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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

“He had the guts !” by Gbeenro .

Submitted to Contest #127

Borborygmi? Nah, it seemed like my tummy was rebelling against my very existence, shittt! Arghh, maybe I just needed to do that, would have relieved me of that unbidden discomfort.Heading towards the lavatory made me ponder on the unusual feeling I had been experiencing all morning, now this? "What if physiology and psyche coalesce? I mean, thoughts, feelings and emotions are products of chemicals, the D.O.S.E. Physiology has chemicals at it's core, so it's plausible that they interact. “Whoa! I'm hitting on the next Nobel Prize, too much se...

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“Déjà Vu” by Christina Reynolds

Submitted to Contest #127

Life, at its very core, can be broken into two categories: the tangible, things seen and felt and heard, and the intangible—intuition, instinct, feeling. His list of the tangible things read like the plot of a Hallmark movie, dream wife, dream house, dream job. Everything a man could ever want. So why did he wake up in the morning with his heart racing and with cold sweat drenching his pillow? Why then, in his soul, in the area of his spirit known only to him, did he feel a sense of malevolence? Why did his gut tell him to run?He watche...

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“I See Bad People” by Katharine Widdows

Submitted to Contest #127

ADDITIONAL TRIGGER WARNING: SUICIDESilence fell as Professor Gale Henshaw stepped onto the stage of the auditorium. With her sharp business suit and severe, asymmetrical hair cut she commanded the space. All 80 hopefuls stopped fiddling with their intelli-pens. With an average pass rate of only 10%, the 8-week course would weed out 72 audience members by the last day. There was little point in getting to know your neighbour here.‘Welcome All.’ Professor Henshaw, President of the Agency, needed no introduction. She gestured around the lecture...

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“Premonitions of War” by Greg Gillis

Submitted to Contest #127

It was October 31st, 1942, and instead of enjoying Halloween festivities with his friends and family back home, Keith was on a boat heading overseas. World War II was in its third year, and the German army, lead by their leader, Adolf Hitler, had already taken control of much of the occupied territory in Europe. Private Keith Jackson, held onto the side of the ship as it rocked back-and-forth across the Atlantic...

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“A Peaceful Life in the Swamp” by S.E. Reed

Submitted to Contest #127

Remember that one day, when it should have been too hot to be a day in late November? You had an aching feeling in the pit of your gut that something bad was going to happen. That was the day he came into your town and tried to steal her, to take her from you. He wanted what wasn’t his to take. So you shot him dead… You live in the Florida Everglades, on a three-acre piece of land you bought a few years ago, where the endless sunshine beats down on your leather-cured-back. The humidity blankets your hardened north...

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““Please don’t take your life tonight : I’m trying to make dinner”” by Kelly Stuhlmueller

Submitted to Contest #127

Bonnie Jones’ husband Don had threatened to commit suicide many times before. She had uprooted her life and the lives of her three children for him and he still refused to follow his Drs instructions. Don skipped counseling appts and was non compliant with taking his anti depressant medications. He’d have “great moments” that dragged into days and weeks of uneventful “normalcy” but something would always happen and Don would be “on the edge,” Not taking his meds and living on ups and downs that his wife Bonnie knew he was close to another su...

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“Instictive knowledge” by F.O. Morier

Submitted to Contest #127

For years, I could barely write a page. I become a virtuoso of mediocrity, spiraling into smallness at a rapid pace. Sadness occupied the greater volume of me, making me travel through empty and long-abandoned rooms. A long time ago I set my dreams aside to become something else. Everybody always stated how I saw things wrong, and if I didn´t agree with their claims fast enough, I would suffer a barrage of degrading insults. The B-word proudly led the parade. I let myself fall victim to the suffocating traps of society and suffocating cultur...

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“Living Off-script ” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #127

Damien had done alright for himself. He toured his psychic show and most appearances sold out early. He had an entourage! How many psychics do this well? Of course, he wasn’t a real psychic. If real psychics exist, they eke a meagre living solving crimes for the police. They didn’t rule the stock market. Or win at the races. And they didn’t fill auditoriums with paying customers vying for attention. Not like Damien. He figured 'real psychics' huddle in basements, fretting over traffic, weather, or pandemics. A palm reader once told him lovi...

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“Exceptionalism through a Kinetic Game of Russian Roulette” by Rajiv Iyer

Submitted to Contest #127

[Note: this is about the Rise and Fall of a Legendary figure, kind of like a biography of sorts, adapted in the context of the topic of “intuition”. It’s meant as a homage. Parts of it, especially the bits about where “intuition” fits into the scheme of things, are fictionalized and speculative, and since that person cannot speak for themselves on this forum, I certainly cannot say to what degree “intuition” actually played a role in their Rise or Fall. No malice or disrespect is intended.]~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~Approaching his mid-30s, he was a...

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“Lola and the Angry Little Wasp” by Shikha Dhawan

Submitted to Contest #127

When I was a young child, I spent a lot of my time in this little garden. Well, it was less of a garden and more of an overrun weedy parking lot. No, that would be too generous to call it a parking lot. It was an overgrown wooded area where my father liked to park his precious yellow Lada. Don’t know what a Lada is? It’s a Russian car that went out of fashion as soon as it was in fashion because it was so poorly built in the Soviet communist times. Or that’s what my father tells the family all the time. But it was bright yellow, and it was ...

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“Pestilence ” by Eric D.

Submitted to Contest #127

Jonah opened his eyes and found himself driving in a rusted old station wagon in a foreign part of town. As he passed the luscious overgrown trees, and antique wooden houses, he searched for a purpose. Then, something caught his attention, a man shuffled alone towards the long infinite stretch of road. He looked to be in his forties, and the glimmer in his eyes had been sucked out of him, leaving an empty void behind.After smelling oil burning, Jonah noticed an engulfed pickup truck hauling lumber several feet ahead.He pulled over. "Are you ...

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“The Charlatan's Conundrum” by Rich Hosek

Submitted to Contest #127

“Prove that I’m a fake,” said the man sitting across from me. We were in a booth at the diner where I frequently had casual meetings like this one.“I don’t need to, I know you’re a fake,” I told him.He dropped his chin in frustration, perhaps even despair. The expression was difficult to read through the layers of fatigue that were present on his face. He also looked as if he hadn’t showered for days which made me glad I was on the other side of the booth.“I know you know I’m a fake, but I need you to prove it. I need you to demonstrate...

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“The Cowgirl Wears Rios” by Kathryn Mofley

Submitted to Contest #127

There was no getting around it, Luke did not like Britney Logan. He was old-fashioned, and it was his opinion that a cattle drive was no place for females. He didn’t care if she was the daughter of the largest and wealthiest cattle ranch in the state. That’s what his gut told him and he was sticking to it.Wrangling is hard work—men’s work. A big part is the camaraderie among the cowboys sitting around the campfire at night, drinking beer and telling a few raunchy jokes. Now they’d been warned by the boss to be gentlemen, all because of her.L...

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“Debunker” by David Brown

Submitted to Contest #127

My name is Jonathan Adams, no relation to our second or sixth presidents; I’m just a simple man with simple aims; I’m what you might label a doubter, a skeptic, a cynic, a debunker, and I’ve spent the last two decades going to extremes to find the truth in order to expose magicians, alien abductees, ghost hunters, monster spotters, and especially so-called psychics. However, there was one fortune-teller in particular that I’ve always wanted to humble; her professional name is Madame Evelyn.She and I are approximately the same age, both aroun...

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“A Horse Walks Into A Bar” by S. Thomson

Submitted to Contest #127

A horse walks into a bar. The bartender, a white-and-grey rabbit, asks,ㅤ“Why the long face?”ㅤ“What did you just say?” The horse replies.ㅤ“Oh, it’s a joke, because of your-”ㅤ“Oh no, I’ve heard it before. It’s just that the long face is a genetic condition, and I don’t really like rabbits I’ve never met making jokes about it.” There is a moment of silence. The rabbit picks up a glass.ㅤ“So… would you like a drink?”ㅤ“Yeah, thanks.” The horse sits down at the bar. “Sorry about that, it’s been a long day.”ㅤ“No, no, it’s my fault. That was bang out...

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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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