clearly, heartfelt and sincere. After three years of exchanging greetings, stories, insults and jokes with Santos at the corner bodega, they were also, well…shocking. Words I would never have expected to hear from this grizzled, world-hardened, beat-up old bum. But they made me look again, paying close attention to the slight, but sure, change that seemed to have altered his look, hi...

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“Reason for the Season” by Susan Whitlock

Submitted to Contest #118

Kevin watched his mommy dive into a huge plastic tub in the hallway upstairs. Her rear end was waving around in the air in a way that made the six-year-old giggle uncontrollably. Mommy, aka Sandra Peterson, straightened and gazed down at her son, now holding his middle and rolling around the floor laughing. “Something amuses you, boy?” she smiled down at him. &nbsp...

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“The Tunnel of Love Saga” by Bruce Friedman

Submitted to Contest #118

I want to share a story with you about my employer, Euclid Beach Park. I worked at the Park in Cleveland during the summer of 1948. I sold cotton candy and popcorn balls. After I graduated from college in 1952, I was hired into a full-time job. I worked my way up in management until I was appointed as the Manager of Operations ten years later. Little did I know how events at the Park would totally shape my life. Think of what occurred as a sort of slow-motion alien invasion.***My position in the Park management was somewhat unusual because I...

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“Promises” by Emma Louise

Submitted to Contest #118

Trigger Warning: Alcohol, Suicide I will always remember the first time I held my daughter. She is so tiny, eighteen inches and seven pounds. This little baby in my arms seems so fragile, so easily hurt, and she has become my entire world. From this moment, I promise myself and her that I will do whatever it takes to keep her safe. My nose is not six inches from her tiny, wrinkly pink face when she opens her striking green eyes, already fringed with thick, dark lashes, and blinks up at me. She opens her little mouth, red and toothless, and...

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“Social Pariah ” by Kaylee Aleece

Submitted to Contest #118

The line outside the luxurious country club is long, but thankfully I am only a few people away from the intimidating bouncers. They hold foreboding clipboards with lists of appropriate names. I have waited ten minutes to get to this point. The trio of older women in front of me are complaining of wasting time, but I use the time to prepare myself mentally. I rehearse my story. I am running through my lines as if the card is in my hands. My name is Lilly Summers. I know he is in there. In my deepest heart of hearts, with every inch of my sou...

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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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