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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#127: Gut Feelings

Most people know December 31st as New Year’s Eve, but did you know it’s also Make Up Your Mind Day? Unfortunately for many of us, making your mind up is more easily said than done. I always want to make a considered decision, but oftentimes wind up relying on gut instinct alone.

This week's prompts are all about intuition, and the strange way we sometimes know what to do without understanding how we know it. Whether you believe intuition is a sign sent from the universe, or the workings of your own subconscious, it’s time to trust your creative instincts and get writing for the very first contest of 2022. Happy New Year!

This week's prompts

Begin your story with a character having a gut feeling they cannot explain.

Thriller and Suspense – 75 stories

Write about a character whose intuition is always right — until one day it isn’t.

Horror – 22 stories

Write a story about a problem with no good solutions.

Angst – 32 stories

Write about a character learning to trust their intuition.

Character – 27 stories

Your character makes a living faking psychic powers. One morning, they wake up with real ones.

Fantasy – 64 stories

Stories

“Waiting for Mr Smith” by James Brook

Submitted to Contest #127

Sensitive content warning: has themes of sudden loss, bereavement and mental health.There were three of them in Mr Smith’s outer office: Appleby (who had a gut feeling he had to see Mr Smith); Mrs Stuart (Mr Smith’s secretary, with a sharp nose, concrete hair and the absolute authority of those who are always right) and the pudgy boy with no name (Appleby hadn’t been paying attention).Mrs Stuart, in the manner of a queen graciously bestowing an undeserved favour, had informed Appleby the boy was Mr Smith’s son, but offered no further informa...

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“The Appointment” by Heather Greene

Submitted to Contest #127

Kate Swenson woke up with a strange feeling that she couldn’t seem to shake. She wondered if it had been some leftover feelings from her dreams the night before but she couldn’t remember any of the dreams that she had. She got out of bed and started her morning routine in hopes of letting go of the feeling but it was still there. She couldn’t even really describe it, just that it was a feeling of foreboding deep inside her gut. She played her favorite music playlist on her way into work and sang out loud to the songs to...

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“Auld Lang Syne” by Kiera Lawley

Submitted to Contest #127

December 31, 2021To whomever finds this letter: My legal name is Skye Willow Harvey. My parents named me Skye, to remind me that I am limitless, and Willow to encourage me to bend with life's changes rather than break.Despite their good intentions, at the age of thirty-three, I am still known by family, friends, neighbours, and even my boss, as Lilly. It's actually short for Lilly Logical. That was my childhood nickname; bestowed upon me - completely without irony - some three decades ago by my loving father.When pressed by their closest fri...

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“For the record.....” by Matthew Kyle

Submitted to Contest #127

Audrey Morgan was a court stenographer. She mostly transcribed for family courts bouncing between Judge Bosch and Judge Scully, and on occasion Judge Thomason who would borrow her from time to time. Audrey had been on the job for almost ten years and had heard seen it all. She would often say to her husband " In family court there are no rules." or "I wouldn't wish family court on my worst enemy." When she first started in her career, she thought she may not make it or last long. The stories of abuse (especially kids) were the worse,...

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“Deity Awakened.” by Kevin Morley

Submitted to Contest #127

The mist swirled around the boat, coiling like the World Serpent of legend. Kaza couldn’t see anything but the fog, boat, and water, despite the lanterns hung on the front and rear of his skiff. “I shouldn’t have come alone,” he mumbled into the clinging mist. The butterflies in his stomach began morphing into dragons. Something wasn’t right, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. For its part, the mist swallowed his words but otherwise ignored him, except for the all-too-real coil of fog around the boat. Sometimes it would get close enough...

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“In Search of Beauty” by Jaida Sims

Submitted to Contest #127

All around her, the city was grey, bland, and muddied as the rain fell into tiny puddles, too small to be fun, and too big to be pretty. Storefronts and buildings were closed and quiet; her mother’s car was silent (as was her mother) but for the engine and the little tapping of droplets against the metal. Anise wondered how unremarkable this world could be, sometimes, until, just beyond glass panes of Anderson’s Antiques, she glimpsed a warm light. It came from a lamp, its lampshade made up of a thousand colors of brilliant stained glass,&nb...

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“A Formidable Buzz” by Ellen O

Submitted to Contest #127

Jenny had a gut feeling that made her insides rumble like thunder. A tingling started up her neck and reached her scalp making her head buzz like it was filled with angry hornets. Her hands drifted to the bottom of the steering wheel. She slowed her car down, the fresh white snow crunching underneath her tires as she began to pass Woodson Road. The buzzing continued. Her eyes focused on the narrowing of the snow-covered dirt road surrounded by evergreens. It looked like it stretched for an eternity. The white snowfall accented the iron archw...

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“The Allther” by Ariana Anclam

Submitted to Contest #127

The Allther DHALRE The first thing she was aware of was the steady beep…beeep…beeep of the vitals monitor. Dhalre struggled to open her eyes, momentarily blinded by fluorescent overhead lights, fixed in a white tiled ceiling. She blinked furiously, trying to clear her vision. The room began to come into focus. Definitely a hospital room, she decided. She looked down and noticed the red glowing pulse oximeter attached to her index finger, and IV tube protruding from her right arm. Memories came rushing back in flashes. Last she...

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“A Mother Knows” by Katie Morris

Submitted to Contest #127

T/W: Deals with anxiety, grief; a little swearing. Miriam woke up sick with dread, her stomach churning. Allie. Something had happened to Allie. She could see it clearly, the twisted frame, the shattered glass, a broken headlight lying on an icy road. Part dream, part memory. She ran to the bathroom and vomited, reeling with the image. She wiped her mouth, stared at the worry-worn woman looking back at her in the mirror. Wondered briefly where she had come from. Liam came down the stairs, heavy footed and bleary eyed, still shaking of...

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“Survival At Sea” by Daniel Blake

Submitted to Contest #127

It was a frigid blustery day, with the steel gray sky spitting rain. White caps were beginning to form across Edna Bay in Southeast Alaska and the temperature had dropped to just below freezing overnight, making the coming day’s task much more difficult for 47 year old Matt Crawford and his 14 year old son, Isaac.Native Alaskans, like Matt and his family rely on subsistence fishing for salmon, to help them to survive the hard Alaskan winters. They don’t have access to a grocery store like most Americans in the lower 48. They have to survive ...

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“This Didn't Have to Happen” by Adrian Majerle

Submitted to Contest #127

My parents were miserable people to begin with. When the door crashed open only half an hour into their book club meeting, I prepared myself for a long evening. “Can you believe it?” Mom said to me. I half listened, dozing in a love seat by the television. “They kicked us out of book club.” I blinked my eyes and straightened up a little bit. We moved to the kitchen where I spiked my Coke with a generous amount of rum. I needed this to get through my mother’s ramblings. She was the kind to keep the news on at high volumes all day at the cos...

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“What Else is Going On” by Marty B

Submitted to Contest #127

The buzzing in my body was getting louder, what was coming was big. I clenched the steering wheel tighter, I had to be ready. I was driving slowly, hunched over, looking around at the quiet tree-lined street. The last time I had this buzzing sensation I was fired from my job. The anticipation was like a thick cloud, what did it mean? Trying to find a safe place to park, I scanned the street, looking for a spot where I could see all of my surroundings. I rationally knew it did not matter. Where I park my car is n...

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“Yela and Hunch” by Harlow Jones

Submitted to Contest #127

“Yela?” A woman in black business slacks and teal silk top looked at me.“Yes?”“You can follow me.” So I did. We left the testing room of plain walls and hard chairs. As she introduced herself as a nameless director, she led me through wandering hallways. We had been walking through this maze for ten minutes, when we arrived at two wooden doors and she said, “Welcome to the Gut Camp!” I followed her past the gates four times my height and was greeted with a garden of trees, flowers, rocks, birds, butterflies, and ponds. Somehow when the doors...

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“Follower” by Nix ♞

Submitted to Contest #127

I think it was in the fall—a particularly warm one, do I remember rightly—when I began gathering my followers. And to hold a following, it is of very great use to once in a while recall or have a holistic understanding of how it happened, why it happened, and in some cases, when it happened. What should I gain from this approach, a look again at the terminus a quo, a trudge through the woods of the past, back to the slippery mud of X? Where it all began... or where it all ended up. Is there, dare I ask, a differ...

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“Pastor Gimme's Reckoning” by C.B. Oates

Submitted to Contest #127

“I know exactly what you are thinking. You have that strong feeling that the Lord wants you to give. Without consideration, without thought, without even the need to pray, he requires your contribution to this congregation not simply from the heart but from the pocket book! If you don’t give, you will thwart the plans of the Almighty God! This power is within your grasp. It is your calling. Your duty. Your obligation. If you do not give, you will not get. You want to get, don’t you? You deserve to get.” The suits were pressed. The plate...

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$250

Prize money

220

Contest entries

135

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 07, 2022 EST

Won by Dena Linn 🏆

Title: The Problem Is

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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