#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.

This week's prompts

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

Angst – 94 stories

Start your story with someone trying to read a map.

Fiction – 35 stories

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

Fluff – 27 stories

End your story with someone finding themselves.

Character – 39 stories

Set your story in a labyrinth that holds a secret.

Dark – 31 stories

Stories

“The Labyrinth” by Shark Rider

Submitted to Contest #124

I think my biggest fear of all is that I’ll never be remembered because in the end, what could I ever do that will make me be remembered forever. This world I live in isn’t like yours. Sure everything on Earth is the same to some extent, but last time I checked, your world didn’t have people jumping through portals entering ancient, magical labyrinths. A long, long, long time ago... a gate opened inside our world. At the time, no one understood what the thing even was. One day, a scientist documented all his findings in a file sent back t...

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“Lighthouse” by Ray S

Submitted to Contest #124

Landon adjusted the brightness on his phone and examined the mapping application that had, for most of the ride, navigated him through the winding and confusing roads of the Rocky Mountains. His worst fear came to life: the map was not updating. The budget data plan he purchased a few months before didn’t hold up in the wilderness of Southern British Columbia. It was about seven now, and the sun began its slow descent behind the horizon. “Keep your eyes on the road.” Nathalie had her arms crossed, eyes closed. Those were the first words...

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“A Journey Worth Traveling” by Carol Spivey

Submitted to Contest #124

The worn, creased paper is soft against the rough pads of my fingers. Growing up, I’ve watched my dad fold and unfold this mysterious form of directions more times than I can count. Some are born with a sense of direction, like my father. I was not. Flipping it one way and then another does little to help with which end goes up. The lines cross, circle and swirl, blend and divide, and a dull ache forms in my head from staring too long. Is that a road or a river?A buzz in my pocket signals an incoming text, reminding me how easy it would be t...

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“#theNACtheTEXTS #1 Babylon, Bethlehem And The ACLU” by EDC& TheThree

Submitted to Contest #124

BABYLON 30 November 2020 FROM: EDC&TheThree 1:58 PM EST It would sure be Christlike for the church to stand up against bearing false witness against thy neighbor. It seems our congregations have forgotten that one Commandment, chiseled in STONE. Thou Shalt Not Lie. FROM: ‘Apostle’ Thomas Schmidt (schmidtyboy) 3:32 PM EST Dear Erin, please help me understand better what you feel the church is not standing up to in regards to bearing false witness. Thank you. Thomas. FROM: EDC&TheThree 3:33 PM EST The fraudulent el...

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“BEWARE: HOME WEAR AND TEAR CAN LEAD TO HARDWARE. ” by Stuart Sanders

Submitted to Contest #124

‘John…’ ‘John…!’ ‘Jo-o-ohn…!!’ Shoppers in all directions looked around to see who was calling out. What’s wrong with her, they wondered. While at the same time, the source of the increasingly insistent name calling wondered to herself, ‘What’s wrong with him?’ How could her husband not hear? Everyone else in the cavernous hardware store seemed to, judging by their inquisitive glances. John was a dozen paces ahead of Beryl. He continued walking, giving no indication he had heard, but thinking, ‘That woman could raise the dead.’ He scowl...

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“Lost But Never Found” by Ava MacDonald

Submitted to Contest #124

I sat panting on the cold, damp wooden bench underneath the street light. I had been looking for hours with no luck. I looked at my watch. “Three hours left.” I read outloud to myself. I tried to stand back up, but quickly sat back down due to dizziness. I was drained out of energy. These games of hide and seek were just getting more intense every week, and I couldn’t stand the consequences any longer. It was killing me. The thought of the consequences. What if it would be more intense this time? What if I wouldn’t last this time? I reste...

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“Angel” by James Brook

Submitted to Contest #124

At exactly the appointed time, the door rattled as she entered. Her eyes were moist, her mouth turned down, her tread heavy and slow. She sat on the table, pulled up the back of her shirt, and said I want you to remove this. The angel was beautiful and surreal in blue and gold and red: the face was serene and blessed, the wings so finely wrought they seemed in flight. A wonder: the genuine work of an absolute master. I took out my phone.Her voice was a command: no pictures. I put my phone away...

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“In Reality ” by Simone August

Submitted to Contest #124

She planted her legs firmly on the floor in front of her tall, golden framed bedroom mirror with a smile she could not recognize. She could not hold on to the smile because it was not fitting for her. So, she attempted to not focus on the smile but the scribbled words on the piece of paper she held in her hands. She spent four years preparing for this day, yet it felt just as long to write her speech. She wanted it more than anything, but did she deserve it? Is it truly everything she ever wanted? If it was, she most certainly should no...

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“Finding His Voice” by Christopher Linehan

Submitted to Contest #124

The needle found the groove and the sounds of Mustafa Özkent began to fill the room with a satisfying hiss. Bobbing his head and dancing his way across the room he plopped himself down in front of the small typewriter. “One published story and you think you’re Hemingway?”, he asked himself, still unable to dampen his smile. The music only increased his euphoric smirking and distracted him from writing. The ambiance was right, the record and the typewriter having recently replaced the iPod and the Moleskine. He had always wanted to be a write...

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“Inside the Mind” by Candace Shattuck

Submitted to Contest #124

Hello, my name is Magyk. I am making this recording to record my experiences for my own record of healing. It is the 11th day of December and today, on my healing journey my counselor asked me to go on a meditative journey to the inside of my mind or at least how I view the inside of my mind. This should be interesting. That’s what I plan to do. Let’s breathe. In…and out…in…and out… Everything goes dark. Now I find myself standing at the entrance to a huge labyrinth. Well, this isn’t what I was expecting. When I was younger I always saw the ...

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“Welcome To Your Secrets” by E. West

Submitted to Contest #124

“Welcome To Your Secrets” the golden panel on one of the labyrinth’s iron gates read in elegant writing. To Clara, it read like a dangerously tempting warning. Whoever made the panel must have known exactly how to stir up whoever was too phlegmatic to try their luck at first glance. Secrets were always tempting in the sense that they were able to wake that one way too curious—perhaps nosy would be a more fitting word—part that hides in every person. The fact that it promised not just any secrets, but Clara’s very own, only piqued her curio...

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“Fever Dreams” by Nathan Greenebaum

Submitted to Contest #124

I don’t, as a rule, have nightmares. Not anymore. They’d been more common when I was a child; dreams of walking into a nest of spiders, or of being chased by an unseen pursuer - although the latter kind was more thrilling than truly frightening, running through a landscape of ever-shifting and impossible architecture. Certainly, I almost never have dreams about monsters.But I did have a cluster of bad dreams a while back at the height of a cryptic illness which turned out, eventually, to be a simple infection in the gut, but which at the tim...

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“Race for Extinction” by Edward Hamilton

Submitted to Contest #124

Race to Extinction By Edward Hamilton It was a weird situation. I was completely naked in a glass cube, but the glass was white and very sturdy. I had been trying to find a door of some kind for the past hour. I had no luck. I gave up and sat waiting. The wall to the cube disappeared, exposing a long stone block tunnel leading straight into darkness. I stepped out of the smooth cube onto the dirt floor. It smelled like a rainforest, except their was a faint smell of cheeseburgers. The sam...

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“I'll Never Have My Own Daughter ” by Hallie Block

Submitted to Contest #124

CW: THIS IS ALL FICTION- abduction, missing people, depression, substance abuse, murder I knew I would find this, and I wouldn't give up until I did. I had been searching for years now, almost a decade, next month it'll be. I searched high and low, and I had even moved across the country in order to find this one thing, but I still didn't have it. Now, before you stop reading this because you don't know what this "one thing" is, I'll tell you. This "one thing" is my daughter. Her name is Aspen Grey, and she would be 11 next Sunday. Sh...

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“Hide and Seek at the Ball” by Morganne Rosenberg

Submitted to Contest #124

Hide and seek was not the most ladylike thing to be doing, especially at a ball. However, I, Miss Evelina Beaumont, was never one to let things like society’s rules and propriety hold me back from doing what I wanted. It wasn’t even obvious that I was playing hide and seek anyway. This was a little game that I played with my brothers when we were bored at any social function we’d been forced into by our mother. While dancing with some gentleman whose name I’d long forgotten, I swept my eyes around the room, trying to see where Stephen and F...

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$250

Prize money

226

Contest entries

147

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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#124: Seeking, Finding

This week's prompts

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

Start your story with someone trying to read a map.

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

End your story with someone finding themselves.

Set your story in a labyrinth that holds a secret.