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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

“Life changing” by Guido Francisco Manzano Garcia

Submitted to Contest #118

Life ChangingAnd I cannot believe what I am seeing, since we think we will always have what we felt we earned with our actions, our words, and still, I cannot stand watching her leave.Now that I recall, I can see her changing, that lovely stare, the way I was her everything, and turned to nothing but despise.Was it as I overwhelmed with job stuff? Was it because playing my games distracted me so I would not drown myself in despair?I was there for her, when no one wanted to, I was. How can someone change so sudden? Shall I really blame her? N...

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“Full Moon” by Melinda Madrigal

Submitted to Contest #118

AnnaBella, a fifteen year old girl who has lived in Moon Falls Bay her entire life. She loves everything about Moon Falls Bay, but there is one thing that terrifies AnnaBella and the community of Moon Falls Bay and that is the legend that always comes true. Fall has begun which means the first full moon is about to come out. When this happens something terrifying lurks in the mountains of Moon Falls Bay, but the problem is nobody knows what it is and they want to keep it that way,. The people are afraid of what is out there. AnnaBella is...

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“The Wakening 'Switch'” by Dan Brady

Submitted to Contest #118

The Wakening ‘Switch’ By Dan Brady The string attached to the spine was longer than a foot. “This is the largest piece I’ve ever had to use,” Justine Donegal said as she removed her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose. Her desktop, askew with scattered pieces of twine, and tiny cut-out fragments of colored paper, looked more like the result of the rage of a tiny tempest. Miniature scissors, tweezers, and a bottle of Elmer's glue leaned against the base of a fly-tying vise with a magnifying glass attached. Erin Keagan, Donegal’s new...

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“The Voiceless Song Bird” by Marcia H.

Submitted to Contest #118

The old weathered bench in the backyard of my grandmother had been there as long as I can remember. I remember playing hide and seek with my sister and cousins with me hiding under the bench curled up in a ball thinking I had become invisible and nobody could see me. I imagine that is the feeling that my mom feels now, invisible. I sat down on the bench and gazed up at the tall plum tree that was right in front of the bench. My grandmother hated that tree. She hated it mostly because the plums would fall on the ground and we would trample ov...

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“Once in a Long, Long While...” by Philip Dmitriev

Submitted to Contest #118

Raindrops pounded on the window. It was early morning. A cloudy morning.I wokeHalf asleepPitch dark… pitch darkI woke up again, but why? Oh yes, the rain woke me up. That sad rain. He's just bored in the loneliness of this gray day. A day that is no different from any other day. Sad and gloomy.Morning.I think because of the gloom that lives here with me, I can no longer see what is on the other side of the room.Is it hard for me to breathe?No, it's not hard. I was able to get up yesterday, I even managed to get through yesterday. It was like...

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“Window Through Time ” by Marley Monroe

Submitted to Contest #118

These walks through the park a few blocks from our apartment had become the thing I treasured most the past few months. As time had gone on, Amber and I had forgotten how to exist in the same space. It was as though the connection between us was a foreign language we were both slowly forgetting, but neither of us were willing to admit it was happening. Each day, she grew harder to read. Where once I knew how she was feeling with a simple shift in her breathing or a hidden smile tucked away in her voice, now she could be writing her feelings ...

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“Under The Oak Leaf” by Karen Gendusie

Submitted to Contest #118

Karen J. Keim 4668 N. Spring Dr. Prescott Valley, AZ 86314 805-819-1333 kjgendusie@gmail.com November 5, 2021 Writing Contest C.2024 words Fiction entry Under The Oak Leaf by Karen J. Keim Dead /ded/ the state of no longer existing; without breath, perhaps still with some brain activity; no longer a threat; of zero value; the moment of the greatest darkness. It was a crowded Saturday morning at O’Leary’s Bean and Pub. No surprise to her, she allowed a tall man leaving to hold open the door for her to en...

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“The Scattering” by Ben Rounds

Submitted to Contest #118

It was the sort of day that the native Vermonters of her youth would have described as crisp, and left it at that. However, Susan’s less taciturn spirit delineated, noting that it was chill to the verge of being cold, that the sky was as blue as a new robin’s egg and the air thin. It felt rarefied in her lungs and the deep breaths she took for the pleasure of nuance, inhaling the crushed leaves, unmown hay and deer musk which, taken together, almost constituted a potpourris, were a necessity as much as an indulgence. It was as...

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“You Don't Necessarily Reap What You Sow” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #118

“Can’t wait to get back into the fields and get my hands dirty in God’s green earth,” farmer Frank Albertson said. Every year for the past 15 he had carefully arranged his corn plants in perfectly constructed rows--and carefully irrigated each of his three fields so they would bring him the greatest yield to produce the most profit--and the ideal climate of Caroline County had never failed to work its magic on his crops. &n...

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“Elysium” by Mike North

Submitted to Contest #118

George stared at his imaginary flag from the comfort of his chair in the garden. Freshened by an early morning shower, there was a horizontal stripe of lush green grass, which ran away down past the pond and giant willows to the border beyond, there was no fence, just a yard or two where the grass and weeds on either side were allowed to grow unfettered. Next, there was an equal stripe of gold as the barley rose up and took command covering the entire centre ground, leading eventually to the hedgerow in the far distance, it moved and sw...

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“The Refuge” by Mark Nero

Submitted to Contest #118

Is this the beginning or the end? Have my girlfriend and I, stumbled into a horror movie or have we been blessed beyond all understanding? Never in a million years would I have dreamed of being in this dilemma and it really put into perspective my piddly little problems in the scheme of… the universe! A week earlier, my girlfriend and I were at a bar in Glebe. An Inner West suburb of Sydney and an easy walk, drive, bus or light rail from Sydney CBD. We lived around the corner in our old one-bedroom apartment and had been together for ab...

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“Walking on thin ice” by Guadalupe Calderon

Submitted to Contest #118

CW: gun violence, goreI was home for the holidays.I wanted nothing more than to go to her, to see her face and to hear her voice again; I kept making plans in my head that I knew I would never see through. Surprising her with bright yellow sunflowers during her class; running into her casually at her favorite café; picking her up and taking her back to our spot.Although my love was strong, my ego and pride were stronger; I couldn’t do any of those things knowing what she had done with Mark. As thoughts of Valerie swarmed my mind, I noticed m...

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“Yesterday's Special” by McKeon Gardella

Submitted to Contest #118

Today’s the day I change. Yet do we never not change? The law of conservation says that Mass, matter, is neither created nor destroyed. Though matter can’t be destroyed, it may be changed in form. And for eternity we are the Mass that is always changing. We are changelings turning into other shapes through the millions of years. It is said about shapeshifters, in jest, is that they could look just like you and me. Since we are changelings taking on new shape and form, then we are shapeshifters. This is my life as a shapeshifter. Throughou...

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“The Day I Get Help” by Mako Swanson

Submitted to Contest #118

Today's the day I change. Into someone better, more capable, more reliable. I'm going to therapy. I've decided that there are a lot of things I need to do differently in my life but I just don't know how. I need help, just like everyone kept telling me. I was too ashamed to do it before, and too afraid to even book an appointment... My mom did it for me. I just have to show up and open up, which is the terrifying part. Today is the day I'll actually be going in. Unless I change my mind and scurry back to my isolation and ...

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“Shedding My Skin” by Rose W

Submitted to Contest #118

TW: Murder, Vengence Today’s the day I change. Daphne Burrows looked at herself in the mirror for what she knew would be the last time. She studied her mauve wavy hair, not it’s natural colour, her indigo eyes, her tiny nose, all the features that had been with her throughout her thirty years of existence. Daphne wanted to commit all of this to memory. She had good reason to. After today, she would no longer be herself but someone whom nobody, not even her would recognize. As challenging as it would be, the ch...

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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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