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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#124: Seeking, Finding

Have you ever noticed how common it is for fictional characters to embark on their adventures in search of something? From an Odyssean longing for home to Hero’s-Journey-style quests, many great tales begin with the potent act of seeking. 


Let these prompts guide you along your own journey of creative discovery — I’m curious to see what you find.

🥇 Winner

“Birth Mother” by Amanda Lieser

I stand in a perfectly pristine kitchen. The counter tops are covered in flour. She stands at them, waiting for me. She’s rolling out the cookie dough in deep, even strokes, like the ocean kissing the beach. Her soft humming fills the kitchen with love. Her hands lift me up; I'm in a navy blue sundress with little yellow sunflowers on it. “Here, sweetie,” she hands me an apron and I lift my little arms obediently to her. She ties it around my waist. A little teddy bear clutching a rolling pin in one soft, brown paw is splashed across my t...

67 comments 67 WINNER 🏆
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⭐️ Shortlisted

“The 10th Circle of Hell” by Deidra Lovegren

“Virgil?” “Yes, Dante.”  “Um, what’s going on here? I was told there were only nine circles of hell.” “There were only nine circles of hell in the 20th century. But for the 21st century? We needed to expand.” “You needed to . . . expand. Hell.”  “Yes. We’ve added a whole new circle. Well, truthfully, it’s more oblong than circular. It’s been that sort of millennium.” 

53 comments 53 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“A Long Way” by Sharon Harris

“Let him through!” Zac’s new friend bellowed, standing up and bumping his head on the baggage locker above him. They’d just touched down and the passengers were desperate to get off the plane.“Come ON,” hissed Luke, shoving Zac into the aisle. “Move!” he added to the man who’d snored through the whole flight from Istanbul.Passengers in the front seats were stretching, glancing Zac’s way in annoyance. He looked away, embarrassed. He’d only started talking to Luke later in the flight when violent air turbulence over...

22 comments 22 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“The Box” by A.G. Scott

(CW: brief allusion to child abuse)The Box is as ordinary as anything. It has six faces, eight corners, and twelve edges, not counting the lid. For now it is wrapped in a perfectly pleasant shade of puce and bedecked with a bold bronze bow. Like all gifts, the Box is at once giving and taking, at once known and unknown, but it is not scary. It has no lips to grimace or grin with; it cannot grumble, or growl, or lash out and grab with grubby little hands. It is ordinary: it can open, and it can shut. The only thing is, it...

11 comments 11 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Blood of My Enemies” by Brenda W

Standing in the middle of her drop cloth-covered living room floor, Shondra whispered “I am bathing in the blood of my enemies!” She painted her body deep red with deliberate movements. Savoring the cool, slightly sticky feeling, each stroke became an incident from her past. Here were the children in grade school leaving her at the table all by herself. There was a boyfriend in college who ghosted her. This stroke was a...

13 comments 13 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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This week's prompts

Write a story about a character in search of something or someone.

General – 107 stories

Start your story with someone trying to read a map.

General – 38 stories

Write a story where two characters are playing hide and seek, literally or metaphorically.

General – 27 stories

End your story with someone finding themselves.

General – 44 stories

Set your story in a labyrinth that holds a secret.

General – 34 stories

Stories

“Birth Mother” by Amanda Lieser

I stand in a perfectly pristine kitchen. The counter tops are covered in flour. She stands at them, waiting for me. She’s rolling out the cookie dough in deep, even strokes, like the ocean kissing the beach. Her soft humming fills the kitchen with love. Her hands lift me up; I'm in a navy blue sundress with little yellow sunflowers on it. “Here, sweetie,” she hands me an apron and I lift my little arms obediently to her. She ties it around my waist. A little teddy bear clutching a rolling pin in one soft, brown paw is splashed across my t...

67 comments 67 WINNER 🏆
Read story

“The 10th Circle of Hell” by Deidra Lovegren

“Virgil?” “Yes, Dante.”  “Um, what’s going on here? I was told there were only nine circles of hell.” “There were only nine circles of hell in the 20th century. But for the 21st century? We needed to expand.” “You needed to . . . expand. Hell.”  “Yes. We’ve added a whole new circle. Well, truthfully, it’s more oblong than circular. It’s been that sort of millennium.” 

53 comments 53 SHORTLIST ⭐️
Read story

“Relic Hunter” by Alex Sultan

A fool steps into the unknown. An explorer finds their way back. Vali considered herself the better of the two. She raised her map against the buffeting sands, grains rapping against the paper. Relics and scrolls shifted in her pack as she stumbled, the wind picking up. Vali covered her face with her arm, squinting at the dunes ahead, the piles of sand as tall as mountains. An endless desert. An orange sun set on the horizon.Savour the sand that stings your face, Valianne, Xqoaix spoke. She would never e...

33 comments 33
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“A Long Way” by Sharon Harris

“Let him through!” Zac’s new friend bellowed, standing up and bumping his head on the baggage locker above him. They’d just touched down and the passengers were desperate to get off the plane.“Come ON,” hissed Luke, shoving Zac into the aisle. “Move!” he added to the man who’d snored through the whole flight from Istanbul.Passengers in the front seats were stretching, glancing Zac’s way in annoyance. He looked away, embarrassed. He’d only started talking to Luke later in the flight when violent air turbulence over...

22 comments 22 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Basilica” by Dustin Gillham

He descends further into a realm where he will never be found. He seeks an awful truth others cannot fathom. The difference between who he thinks himself to be and who he really is. He already knows of the grande disparity between the man below and the man above. He marks his discoveries in a series of dogeared journals. Everything before has lead him here. Either a conclusion or new beginning. At dusk the insec...

21 comments 21
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“Hell House” by Thomas Giorgione

 I put on my hazmat suit before I left. Once I zipped up my suit, once I double checked the mask, once I smeared numbing cream in my nostrils, I drove to Mother’s house. She wouldn’t be there. No one lived there. No one could live there anymore. My brother Hank named the mansion Hell House when he was fourteen, and even Mother calls it that now.After an hours drive, the giant brown building waited for me at the end of the street. My thrice gloved hand pressed a button and the gate creaked open. The “Condemned Buildi...

13 comments 13
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“Bright Eyes” by K. Antonio

If I could, I'd preserve the light in his eyes forever, grant his vision the pristine clarity of fitted spectacles. I'd stop time, everything around him so that he could savor the world at his own tempo. I want to cherish him, my son Raphael, give him everything I know and more, bless him with all the riches and fineries, with glory and cut-out crowns, with remote-controlled racecars and gameboards. When beside him, I'm colossal, large, and broad enough that I could swallow him, cast my body over his, and dome him like a pearl. I scoot ov...

15 comments 15
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“Latitude” by Kendall Defoe

She unfolded the map as her husband drove down the highway. “Y’know, it is a good thing that we left so early. I told you that there would be no traffic on a holiday weekend if we left on Friday and made it out of town before the sun was up.” She kept looking at the map. “Do you think that the others know what we are up to? I think that I should have called ahead before we decided to do this, but sin...

6 comments 6
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“The Looter of Lordmere” by Kevin Marlow

Reaching up with a crooked dirty fingernail, Grindel quieted the itch inside his pointy little ear. Digging out some earwax he hoped to improve his hearing in case the guardian was near.He had been turning and twisting through the snarl of tangled passages hoping to avoid another dead end and was scratching his green knobby head thinking about a way to avoid returning to the same spot. Ah! A thought popped. Making his way back to a discarded torch he hatched an idea.Locating it was not difficul...

13 comments 13
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“Pay Me Reedsy” by Matt P

What might someone do for $250? They might just kidnap a Reedsy editor and hold them hostage. Trigger warning! The Receptionist puts their hands up. I’m aiming a paper bag, covering a gun at her head. “Don't shoot. Pineapple! Pineapple!” “We’re cool,” I’m telling The Receptionist. Her pinky is painted yellow. She’s one of us. I put the banana gun down, then toss it to The Receptionist. “Potassium is the opposite of sodium. You need to balance out your salt intake,” I say. The Rec...

15 comments 15
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“Sun Jaguar (Part 1)” by Jon Casper

Three degrees south of the Equator, Iquitos was three degrees warmer than my blood on that September afternoon. After three days on the Gilmar cargo ship, I disembarked, greasy and ripe, onto the bustling Peruvian dock. Three-wheeled mototaxis queued alongside the open air market on Avenue La Marina, their drivers scrambling to scoop up moneyed tourists.When I saw her there next to the blue-canopied chariot, I wished I’d had a chance to clean off the Amazonian stink that must have encircled me like a cl...

15 comments 15
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“Party Animal” by Pj Aitken

After yet another day of meetings, meetings meetings, Ronnie the Rhino was in search of a good time as he needed to let his wispy hair down and have some fun. He liked to think he worked harder than most but every now and then he wished he could go back to earlier in his career when he had more time for himself and his ever growing family with much less pressure. Knowing the frustration of his current work /life b...

8 comments 8
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“The Box” by A.G. Scott

(CW: brief allusion to child abuse)The Box is as ordinary as anything. It has six faces, eight corners, and twelve edges, not counting the lid. For now it is wrapped in a perfectly pleasant shade of puce and bedecked with a bold bronze bow. Like all gifts, the Box is at once giving and taking, at once known and unknown, but it is not scary. It has no lips to grimace or grin with; it cannot grumble, or growl, or lash out and grab with grubby little hands. It is ordinary: it can open, and it can shut. The only thing is, it...

11 comments 11 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Sun Jaguar (Part 2)” by Jon Casper

Halfway up a hundred-meter cliff face is a terrible place for an argument.Adela and I had spent the better part of the morning alternately notching our bodies and our gear from ledge to ledge, with only a limited length of rope. Roasting in the late-morning equatorial sun, salted and basted with sweat, we’d evidently made the gross miscalculation of attempting to converse like decent humans. Lovers, even, who had just discovered their bliss not twelve hours earlier.“So you admit,” said Adela, as she str...

17 comments 17
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“Smooth Sailing” by Kevin B

…And in regards to the sea monster, I would like to congratulate Erasmus on losing but one leg rather than both as he battled the mighty foe. Many a man has lost several appendages fighting such creatures, but Erasmus managed to keep nearly all of us, and for that, we are most proud of him. My, doesn’t his new peg look sharp! Whittled to perfection by Antonio, to whom we are most grateful. Applause all around.

11 comments 11
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$250

Prize money

250

Contest entries

170

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Dec 17, 2021 EST

Won by Amanda Lieser 🏆

Title: Birth Mother

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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