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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

“Through the eyes of a child” by Marie Cunningham Davidson

Submitted to Contest #127

Through the eyes of a childI’m cozy and warm in my bed, dreaming that I’m sailing on the ocean with my Dad on his twenty-foot yacht, the “Blue Lagoon.” The sun is twinkling like tiny diamonds on the water, and the fierce wind is billowing the sails. We are well in front and look a dead cert to win the Race. Lifting my face to the sun, I drink in Its velvety warmth. In reality, I’m not on a yacht, I’m in a hospital bed with rails at each side, and I’m in a vegetative state. I think that’s what they call it. Or medically known as “Locked-insid...

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“Ol' Dogs and Young Pups” by MichElle Colpo

Submitted to Contest #127

William sighed, a dull headache throbbing behind his eyes. It was another gloomy overcast day in Portland, Oregon. The kind of day where William questioned why he was still here, driving the armored truck around town and stocking ATM machines for the Federal Union Bank. Instead, he could be dozing off in a rocking chair on a porch somewhere in Idaho, happily retired like his previous partner Richard had last month. “Take the plunge, Will,” Richard had said when they talked on...

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“Speak Your Mind” by Liam McMahan

Submitted to Contest #127

If there’s anything Dallas Reed thinks he knows, it’s when to keep his mouth shut.…As he creeps out of bed, on the morning of yet another work day, he clutches his head as if he has a headache. But as he sits with it for a moment, he realizes that it isn’t a headache at all.Why does my head feel… loose?He decides to pay little mind to this, and begins to prepare for his day. He tiptoes quietly about the apartment to avoid waking up his loving fiance, Hazel. He smiles tenderly as he leaves a gentle kiss upon her sleeping forehead.Before ...

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“Dr. PsychicLove: I didn't sign-up for this shit when I faked it till I made it, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the clueless ticking time-bomb” by Rajiv Iyer

Submitted to Contest #127

[Note: sharp satire or dark humor; some references to COVID pandemic]As with anything in Life, it all comes down to “great expectations” (not the novel). As Gautama Buddha identified some 2500 years ago, the root-cause of all human problems arises from “expectations”, and its ever-present accoutrement “attachment”. Thus it was with Claire Buoyant, better known through her alter-ego: Dr. PsychicLove. Like the enlightened founder of Buddhism, she too had accounted for the role “expectations” played in her accidentally chosen profession to opti...

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“Losing my Grip for Good” by Rajiv Iyer

Submitted to Contest #127

[Note: MINUS/PLUS is from the perspective of “PRESENT DAY”]~~~~ ~~~~MINUS 6 MONTHS | London, UK:Harry wakes up one morning, with a throbbing headache (which he’s been having on and off for around 4 years), with a gut feeling that he’s not really himself. It’s almost as if his entire personality has changed; some totally different character that he doesn’t recognize that was now in-control of him, becoming his de-facto dominant persona.He simply couldn’t explain this feeling. It wasn’t anything logical. It wasn’t as if his Life was in a dark ...

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“The Doll” by Lucas Hoffmann

Submitted to Contest #127

Pete...? Yeah. You totally look like a Pete, I'm gonna call you that. Nice to meet you…So, let me tell you my story. I have always been a lucky person. My motto for life is to go with the flow and trust your instincts.(Noise of a chair being dragged)Even when I'm doing things that others would say is a bad idea, everything turns out perfectly. Do you know that old crazy cat lady in the neighborhood? The one who everyone avoids? One day I felt like helping her with groceries and it turns out she's actually a lovely lady and even invites me fo...

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“The Land of Fairytales: The Kidnapped Elves” by Melony Beard

Submitted to Contest #127

Not so long ago, there were three bears living in a small cottage on the edge of the north woods in the Land of Fairytales.Papa Bear slipped on his shoes. "St. Nick called and the elves have been kidnapped. I’m going to the North Pole to help find them.”"Please may I go with you?" Baby Bear asked."Not this time. This could be quite dangerous." Papa Bear opened the door. "You're much too young. Stay with your mama."Papa Bear headed out, trudging north up the snowy hill towards the North Pole.Now, Baby Bear was quite curious, and he was sure h...

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“Stowaway” by Grace Gerrish

Submitted to Contest #127

In life… there were never good solutions, only compromises. Problems that could only be solved with an amount of given sacrifice. It was something Vex had come to understand at a young age. Sacrifice. For the people she loved- the people she would willingly give her life for. But now… Vex didn’t want to sacrifice herself. Not for anything in the world, because - for the first time - she had something she didn’t want to lose. &nb...

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“I've Gotten Good at This” by Britt Garman

Submitted to Contest #127

December 30, 2021 Something Jack said last week is still really bugging me and it’s not the “we should break up” part of it. It was within the reasoning for that statement. He said he couldn’t get past my career and told me to hit him up if I ever “do something real.” First off, I will not be hitting him up, ever. We knew all along I can do better and he really did not respect that fact. But I digress. Now usually when people take issue with a career path that includes the term “real,” it’s because people are chasing dreams and not...

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“My Little Eyes” by Hannah Barrett

Submitted to Contest #127

[Sensitive content: Contains scenes of death] If I told you it had all been a lie, would you believe me? “The future, she is fickle.” That's how I'll usually start with a new client. It's important for them to know she can change her mind on a whim. Also that she's a she. The “she” is important. It makes it seem like I have a real relationship with her. Then I'll remind them that in this great oneness, this vast, vibrating universe in which all the pieces are connected, no divinity owns our sovereignty. We are both creation and co-creato...

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“Wink” by Silvia De Matteis

Submitted to Contest #127

It was late when Julie awoke. The sun was streaming through her window, bright and lazy. She threw off the covers, reaching for her phone in a panic. Her head was ringing. Noon. Why was it so late? She never slept that late. She was due to the recording studio in a couple of hours. She hated it when going to the studio and back took up her entire day; she imagined that was how having your blood drained from you entirely would feel. She hated the way the layers upon layers of clownish make-up and the violent lights felt upon her skin. It was ...

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“The Cards Don’t Lie” by Dani Sheehan

Submitted to Contest #127

Nanci never liked working 9-5, her father, a legendary con-artist in her eyes, picked apart the system so he wouldn’t see a hard’s day work in this lifetime. When Nanci was eighteen, her father passed away and had nothing to show for it. Not a dime to his name, or a property to prop her stuff in. Nanci was working at a convenience store at the time and her coworker, Lin, let her crash at their place until Nanci found a place of her own. One afternoon, when Nanci was lounging on Lin’s couch, a package arrived for her. Nanci realized i...

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“She Knew” by Alice Stannard

Submitted to Contest #127

Claire knew all about helicopter moms. Luncheons with friends were filled with their parental exploits. These crazy women were SO involved with their children, even well past high school. Highly scheduled, highly praised, highly encouraged and highly dysfunctional child-adults. She even knew a mom that went with her 20-something college student to a job interview! Claire, on the other hand, found parenting to be easy. It took her several years to realize that she was very bl...

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“The Reckoning” by Timothy Merritt

Submitted to Contest #127

After an enormous weight loss, it was disgusting how much loose skin was left over. Walter Manning pulled his hospital gown back down over the flaccid mass of flesh that used to be his stomach, and then he pulled the blanket high up under his chin. He'd always been a big man, but that never bothered him. The luxury men's suits he was accustomed to wearing were almost perfectly designed to disguise the girth that came naturally with age and wealth. Still, the steep decline to his present condition revolted him. “Are they ever going to feed...

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“Simmering Below the Surface” by Laura Huffman

Submitted to Contest #127

The soaring inflation threw my boyfriend into a drinking binge like never before, and when he kicked my low tire with his steel toed boot I knew he was smashed. “Lilly, were you drinking and driving? How did your headlights and windshield get shattered on your new convertible? Sitting behind the steering wheel I raked my fingers through my new hairstyle emboldened with red highlights. “After...

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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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